Buffett and Gates use their billions to prop up whitey and slaughter the subhumans.

So...You thought old Fyodor was a bit of a crank, eh? How could a pro-business conservative call men like Warren "Bufu" Buffett and Bill "Kill all the brutes!" Gates muderers and racists?

I won't apologize for calling a spade a spade.

Well, I am not the only one, kiddies...

Human Events Online: Gates-Buffett Marriage Designed Not to Bear Fruit
by Joseph A. D'Agostino
Posted Jul 10, 2006


Two fanatically anti-people billionaires—the two richest men in the world—have announced that they will combine their enormous fortunes into one charitable foundation. Warren Buffett of Berkshire Hathaway plans to give securities currently valued at about $37 billion to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, which has already had its coffers swollen to $29 billion by Microsoft founder Bill Gates.

The poor Ford Foundation, once the world’s largest, has only $11 billion. Gates has even let slip that the motivation behind reproductive health programs is actually population control, as PRI has argued for years (see below). Both men are dedicated to population control in the Third World, and now they have created an unfathomably large organization that will join the United Nations, the U.S. government, the European Union, and many private organizations in continuing the disastrous effort to reduce the Earth’s population.

An exagerration? Hardly. As readers of this column know very well, population control has been a huge success in almost every corner of the world. Birthrates have dropped dramatically in the past few decades and continue downward. Not only developed countries, but now many Third World countries have birthrates below replacement level. In a few years, most Third World nations will have socially suicidal birthrates, not having enough children to maintain their populations in the long term. Even Latin America, once the region of large Catholic families, has a birthrate of only 2.4 today, down from 4.5 just 30 years ago. Mexico’s is already below replacement, which is generally reckoned at about 2.1 children per woman in her lifetime. Most Third World nations now face rapid population aging over the next few decades and a dearth of young people to work and pay taxes, just as First World nations do—but without First World nations’ wealth or social security systems. Sub-Saharan Africa is the only region of the world that still has consistenly high birthrates, and it needs them to replace populations decimated by wars, famines, and epidemics such as AIDS.

So why are the world’s elites still so bent on population control? Why aren’t they trying to prevent continued falling birthrates and massive population aging instead? This is, I think, a spiritual question.

Maybe it is a racial question...

Come to think of it, real racism is a spiritual problem too.

In any case, the Associated Press and some other media picked up on the dismay of pro-life organizations when Buffett announced his gift. AP quoted PRI and some other pro-life groups which, instead of hailing this tremendous foundation gift, had to criticize it. Both Buffett and the Gates Foundation have a long history of subsidizing abortion and population control. Claiming the money is for services other than abortion, the Gates Foundation gives millions to Planned Parenthood. But I called this position dishonest, because giving money to one wing of an organization frees up funds to be used for other activities—in this case, for abortions.

Someone who read my comments e-mailed me the following:

“I was disgusted and sickened by your comments regarding the Gates Foundation. Your comment that the foundation’s position ‘is simply dishonest’ shows your ignorance,” he wrote. “This foundation is one of the best organizations at helping people, yet you attack them. This blatant attack is just yet another example of the extremism inherent in the anti-abortion movement.

Your group does nothing but attempt to take choices away from women. Who made you (and POP) the decision-makers? I am well-educated and completely able to make my own decisions without your input. Instead of focusing on making the world change to your personal view, why not look inward and stop the hate you have for others.”

Sound familiar, kiddies?

Love Is Hate. Peace Is War. Et cetera.

First of all, let me acknowledge that the Gates Foundation does much good work. It funds research into disease eradication and many legitimate Third World health programs. In addition, it funds educational alternatives to our utterly catastrophic public school system, even venturing into school choice programs. But when a foundation also subsidizes the killing of unborn children and the ongoing destruction of Third World societies, it is not extremism to condemn it, even if such activities account for a relatively small part of the foundation’s funding.

How small? It’s difficult to say, since so much money spent on reproductive health and HIV prevention (condoms) has the effect of reducing population. But certainly, there is plenty of evidence of the anti-people inclinations of Gates and Buffett. And it’s especially shameful that Gates uses the profits from his near-monopoly on business operating systems to fund abortion. Large numbers of pro-life people are forced to buy his products. Why can’t Gates restrict himself to funding charitable activities that everyone can agree on?

“The one issue that really grabbed me as urgent were issues related to population… reproductive health,” Gates told PBS “Now” interviewer Bill Moyers, May 9, 2003 (all ellipses in original PBS transcript). “And maybe the most interesting thing I learned is this thing that’s still surprising when I tell other people which is that, as you improve health in a society, population growth goes down. You know I thought it was…before I learned about it, I thought it was paradoxical. Well if you improve health, aren’t you just dooming people to deal with such a lack of resources where they won’t be educated or they won’t have enough food?

You know, sort of a Malthusian view of what would take place.” So it would seem that Gates favors reproductive health programs, and maybe health programs in general, because they reduce population—exactly the argument against reproductive health programs that PRI makes (we’re not against health programs in general). Gates added, “My dad was head of Planned Parenthood.”

Ah...Planned Babykilling (A subsidiary of Big Babykilling)...that would explain it...

You see, kiddies, little Billy Gates has known for decades he was just lucky not to have been murdered by his parents, who must have been left-fascist thugs of the most vile sort. So, he uses his hard-earned billions (which no doubt fill him with all kinds of guilt) to kill the teeming masses of wogs "over there" who threaten little Billy's air, water, and food supply. (I don't know if the Freudians would buy my analysis, but it does make sense out of Citizen Gates' public statements.)

Gates has put his money where his mouth is. His foundation gave $2.25 million to Johns Hopkins to train Third World experts in population control in 1997. In 1998, his foundation—which is controlled by Gates, his wife, and his father—gave $1.7 million to a United Nations Population Fund program for controlling population growth.

As for that cur, Buffet, it seems he just hates "the Other"...

Buffett has given millions to pro-abortion and population control efforts over the years, and has even funded the anti-Catholic Catholics for a Free Choice. But how much of a priority is it for him? Reported the Chronicle of Philanthropy, Nov. 13, 1997, about his wife’s foundation, “One of the foundation’s directors, Mr. Buffett’s daughter, Susie, told The Chronicle that she did expect that population control would be the foundation’s top priority. ‘That’s what my father has always believed was the biggest and most important issue, so that will be the focus,’ she said. ‘I feel as his child that it’s important to carry out his wishes. It’s his money.’”

In fact, the foundation, named after Buffett’s late wife Susan, funded clinical trials of the RU-486 abortion pill in the 1990s. Helping to create a whole new way to kill children—that’s commitment.

May God have mercy on your souls, you black-hearted ghouls. And your enablers, too.

There is no telling how much Buffett will end up giving to the Gates Foundation. He intends to give 5% a year, and his overall fortune could continue to grow year-by-year despite these gifts. It could be much more than $37 billion.

Obviously, this could be a SEX IS DEATH story...

Buffett helped launch the human pesticide, RU-486. The Gates Foundation is working on its own sinister plans. On its website is an article by Gates’ wife Melinda that first appeared in Newsweek, May 15, 2006. Here, not only the anti-people agenda but the feminist agenda is on display.

“For many women, marriage is a risk factor for AIDS (Emphasis mine.) because of their husbands’ dangerous behavior,” she wrote. “Worldwide, 80% of women newly infected with HIV are practicing monogamy within a marriage or a long-term relationship. This shatters the myth that marriage is a natural refuge from AIDS.... Through our foundation, my husband, Bill, and I are working to develop tools that can put the power to prevent AIDS into the hands of women. Microbicides are one exciting new prevention tool in development.

These are colorless, odorless gels that a woman could apply vaginally—without her partner’s knowledge—to prevent sexual transmission of HIV. Microbicides may also prevent other sexually transmitted infections, such as syphilis and gonorrhea, and some act as contraceptives as well.”

