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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.

Forbes hates Fyodor...

...and all the other denizens of Bloggerdom.

I just got around to reading a recent Forbes Magazine article that hysterically spewed hate at all things blog.

It seems a significant number of bloggers are ignorant, hate-filled liars spreading hate and lies about companies, politicians, journalists, and anyone who disagrees with them.

Well. What can I say to that?

How about "Welcome to the human race, you pinheads!"

I'm not going to invoke our American traditions of pamphleteering, muckraking, and negative campaigning. I'm going with the Simpsons.

Do you remember the Halloween episode where all the billboards and giant advertising mascots came to life and rampaged through Springfield?

Only Paul Anka had the solution. He knew the only way to get rid of advertising was to ignore it and he wrote a jingle explaining this to the people and, sure enough, the town was saved when people looked the other way.

Now, I'm no Paul Anka. And I sure didn't sleep at a Holiday Inn Express last night. But it seems to me the solution to this "blog problem" is the same: Just Don't Look .

Pay no attention to the ignorance, evil, hate, lies, spin, et cetera, and they will lose their power (if indeed they ever had any) if not disappear completely.

In a word, kiddies, use good judgement.

Sobran: Tyranny, imagined and real.

(Note: The link above will take you to Joe's current on-line column. The archive is here. Not all of his past columns are available in the archive.)

Mr. Sobran is among the few reasonable men offering us a cautionary tale of his own. Personally, I think he's too late. But what do I know?

Orwell envisioned a super-Stalinist socialist society, efficiently ruled by an “Inner Party” of diabolical cunning. Winston Smith, the book’s hapless hero, runs afoul of the Party when he begins to dissent from the lies of the Party line, and his torturer, O’Brien, explains how the system really works with Machiavellian intelligence. It turns out that the Party has engineered even Winston’s dissent! Not only political freedom but free will itself has been abolished.

It’s a nightmarish idea, all right, but not even Kim Jong Il’s North Korea has managed to approximate it. Orwell himself was too sensible to believe his comprehensive dystopia could ever be realized in fact.

If we mistake the melodramatic fable for literal prediction, as too many of Orwell’s readers have done, we’re apt to become too complacent to recognize the forms tyranny actually takes, or to recognize the tyrants we actually face. In fact it sounds overwrought to call the contemporary U.S. Government tyrannical, since President Bush isn’t even a reasonable facsimile of Stalin, Kim, or Mao, let alone Orwell’s O’Brien.

Bush, in fact, claims to have delivered us from tyranny by toppling Saddam Hussein before we reached the mushroom cloud stage. He now complains that the Democrats in Congress who voted for war with Iraq are dishonestly withdrawing their support and trying to “rewrite history.”

But as E.J. Dionne of the Washington Post reminds us, Bush himself capitalized on post–9/11 hysteria and the imminent 2002 elections, using dubious military intelligence (which he also distorted), to bully critics and political opponents into compliance. Now that the Democrats, like most attentive Americans, are having second thoughts, he accuses them of making “baseless attacks” in suggesting that he “manipulated the intelligence and misled the American people” in order to get his war.

No, Bush doesn’t much resemble the villain of Nineteen Eighty-Four. Nor does his “brain,” Karl Rove. But their campaign to demonize Saddam Hussein and engineer a virtually unanimous public opinion can only remind us of Orwell’s “two-minute hate” against the phantom enemy Goldstein, who also turns out to be an invention of the ruling Party; their huge apparatus of “homeland security” reminds us of Party institutions like the Ministry of Truth; and of course their language has much in common with Newspeak. All this is alarming enough; we needn’t press the analogies too far. Bush isn’t Big Brother.

What Orwell’s great fable omits is the gradualism of actual tyranny. He shows us an imaginary tyranny that is already complete. And for the purposes of a cautionary fable, this is fine.

But in the real world, tyranny comes on tiptoe, by stealthy steps and often clumsy improvisation, and it’s usually exercised by men who, unlike the cold-blooded intellectual O’Brien, don’t even realize what they’re doing. They may sincerely think of themselves as enemies of tyranny rather than its agents. And instead of devising new institutions of mass control, they may merely take advantage of arrangements they find already in place.

Buchanan: Neo-Comintern

Pat Buchanan knows that for some, democracy is a fetish. In the worst cases it is a full blown religion used as a substitute by its practioners for their lost (or inadequate) faith in God.

As a good Catholic, he also knows the City of God can't be built down here in the ruins of the City of Man, which seems to be what a lot of of idiots are trying to do these days.

The Comintern, or Communist International, also known as the Third International, was the 1919 creation of Vladimir Lenin.

Its declared purpose: Fight "by all available means, including armed force, for the overthrow of the international bourgeoisie and for the creation of an international Soviet republic ..."

Fomenting the communist revolution worldwide was, in brief, the Comintern's mission.

At its Seventh World Congress in 1935, however, on Stalin's orders, the Comintern repudiated the revolutionary overthrow of capitalism as its mission and called for formation of Popular Fronts in Western nations to combat fascism – a Moscow First policy.

For this act of heresy, Trotsky, the champion of permanent revolution, excommunicated Stalin as a "reformist" – and was himself rewarded in 1940 with an ice ax in the head, courtesy of Stalinist assassin Ramon Mercader.

But Trotskyism did not die with Leon Trotsky. It mutated and is today the taproot of that neoconservatism that calls for permanent revolution to advance not global communism, but global democracy. Today, this ideology is embedded in the Party of Reagan and the Bush administration, and neoconservatives are using tax dollars to create and operate their own Neo-Comintern.

OUCH!

