I get mail...

...from frustrated non-spellers.

Your Humble Servant must have hit a nerve or two, kiddies. The moral and intellectual superiors have been trying their hands at being clever. Don't worry, I have spared your precious brain cells from the trauma of trying to decipher their particular brand of genius.

Sadly, kiddies, I fear some folks will never get it.

Keep The Faith, baby.

The genius of Dilbert.

Heehee! Silly salesmen. Can't live with 'em, can't shoot 'em.


Mmmmmmmmm...ham!

Why Holly Rowe's hat is not the only thing wrong with chicks messing around with sports.

In case you did not see ol' Holly's chapeau on the sidelines of last night's FSU vs. Miami game, it was eerily reminiscent of the headgear from Janet Jackson's Rhythm Nation tour.

Jennifer Lopez makes me smile. (Part Two)

From the pages of The King Abdullah Gazette:

Frank and Ernest both get it.

An occasional placard upside the head might do some a world of good.

The Democrasses, like Bucky, have got religion. Just ask them.

From The Clever But Slightly Creepy Japanese Inventions Department:

The Morning Call: Robotic sommelier doesn't smell the cork...

...but Japanese device can ascertain quality of wine, recommend hors d'oeuvres. The ability to discern good wine from bad, name the specific brand from a tiny sip and recommend a complementary cheese would seem to be about as human a skill as there is.

Hooray, Stephon Marbury!

I still would not want him on my team, but I wish him well in this endeavor.

Black Voices: Stephon Marbury launches Starbury Line

Last week New York Knick Stephon Marbury launched his line of apparel and shoes called the Starbury Collection. What’s different about this line, that includes hoodies, t-shirts, jackets, jeans, athletic tops and shorts, is that every piece of clothing is under $10. The shoes are $14.98.

TheChurchMilitant presents the best darn baseball name in ages!

WOOD TV 8: Tigers trade Nook Logan to Nationals

The Washington Nationals obtained Nook Logan from the Tigers today in exchange for a player to be named later or cash considerations.

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

Gasden Times: Couples Cull Embryos to Halt Heritage of Cancer

Instant translation: Couples murder hundreds of their own kids.

As Chad Kingsbury watches his daughter playing in the sandbox behind their suburban Chicago house, the thought that has flashed through his mind a million times in her two years of life comes again: Chloe will never be sick.

Not, at least, with the inherited form of colon cancer that has devastated his family, killing his mother, her father and her two brothers, and that he too may face because of a genetic mutation that makes him unusually susceptible.

By subjecting Chloe to a genetic test when she was an eight-cell embryo in a petri dish, Mr. Kingsbury and his wife, Colby, were able to determine that she did not harbor the defective gene. That was the reason they selected her, from among the other embryos they had conceived through elective in vitro fertilization, to implant in her mothers uterus...

The bottom line? Go ahead and guess...

For most parents who have used preimplantation diagnosis, the burden of playing God has been trumped by the near certainty that diseases like cystic fibrosis and sickle cell anemia will afflict the children who carry the genetic mutation that causes them. The procedure has also been used to avoid passing on Huntingtons disease, a severe neurological disease that typically does not surface until middle age but spares no one who carries the mutation that causes it.

Couples like the Kingsburys, by contrast, face an even more complex calibration. They must weigh whether their desire to prevent suffering that is not certain to occur justifies the conscious selection of an embryo and the implicit rejection of those that carry the defective gene.

Perfidious Persians plan prof purge.

Ol' Hungadunga is finally going to get back at the devil who gave him a C- in Hostage Taking 220.

Pittsburgh Tribune-Review: Iranian President Wants to Purge Profs

Iran's hard-line President Hungadunga called Tuesday for a purge of liberal and secular teachers from the country's universities, urging students to return to 1980s-style radicalism.

"Today, students should shout at the president and ask why liberal and secular university lecturers are present in the universities," the official Islamic Republic News Agency quoted Hungadunga as saying during a meeting with a group of students.

Hungadunga complained that reforms in the country's universities were difficult to accomplish and that the educational system had been affected by secularism for the last 150 years. But, he added: "Such a change has begun."

The president, in his role as head of the country's Council of Cultural Revolution, (Oh, he's a Maoist. That explains quite a bit. - F.G.) does have the authority to make such changes. But his comments Tuesday seemed designed more to encourage hard-line students to begin a pressure campaign on their own, thus forcing universities to oust the teachers.