Notice that last clause. “Contraceptives.” And, without their husbands’ knowledge—driving yet another wedge between family members in a world bent on driving wedges between them. And will the women be told that the microbicide gels they receive contain contraceptives, or will they be deceived by their government-run “reproductive health” programs as women in Peru, Mexico, China, the Philippines, Africa, and countless other places have already been?

The lesson here? Ladies, don't let creepy little white wimps put things in your body. And run away if they say "It's good for you.

Given the odds against transmitting HIV through normal heterosexual intercourse, such microbidices will likely do little to prevent the spread of HIV, though they could assist against other diseases. Wouldn’t America and Europe be suffering from a heterosexual AIDS epidemic if it were otherwise? The source of the African AIDS epidemic lies elsewhere, such as in the reuse of needles in the poorly run reproductive health clinics set up all over Africa with First World money.

Warren Buffett’s biographer, Roger Lowenstein, has written that Buffett once—still does?—had “a Malthusian dread that overpopulation would aggravate problems in all other areas—such as food, housing, even human survival.” Malthusian, the same attitude as Gates.

So, the so-called capitalists are afraid of the ultimate capital, humanity? It sounds like Gates and Buffett are nothing but small-minded jerks who are only interested in jealously guarding their wealth while everyone else be damned.

"Can't let some darkie become rich enough to buy and sell us, can we Warren?"

"No, Bill. We certainly can't. Let's not take any chances. Let's stop the non-Aryans from procreating."

"Exxxxxxxxcellent."

The Anglican Rev. Thomas Malthus predicted in the late 18th Century that human population growth would outpace food production increases, thus leading to massive famines and death. Other, similar doomsayers have made similar predictions. Of course, it’s more than 200 years later, the Earth’s human population has growth enormously, and none of these predictions has ever come true. But for some reason, smart men such as Gates and Buffett continue to believe.

That last paragraph is what is known as a statement of empirical fact, kiddies. Learn it. Live it. Love it.

Mr. D'Agostino, former associate editor of HUMAN EVENTS, is vice president for Communications at the Population Research Institute.

George Will celebrates the destruction of America.

As with most (easily more than half) men who claim the title "conservative", Mr. Will is actually interested in power. The Interstate Highway System is a tool used by social engineers to rip apart America's natural communities and neighborhoods that were based on family, ethnicity, and religion. If ol' Georgie was truly conservative, he would gnash his teeth and lament the concrete ghettoization of his nation. (sorry)

But Will is not a conservative by any meaningful measure of the word. The IHS is classic totalitarian politics - divide and conquer. People who have similar interests must be separated from each other so they cannot vote in blocs, like, oh...I don't know...like Catholics might! Then they are easier to control.

Don't fool yourself. "Conservatives" like George Will love control as much as Stalin did, as long as they are in power.

BTW, when Ike saw what the socialist social engineers had done with the IHS, he regretted ever having approved the idea.

New Hampshire Union Leader: Fifty years of high-speed progress

On Tuesday, the United States will become more geographically stable than it has ever been. It will have been 17,126 days since the admission of Hawaii to statehood on Aug. 21, 1959. The longest previous span between expansions of the nation was the 17,125 days between the admission of Arizona on Feb. 14, 1912, and the admission of Alaska on Jan. 3, 1959. Since then the nation has become, in a sense, smaller through the annihilation of distance and, to some extent, of difference.

An important part of the groundwork — literally, it covered a lot of ground — for today’s America was begun 50 years ago this summer. A conservative Republican President, who grew up in a Kansas town where hitching posts for horses lined unpaved streets, launched what was, and remains, the largest public works project in the nation’s history — the Interstate Highway System. Its ribbons of concrete represent a single thread of continuity through the nation’s history.

With that program, Dwight Eisenhower, the 13th Republican President, helped heal the wounds of the war won by another general, U.S. Grant, the second Republican President. That war was related to “internal improvements,” as infrastructure projects such as roads and canals used to be called.

In 1816, South Carolina’s Rep. John Calhoun — then a nationalist; later, a disunionist — introduced legislation for a federal program of internal improvements. The legislation passed, but President James Madison vetoed it because he thought Congress was not constitutionally empowered to do such things. So, prosperous Northern states built their own improvements while the South sank into inferiority and increasing dependence on slavery.

The military handicap of an inferior transportation system was one reason the South lost the Civil War.

Another reason was the industrialization of the North. Its transportation system (the Erie Canal, railroads) cut the price of shipping a ton of wheat from Buffalo to New York City from $100 to $10, and the difference between the wholesale price of pork in Cincinnati and New York plunged from $9.53 to $1.18. Suddenly, workers flooding into the North’s cities had more disposable income to spend on the North’s manufactured goods.

The first Republican President began his public life as a 23-year-old candidate for the Illinois General Assembly by telling voters of Sangamon County his “sentiments with regard to local affairs,” the first sentiment being “the public utility of internal improvements.” The vigor of the union also was a preoccupation of Teddy Roosevelt, the eighth Republican President, whose great internal improvement, the Panama Canal, was external, although he thought of Panama as America’s private property. And Eisenhower’s message to Congress advocating the IHS began, “Our unity as a nation is sustained by free communication of thought and by easy transportation of people and goods.”

No legislator more ardently supported the IHS than the Tennessee Democrat who was chairman of the Senate Public Works subcommittee on roads.

His state had benefited handsomely from the greatest federal public works project of the pre-war period, the Tennessee Valley Authority, which, by bringing electrification to a large swath of the South, accelerated the closing of the regional development gap that had stubbornly persisted since the Civil War. This senator who did so much to put postwar America on roads suitable to bigger, more powerful cars was Al Gore Sr.

His son may consider this marriage of concrete and the internal combustion engine sinful, but Tennessee’s per capita income, which was just 70 percent of the national average in 1956, today is 90 percent.

The IHS — combined, as Fortune magazine’s Justin Fox writes, with another bright idea from 1956, the shipping container — made America’s distribution system more flexible. This benefited manufacturers, foreign and domestic, especially in America’s hitherto lagging region, the South.

This is one reason there is a thriving Southern-based automobile industry (BMW in South Carolina; Mercedes in Alabama; Honda in both Carolinas, Georgia and Alabama; Toyota in Tennessee, Alabama and Kentucky).

Furthermore, the South is home to some of today’s “big box” retailers — Wal-Mart (Bentonville, Ark.), Home Depot (Atlanta) — as well as FedEx (Memphis).

American scolds blame the IHS and the automobile for everything from obesity (fried food at every interchange) to desperate housewives (isolated in distant suburbs without sidewalks). Nikita Khrushchev, during his 1959 visit to America, told Eisenhower, “Your people do not seem to like the place where they live and always want to be on the move going someplace else.” Eisenhower knew that wherever people are going on their nation’s roads, they are going where they live.

I'd rather be a scold who's on the side of the angels, Georgie boy. You're just a shill for power-madness.

Corporal Ryan Cummings USMC, Requiescat in pace.

From President Bush's press conference on July 7, 2006:

There's been a lot of sacrifice in the war on terror. People have lost lives. We have lost, obviously, a lot of lives here on the homeland, and we've lost lives overseas.

I think of Corporal Ryan Cummings from right here in the
Chicago area. He was an honor student at Hoffman Estates High School. He volunteered for the United States Marine Corps.

He served two tours of duty in Iraq, and then he volunteered for a third. Ryan understood the stakes. He understood that we must win. And so he said, I'd like to go back. And he was killed in Anbar province last month.

Our prayers go out to Ryan's family. I marvel at the strength of his mother when she said, "He wanted to be doing something that made a difference. He was doing what he wanted to do."

I have confidence in the capacity of liberty to transform hostile
regions to peaceful regions. And I have confidence in our capacity to win the war on terror, because of people like Ryan Cummings are willing to step up and serve this nation.

From CBS 2 in Chicago:

During his nationally-televised news conference, the president remembered a Marine from the Chicago area killed in Iraq.