The National Endowment for Democracy, which pumps out tens of millions of dollars to "promote democracy" abroad, is its pivotal agency. For 20 years, it has been headed by Carl Gershman, who broke from the Socialist Party to organize Social Democrats USA, which rallied to the candidacy of liberal Democratic Sen. Henry "Scoop" Jackson, whose staff was a nesting ground of neocons from Richard Perle to Frank Gaffney to Elliott Abrams.

And Scoop Jackson was the only semi-coherent national politician the Party of Blasphemy, Buggery, and 'Bortion produced after Truman died!

One organization captured by the Neo-Comintern is Freedom House. Founded by Eleanor Roosevelt and Wendell Willkie in 1941 as a voice for global democracy and human rights, Freedom House, on the eve of the Iraq war, chose as its new chairman ex-CIA Director James Woolsey. By his first anniversary in office, Woolsey had declared Vladimir Putin's Russia "un-free" and was beating the drums for "World War IV" against "Islamofascism."

Flush with tax dollars and tax-deductible contributions, NED, Freedom House and their collaborator foundations and think tanks now routinely interfere in the internal affairs of foreign nations. Under the rubric of promoting democracy, creating free markets, etc., they seek to dethrone recalcitrant rulers and advance to power those who share their ideology and will advance their interests and agenda.

And I thought the IMF was bad news...

Sure the sun came up this morning, but it's just not that simple.

Our moral and intellectual superiors at the NYT are trained economists.

I guess. I don't know. They sure aren't journalists.

Gasoline is cheaper than it was before Hurricane Katrina slammed into New Orleans. Consumer confidence jumped last month and new home sales hit a record. The stock market has been rising. Even the nation's beleaguered factories appear to be headed for a happy holiday season.

By most measures, the economy appears to be doing just fine. No, scratch that, it appears to be booming.

But as always with the United States economy, it is not quite that simple.
(Thanks to Drudge for the heads up.)

Steelers Update.

The Steelers are in trouble, kiddies. Cowher's call for an onside kick to start the second half against the Colts was the act of a desperate coach who knew his team could not compete.

The good news? A win Sunday against the Bengals at Heinz Field would fix everything.

From the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review:

Big Ben's pick had rippling effect
Because of the interception - and, more specifically, Mike Vanderjagt's field goal as time expired - Cowher elected to try an ill-fated onside kick at the start of the second half.

Notebook: Roethlisberger injured ankle

Prisuta: Steelers' response will reveal their mettle

Evil globalization nazis swipe jobs from South Korea.

Korean software company relocating to Oakland

Oakland, as in the home of the University of Pittsburgh.

A Korean software developer has decided to locate its global headquarters and a research and development center in Pittsburgh.

3Ksoft Co., Ltd., of Seoul, South Korea, has established an office on the campus of Carnegie Mellon University in Oakland, where it plans to have 20 people, including 15 new employees, on staff by March.

"Relocating to Pittsburgh is ideal because of the superior technological expertise that is available throughout the region's business and university communities," Young Kun Kim, the company's chief executive officer, said in a statement Monday.

Kim said the company would be working closely with CMU in its efforts to grow its business, which focuses on software designed to make it easier for computers to use the XML programming language.

XML, which stands for eXtensible Markup Language, is designed for sharing diverse data across different systems with a uniform appearance.
3Ksoft says its products will help clients in such fields as electronic commerce, government and mobile commerce.

Carnegie Mellon will use the software for educational purposes, said Timothy McNulty, the school's associate provost for strategic technology initiatives.

The company, which will operate as 3Ksoftware LLC in the United States, has established its XML - Internet Data Center at CMU's Collaborative Innovation Center, providing faculty and students with access to its software tools.

Success in luring 3ksoftware to Pittsburgh is part of a growing effort to attract Asian-based companies here, said Ronald Maloney, staff member of the Pittsburgh Regional Alliance. Maloney said he has been working with state officials in hopes of landing the company since April 2004.

According to the Regional Alliance, 33 Asian companies already have a presence in the Pittsburgh region, operating 46 facilities and employing abut 5,800 people. (Thanks to the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review for the heads up.)

The Chairthing of the FCC has two good ideas. Is Satan sweater shopping?

FCC Chair Urges TV Providers to Shield Kids
ABC News - FCC Chairman Says Cable and Satellite TV Providers Should Do More to Shield Kids, or Face Fines

Not bad for a piece of furniture. Shame on the morons at ABC.



FCC Chairman Pushes Idea of 'A La Carte' Cable
1010wins.com - The head of the FCC says consumers could save money if they're allowed to choose what cable channels they want.

Yeah! Someday I won't have to pay for seventeen shopping channels.

Just in case you have a leftist bishop who will try to obstruct the Vatican's instructions regarding homosexuals and the priesthood...

...here's the document itself:

Instruction from the Congregation for Catholic Education .pdf

It is only eight pages long and is well worth the time and effort needed to read it.

There is nothing new, different, or radical in this instruction.

All homosexual acts are mortal sins. Heterosexual acts outside of marriage are mortal sins. All sexual acts by priests are mortal sins.

It is a good idea to prevent men who cannot control their sexual desires (no matter the particulars of those desires) from becoming priests. Not only for the sake of their own immortal souls, (I'm sure there is a particularly nasty place in Hell reserved for priests who abuse their position.) but also for the souls of those whom they seduce. (Not to mention their victims who are too young to consent and therefore cannot be seduced.)

This instruction is correct, proper, and prudent. Learn it, love it, and live it.

Pope authorizes plenary indulgences marking Vatican II anniversary.

More good news from Catholic News Service (Come on, kiddies, be honest. You know you need it.)

To mark the 40th anniversary of the close of the Second Vatican Council, Catholics can receive a plenary indulgence for taking part in any public or private devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary.