Iran retired dozens of liberal university professors and teachers earlier this year. And last November, Hungadunga's administration for the first time named a cleric to head the country's oldest institution of higher education, Tehran University, despite protests by students.

Hungadunga is widely believed to need to jockey between various interest groups in Iran, at a time when hard-liners increasingly control more of the top rungs of government but still encounter resistance from parts of the public at large. Moderates also still remain in the government.

But Tuesday's comments seemed to follow a campaign promise by Hungadunga to develop a more Islamic-oriented country. Since taking office last August, he has also replaced pragmatic veterans in the government with former military commanders and inexperienced religious hard-liners.

Hungadunga's aim appears to be installing a new generation of rulers who will revive the fundamentalist goals pursued in the 1980s under the late Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, father of the 1979 Islamic revolution in Iran. Shortly after the revolution, Iran fired hundreds of liberal and leftist university teachers and expelled numerous students.

Interceptor Missile Passes Key Test:

Destroys Mock Warhead In 'Most Operationally Realistic' U.S. Test Yet

Just in case you missed this bit of good news buried by the America Last media...

From CBS News:

An interceptor missile destroyed a mock warhead over the Pacific Ocean on Friday in a key test of the nation's missile defense system, U.S. military officials said.

It was the most realistic test of the systems that would be used against an attack, said Missile Defense Agency spokesman Rick Lehner.

The 54-foot interceptor shot out of an underground silo at Vandenberg Air Force Base on the central California coast at 10:39 a.m., 17 minutes after the mock warhead was launched from Kodiak Island, Alaska, Lehner said.

The interceptor carried a refrigerator-sized “kill vehicle” that locked on to the approaching mock enemy missile and flew into the 4-foot-long warhead at 18,000 mph.

Lehner said both disintegrated more than 100 miles above the Earth and a few hundred miles west of Vandenberg. The interceptor's flight lasted 13 minutes.

The $85 million test was designed to see whether the “kill vehicle” could get close to the warhead to test the tracking and sensor systems which would be used in an actual missile attack.

“It gave us a good chance to measure overall system performance. It was the most operationally realistic test we've had,” Lehner said.

Ben Roethlisberger's life is one date with Paris Hilton away from becoming a soap opera.

A Steelers Update from the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review:

Big Ben recovering at home
Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger was released from UPMC Presbyterian on Monday afternoon, a day after his emergency appendectomy.

Culpepper rarin' to go

Around the Steelers

Teammate: Ben won't miss more than 1 game

With Roethlisberger out, St. Pierre returns to Steelers

Results of this weekend's football picks.

For the opening weekend of college football, which ran from Thursday 8/31 through Monday 9/4, I was a pedestrian 13 and 10.

Religion of Peace and Love American-Style Update.

The Fredericksburg Free Lance-Star (Huh? - F.G.): Five years after 9/11, American Muslims look within

Those wacky mohammedan-Americans and their persistent, pesky, and proliferating problems:

After the Sept. 11 suicide hijackings, distraught U.S. Muslim leaders feared the next casualty would be their religion.

Only feared? Have they forgotten the monstrous American pogroms that wiped out all those thousands of mohammedans after 9/11?

Islam teaches peace, they told anyone who would listen in news conferences, at interfaith services and, most famously, standing in a mosque with President Bush.

But five years later, the target audience for their pleas has shifted. Now the faith's American leaders are starting to warn fellow Muslims about a threat from within.

The 2005 subway attacks in London that investigators say were committed by British-born and -raised Muslims, and the relentless Muslim-engineered sectarian assaults on Iraqi civilians, are among the events that have convinced some U.S. Muslims to change focus.

"This sentiment of denial, that sort of came as a fever to the Muslim community after 9/11, is fading away," said Muqtedar Khan, a political scientist at the University of Delaware and author of "American Muslims."

"They realize that there are Muslims who use terrorism, and the community is beginning to stand up to this."

Muslim leaders point to two stark examples of the new mind-set:

A Canadian-born Muslim man worked with police for months investigating a group of Islamic men and youths accused in June
of plotting terrorist attacks in Ontario. Mubin Shaikh said he feared any violence would ultimately hurt Islam and Canadian Muslims.

In England, it's been widely reported that a tip from a British Muslim helped lead investigators to uncover what they said was a plan by homegrown extremists to use liquid explosives to destroy U.S.-bound planes.