CBS 2 West Suburban Bureau Chief Mike Puccinelli spoke with the Marine's mother about what the president had to say.

He served two tours in Iraq, and then he volunteered for a third.

But Ryan Cummings never made it home from that last tour. He was killed by a roadside bomb last month.

His mother watched from her home in Northwest Suburban Streamwood as the president paid tribute to her son.

"I'm grateful that he recognized Ryan and his sacrifice," Jan Cummings said.

Jan Cummings agrees with Bush's position that now is not the time to leave Iraq.

"It was a job that Ryan believed in, and I think knowing that we're going to stay until we're done, it makes Ryan's sacrifice more meaningful. It helps to ease my pain a little bit," Jan said.

This mother's words put Cindy Seahag to shame.

As Ryan rests in peace, his mother has some measure of peace knowing that he died doing what he loved.

Ryan was a straight-A student at Hoffman Estates High School, but instead of choosing college he chose the Marines.

In her last conversation with Ryan on Mother's Day, Ryan told her he intended to become an engineer.

Now, his mother is left to think about what might have been and what she'd say to her 22-year-old son if she could.

"We all miss you and we love you," she said. "And can you believe how many people there are whose lives you touched?"

Ryan made an impact on people like a grieving mom in Streamwood, as well as the President of the United States.

US Military Meets or Exceeds Recruiting Goals.

I wonder how deeply the Old Gray Whore decided to bury this one?

NYT: Military Recruiting Successful
The Army surpassed its recruiting goal for June, the Pentagon said, the 13th consecutive month the service has met or exceeded its target. The Navy, Air Force and Marine Corps also met or exceeded their goals, Defense Department statistics showed. The active-duty Army, which offered a wider array of financial incentives for potential recruits and put more recruiters on the street, found 8,756 recruits in June, compared with its target of 8,600, the Pentagon said.

Judging from its length, (You just read the whole thing.) I'd say they crammed it into their classifieds section between Rent-A-Sodomite ads.

Rachel Carson - deadlier than Stalin?

The quest of honest scientists and interested laymen (like Your Humble Servant) to destroy the lies of this ignorant cow who is responsible for the deaths of tens of millions of poor people of color continues apace.

The bottom line, kiddies? The lives of all the animals that have ever lived are not worth as much a single human life, not even the most evil and depraved human life. Not even Hitler's.

Bring on the glorious DDT! Save the baby humans!

From Robert Matthews of The First Post:

Her ideology has led to more deaths than Stalin's purges, and brought misery to hundreds of millions more. But now, over 40 years after her death, her grip on the fate of countless developing nations may finally be at an end.

As the founder of the modern ecological movement, the American naturalist Rachel Carson is not an obvious candidate for the pantheon of evil. Her best-selling book Silent Spring, published in 1963, is widely credited with putting the interconnectedness of nature on the political agenda, and led to international bans on the use of the pesticide DDT, which she claimed was causing ecological disaster. Yet while her actions may have been motivated by the best of intentions, the consequences in human terms have been catastrophic. The ban on DDT robbed developing nations of a cheap, safe and effective means of combating malaria, which kills two million people each year.

That tots up to at least 50 million deaths since the bans took effect in the early 1970s. And for what? Even at the time, Carson's claims that DDT was responsible for everything from the thinning of eggshells to cancer in humans looked shaky. By the mid-1980s they had been utterly discredited. Yet by then Carson's claims had achieved the status of holy writ among environmentalists - and among right-on officials in government ministries. Third World nations were threatened with trade sanctions if they even suggested using DDT in fields or homes.

Now, finally, the giant US Agency for International Development is supporting the widespread use of DDT in Africa to combat malaria. The effect is likely to be quite simply breathtaking, for DDT is truly a miracle cure for this deadly mosquito-borne scourge. When it was first used in developing nations in the early 1960s the effect was like flicking a switch. In 1948, Sri Lanka had 2.8 millioncases of malaria; in 1963, following the introduction of DDT, the number had fallen to just 17.

Tragically, the effect of the bans on its use in the wake of Carson's claims were no less dramatic. Within just five years of banning DDT, the number of malaria cases in Sri Lanka had risen from those 17 cases back up to 500,000. Today, around 400 million people are infected each year.

The economic impact of reintroducing DDT is likely to be no less impressive. According to the UN, malaria costs Africa around £7 billion annually - about 40 per cent of what the continent spends on health.

In years to come, the ban on DDT will be seen for what it is: a scandalous example of half-baked ecological concerns being put above the needs of humans. That realisation will come too late for the tens of millions who paid for this folly with their lives. (Thanks to the conservatives' favorite serial adulterer and Viagra addict for the heads up.)

Saint of the Day and daily Mass readings.

Today is the Feast of St. Benedict, the founder of Western monasticism. Pray for us, all you angels and saints.


Today's reading for the Feast of St. Benedict is Hosea 8:4-7, 11-13.
Today's Responsorial Psalm is Psalms 115:3-4, 5-6, 7-8, 9-10.
Today's Gospel reading is Matthew 9:32-38.


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.


Prayer to End Abortion

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


Prayer For Vocations

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

SEX IS DEATH Update.

Faithful SEX IS DEATH readers [Part 4: SEX IS DEATH. (Sex is depression) is here.] will not find this story surprising...

Roto-Reuters: Depression tied to risky teen sex - study
Sexually experienced middle- and high-school teenagers with higher levels of depressive symptoms are more likely to engage in risky sexual behavior, a new study shows. (Emphasis mine.)

...though these UCSF researchers may have confused cause and effect...

SEX IS DEATH. (Mind control = womb control)

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

Ironically, this lunacy appeared in the Health section of the paper...

The birth control divide
Poor and uneducated women have higher rates of unplanned pregnancy. But why?
By Stephanie Simon of the LA Times

The students were giggling, trading gossip, but they stopped when Maria Elena Chavez dumped her stash of teaching aides on the table: Cola-flavored condoms. A cervical cap. An IUD. A diaphragm.

As the room quieted, Chavez unrolled a condom and stretched it over her hand.

"Many men will say they don't fit, but you can see how much this can stretch," she said. The students nodded, murmuring in surprise. One hand shot up, then another.

"Do they come in different sizes?"

"Should we put water in them first, to test them?"

"Can you use two at once for extra protection?"

These students in East L.A. were not inexperienced teens. They were women in their 30s and 40s, many of them married, all of them mothers — and, yet, still uncertain how to protect themselves from pregnancy. (Emphasis mine.)

They are far from alone.

A new statistical analysis, published this month, shows that poor and uneducated women have fallen farther behind their more affluent peers in their ability to control fertility and plan childbearing.

The nation's overall rate of unintended pregnancies held steady from the mid-1990s through 2001, the most recent year such data is available. But that stability masked huge disparities between demographic groups, according to the new analysis by the Guttmacher Institute, a research group affiliated with Planned Parenthood.

Teenagers, college graduates and women in the middle or upper class dramatically reduced unintended pregnancy and abortion rates. Among poor women, though, the unplanned pregnancy rate jumped nearly 30%.

As a result, poor women are now four times more likely to face an unintended pregnancy than those who are better off. They're also three times more likely to get an abortion.

Analysts at the Guttmacher Institute blame the problem largely on a lack of access to affordable contraception. Prominent Democrats echo that theme, arguing that the nation has a moral responsibility to improve access, both to ensure women's health and to bring down the abortion rate.

Ha! Abortion is contraception to Big Babykilling and The Party of Blasphemy, Buggery, and 'Bortion. Planned Babykilling isn't going to choke (sorry) off its main source of income. (After your tax dollars, that is.)

"We have to make sure families have more options," said Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.). "If you don't have the resources … they don't get the services."

But public health experts say more funding is not necessarily the answer.

Ooooooh! Throw the Christian Nazis a bone! Tell us how, all-knowing and all-seeing antique media.