Pope Benedict XVI authorized the special Dec. 8 indulgences to encourage the faithful to carry out the council's teachings on peace, justice and charity, said U.S. Cardinal J. Francis Stafford, head of the Apostolic Penitentiary, a Vatican court dealing with indulgences and matters of conscience.

The pope expressed his hopes that all the church would be united with him and their "common mother," Mary, on Dec. 8, so that the faithful "may be strengthened in their faith, follow Christ with greater dedication, and love their brothers and sisters with more ardent charity," said the cardinal.

The Vatican published the cardinal's statement announcing the indulgences and outlining the requirements for receiving them Nov. 29. Dec. 8 is the feast of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

An indulgence is a remission of the temporal punishment due for sins committed. A plenary indulgence is the remission of all punishment.

Cardinal Stafford said that to obtain the special Dec. 8 feast day indulgences one must fulfill the normal requirements set by the church for all plenary indulgences, which include that within a reasonably short period of time the person goes to confession, receives the Eucharist and prays for the intentions of the pope, all in a spirit of total detachment from the attraction of sin.

The faithful must also participate in a formal prayer service in honor of Mary "or at least openly demonstrate their devotion to Mary" by praying before an image of the Immaculate Conception on display for public veneration. The faithful should also recite the Lord's Prayer, the creed and a prayer to Mary.

Cardinal Stafford said the special indulgence was being offered to mark the 40th anniversary of the formal close of the Second Vatican Council by Pope Paul VI, who proclaimed Mary "the mother of the Church" and the "spiritual mother of us all."

Catholics who cannot visit a Marian shrine or pray before a communal image of Mary because of illness or other serious reason could still earn the indulgence "in their own home or wherever they are" Dec. 8, he said.

Saint of the Day and Daily Mass readings.

Today is the Feast of St. Andrew, the first disciple of Christ. Pray for us, all you angels and saints.

Today's reading for the Feast of St. Andrew is Romans 10:9-18.
Today's Gospel reading is Matthew 4:18-22.


[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.

Penguins Update.

From the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review:

+After missing Sunday night's 4-1 loss in Tampa, there's a chance Mario Lemieux might play tonight against the Buffalo Sabres at Mellon Arena. He's been battling a stomach virus for a couple weeks, and coach Ed Olczyk said Monday evening that Lemieux would probably be listed as "questionable," if he were playing football.

"He's a little better. And he was feeling even better this afternoon," Olczyk said. "Right now, he's day-to-day. Sometimes, when you try to work through those sort of things and get back to the level you're accustomed to, sometimes, you don't let yourself get back completely healthy. He's no different than any of us in that regard."

+Sidney Crosby didn't practice yesterday , giving his sore left foot the day off. He said it's getting better and expects to play tonight. "We looked at some new padding, but I don't think it will be necessary," Crosby said.


+This week figures to be tough for the struggling Penguins. They played Tampa on Sunday, have Buffalo (14-9-1) at home tonight, go to Madison Square Garden on Thursday to face the New York Rangers (16-7-3) and are at home Saturday night against Calgary (14-8-3).

+The Penguins placed forward Michel Ouellet on injured reserved yesterday afternoon after the 23-year-old was hobbled by back spasms.

Changes loom as Pens try to turn around season

Scouting the Sabres

Stan Berenstain, Requiescat in pace.

Man, I loved those books.

Stan Berenstain, who with his wife wrote more than 200 children's books about a family of bears, has died.

He was 82 and lived in Bucks County. He died in Pennsylvania on Saturday, said Audra Boltion, a spokeswoman for HarperCollins Children's Books in New York.

The Berenstain Bears, written by Stan and Jan Berenstain, helped children for 40 years cope with trips to the dentist, eating junk food and cleaning their messy rooms.

The first Berenstain Bears book, "The Great Honey Hunt," was published in 1962. The couple developed the series with children's author Theodor Geisel -- better known as Dr. Seuss, then head of children's publishing at Random House -- with the goal of teaching children to read while entertaining them.

Despite changes in society in the last four decades, little has changed in "Bears Country."

"Kids still tell fibs and they mess up their rooms and they still throw tantrums in the supermarket," Stan Berenstain told The Associated Press in 2002. "Nobody gets shot. No violence. There are problems, but they're the kind of typical family problems everyone goes through."

Stan and Jan Berenstain began drawing together when they met at Philadelphia Museum School of Industrial Art in 1941.

The two married soon after he got out of World War II-era Army service and began submitting cartoons to magazines. They became contributors to The Saturday Evening Post, McCalls and Collier's.

They got into the book business when an editor at a New York publishing house who enjoyed their magazine cartoons asked if they would like to do a book, according to their Web site.

Their sons Leo and Michael joined them, and many of the recent books are credited collectively to "The Berenstains."

The characters are the subject of their own public television program, DVDs and a Christmas musical. (Thanks to the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review and AP for this obituary.)

Delivering some hearty chest compressions and a little mouth-to-mouth to the nearly departed Find the Hottest TV News Babe Contest...

Andrea Nguyen (wow)


Christina Russo


Desiree Carvajal (muy, muy caliente)


Estha Trouw (bonus points for the exotic name - to me at least - and birthplace, South Africa)

...here are the babes of XETV, Fox6 in SanDiego.

Ok, so after we knit some doilies and enjoy light refreshments, then we can start having the children killed, right?

To some, a never-enforced New Hampshire law requiring parental notification before a minor has an abortion is a backward step for women's rights. To others, it protects parents' right to know if their child is having an abortion.

The U.S. Supreme Court will consider those arguments Wednesday as it begins to weigh whether to reinstate a law that requires parental notification 48 hours before an abortion can be performed on a woman under the age of 18.

The 2003 law was struck down, days before it was to take effect, for failing to provide an exception to protect a minor's health. Under the law, parents or guardians must be notified either in person or by certified mail...