Cooperation isn't emotionally easy, as Western governments enact security policies that critics say have criminalized Islam itself.

Safiyyah Ally, a graduate student in political science at the University of Toronto, wrote recently on altmuslim.com that Shaikh, the Canadian informer, went too far.

She said the North American Muslim community "is fragile enough as is" without members "spying" on each other. Leaders should counsel Muslims against violence and report suspicious activity to police--but nothing more, she argued.

"We cannot have communities wherein individuals are paranoid of each other and turned against one another," Ally wrote.

He's not a spy, sweetie. He's a freedom fighter protecting you from those who think rape is a mohammedan sacrament.

Yet some leaders say keeping watch for extremists protects all Muslims and their civil rights.

Salam al-Marayati, executive director of Muslim Public Affairs Council, an advocacy group based in Los Angeles, says working closely with authorities underscores that Muslims are not outsiders to be feared. It also gives Muslims a way to directly air their concerns about how they're treated by the government.

"We're not on opposite teams," al-Marayati said. "We're all trying to protect our country from another terrorist attack."

Amen (or its non-union mohammedan equivalent) to that, Brother.

In 2004, his group started the "National Anti-Terrorism Campaign," urging Muslims to monitor their own communities, speak out more boldly against violence and work with law enforcement. Hundreds of U.S. mosques have signed on, al-Marayati said.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations, a civil rights group, ran a TV ad campaign and a petition-drive called "Not in the Name of Islam," which repudiates terrorism. Hundreds of thousands of people have endorsed it, according to Ibrahim Hooper, the group's spokesman.

After the London subway bombings, the Fiqh Council of North America, which advises Muslims on Islamic law, issued a fatwa--or edict--declaring that nothing in Islam justifies terrorism. The council said Muslims were obligated to help law enforcement protect civilians from attacks.

"I think everyone now agrees that silence isn't an option," Hooper said.
"You have to speak out in defense of civil liberties, but you also have to speak out against any kind of extremism or violence that's carried out in the name of Islam."

But many Muslims say they're being asked to look out for something that even the U.S. government struggles to define: What constitutes an imminent threat?

Here's a couple of telltale signs: Your neighbor rapes a lot of goats and has 2,000 cell phones.

Khan said he has heard of cases in American mosques where imams have expressed extreme views in sermons and worshippers have confronted the prayer leaders about it.

"But beyond that what else can we do?" Khan said. "Do we need to hire a private detective to put on this guy? If five guys came to me and said, 'Muqtedar, let's get together. Let's blow up this and that,' then I would call the police. But the community does not understand surveillance."

Imam Muhammad Musri, head of the Islamic Society of Central Florida, said he has tried to address this problem in the eight mosques he oversees in the Orlando area.

He regularly invites law enforcement officials to speak with local Muslims and encourages mosque members to come to him with any suspicions, even if they overhear something said in jest. Musri says he also speaks regularly with local FBI and police to establish a relationship in case a real threat emerges.

"Here in Central Florida, talking to most people, they are literally upset by the actions of Muslims--or so-called Muslims--overseas in Europe and the Middle East, because they say, 'We wish they would come and see how we're doing here,'" Musri said. "We know who the real enemy is--someone who might come from the outside and try to infiltrate us. Everybody is on the lookout."

Whither Japanese beer?

Need another reason to abandon artificial contraception (besides the whole mortal-sin-that-will-get-you-sent-straight-to-Hell thingee)? A lack of kids will end beer as we know it!

The Press-Enterprise: Temporary Toast
Resurgence in popularity likely to be short-lived as nation gets old
By HANS GREIMEL of The Associated Press

TOKYO - The flaming barbecue grills aren't alone in whipping up a thirst for cold brew at Shiodome Garden, a rooftop beer restaurant surrounded by flashing neon billboards. Also whetting the appetite is Japan's rekindled economy.

"I love beer," declared Akihiro Seki, a 39-year-old insurance accountant, downing his fifth icy glass in the muggy open air. "We know the economy's getting better so we feel more confident spending a little extra."

Japanese beer shipments are on the rise for the first time in a decade, as the world's second-largest economy toasts a brisk recovery from years of doldrums. But the future of Japan's $24.8 billion beer industry is anything but bubbly.