California spends $124 on family planning for every woman in need, more than any other state except South Carolina and Alabama. The state's Family PACT program offers teens and low-income couples easy access to free or affordable birth control. Yet California has one of the highest abortion rates in the country — the same rate as Nevada, which spends only $32 per woman in need, according to the Guttmacher Institute.

Nebraska presents the opposite scenario. The Guttmacher Institute ranks it worst in the nation at helping poor women avoid unintended pregnancies. Yet Nebraska has one of the country's lowest abortion rates.

Hmmm...That's downright counter-intuitive to a leftist.

On a national level, the jump in unplanned pregnancies came even as the federal government began offering to cover 90% of the cost if states would subsidize birth control for low-income women through Medicaid. At least 23 states, including California, have set up such programs. Details vary, but most offer exams and contraception to women earning up to twice the federal poverty level.

Here comes the mind control portion of the program, kiddies...

Former U.S. Surgeon General David Satcher applauds such subsidies, but warns that free birth control alone won't bring down the unintended pregnancy rate. He calls instead for broad social change: Low-income women must build self-esteem and confidence in a better future. Only then, he said, will they be motivated to protect themselves. "To gain control of these issues, you really have to get beyond sex," said Satcher, who worked in the Clinton administration. "You have to dig deep and look at what's happening in their lives, their relationships and their minds." (All emphasis mine.)

You see, kiddies, these women are just too stupid to appreciate the sublime benefits of filling their bodies with the latest gimcrack inventions of Big Pharmaceutical. But don't worry, our world is filled to overflowing with morally and intellectually superior busybodies just dying to teach 'em up right.

Laura Gaydos came to a similar conclusion after holding recent focus groups with low-income women of all ages and races in cities across Georgia. A health researcher at Emory University in Atlanta, Gaydos said many of the women she interviewed simply didn't see the urgency in going out of their way to prevent pregnancy. "There's never going to be a perfect time to get pregnant," she heard again and again. And: "Might as well let what happens, happen."

There you have it. The Socially Backward Elements must be re-educated so their values will fall into line with that of The Party. And modernity.

The bottom line? Poor chicks just don't know how to date.

I can just imagine The Next-to-Final Solution for this problem. Like something out of A Clockwork Orange, poor women all over the world will be strapped to chairs with their eyelids wired open and forced to watch Sex and the City reruns until the accept the historical necessity of being nulliparous.

Even when low-income women take the initiative to pick up birth control, they are often ambivalent about using it — or too disorganized to remember. Nearly half of all women who get abortions say they used birth control at some point during the month they conceived. In some cases it failed. In many others, they just didn't use it correctly or consistently.

"To get people to use contraceptives is an effort," said Cynthia Harper, an assistant professor at the Center for Reproductive Health Research and Policy at UC San Francisco. "It's really hard for people to take care of themselves in the area of sexuality."

They fear the birth control pill will make them fat, so they stop taking it. The patch irritates their skin, so they peel it off. They put a half-hearted faith in one of the many urban myths that pass from friend to neighbor: If a man drinks enough Mountain Dew before sex, his sperm will die. If a woman takes a bath, or jumps around, or douches with vinegar, she won't conceive.

Chavez runs through several of those myths during her two-hour class in an East L.A. elementary school. It's part of a six-month program — Promotoras Comunitarias — sponsored by Planned Parenthood. Taught in Spanish, the class trains Latinas to be health educators for their neighborhoods, with sessions on domestic violence, prenatal care and sexuality. The idea is to empower the women to push for healthier habits in their families and their communities.

Planned Babykilling thinks there is still much too much Catholicism in those Spanish-speaking babes.

During the session on contraception, Alicia Mendoza, 32, understood for the first time why she had conceived her son just a few months after giving birth to her daughter.

She had figured she couldn't get pregnant again so soon, but her teacher told her firmly that wasn't true; even nursing a baby would not fully protect her. "No one told me I had to be careful," Mendoza said. (Emphasis mine.)

Many of the students had never heard of newer forms of birth control such as the ring and the patch. Even more common methods drew quizzical stares: When Chavez held up a vaginal suppository filled with spermicide, one student looked at the large white capsule with alarm. "Where do you put it?" she asked.

"You don't swallow it, if that's what you mean," Chavez said, laughing. Patiently, she explained — then took question after question:

"Does it hurt?" "Does it protect you from disease?" "If you use it often, does it make you infertile?"

Hey, wait a minute...Why no answer to that last one, babykiller?

Planned Parenthood runs similar programs in Arizona, Colorado, New York and Texas. Overall, however, the organization and its affiliates devote just 30% of a $49-million educational budget to women 20 and older. The rest is aimed at teens.

Instant translation: "Blacks and browns must not be allowed to reproduce so that Aryans may continue to run the world." - Margaret Sanger

The federal government too, focuses most of its sex education resources on teens, with a strong emphasis on abstinence.

Though women 20 and up account for nearly 80% of all unintended pregnancies, "you'll find almost no intervention or prevention programs targeted at older women," Gaydos said.

In part, that's because such programs tend to get tangled in ideological disputes. Though liberals urge more classes and cheaper birth control, some conservatives warn that expanded access will only encourage reckless behavior.

This spring in Missouri, for instance, state Rep. Susan Phillips shot down a proposal to subsidize birth control for low-income women. That would be like subsidizing promiscuity, she argued.

Phillips, a Republican, explained by e-mail: "It is my hope that reducing access to contraception for recreational users and those not prepared to parent will give them time to consider the consequences" of having sex.

That "sex has consequences" message is pushed on teens through TV shows, magazines, movies and schools; some experts say it's time to extend that campaign to adults as well.

"People don't worry about problems they don't know exist," said Sarah Brown, director of the National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy.

Your Humble Servant has an easy fix for this one, kiddies. In fact, I was shocked the educated woman from the LA Times and the various and sundry big-brained agents of Big Babykilling quoted in the article did not mention it:

Get married, stay married, and do not cheat on your spouse.

Simple, no?


Part 1: SEX IS DEATH. (Stories for boys) is here.
Part 2: SEX IS DEATH. (Distaff death) is here.
Part 3: SEX IS DEATH. (Joyously dispensing death) is here.
Part 4: SEX IS DEATH. (Sex is depression) is here.
Part 5: SEX IS DEATH. (When self-pleasuring becomes self-destruction) is here.
Part 6: SEX IS DEATH. (Sex is theft) is here.
Part 7: SEX IS DEATH. (A review of Bareback Mountain) is here.
Part 8: SEX IS DEATH. (What is the ultimate penalty?) is here.
Part 9: SEX IS DEATH. (Haven from reality) is here.
Part 10: SEX IS DEATH. (Sin-redemption-reasons-reason) is here.
Part 11: SEX IS DEATH. (Mommy loves you) is here.
Part 12: SEX IS DEATH. (George Gilder offers a clue) is here.
Part 13: SEX IS DEATH. (Post-killem depression) is here.
Part 14: SEX IS DEATH. (Whither womanhood) is here.
Part 15: SEX IS DEATH. (Saving psychology 1) is here.
Part 16: SEX IS DEATH. (Saving psychology 2) is here.
Part 17: SEX IS DEATH. (Fear of the boomers) is here.
Part 18: SEX IS DEATH. (The battle continues apace) is here.
Part 19: SEX IS DEATH. (Hot for teacher) is here.
Part 20: SEX IS DEATH. (Kids do the darndest things) is here.
Part 21: SEX IS DEATH. (Defects) is here.
Part 22: SEX IS DEATH. (Privates' privacy) is here.
Part 23: SEX IS DEATH. (National Condom Week) is here.
Part 24: SEX IS DEATH. (Wegenics) is here.
Part 25: SEX IS DEATH. (White wedding) is here.
Part 26: SEX IS DEATH. (Literally) is here.
Part 27: SEX IS DEATH. (Can't get me no satisfaction) is here.
Part 28: SEX IS DEATH. (Wrestle with mania) is here.
Part 29: SEX IS DEATH. (Press one for death/Presione uno para la muerte) is here.
Part 30: SEX IS DEATH. (Raunch culture) is here.
Part 31: SEX IS DEATH. (Gimme some of that sweet zombie lovin') is here.
Part 32: SEX IS DEATH. (The devil made me eat my baby) is here.