Here's the kicker, kiddies:

"Women are going to get abortions no matter what, whether it's legal or illegal, whether they're 13 or whether they're 50. ... Any limitations put on it is heading backward in time," said Becca Pawling, 35, who leads Annie's Forum, a weekly program that brings together teenage girls and older women for snacks, support, crafts and conversation in Portsmouth.

Wow.

Age-ism, (13, eh "Becca"? Why you hatin' on the ten to twelve year olds, bitch? Afraid they're gonna steal your man, ho?) time travel, (WTF??? Mr. Peabody call your office.) obesity, (How many snacks do you have to swallow to keep your conscience down, "girls"?) and black market rape of Mother Earth (Do you know how many Rain Forest inhabitants are starving because their crafts are being squeezed out of the market by your WASP handiwork?).

There's more sickness and depravity in her quote than in Barney Frank 's lease.

NOW we know why Senator Brain Damage will make Judge Alito wait.

The Quaker State's dumb as a quaker senator proves he's got his priorities straight by using his time to "help" the Philadelphia Ego.

A new Specter rears head in Owens case

Sen. Arlen Specter has accused the NFL and the Philadelphia Eagles of treating Terrell Owens unfairly, and might refer the matter to the antitrust subcommittee of the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Specter, who chairs the Judiciary Committee, said at a news conference Monday in Harrisburg it was "vindictive and inappropriate" for the league and the Eagles to forbid the star wide receiver from playing and prevent other teams from talking to him.

"It's a restraint of trade for them to do that, and the thought crosses my mind, it might be a violation of antitrust laws," Specter said.

And what a quick and unimpeded crossing it was.

SEX IS DEATH. (Joyously dispensing death)

The latest in a continuing series. Unsurprisingly, 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

The LA Times proudly serves up the fanatical, gore-soaked ravings of an arch-child murderer who goes by the name of Harrison.

"Doctor" Harrison is an enthusiast of Big Babykilling, the primary example of SEX IS DEATH we have, kiddies.

Couldn't keep it in your pants? Knocked her up? Just find a guy who has managed to drown out the sound of his own conscience by endlessly repeating leftist mantras like "Choice!", "Privacy!", and "It's between a woman and her hit man", and pay him a couple hundred bucks to kill your son or daughter. Simple, no? Heck, if you're poor and black, your kids are considered trophy kills. They'll do 'em for free.

And if you think little Davy Ludwig 's stifled conscience did some damage, just imagine what your's would do if you tried to convince it that chopping up your own kiddies was okey-dokey.

And then there's the horror generated by the more than twenty thousand murders Citizen Harrison has proudly committed. To what sort of perversions must he resort to keep his demons at bay?

Offering Abortion, Rebirth
Yes, an Arkansas doctor says, he destroys life. But he believes the thousands of women who have relied on him have been 'born again'. (Emphasis mine.)

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. (Isn't it interesting how the totalitarian left keeps finding heroes in Ur-kansas and the rest of the benighted red state south? Goobers I and II, for instance. - F.G.) — Dr. William F. Harrison has forgotten how many children the woman had. He remembers she was poor and, most vividly, he remembers her response when a physician diagnosed her distended stomach as pregnancy."Oh, God, doctor," the woman said. "I was hoping it was cancer."

This was in 1967. Harrison was a medical student and his wife was expecting their third child. It had never occurred to him that a woman would be anything but happy to learn she was pregnant.

The next year, he trained on a maternity ward. In a 24-hour shift, it was not unusual, he said, for four or five women to come in feverish or hemorrhaging from botched abortions.

Harrison opened an obstetrics and gynecology practice, but after the Supreme Court established abortion as a constitutional right in 1973, he decided to take on an additional specialty. Now 70, Harrison estimates he's terminated at least 20,000 pregnancies.

Congrats, Mengele. I hope you enjoy your spot in in Hell just as much.

His clinic has not been picketed for years, but Harrison feels very much on the front lines these days.

Debate over President Bush's nominee for the Supreme Court, Samuel A. Alito Jr., has centered on abortion. Activists on both sides warn — or pray — that if Alito is confirmed, the court may one day reverse Roe vs. Wade.

At least a dozen states, and perhaps as many as 30, would probably continue to allow most abortions. But abortion rights activists predict that terminating a pregnancy would become a criminal act across much of the South, the Midwest and the Rocky Mountain region.

In Arkansas, for instance, the state constitution sets out "to protect the life of every unborn child from conception until birth." At least 10 other states — including Illinois, Louisiana, Pennsylvania and Utah — have similar language in their constitutions or legal codes.

Oh, my! How fascist of them! Protecting people you want killed!

Harrison warns every patient he sees that abortion may be illegal one day. He wants to stir them to activism, but most women respond mildly.

"I can't imagine the country coming to that," says Kim, 35, in for her second abortion in two years.

A high school senior says the issue won't weigh heavily when she evaluates candidates. "There's other issues I see as more important," she says, "like whether they'll raise taxes."

I'll bet you $20 that quote was made up.

Patients asked to be identified only by their first names or, in some cases, by their ages to protect their privacy.

Harrison is beyond such concerns. For several years in the 1980s, his clinic was picketed, vandalized and once firebombed. Protesters marched outside his home and death threats became routine. Harrison responded by making his case.

This proves what, exactly? That the right-wing woman-hating baby-savers are no more? Does that mean we can use RICO to go after the Mob again?

He answered every phone call, replied to every letter in the newspaper and appeared at public forums to defend abortion rights. Eventually, the protesters in this college town left him alone. (Arkansas Right to Life focuses instead on educating women about alternatives to abortion, Executive Director Rose Mimms said.)

In the years since, Harrison has become more outspoken.