Changing tastes, healthier lifestyles and Japan's shrinking population are all looming buzz kills for an industry that has already undergone painful restructuring during a recently ended decade of economic stagnation.

Struggling to keep the profits coming, Japan's big brewers -- Kirin, Asahi, Sapporo and Suntory -- are trying everything from diversifying into baby food to expanding into China and introducing soybean beer.

So far, they've had mixed results.

"Until now, the beer market has been shrinking because people wanted cheaper drinks," said Shuji Takimoto, spokesman for the Brewers Association of Japan. "But just judging by the changing population, the future of beer also looks tough."

The good news is that in the first half of 2006, domestic shipments of beer rose 0.3 percent, the first increase in a decade, as rising wages and consumer optimism encouraged people to dine out. Shipments of all beer products, climbed 1.1 percent to 230.66 million cases, its first increase in five years.

The Japanese weren't even brewing their own beer until 1872. But by 2004, Japan was the world's sixth-biggest consumer, guzzling 1.7 billion gallons a year. On a per-capita basis, the country is Asia's No. 1, with each Japanese quaffing an annual average of 13.5 gallons -- or one 12 ounce can every 2 ½ days.

But that grand drinking tradition is under attack from several corners.

To bolster sales during the economic slump when drinkers watched their wallets, Japanese beermakers introduced new products to dodge the so-called "taste tax" that accounts for almost half the price of a can of regular Japanese beer. For example, a 12-ounce can of Asahi Super Dry costs around $1.80, 66 cents of that goes to the government.

The tax applies only to beers containing more than 67 percent malt. So the Japanese rivals raced to roll out low-malt drinks, which substitute rice or corn syrup for malt.

Raise a Kirin, kiddies, before it is too late.

Kara Beth Borden Update.

Anyone remember poor little Kara Beth? She was one of the seminal (sorry) influences leading to the creation of the SEX IS DEATH series and the Michael and Cathryn Borden Memorial Book of the Day.

It seems little Ms. Borden is (or was, before the double homicide) quite the little independent thinker and champion of the sexual rights of little girls.

From the Lancaster, PA Sunday News:

Not long after Pam Stenzel led a series of abstinence education workshops in Lancaster County last year, she got an e-mail from a ninth grader who attended one of her talks.

The girl wrote that Stenzel was wrong to contend that ninth graders are too young to be dating. She said she could handle her relationship with an 18-year-old boyfriend who loved her.

Weeks later, Stenzel found out that the 18-year-old boyfriend had shot the girl’s parents to death.

The ninth grader was Kara Borden, whose parents, Michael and Cathryn Borden, were killed in their Warwick Township home by David Ludwig in November.

Sex does have consequences, Stenzel argues. This case, extreme as it may have been, is one of them.Stenzel will be back in Lancaster County next week to lead sex programs in five public school districts and two private schools and a parents’ night.

Kids are inundated with media messages about extramarital sex, she said. One result is that for people younger than 30, the average number of sexual partners now is 27.2.

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

The ninth grader later identified as Kara Borden, who had been at one of the faith-based events Stenzel led, wrote twice, “telling me I was off base.”

Stenzel replied that what Kara thought didn’t really matter: “The fact that your parents have told you not to should carry some weight. Biblically, you have to listen to your parents. Your obligation is to honor them.

HOLY CRAP! THAT'S CHILD ABUSE, YOU NAZI!

“... I wasn’t ‘fine’ for her. She wrote me trying to argue with me, and I didn’t back down. I stood by my statement that I didn’t think ninth-grade girls should be dating, and especially 18-year-old boys.

“... Three weeks later I find out the girl has spent a night away from her home with her boyfriend,” and the boyfriend, David Ludwig, shot and killed Michael and Cathryn Borden during a confrontation at their home.

Ludwig pleaded guilty in June and was sentenced to life in prison.

Borden’s argument that she was mature enough to date isn’t the first time Stenzel has heard that line.

“Ninth grade is a really difficult year for girls,” she said. “... That’s why ninth grade girls can’t be expected to make judgment calls for themselves.”


MySpace, again.

Another factor in the Borden case resonated for Stenzel: Kara Borden’s MySpace and Xanga pages.

MTV in the 1980s, with its pairing of music and visuals, drastically changed how kids get information, Stenzel noted.

“I think that exact same shocking change and impact happened in the last couple of years with a new generation with a little invention called MySpace. It radically changed the way kids are communicating with each other.”