He who controls the high ground...

Fyodor's Badass Mexican-American Character Actor of the Day.

Danny Trejo

You've seen him in Desperado, From Dusk Till Dawn, Con-Air, Reindeer Games, Spy Kids, and many other films. (Seriously, he must make twenty movies a year.) Mr. Trejo has gone from addict and convict to Hollyweird tough guy.

He makes one scary vampire and I'll never forget his knife-filled vest in Desperado.

Right Wing Smile of the Day...

...or, From The Unreality Imitates Fyodor Department:

"First they came for Joe Lieberman, and I said nothing...."
by Adam Kotsko
Are there a lot of Jews on the staff at the New Republic?

LIEBERMAN ASSAULTED BY THE ANTI-SEMITE LEFT!

What else could it be other than hatred of Jews? Ol' Self Hatin' Joe is a proud acolyte in the church of Big Babykilling, after all, and has a nearly flawless left-fascist voting record.

What's that you say? Iraq? Merely a smokescreen, kiddies. The rabid retromingent retards of the totalitarian left are still slurping Senator War Criminal, after all. And his record on Iraq is ambivalent, to say the least.

No, it's Jew-hatred, pure and simple. Behold a tiny fraction of the left-bloggerdom pogrom:

Joe Lieberman and the Mothers
13 hours ago by Gen. JC Christian, Patriot Sen. Joe Lieberman is following up on his wildly sucessful "bumpersticker ad" with another shot at Ned Lamont. Elsewhere: John has a clip of the first ad.Jesus' General - http://patriotboy.blogspot.com

Joe Lieberman Blogging Poll
16 hours ago by PSoTD Joe Lieberman Blogging. How Sick Are You of Blog Posts Concerning Joe Lieberman? Not at all - I like Blogliebermanning. Kinda, but not too bad. Very. I've been retching for weeks now from Lieberman posts. Two more Lieberman blog posts ...psotd - http://www.psotd.com/

David Brooks defends pitiable Joe Lieberman
18 hours ago by Administrator Self-acknowledged conservative NYT columnist David Brooks recently published a column (dealt with here on Raw Story) in which he attacked lefty bloggers like yours truly for our criticism of Connecticut Senator Joe Lieberman. ...Scarabus - http://www.agrippinaminor.com/wp

Joe Lieberman, Joe McCarthy & Lynne Cheney
3 hours ago by Nate It's amazing what you can forget in five short years. I remember reading this story back in 2001. And even though it thoroughly pissed me off at ol' Rape Gurney Joe "McCarthy" Lieberman when I read it, I had completely forgotten about ...Get In Their Face! - http://getintheirface.blogspot.com

What is a "centrist", a "moderate"?
17 hours ago by Ron Beasley Is it a Joe Lieberman who is as much a neocon as Paul Wolfowitz or Richard Perle. ... If Joe Lieberman is in the center I for one want no part of it. ... These are the neocons and Joe Lieberman is a proud member. ...Middle Earth Journal - http://ronbeas2.blogspot.com

Attention Pundits
16 hours ago by Nim You have picked up the whiff of intolerance and fascism behind the near-unanimous support for Ned Lamont, versus the incumbent Joe Lieberman. You think that the full-court press to elect Mr. Lamont is, apparently, almost a crime against ...The Ham Hock of Liberty - http://lerani.blogspot.com

Monday Morning Round-Up
1 hour ago by tparty However much he invests in the next four weeks, expect a different Joe Lieberman to show himself. That usually pious demeanor may keep the spiky edge revealed in the debate. The campaign has been polling on themes. ...lamontblog: Ned Lamont for CT - http://lamontblog.blogspot.com

Opposing Lieberman: Inquisition or Demoracy in Action?
12 hours ago by Ron Chusid Races involving Joe Lieberman vary from the norm in areas beyond the expectation ... Apparently when one is named Joe Lieberman it isn’t even appropriate to run ... In backing George Bush on the war, Joe Lieberman has violated the basic ...The Democratic Daily - http://blog.thedemocraticdaily.com

Susan Estrich: "Hillary and Joe"
14 hours ago by Jay Lapidus The third thing to remember about Joe Lieberman is that when the going got tough for Bill Clinton, no Democrat was tougher on him than Joe Lieberman. While the rest of us were out there trying to figure out how to defend the ..."The Radical Middle": Jay Sounds Off - http://jaysoundsoff.blogspot.com

The Democrat’s Inquisition
10 hours ago by Marc Schulman At the Huffington Post, Cenk Uygur explains "Why We Hate Lieberman": "We are not against Joe Lieberman because we are leftists who require ideological purity. We are against him because he aids and abets an out of control Republican ...AMERICAN FUTURE - http://americanfuture.net

Fake
18 hours ago by ctblogger Joe Lieberman, uses a phony Ned Lamont bumper sticker to falsely claim that all Lamont has to say is "No More Joe." ... Joe Lieberman, running away from the issues that got him in this priamary mess in the first place. ...connecticutblog - http://connecticutblog.blogspot.com

Lieberman Just Making Shit Up
18 hours ago by spazeboy Actually, I don’t think it’s fair that he gets the creative credit for this new ad, but I like the title of this post and I’m not changing it. If I wanted to be more accurate, however, I’d change the title to: “Joe Lieberman Approves ...spazeboy - http://www.spazeboy.net

The Thing About Lieberman
3 hours ago by SW The thing about Lieberman is that he supports the invasion of Iraq. Notice the tense in that statement. Present tense. Knowing everything we know, Joe Lieberman still supports the Iraq War. That makes Joe Lieberman an IDIOT! ...sw's Energy Gap - http://sweg.blogspot.com

Sunday Morning Comin’ Down
12 hours ago by driftglass George Will: Joe Lieberman is a “good, liberal Democrat.” Man! In one week, both Frump/Conservative George Will and Mealy/Conservative David Brooks have practically frottaging themselves raw all over Holy Joe to express their support of ...d r i f t g l a s s - http://driftglass.blogspot.com

Your Daily Ned: Bush’s Lap Dog Wants It Both Ways
16 hours ago by Jane Hamsher (Jeffrey Toobin, “Candide, Joe Lieberman Looks Hopefully Toward The White House,” The ... (Senator Joe Lieberman, The Senate Government Affairs Committee Hearing, ... (Senator Joe Lieberman, Remarks At The 2002 DLC National Convention, ...Firedoglake - http://www.firedoglake.com

Should we dismiss Kim Jong Il as we did Hitler?

Have you noticed how Kim is called a goofy looking little madman? He may very well be just that. But we tried to laugh Hitler off the world stage throughout the 1930's while that goofy looking little madman was preparing to kill millions.

So, is Kim a looney film buff with unlimited power or is he a calculating totalitarian who takes that whole total thingee very seriously? The following story makes me wonder.

From BijouCafe.com comes the disturbing tale of Dictator Kim's foray into the monster movie genre.

Pulgasari (View Cover)

Starring Chamg Sun Hwi, Jong Guk & Satsisu Kembachiro. Directed by Shin Sang-ok & Chong Gon Jo.

The great appeal of many cult flix lies in the life stories not of the onscreen characters , per se, but the folks behind the scenes who were guiding them...

PULGASARI (1985) is just such a flick. The story line, production and characters are as bad as they come , not unlike an Ed Wood effort in its own respective genre in that regard.

So why set PULGASARI apart? The life stories behind the flick are more interesting than what's onscreen, which -- perversely -- makes subsequent viewings of PULGASARI actually much "deeper" with political sub-text (if you're willing to wade beyond the obvious monster vs. society surface; not advised, by the way, in most giant monster flix).