He calls himself an "abortionist" and says, "I am destroying life."

1) An abortionist is what he is, not what he calls himself. If he called himself a Womb Wrecker, how would you "report" that? (Bear in mind, kiddies, this is from the LA Times, where the agenda is uber alles. Sorry, but German just feels right here. Maybe German should be named the Official Language of the SEX IS DEATH series.)

2) For those of you who thought I might have been a bit harsh earlier when I wished the Bad Doctor a sweet time in Hell, let me make sure you understand what sort of ghoul this cretin is:

"I am destroying life", sagte den Kindmorder.

But he also feels he's giving life: He calls his patients "born again."

Oh my God, have mercy on us all!

"When you end what the woman considers a disastrous pregnancy, she has literally been given her life back," he says.

Does that mean each baby was literally going to kill his own mother? Big Babykilling is really Big Self-Defense? 20,000+ cases of self-defense is impressive, doc.

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

See what happens when you put a pervert in charge of your charitable donations.

Unspent donations given to help victims of the Asian tsunami could be redirected to crises in Africa after rebuilding is complete, former U.S. President Bill Clinton, now a U.N. enoy, said on Tuesday.

But visiting communities living amid the ruins of Sri Lanka's east coast ahead of tsunami's one year anniversary, Clinton -- said much still had to be done in areas swamped by the waves before any aid could be passed on.
"There are still some...funds that have not been spent," he told Reuters in a destroyed hospital.

"In every country but the Maldives, the pledges exceed the estimated damages. Until all the work is done...the people who donated the money have to the right to expect it will be spent in the way they intended it."

Ha!

The December 26 tsunami sparked an unprecedented outpouring of donations and pledges from both governments and individuals -- some $12 billion -- but some aid workers trying to tackle food shortages, worsening poverty and the effect of AIDS in Africa say donations to them have fallen off as a direct result.

AIDS, of course. And by how much more has the Bush administration outspent you in African anti-AIDS programs, Goober? Go ahead and remove your shoes and socks if you think that will help you figure it out.

Clinton said surplus tsunami funds could be redirected to help fight crises in African countries such as Malawi and Lesotho, where AIDS is slashing agricultural production and the cost of sickness, funerals and lost labor drives already vulnerable families deeper into poverty.

"The real answer to this is the AIDS programs, the TB programs, the malaria programs, the clean water programs, putting all these kids in school," Clinton said. "They're cheap to do and they would do so much good for so much people."

Want to really help the poor in the rest of the world? Donate to Catholic Relief Services and leave Clinton to choke on his rubbers.

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

For all the ladies out there who take pleasure and pride in rearing their children and running their households, (and those who have been browbeaten by the totalitarians into thinking there is something shameful in that) here's Happy Housewives by Darla Shine. (Thanks to Laura Ingraham for the heads up.)



* For the lowdown on The Michael and Cathryn Borden Memorial Book of the Day award, look here.

Airlines down under play the pedophile percentages.

What are the odds? Slim. In a closed, crowded area like a plane? Slimmer.

Of course the man has a point, but there are worse outrages out there.

(CNSNews.com) - Two airlines "down under" are under fire after acknowledging their policy of not allowing an unaccompanied child passenger to sit next to a man.

The policy emerged when a New Zealand man said he was asked by airline staff to move because an unaccompanied minor had been assigned the seat next to him.

Mark Worsley was told to swap seats with a woman sitting nearby, who then moved into the seat next to the boy, about eight years old, for the 80-minute flight.

"I was pretty shocked -- I think most people would be," the 37-year-old shipping manager and father of two said Tuesday.

"I complied straight away and moved seats. But as I sat on the plane during the flight I got more and more angry about it.

"Part of the problem, Worsley said, was that the plane was full. When the flight attendant arranged the seat swap, "certainly there was enough disruption that people in the immediate vicinity would have heard what was going on. I felt totally embarrassed."

He had later confronted the airline staff, who confirmed the company policy.

Worsley said someone asked him after the event why he had not simply refused to move. "But these days you can't really do that. With [fears of] terrorism, if you cause any fuss on the plane you're out walking."

"Most males in the world, I'm sure, are perfectly law-abiding, good parents, good fathers, brothers, whatever," he said. "They're basically accusing half the population of the world of being a potential pedophile.

"Worsley had been traveling on a flight operated by Qantas, the Australian national carrier. Both Qantas and Air New Zealand have now confirmed that they would not seat a child traveling alone next to an adult male passenger. (Thanks to CNSNews.com for the heads up.)

Fyodor Garibaldi's Fashion Tip of the Day: Don't wear tan if you're planning to walk along a highway.

FRANKLIN, PA. - A man's body was apparently mistaken for a dead deer along a state highway, police said.

The body was lying along the road for as long as three days, authorities said. He was wearing tan clothing, which apparently led passing motorists to assume it was a dead deer, Venango County Coroner John Greggs said.
A Pinegrove Township employee reported the body Monday after noticing the man's shoes, Greggs said.

It wasn't immediately clear who the man is or exactly how he died. State police on Tuesday said they still had not identified him. Investigators believe he was in his 30s.

He likely was hit by a vehicle, perhaps as early as Friday, Greggs said.
(Thanks to TimesLeader.com for the heads up.)

This one really isn't about Iran.

From BillingsGazette.com comes this abject lesson in the shortcomings of journalism and, by extension, modern education. All emphasis in the excerpt is mine.

Critics say the 1980s-style radicalism of ultraconservative President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is hurting Iran at home and abroad - to the point that even his natural allies in parliament have rejected his three choices to run the all-important oil ministry.

The Islamic hard-liner appears undeterred, but pragmatists in the ruling hierarchy are growing restless and looking for ways to contain him.