Borden and Ludwig both maintained pages at the social-networking sites.

“A lot of kids are putting images of themselves out there that are not true,” Stenzel said. They think, “ ‘In order to be cool, I have to put on my MySpace that I get drunk on a regular basis, that I have sex with multiple partners.’ ... How long does it go from ‘we’re talking about it’ to actually participating in it?”

The Blackup continues apace...

...or, Bill Cosby is right.

The Boston Globe: Younger blacks absorb a wariness of marriage

As you read this, periodically repeat the following: "This is what happens when you have bad theology and haven't any philosophy".

As African-American teenagers in a Mission Hill conference room talk about their opinions of marriage , their comments reveal a dreary view of the institution.

"I'm not looking forward to marriage," says Nakeeda Burns , a 17-year-old resident of Revere and daughter of a single mother, "and I don't think we [people in general] should be married, because I see how other marriages ended up in my family and on television. It's always a disaster."

Even the married couples these teens know don't seem particularly happy.

'All of my friends who are married, they tell me not to get married," says Anderson Felix , 17, of Dorchester. "'Wifey is going to keep you on lock.' 'Everywhere you go, she'll call you every five minutes.' I won't be able to deal with that."

Anita Marshall blurts out, "I want a big wedding if I get married," but she doesn't think she'll make it to the altar. Her mother, grandmother, and great-grandmother were married; now they're all divorced.

"I don't know anyone who's married, or anybody who is married and stayed married," says Marshall, a 15-year-old from Dorchester. She and the other 10 teens in the room are participants in the organization YPACT (Youth for Prevention, Action and Change Through Thought ), which aims to develop community leaders by teaching teens about social, racial, and health disparities in their neighborhoods.

"When I think of 'married,' " Marshall adds, "[I think] 'divorce' -- first word."

Their disillusionment mirrors a growing resistance to marriage among African-Americans. In the post-Civil War era, when African-Americans had the option to marry legally for the first time, many did. The 1890 Census showed that 80 percent of African-American families were headed by two parents, according to Andrew Billingsley 's 1992 book, "Climbing Jacob's Ladder: The Enduring Legacies of African-American Families ."

But in 1970, census figures show ed that only 57 percent of black men and 54 percent of black women were married. By last year those numbers had slipped to 42 percent for men and 35 percent for women. In comparison, 68 percent of white men and 63 percent of white women were married in 1970, vs. 59 percent of men and 57 percent of women in 2005 .

As the local teens's comments indicate, view s about marriage are formed by what people see in their lives -- and in pop culture. Shows such as "Divorce Court " and the media's focus on the latest celebrity break-up do not paint glowing pictures of relationships. These factors may help explain why the US divorce rate approaches 40 percent.

Please. Sure the media are insidious propagandists of sin, but it always comes down to personal responsibility.

One man and one woman faithful for life.

"Today . . . not just in the African-American community but in the larger community, divorce is rampant, there's a proliferation of single- mother households, and there's a generation of kids coming up who are very skeptical of marriage," says Dr. William July , a psychologist who has written several books about relationships, including "Understanding the Tin Man: Why So Many Men Avoid Intimacy ."

But while whites tend to remarry, blacks are less likely to do so. A 2002 report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that the probability of remarriage was highest among divorced white women and lowest among divorced black women.

Orlando Patterson , a professor of sociology at Harvard University, believes that African-Americans' views of marriage reflect the lingering effects of slavery. The system emasculated black men, who had no real power over themselves, the women they loved, or their children, who could be sold, raped, or violently beaten. It upended the traditional male and female roles in a family unit. The idea that this history could result in a stable, two-parent lifestyle for African-Americans today "is utterly absurd," says Patterson, who explored the subject in his 1998 book, "Rituals of Blood: Consequences of Slavery in Two American Centuries ."

Anyone for the concept of Racial Memory?

Wow. That many of you? Really? How pathetic and sad.

Patterson says this history lingers in the way black men and women interact. Once slavery ended, a tussle for power developed between the sexes, creating a tension that exists to this day, he says. And as some women became economically independent in the 1960s, they happily chucked those harried marital relationships.

In the decades that followed, single people retained interest in marriage until they reached middle age, according to Patterson. Now, he says that fear of -- or lack of interest in -- commitment is trickling down to a younger generation.