The twisted, sinister tale of PULGASARI's origins begin with the kidnapping of South Korean director Shin Sang-ok by North Korean dictator Kim Jong Il (left). According to Mr. Shin, he was gassed, bagged and delivered into North Korea one night, only to find himself at the personal behest of his 'host' Kim Jong, a self-admitted movie fanatic with one of the world's largest private flix collections. In fact, his Daddy let a younger Kim Jong Il actually write the film production primer that all North Korean flixmakers must 'adhere' to... or else. In North Korea, you see, all film production is state funded so therefore state controlled; flixmakers are routinely paid 'unexpected' visits by government goon squads checking up on them and the content.

Turns out that the now middle-aged dictator not only grooves on kaiju flix, but now wanted to make one that was equal parts GORGO and MAJIN himself. Jong's vision: a towering, iron-eatin' behemoth intent on overthrowing the capitalist exploiters who've been subduing the beloved home land. Despite his intent only to return to South Korea, Shin was now under 'contract' on terms he literally could not refuse: make PULGASARI or die trying, 'comrade' (and you thought Hollywood contracts were Machiavellian!)

The production process went on for years. Kenpachiro Satsuma -- the famed actor who has played Godzilla for many years now (though not the original actor) -- was brought in to play Pulgasari. Obviously, Kim Jong knew his kaiju. Alas, while the effects are occasionally good, most of the time they are distinctly on par and sometimes sub. This has as much to do with the mish mash of production as any intent or lack thereof on Shin's part.

For you see, Shin was actually plotting (along with his wife who had also been kidnapped) to defect to America and soon the grateful couple did so. But though infuriated at the loss, the North Korean dictator decided the show must go on (kind of like his discredited state philosophy), rest/west of the world be damned. So he appointed a new stooge director named Chong Gon Jo to complete his epic.

That 'rest/west be damned' bit sounds eerily familiar as of late coming out of North Korea, eh? But what else do you expect from a post-Stalinist monster save hard love and fast rockets? That's the weirdest irony of all about this giant monster who devours iron and then every bit of metal before it: hidden in the subtext is a clear perversion and rejection of the peasants (I think that was supposed to be "by the peasants". - F.G.) of not only capitalism but also later the liberating communist monster Pulgasari itself.

Wow, no wonder Mr. Shin was ready to risk life and limb to escape...

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

Not only are there heroes among us, kiddies, there are honest-to-goodness saints.

Catholic Martyrs of the Twentieth Century : A Comprehensive World History
by Robert Royal


*Who? Look here.

You think you know what the Spanish Civil War was all about, but you don't know.

The New Spanish Martyrs
By Robert Royal

Most Americans who have even heard of the Spanish Civil War have been led to believe that it was a conflict between democratic, freedom-loving Republicans on the one hand, and Fascists led by General Francisco Franco on the other. Ernest Hemingway’s For Whom the Bell Tolls and George Orwell’s Homage to Catalonia portray the war in that light, though both have the decency to admit that widespread murder of Catholics took place.

Thousands of idealists from other nations volunteered to fight on the side of the Republicans in "International Brigades." Franco’s forces were characterized as reactionary and authoritarian Catholics. But at the time, no western nation supported the Republicans, precisely because of their anti-religious atrocities. Only the Soviet Union, then closely allied with the Spanish Republicans, and Mexico, itself perpetrating atrocities against its own church at the time, backed Republican Spain.

The other countries of the world were right. In Spain, one of Europe’s most staunchly Catholic countries, large numbers of Catholics were butchered during the 1936-1939 Civil War solely for being Catholic. Unlike the martyrdoms in most parts of the world, whole sectors of the religious community were liquidated. At least 6,832 priests and religious were martyred, including 13 bishops. In the 20th century, probably no country witnessed so much bloodshed among its clergy.

The male religious martyred included 259 Claretians, 226 Franciscans, 204 Piarists, 176 Brothers of Mary, 165 Christian Brothers, 155 Augustinians, 132 Dominicans, and 114 Jesuits. The toll among the female orders was lower, but still shocking when we recall that these women could have had virtually nothing to do with the political struggle: 30 Daughters of Charity of St. Vincent de Paul, 26 Carmelites of Charity, 26 Adoratrices, and 20 Capuchins, along with many others.

But perhaps the greatest fury fell upon diocesan clergy, though it varied a great deal from one place to another. Pamplona, a Nationalist and pro-Catholic stronghold, had no diocesan casualties. Barbastro in Aragon saw 123 of its 140 priests lost to Republican anarchists who were violently anti-clerical. Elsewhere, too, the pattern reflected the fortunes of war. Seville was captured early by the Nationalists and therefore lost only 4 priests. But the other large cities that remained in Republican hands for the duration of the civil war had far higher casualty figures: Barcelona, 279; Valencia, 327; Madrid-Alcalá, 1,118. In percentage terms, these represented 22, 27, and 30 percent of the diocesan clergy in the respective cities.

Remarkably, most of the murders were carried out in only the first six months of the civil war. Probably half of all clergy were, within a week of the uprising, protected in areas controlled by the Nationalists. Without the Nationalists, the slaughter could have been much greater. As it was, about a quarter of the male clergy in Republican-controlled areas disappeared. Almost none of them gave up the faith when they were threatened with death.

The threats took bizarre forms: besides the usual mayhem, in several instances priests were killed and had their ears cut off and passed around as trophies — as if they had been bulls killed in a bullfight. Their witness indicates that the claims that the Spanish Church was corrupt and deserved harsh treatment were false. In fact, it seems, they were quite sincere and heroic.

Nor were lay people spared. One of the most impartial analysts of the civil was has described their plight as follows: "an incalculable number of lay persons were killed because of their religious associations, either as well-known church-goers, members of fraternal and charitable religious organizations, or as the fathers, mothers, brothers, sisters, and friends of clerics. Some were killed because they professed their faith by wearing some outward symbol of belief, perhaps a religious medal or scapular. Some were killed for acts of charity, for granting refuge to clerics attempting to escape the fury. It is impossible to determine the number of these lay persons who were slain for their faith. . . .Nor was the anticlericalism limited to killing. Thousands of churches were burned, religious objects were profaned, nuns’ tombs were opened and the petrified mummies displayed to ridicule, and religious ceremonies were burlesqued. Indeed, practically any imaginable anticlerical act was not only possible but likely."

Of the 20th century martyrs beatified by Pope John Paul II, it is no surprise then that the great majority resulted from the civil war in Spain. In 1996, before the wave of beatifications and canonizations associated with the Jubilee year began, of the 266 he beatified, 218 were Spaniards.

Whatever might be said about the complex politics on either side in the Spanish Civil War — and in fairness it ought to be mentioned that Franco and the Nationalists were certainly not Fascists nor the Republicans simply Communists — it is a simple fact that this massive slaughter of Catholics within supposedly civilized Europe has never received the attention it deserves. Many peoples have been the object of murderous hatred in the 20th century. We should not forget that Catholics in Spain figure prominently among them.

Mr. Royal is president of the Faith and Reason Institute, Washington, D.C.

What once was: Tyra Banks. (The Last)

From the pages of The King Abdullah Gazette:

Ah, journalism...

Ken Lay's Last Evasion
To Some, (There's the dodge, kiddies. - F.G.) CEO Is Cheating Them One More Time

By Henry Allen
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, July 6, 2006; Page C01

Ah, Kenneth Lay of Enron: America hardly knew you before your trial, but learned after your big-hammer jury conviction that you had left countless suckers broke, employees cheated and stockholders betrayed.

There were also the electricity customers swindled, along the lines of Mr. and Mrs. Front Porch USA, who wanted to leave a night light on without sending Enron their whole Social Security checks for the privilege.

Many people had looked forward to knowing more about Ken Lay, especially how he liked prison.