"Ahmadinejad's behavior has annoyed many fellow conservatives. That he doesn't like to consult with anybody outside his small circle of old friends is a reality," said Ghodratollah Rahmani, a conservative writer.

"He doesn't consult even with knowledgeable people in his own camp."
Even extremists within the hard-line camp want Ahmadinejad to be more responsive to their advice.

"If he doesn't want to hear no for a fourth time, he has to consult with people outside his circle of friends," said Mohammad Nabi Habibi, leader of the Islamic Coalition Society.

Since taking office in August, Ahmadinejad has jettisoned Iran's moderation in foreign policy and pursued a purge in the government, replacing pragmatic veterans with former military commanders and inexperienced religious hard-liners.

The former Tehran mayor's aim is to install a new generation of rulers who will revive the radical fundamentalist goals pursued in the 1980s under the late Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, father of the 1979 revolution that toppled Iran's pro-Western shah, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi.

All pragmatists, including those seeking better ties with the West, have either lost their posts or likely will lose them soon, pushing the government toward an ever more radical stance in the already volatile Middle East and in the international dispute over Iran's nuclear program, which the United States says is seeking to build weapons.

Huh?

And speaking of Iran:

Sexy Girls & Hot Guys From Iran Conferencing And Mingling On The Internet, Looking For Date Romance And Fun, Check Out Now Its Easy & Free.

Somehow I don't think this one is going to fly, kiddies.

Hey, Bolton! Where are the smoldering ruins of the UN?

George Soros' Repansycan stooges attack Michelle Malkin.

EXPOSING THE "MAIN STREET" REPUBLICANS
By Michelle Malkin · November 28, 2005 12:12 PM

The "Main Street" Republicans, who I criticized earlier this month for sabotaging conservative House efforts to open up ANWR for drilling, have sent a letter accusing me of "libelous statements." I've uploaded the letter from Danielle Graham, counsel for the Republican Main Street Partnership, here. (As you'll see from the letter, it appears there are no spell checkers on "Main Street.")

This baseless legal threat is useful because it helps further illuminate the relationship between George Soros, the Republican Main Street Partnership, and the Main Street Individual Fund--as well as the Center for Responsive Politics, which runs the website "Open Secrets."

As you'll recall, I linked to the Open Secrets website on Nov. 10 after a reader pointed to a $50,000 donation listed there from George Soros to the Main Street Individual Fund, 2004 Election Cycle. Forgive me for spelling out the painfully obvious, but anyone who clicked on the link that I provided saw that I was pointing to the Soros donation to the Main Street Individual Fund, which funds "Main Street" moderate Republicans, as well as to the Center's statement connecting MSIF with the Republican Main Street Partnership:

Ms. Graham mistakenly believes that I asserted Soros gave the donation to the RMSP. Not true, but more on the connections in a moment.

In a not-so-open move, the Open Secrets website completely deleted the 2004 Soros donation from the entry sometime between Nov. 10 and Nov. 16, 2005...

Michelle's blog is always worth reading, but this post is especially worthwhile, for we must identify all the bad guys, regardless of what they call themselves.

Michael Irvin, with the crack pipe, in the Benz.

No, it's not Clue's NFL Edition. From Washington's other newspaper comes the latest from The Playmaker.

Ex-Cowboy Irvin Arrested on Drug Charge

Former Dallas Cowboys receiver Michael Irvin was charged with misdemeanor possession of drug paraphernalia after Plano police officers searched his vehicle during a traffic stop.

Irvin, an ESPN analyst and semifinalist for the Pro Football Hall of Fame, told The Associated Press late Sunday that the drug pipe found in his car belonged to a friend of 17 years who left a Houston rehab center and came to Irvin's house in Carrollton for Thanksgiving. Irvin wouldn't reveal his friend's name.

Irvin said he put the pipe in his car because he didn't want it in his house where his children might find it. He said he planned to drive somewhere the next day, like a grocery trash bin, and throw the pipe away but forgot.
"It's a situation that is not as it seemed," said Irvin, whose voice was choked with emotion during the telephone conversation.

Possible, but not likely. Not with his record.

On the other hand: Coulter contra the party of gutless traitors.

In the Iraq war so far, the U.S. military has deposed a dictator who had already used weapons of mass destruction and would have used them again. As we now know, Saddam Hussein was working with al-Qaida and was trying to acquire long-range missiles from North Korea and enriched uranium from Niger.

Yep. You can look it up. If you dare.

Saddam is on trial. His psychopath sons are dead. We've captured or killed scores of foreign terrorists in Baghdad. Rape rooms and torture chambers are back in R. Kelly's Miami Beach mansion where they belong.

Cool. But definitely not funny.

The Iraqi people have voted in two free, democratic elections this year. In a rash and unconsidered move, they even gave women the right to vote.
Iraqis have ratified a constitution and will vote for a National Assembly next month. The long-suffering Kurds are free and no longer require 24x7 protection by U.S. fighter jets.

Libya's Moammar Gadhafi has voluntarily dismantled his weapons of mass destruction, Syria has withdrawn from Lebanon, and the Palestinians are holding elections.

(Last but certainly not least, the Marsh Arabs' wetlands ecosystem in central Iraq that Saddam drained is being restored, so even the Democrats' war goals in Iraq are being met.)

Heehee.

The American military has accomplished all this with just over 2,000 deaths. These deaths are especially painful because they fall on our greatest Americans. Still, look at what the military has done and compare the cost to 600,000 deaths in the Civil War, 400,000 deaths in World War II and 60,000 deaths in Vietnam (before Walter Cronkite finally threw in the towel and declared victory for North Vietnam).

What is known as a "hawk" in today's Democratic Party looks at what our military has accomplished and – during the war, while our troops are in harm's way – demands that we withdraw our troops.