"Women in the black community would take a shine to marriage, and if they didn't find someone appropriate by the time they were in their early 30s, they're down on marriage," Patterson says. ``What's happening is the skepticism is starting earlier."

Grappling with roles

That skepticism can be heard in the voices of the YPACT teens. As they talk, they reveal some of the stereotypical ideas about male and female roles they hear from the adults who surround them: Women take care of the home, cook and clean; men go out with friends and provide monetary support.

Marshall blames a male desire to dominate women after marriage on the vows exchanged during the wedding ceremony.

Oy vey!

"It's the language," she says. "It's like, 'OK, I'm yours, and you're mine. So you have to do this. You have to do that.' It's like ownership. They feel like they own you."

Marriage = slavery! No wonder black folks don't wanna get (or stay) hitched! That is a Q.E.D. in Citizen Marshall's fevered imagination.

William Glass , 16, who lives in Mattapan, thinks a re-evaluation of power takes place after the wedding ceremony. "When you get married there's a part where it says, 'honor and obey ' -- that's the part where everybody gets big- headed at. 'Honor and obey, huh? Obey me! Fix my plate.' "

The problems often develop as men and women grapple over their roles in the marriage -- an issue that is exacerbated in the Africa-American community because of slavery's legacy, says Patterson.

"There's some profound differences in what the appropriate sex roles should be . . . African-American women have a modern independent view about women's roles. African-American men -- it's a mix. In some respects, they have a modern view of what women should be: that women should work. But there's still some male- dominance views that they have that irk black women tremendously and create real friction in the relationships."

These teens seem to have responded to those tensions by developing an early fear of commitment.

The phrase "fear of commitment" is stupid. The truth is we are afflicted with an epidemic of improper understanding of what love and marriage entail.

Not surprisingly, the inculcation of permanent victim status in American blacks has repercussions beyond the world of politics.

Burns says, "I get tired of people very quickly, so I don't think I'll end up getting married."

Kemar Henry sounds as if he has already written marriage off, and he's only 14. He fears that getting married would cause him to lose his independence.

"When you have made a commitment," says Henry, who lives in Mattapan, "and then there's money [involved] and you want to [leave], they have something to hold you."

Lord, have mercy.

And what kind of hold do they have?

"The ring," says Kemar, holding up his ring finger, then beginning to whine as if in an argument: "' You made this promise.' A lot of drama. But when you're not married, you can say, `I'm sick of this' and walk out."

Henry and Burns admit they've come to some of their conclusions about marriage from watching television. Both spent the previous Saturday afternoon watching "Divorce Court."

"They're fighting for the littlest reasons," Burns says of the people on the show.

Media's messages

The way TV shows, hip-hop songs, and movies depict relationships influences how young viewers develop their first opinions about marriage .

"The way we figure out what we're going to do is by observational learning," July says. "' If I pick up a hot pot, I'm going to burn.' They look at marriage as a hot pot, too."

The unending media coverage of the divorces of Nick Lachey and Jessica Simpson , Halle Berry and Eric Benet , or Brad Pitt and Jennifer Aniston doesn't help .

What about Halle and David Justice?

"You see the celebrities," says Burns. "Three years and then they've broke up. You might as well not go that route."

July, who is 40 and has been married for eight years, remembers what happened when he announced his engagement to his friends. One was indifferent; another said, "What the hell are you doing that for? You're making a mistake."

July, who is African-American, thinks that if he didn't have the example of his parents, who have been married for 50 years, he might have been influenced by those comments. Many African- Americans lack the successful model his parents provided, he says.

Not all messages teens receive about relationships are bleak. Glass has an uncle who's lived with his partner for 25 years; the only married people Glass says he knows are a gay couple who live across the street . But Glass has gotten good advice from his aunt on how to make a relationship work.

Yeah, those are some great role models you got there. You forgot to mention the guy who has used the same rubber doll for 17 years.

"She said you and your partner . . . pretty much have to have life straightened out first," he says . "Don't plan it out after you get married. Plan out your life first and then you can go and get married."

While Patterson suspects a social or moral shift will have to occur to change current marriage trends, July wonders whether the declining marriage rates will lead to a new form of relationships. July doesn't know what those relationships will look like, but he wants to do research on how economically independent middle class women choose mates.

The answers may help show the form of future relationships.

Catholicism, anyone?

Blog of the Day.

The New Advent Blog recently provided a forum for the Bishop of Rockford, Illinois to remind us of some Truth.