But now that he's died of a heart attack in the luxury of his Colorado getaway while awaiting sentencing for his crimes, none of his victims will be able to contemplate that he's locked away in a place that makes the Baltimore Harbor Tunnel look like Hawaii; that he might be spending long nights locked in a cell with a panting tattooed monster named Sumo, a man of strange and constant demands; and long days in the prison laundry or jute mill or license plate factory, gibbering with anguish as fire-eyed psychopaths stare at him for unblinking hours while they sharpen spoons into jailhouse stilettos.

He will not be ground into gray jailhouse paste by listening to the eardrum-scarring symphony of 131-decibel despair that is the Muzak of penitentiaries, by gagging on the dead prison air, by choking on the deader food, by watching the blue sky taunt him with freedom over the exercise yard, and by feeling his nervous system rent by the cruel grenades of memories -- explosions of nostalgia for the days when he knew he'd be swanning forever through the comfy laps and cool lawns of luxury and infinite possibility. Sweet Gulfstreams through sweet skies, the pools, the jewels, the Maybach limousines, a life in which he didn't just pimp his ride, he pimped the entire world as he knew it.

Actually, some folks who got the news, the particularly enlightened and civilized ones, are glad they won't have to know that Kenneth Lay is going through these agonies. They may even reflect that if they'd known him personally, they would have known a wonderful father, husband and friend. Isn't that what people always say about people like Ken Lay? And shouldn't people always try to think the best of everyone?

Yes, they should, but so many people may well have responded to the news of Lay's untimely death by feeling cheated, by saying that death wasn't good enough for him, by sensing a frustrated craving for revenge burning in their backbrains like a fire in a tire dump.

Is it possible that a micron below the surface of our liberal and enlightened beliefs lurks savagery? Was the French Enlightenment wrong about our essential goodness, and were the medieval churchmen right about our innate depravity?

We should consider these things in days to come, so that Ken Lay may not have died in vain.

Meanwhile, for those who are baffled by the strange and vicious outrage that greeted news of Lay's passing, at least among some people, there is a story, an old story, a very old joke in fact, that seeks to explain it.

It gets told with many variations, of which the following is one:
Three anthropologists are taken captive by a cruel and remote tribe.

Their chief comes to their hut and informs the anthropologists that they have a choice: death or chi-chi.

The first anthropologist says: "Chi-chi, of course."

There ensues three days of screams, moans, pleadings, whimpers, then silence.

The chief comes to the hut to speak with the second anthropologist. He picks chi-chi, too.

Three more days of shrieks and begging.

The chief comes to the third anthropologist.

"Which do you choose, death or chi-chi?"

"I've heard too much," says the anthropologist. "I'll take death."

"A very wise choice," says the chief, who then adds with a sad smile: "But first, chi-chi."

That's why some of us are disappointed to know of the death of Ken Lay.
Depraved as we may be, what we really hoped was that crimes of his super-size sort might bring him just a little chi-chi.

Pope Benedict XVI tries to convert Spain's pagan socialists.

From the Gulf Times of Doha, Qatar:

Benedict XVI stresses family values at start of Spain visit

VALENCIA, Spain: Pope Benedict XVI launched a message in favour of the traditional family yesterday at the start of his two-day visit to an increasingly secular Spain, where the government has angered the Vatican by legalising gay marriage.

The family founded on the union between man and woman was an “irreplaceable” institution, the Pontiff said on arrival in the eastern city of Valencia.

Speaking to tens of thousands of ecstatic believers in front of a basilica later on, he said concord and fidelity between parents helped to foster pastoral vocations within families.

Later in the afternoon, Benedict held meetings with King Juan Carlos and Queen Sofia and Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero.

The Pope came to Valencia to close the fifth Catholic World Meeting of Families.

Today, the Pope will celebrate a mass which is expected to draw more than 1 million people.

Valencia was decorated in yellow-and-white drapes and flowers, the Vatican colours, which alternated with black ribbons paying tribute to the 42 victims of Spain’s worst underground train accident on Monday.

Hundreds of thousands of pilgrims from all over the world had come to see the 79-year-old Pontiff on his third trip abroad since his election in April 2005.

Benedict previously made papal visits to his native Germany and to Poland.

Believers lined the streets cheering, chanting, waving flags and balloons and tossing confetti on the Popemobile as the Pope smiled and waved back at them.

After welcome ceremonies at the airport, Benedict visited the Jesus underground station.

He prayed for the victims of Monday’s accident, laying a wreath at the station’s entrance in the presence of fire-fighters who participated in the rescue effort.

The Pope’s visit came under criticism from leftist and ecology groups accusing Valencia’s conservative city authorities of wasting public money on promoting one religion in a secular state.

The city has not disclosed the budget of the Pope’s visit, but the Socialist opposition estimated it at more than 30 million euros ($36 million).

yippee...Italy won in a draw...

For the non-Italian-enabled among you, let me summarize the World Cup final:

The game ended in a 1 - 1 draw after 120 minutes of play. According to the latest in FIFA rules innovations, a chicken was then ritually slaughtered at midfield and its entrails were read by a pagan priestess, who declared the Azzurri champions of the world. Fittingly, the only thing people want to talk about is that foo-foo French punk Zidane, his red card, and his ball of gold.

E' QUI LA FESTA
(AGI) - Roma, 10 lug. - E' qui la festa. Nelle strade e nelle piazze d'Italia. Una notte insonne non ha esaurito l'entusiasmo del Paese che ora aspetta con trepidazione il rientro degli azzurri campioni del Mondo per rinnovare la gioia collettiva. Il primo grazie alla nazionale sara' quello delle Frecce Tricolori che accoglieranno l'aereo della delegazione a Pratica di mare, attorno alle 17,30, disegnando nel cielo la bandiera tricolore bianca, rossa e verde piu' [...]

LIPPI, IL MIO FUTURO? DOMANI VADO IN FEDERAZIONE
(AGI) - Duisburg, 19 lug. - Marcello Lippi non vuole ancora svelare il suo futuro. "Domani", dice il ct in conferenza stampa, "ho un appuntamento con la Federazione. Spieghero' cosa ho intenzione di fare. Adesso ho bisogno di prendermi una vacanza, di andare al mare. Arrivare in cima", prosegue il [...]

ITALIA IN PRIMA PAGINA IN TUTTO IL MONDO
(AGI) - Roma, 10 lug. - Con la vittoria ai Mondiali tedeschi l'Italia ha conquistato le prime pagine dei giornali di tutto il mondo: dal Medio Oriente all'Australia, dagli Stati Uniti all'Indonesia, la vittoria degli 'azzurri', l'esultanza dei tifosi nelle citta' italiane, ma anche il gesto di Zizou Zidane campeggiano [...]

ZIDANE SI CONSOLA CON IL PALLONE D'ORO
(AGI) - Berlino, 10 lug. - Zinedine Zidane ha conquistato il Pallone d'oro d'oro della Fifa. Dopo il mesto addio al mondiale con la testata a Materazzi, reo secondo il 'Guardian' di avergli dato del "terrorista", Zizou ha avuto una piccola consolazione con il riconoscimento di miglior giocatore del torneo [...]

MA LA STAMPA FRANCESE LO PROCESSA, "GESTO STUPIDO" (AGI) - Roma, 9 lug. - Amarezza per un mondiale che sembrava a portata di mano ma soprattutto stupore e indignazione per la "follia" di Zinedine Zidane: sono questi i commenti prevalenti sulla stampa francese all'indomani della finale persa ai rigori. "La sinfonia incompiuta", ha titolato 'L'Equipe' che, rivolto a [...]

MATERAZZI GLI AVREBBE DATO DEL "TERRORISTA"
(AGI) - Roma, 10 lug. - "Terrorista": sarebbe stato questo l'insulto di Marco Materazzi che ha fatto perdere la calma a Zinedine Zidane spingendolo a colpire il difensore azzurro con uan testata al petto. A riportarlo e' il quotidiano inglese 'Guardian' che ha raccolto "voci accreditate, dopo la finale". [...]