In an upbeat speech now being aired repeatedly on al-Jazeera, last week Rep. John Murtha said U.S. troops "cannot accomplish anything further in Iraq militarily. It is time to bring them home." Claiming the war is "a flawed policy wrapped in illusion," Murtha said the "American public is way ahead of us."

Fed up with being endlessly told "the American people" have turned against the war in Iraq, Republicans asked the Democrats to show what they had in their hand and vote on a resolution to withdraw the troops.
By a vote of 403-3, the House of Representatives wasn't willing to bet that "the American people" want to pull out of Iraq. (This vote also marked the first time in recent history that the Democrats did not respond to getting their butts kicked by demanding a recount.)

You can look that one up too, kiddies.

The vote is all the more shocking because of what it says about the Democrats' motives in attacking the war – as well as alerting us to three members of Congress we really need to keep an eye on.

It is simply a fact that Democrats like Murtha are encouraging the Iraqi insurgents when they say the war is going badly and it's time to bring the troops home. Whether or not there is any merit to the idea, calling for a troop withdrawal – or "redeployment," as liberals pointlessly distinguish – will delay our inevitable victory and cost more American lives.

Exactly.

Anti-war protests in the United States during the Vietnam War were a major source of moral support to the enemy. We know that not only from plain common sense, but from the statements of former North Vietnamese military leaders who evidently didn't get the memo telling them not to say so. In an Aug. 3, 1995, interview in the Wall Street Journal, Bui Tin, a former colonel in the North Vietnamese army, called the American peace movement "essential" to the North Vietnamese victory.

"Every day our leadership would listen to world news over the radio at 9 a.m. to follow the growth of the American anti-war movement," he said. "Visits to Hanoi by people like Jane Fonda and former Attorney General Ramsey Clark and ministers gave us confidence that we should hold on in the face of battlefield reverses."

Out of the mouths of babes and butchers...

What are we to make of the fact that – as we now know – the Democrats don't even want to withdraw troops from Iraq? By their own account, there is no merit to their demands. Before the vote, Democrats could at least defend themselves from sedition by pleading stupidity. Now we know they don't believe what they are saying about the war. (Thanks to that vote, the Islamo-fascists know it, too.)

The Democrats are giving aid and comfort to the enemy for no purpose other than giving aid and comfort to the enemy. There is no plausible explanation for the Democrats' behavior other than that they long to see U.S. troops shot, humiliated, and driven from the field of battle.

Amen to that, Sister.

They fill the airwaves with treason, but when called to vote on withdrawing troops, disavow their own public statements. These people are not only traitors, they are gutless traitors. (Thanks to WND for the heads up.)

It's beginning to look a lot like 'Nam...

Pat Buchanan: Is defeat now an option?

On Sunday, Nov. 20, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld confirmed that Gen. George Casey, U.S. commander in Iraq, had submitted plans for a reduction of U.S. forces from the present 160,000 to fewer than 100,000 by the end of 2006. When asked if that was possible, Rumsfeld, replied, "Yes, that's possible."

On Monday, 100 Sunni, Shia and Kurd leaders from Iraq met in Cairo and called for a timetable for U.S. withdrawal.

Wednesday, the Washington Post led the paper with a story on Casey's plan to withdraw the 60,000 and Secretary of State Condi Rice told Fox News we need not maintain present troop levels "very much longer," as Iraqi forces, which now number 200,000, are "stepping up" to the job. A gradual pullout could "come fairly soon," said Rice, the number of troops "is clearly going to come down." She added, "I think that is how the president will want to look at this."

By Thursday, the Pentagon confirmed that troops would be coming home after the December elections and, if conditions improve, U.S. forces could be drawn down by 60,000 before the end of 2006. Said Fred Barnes of the hawkish Weekly Standard, "These events are ominous ... they suggest that troop removal has superseded victory as the primary American concern." Indeed, they do.

Moreover, our principal coalition partners after the Brits are coming out. Silvio Berlusconi has said Italy's 3,000 troops may be home by the end of 2006. South Korea is pulling out a third of its contingent. Polish forces, cut from 2,400 to 1,400 in 2005, may soon fall below 1,000.

If no more troops are going in, and the only question is, how many U.S. and coalition troops are coming out, starting after the December elections, the conclusion seems inescapable: The United States is disengaging from the Iraq war before victory is at hand, or even in sight. Hence, a defeat, not of American arms, but of the U.S. policy in Iraq, is now a distinct possibility.

Wow. CuriousCowardlyGeorge FlyingBushMonkey is not his father, he's NIXON!

Buchanan: Vietnam, again. And again.

Pat 's not a dove, he's a "wage a real war" hawk.

Gen. William Odom has called the Iraq War the greatest strategic blunder in the history of the United States. Final returns are not yet in, but he may not be far off.

In invading Iraq, we attacked and occupied a country of 25 million that had not attacked us, did not threaten us, did not want war with us – to strip it of weapons we now know it did not have.

Even if, as most believed, Saddam had chemical or biological weapons, there was no evidence he intended the suicidal use of such weapons on U.S. troops in Kuwait, or to hand them over to al-Qaida to use on America, risking massive retaliation. Saddam was never a suicide bomber. He was always a survivor.

After 9-11, we couldn't take the chance, countered the War Party. Nonsense. We take the chance every day with Iran and North Korea, far more powerful nations, as we did every day of the Cold War against a nuclear-armed Russia and China. They had missiles and WMD. But, like Saddam, they were deterred.

Pat, do you think we ought to finish that Korean War thingonce and for all? And those Iranians...

Yet President Bush, prodded by a cabal of neoconservatives who, for their own motives, had been plotting war on Iraq for years, invaded. History will hold him accountable for the consequences.