The following is orthodox Catholic teaching. If you are a Catholic and disagree with some (or any) of Bishop Doran's article, you need to get yourself right with God before it is too late. I suggest you start with the Sacrament of Penance.

If you not a Catholic, read and learn.

The Seven Sacraments of Secularism
In an extraordinary and prophetic newspaper column, Rockford's Bishop Thomas Doran tells us what God really thinks of "abortion, buggery, contraception, divorce, euthanasia, feminism of the radical type, and genetic experimentation and mutilation." Read on:

Reaping the whirlwind of abortion

I want to touch on this matter before we get too close to the November madness. As human beings, as citizens of a “first world country,” as Americans, and as Catholics, most importantly, we have to take count of the circumstances in which we live. We know that the only creatures of God that outlast time are those created having intellect and will. All other things, with the passage of time, break up or break down.

Many of the issues that confront us are serious, and we know by now that the political parties in our country are at loggerheads as to how to solve them. We know, for instance, that adherents of one political party would place us squarely on the road to suicide as a people.

The seven “sacraments” of their secular culture are abortion, buggery, contraception, divorce, euthanasia, feminism of the radical type, and genetic experimentation and mutilation. These things they unabashedly espouse, profess and promote. Their continuance in public office is a clear and present danger to our survival as a nation.

Since the mid-1940s we have been accustomed to look askance at Germans. They were protagonists of the Second World War and so responsible for fifty million deaths. We say, “How awful,” and yet in our country we have, for the most part, allowed the party of death and the court system it has produced to eliminate, since 1973, upwards of forty million of our fellow citizens without allowing them to see the light of day. They have done their best to make ours a true culture of death. No doubt, we shall soon outstrip the Nazis in doing human beings to death.

I do not think that we should spend a great deal of time in lamentation over the children whose lives have been snuffed out by the barbaric practice of therapeutic abortion. They passed from their lives quickly in this world and have gone into the hands of the Lord of Life and Mercy for all eternity. We must make it clear too, that many who have sought to have practiced on themselves therapeutic abortion are in many instances driven to it by persons heedless of their welfare, or by well-meaning but inept parents or guardians who regard abortion as a solution and not as what it is — an immense problem. There are some, I think few, largely given over to immoral lives who regard abortion as a good, but their number is not great.

What we have to remember is that violence breeds violence. When we tolerate unjust attacks upon the tiniest innocents among us, we habituate ourselves to violence. And so we have allowed these barbaric practices to corrupt our laws, our medical practice, and even our ordinary lives. How accustomed we have become to the immense loss of life in our wars throughout the world! Those who have killed millions under their mother’s hearts cannot be expected to balk at a mere few thousand killed in Afghanistan, in Iraq, in Somalia, in Darfur, in Bosnia, in Madrid, in London, in Baghdad, in Beirut, in Washington, in New York. The violence of abortion coarsens the lives of all of us.

Once it was said, “... for all who take the sword will perish by the sword.” (Matthew 26:52) So we see the rise in the number of predations among youth, even among the youngest, the rise of domestic violence. We speak of road rage as a common thing. It is true what the theologians have said, that sin darkens the intellect, and weakens the will.

Having sown the wind of abortion we now reap the whirlwind. This appears in every quarter of our culture and on every day. And that just from the first of the “sacraments of death” of our secular human culture.

The toleration of sexual perversions among inverts, widespread contraception, easy access to “no fault” divorce, the killing of the elderly, radical feminism, embryonic stem cell research — all of these things defile and debase our human nature and our human destiny. Should we cry out with the prophet “To the mountains, ‘Cover us,’ and to the hills, ‘Fall on us’” (Hosea: 10:8), lest other peoples see and, God forbid, imitate us?

I ran across, in one parish, prayers of the faithful with the intention that “we pray for those who work and demonstrate for the cause of life and the unborn, the aged and the defected, that they may persevere in spite of the ridicule they receive sometimes, even from pastors and priests.” I shudder to think that might be true. We know from the sad experience of recent years that some Catholics (even among priests) are so warped and perverted from their Catholic vocation, that they are capable of enormities. But, they should know that it was no prelate or bishop or pope that said, “Suffer the little children to come to me and do not hinder them” (Matthew 19:14). The Invisible Head of the Church will one day come to judge the living and the dead and the world by fire, particularly those who have either by acts of omission or commission, destroyed innocent human life.