Altre notizie

162 Advance Toward Beatification.

Pope Benedict XVI has advanced the causes of 162 souls toward sainthood.

VATICAN CITY, JUNE 26, 2006 (Zenit.org).- Pope Benedict XVI approved the promulgation of 19 decrees of recognition of miracles, heroic virtues or martyrdom that allow 162 candidates to advance toward beatification.

During a private audience granted today to Cardinal José Saraiva Martins, prefect of the Vatican Congregation for Sainthood Causes, the Pope authorized the publication of the following decrees.

Miracles

-- Venerable Servant of God Paolo Giuseppe Nardini, diocesan priest and founder of the Congregation of Franciscan Sisters of the Holy Family (1821- 1862).

-- Venerable Servant of God María of Mount Carmel of the Baby Jesus Gonzaléz Ramos García Prieto, born María Carmela, Spanish, founder of the Congregation of the Third Order Franciscan Sisters of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary (1834-1899).

-- Venerable Servant of God Maria Maddalena Della Passione, born Costanza Starace, Italian, founder of the Congregation of the Compassionist Sisters, Servants of Mary (1845-1921).

-- Venerable Servant of God Eufrasia of the Sacred Heart of Jesus Eluvathingal, born Rosa, Indian, religious of the Congregation of the Mother of Carmel (1877-1952).

-- Venerable Servant of God Maria Rosa, born Bruna Pellesi, Italian, professed sister of the Congregation of the Franciscan Missionary Sisters of Christ (1917-1972).

For those of you with an interest in 20th century history, all but one of the martyrs advanced were killed in the Spanish Civil War. If you can't for the life of you imagine which side would slaughter faithful Catholics wholesale, look here.

Martyrs

-- Servants of God Bonaventura García Paredes, Spanish, professed priest of the Order of Friars Preachers (1866-1936), Miguel Léibar Garay, Spanish, professed priest of the Society of Mary (1885-1936), and 40 companions killed in 1936.

-- Servants of God Simón Reynés Solivellas (1901-1936), Spanish, and five companions of the Congregation of Missionaries of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary and of the Congregation of the Franciscan Sisters of Mercy, and Prudenza Canyelles i Ginestá, Spanish, laywoman, all killed in 1936.

-- Servants of God Celestino José Alonso Villar (1862-1936), Spanish, and nine companions of the Order of Friars Preachers, killed in 1936.

-- Servants of God Ángel María Prat Hostench (1896-1936) and 16 companions of the Order of Friars of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Mount Carmel, killed in 1936.

-- Servants of God Enrique Sáiz Aparicio (1889-1936), Spanish, and 62 companions of the Salesian Society of St. John Bosco, killed in 1936 and 1937.

-- Servants of God Mariano de San José Altolaguirre y Altolaguirre (1857-1936), Spanish, and nine companions of the Order of the Most Holy Trinity, killed in 1936 and 1937.

-- Servant of God Francesco Spoto, Italian, professed priest of the Congregation of Missionary Servants of the Poor (1924-1964).

Heroic virtues

-- Servant of God Marco Morelli, Italian, diocesan priest and founder of the Congregation of Handmaidens of the Sacred Heart of Jesus in Agony (1834- 1912).

-- Servant of God Francesco Pianzola, Italian, diocesan priest and founder of the Congregation of the Missionary Sisters of the Immaculate Queen of Peace (1881-1943).

-- Servant of God Antonio Rosmini, Italian, priest and founder of the Institute of Charity and of the Sisters of Providence (1797-1855). [From EWTN: Perhaps the most interesting case in the last group is that of Father Antonio Rosmini, whose controversial theories prompted the placement of his works on the Index of forbidden books in 1849. In 1887, the Holy Office specifically condemned 40 propositions attributed to the Italian priest. But in June 2001 the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith-- the successor to the Holy Office-- wrote that the works of Father Rosmini should be recognized as "idealistic and not ontological," and when his writings are seen in that perspective he was faithful to the teachings of the Church.]

-- Servant of God Louise Marguerite Claret de la Touche, born Maria Luisa, French, founder of the Institute of Sisters of Bethany and of the Sacred Heart of Jesus (1868-1915).

-- Servant of God Isabel Lete Landa, born Regina, Spanish, professed religious of the Congregation of Mercedarian Sisters of Charity (1913-1941).

-- Servant of God Wanda Justine Nepomucena Malczewska, Polish, laywoman (1822- 1896).

-- Servant of God Jerome Jaegen, German, layman (1841-1919).

Fyodor loves the Philadelphia Eagles!

And ESPN too, I guess...

The News Journal: Reid, Eagles help make boy's wish come true

For one day, Charlie Pena coached the Philadelphia Eagles.

He dissected the playbook with coach Andy Reid. He threw warmup passes with Donovan McNabb. He led the team's postpractice huddle. Pena even met with the media.

It was a dream come true for the 12-year-old Manhattan boy stricken with sickle cell anemia and made possible by the Make-A-Wish Foundation of America and ESPN.

The charity organization and sports network teamed to grant 10 children across the country with life-threatening medical issues their sports-related wishes to comprise a series, "My Wish," hosted by Chris Connelly. It will air on "SportsCenter" beginning today and run until July 23. The first segment, centered on Pena and his visit to Eagles minicamp last month, airs at 10:30 a.m. today. The rest air at 6 p.m.

Among the star athletes and professional teams that appear in the series are Derek Jeter, Kobe Bryant, Roger Clemens, Tracy McGrady, Jeff Gordon, Tedy Bruschi, Todd Helton and the Seattle Mariners.

"We used our connections and Make-A-Wish's connections to go to the athletes and get them involved," ESPN senior coordinating producer Stephanie Druley said. "The result was some amazing stories of families and the experiences they had on that day."

Looking for a special summer presentation, ESPN approached the Make-A-Wish Foundation, which grants about 12,500 wishes yearly, 60 percent of which are celebrity-related, according to president and chief executive officer Dave Williams.

Using a narrowing process that included sport and geographic diversity and the willingness of the afflicted child's family to appear on camera, the organizations found 10 children to spotlight.

Many of the athletes involved, Druley said, had previously worked with the foundation and went to extremes to accommodate the sick children for the segment.

Clemens brought 15-year-old Matthew Vosjpka, of Lonsdale, Minn., to the Astros facilities the day before he made his season debut. McGrady took it upon himself to plan an entire day of events for 10-year-old Daemon Hanna, of Madison, Wis.

"I certainly think you get reacquainted with the power these athletes have in the lives of young people," Connelly said. "On the other side, you see ... how these athletes respond to these kids ... just glowing in the presence of these kids and really responding to them as individuals and taking an interest in them and understanding the role they play. The mutual admiration you see at the end of these pieces is pretty special."

Druley said ESPN picked Pena's story to kick off its series because it best illustrates the joy a child and family feel from having a dream fulfilled.

The moving piece details Pena's painful battle with sickle cell anemia, a debilitating disease that affects millions of people, and chronicles Pena's day with the Eagles.

His wish, however, came with an unusual request.

"He didn't want to just meet a player or shake someone's hand," Connelly said. "He wanted to be a coach."

Added Druley: "When he's on the field with Andy Reid, they are both all business."

You know The Church is in trouble when...

...the Hee Haw Mass (guitar and fiddle) can seamlessly transition to a gypsy/voodoo Mass (tambourines and conga drums) and nobody (apparently) cares...

...and what is laughingly referred to as "the closing song" sounds suspiciously like "The Gambler" .

Saint of the Day and daily Mass readings.

Today is the Feast of St. Anthony Pechersky, a Ukrainian monk. Pray for us, all you angels and saints.

Today's reading is Hosea 2:16, 17-18, 21-22.
Today's Responsorial Psalm is Psalms 145:2-3, 4-5, 6-7, 8-9.
Today's Gospel reading is Matthew 9:18-26.


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.


Prayer to End Abortion

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


Prayer For Vocations

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