On the credit side, he liberated the Iraqis from a murderous tyrant. But the cost is high and rising: 17,000 U.S. dead and wounded – i.e., the eradication of an entire American division – $200 billion, the diversion of priceless assets from the fight against al-Qaida, rampant anti-Americanism in the Islamic world, the shattering of our alliances, the division of our nation, and the prospect of a U.S. defeat by Iraqi insurgents and terrorists.

Another cost must be added after a week in which Harry Reid and Co. accused President Bush of lying us into war, Republicans accused Democrats of cutting and running, and Rep. John Murtha accused Bush and Cheney of being chicken-hawks who dodged the draft in Vietnam.
Our leaders are behaving like the leaders of the late and unlamented French Third Republic.

Ouch!

But if Bush, Cheney and Rumsfeld are responsible for the war and its consequences, so, too, are the potential Democratic nominees: Kerry, Edwards, Clinton, Biden and Bayh. In October 2002, because the country was cheering a commander in chief beating a war drum, they voted Bush a blank check to take us to war. In the fall of 2005, with the people souring on the war, they voted for a timetable to get out.

Let me get this straight. If you manage to dodge the Veg-A-Matic of modernity and survive, THEN you get to be called a baby?

A Perfidious Albion Update from the TimesOnline and Drudge.

A GOVERNMENT agency is launching an inquiry into doctors’ reports that up to 50 babies a year are born alive after botched National Health Service abortions.

The investigation, by the Confidential Enquiry into Maternal and Child Health (CEMACH), comes amid growing unease among clinicians over a legal ambiguity that could see them being charged with infanticide.

The Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, which regulates methods of abortion, has also mounted its own investigation.

Its guidelines say that babies aborted after more than 21 weeks and six days of gestation should have their hearts stopped by an injection of potassium chloride before being delivered. In practice, few doctors are willing or able to perform the delicate procedure.

Delicate? Holy crap!

For the abortion of younger foetuses, labour is induced by drugs in the expectation that the infant will not survive the birth process. Guidelines say that doctors should ensure that the drugs they use prevent such babies being alive at birth.

Wait a minute. Are they "younger foetuses" or "babies"? How can one tell?

In practice, according to Stuart Campbell, former professor of obstetrics and gynaecology at St George’s hospital, London, a number do survive.
“They can be born breathing and crying at 19 weeks’ gestation,” he said. “I am not anti-abortion, but as far as I am concerned this is sub-standard medicine.”

The secret of happiness and success is revealed to you.

Click to enlarge.

Flyover Destroyed; West Hollyweird, Manhattan Spared.

From Drudge:

NETWORKS PLAN 'END OF AMERICA' SHOWS

Yeah, but will Variety still be published in post-apocalyptic AmeriKKKA?

Says Fox exec VP Craig Erwich: "The creative community appears to be really inspired this year," he says. "It was an exciting time to be buying. I came away pretty encouraged about network TV."

I'll bet you $20 John Milius won't be directing.

Wow! Help defeat moslem terrorists AND keep the Brussels kleptocrats from ruining your country. It's a win-win, baby!

EU May Suspend Nations With Secret Prisons
EU Justice and Home Affairs Commissioner Franco Frattini warned Monday any EU nation found to have operated secret CIA prisons could have their EU voting rights suspended.

If you missed the two part interview with Thomas Sowell on Fox News Channel this weekend...

...you missed one of the greatest intellects this (or any other nation) has ever produced.

Fred Barnes did a masterful job of asking the right questions and then getting out of the way.

If you ever have the misfortune to meet one of those benighted creatures known as a "liberal", Dr. Sowell offers the following five questions ( "Three questions." ) to make the poor fellow scurry back into the darkness from whence he came.

1) Compared to what?

2) At what cost?

3) Do you have any hard evidence to back that up? (My personal favorite.)

Seriously, kiddies, you must try it. It's a hoot and a half.

Excelsior! A small victory in the battle against modernity in my parish.

Our new parish priest is already returning dividends. The parish Pastoral Council recently discussed an article titled "Where Should We Put The Tabernacle?" by Msgr. Peter J. Elliott. (My guess is this was instigated by Father. The Council has never done anything like this in the fifteen years I have lived in this parish.) The article quotes Canon Law, which says the tabernacle should be in "a distingushed place in a church or oratory, a place which is conspicuous, suitably adorned, and conducive to prayer." ( Canon 938, #2 )

Monsignor Elliott's article concludes: "To avoid the arid effects of liturgical rationalism (Glory be to God! May He bless and protect you always, Monsignor. - F.G.) and to promote prayer and reverence, let the Eucharist be restored to the truly preeminent position in every church."

The Council took a preliminary vote and unanimously decided to move the tabernacle from the side chapel to its rightful place behind the altar and below the crucifix. A formal vote will be held soon to make this official, and I hope it happens soon. (Prior to Christmas would be nice.) Of course, Father could make this change on his own (I wish he would! That's one reason why this is only a small victory.) but he probably did not want to appear a bully so he made a token concession to the fetish of democracy.

Our church building is only eight years old, so the "Eucharistic Chapel" was built in. (Innovation sucks, kiddies.) This also means the chances of installing an altar rail are slim. On the other hand, turning the existing altar around and putting it under the new tabernacle location is definitely doable. Stay tuned, kiddies, and say a prayer for us.

BTW, thank you Lord for this wonderful priest who is truly an instument of Thy will.

Saint of the Day and daily Mass readings.

Today is the Feast of St. Andrew Trong, a Vietnamese martyr. Pray for us, all you angels and saints.

Today's reading is Isaiah 2:1-5.
Today's Gospel reading is Matthew 8:5-11.


Happy New Liturgical Year, everybody!

[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.