It is the duty of every Catholic to support the work of the parish Pro-Life directors and commissions and to work for the extirpation from our society of all those who in any way foster or promote these things. I wholeheartedly endorse the activities of our Pro-Life Office in the sure and certain knowledge that divine justice will not allow those who act against human life to prosper.

These unholy sacraments of our secular culture are the seeds of the destruction of our nation.

Think for yourself: what nation that kills its young, perverts marriage, prevents new life, and destroys the family, kills those deemed useless, makes the war of the sexes into a real war, and manipulates the genetic basis of human nature, can long endure?

Are you really cool with BIG MASTURBATION introducing themselves to your 5 year old?

Porn epidemic?
By Douglas Brown
Denver Post Staff Writer

Watch enough pornography, critics say, and ideas about sex and sexuality, and even relationships, will mirror pornography's sinister carnival, on display on television and computer screens everywhere.

Blunt, tough public-service messages are required, some say.

"We need to do with pornography what we did with smoking and drunk driving," says James Weaver, a professor at George Mason University in Virginia who conducted some landmark research on pornography and its effects in the 1980s.

"We had the courage as a society to talk about smoking and about responsible drinking, but we haven't been able to get past our inhibitions about talking about pornography. It's a distortion. And while they may find it entertaining, give them the tools to understand why it's not real.
"It's a public-health crisis. There's no way this is the right path for our culture to take."

Most of the evidence for the public-health contention is anecdotal - sex counselors say clients are suffering from compulsive pornography viewing, ministers are dealing with members of their congregations twisted by pornography and scholars are piecing together data that point toward troubling trends.

However, there is strong evidence for the idea that media viewing affects behavior, says Mary Anne Layden, co-director of the Sexual Trauma and Psychopathology program at the University of Pennsylvania.

And today, she says, kids see more pornography than ever before, and what they encounter is much more raunchy and violent than previous generations, when they likely encountered tamer images, like a Playboy centerfold. The average age of a first glimpse at pornography now is 5, she says.

"We are getting to the point where every 5-year-old has seen an image of rape," she says. "What happens to society when we do that? A child's first sexual image is group sex, rape, sadomasochism. ... That's a dramatic turnaround (from previous generations). It says something dramatic about our society."

The idea of pornography as a public-health hazard has captured the imagination of many who oppose adult entertainment. The idea: Pornography distorts sex into something grotesque and violent.

And sex on the Internet, says Layden, girds a lot of pornography's corrosive powers.

On the Internet, pornography is largely free; it's highly accessible; and people can watch it in anonymity.

"Is there a way to inundate society with toxic sexual messages in such a way that we could damage society at every level?" she asks. "We couldn't have come up with a better way."

The psychiatry professor's argument revolves around her own and her colleagues' clinical observations and studies on pornography's effects.

Pornographers and the genre's many fans, on the other hand, say pornography is healthy and fun. Oppressive forces for too long bottled up everyone's natural urge to explore sexuality, including through the media. The times have shifted, they say, and it's for the better.

"I think it's understandable that it's becoming more and more mainstream in our society," says Ken Boenish, president of New Frontier Media in Boulder. "It's kind of curious that in our society violence is so acceptable," but sex isn't.

Ah, the pornographer as Philosopher-King. How cute!

Have you noticed how the minions of Big Masturbation always start talking about how violence in our media is much worse than sex?

New Frontier, a publicly traded pornography leviathan, is the epicenter for much of the pornography broadcast on cable, satellite and hotel networks around the nation.

The success of corporations like New Frontier has contributed to the contention that "what used to be very kinky is now just a little kinky, and what used to be a little kinky is now incorporated into everyday life," says Elaine Leass, the publisher of the Oyster, a sex magazine that has been distributed in Colorado since 1976. Ads for escorts, erotic massages and other services fill its pages.

"Sex is so important in your life. People who pooh-pooh sex are kidding themselves," she says, picking at fruit salad during lunch at a Boulder diner. "In everyday life, people can be so depressed if they aren't having a good sex life. So we get rid of depression. We want people to feel good."

How fortunate for this lady! The most important thing in the world just happens to be the thing that pays her bills! Some folks are just lucky, I guess.

But feel-good sex and pornography need to be separated, say critics. The growth of Internet pornography, as well as other forms of commercial sex, was behind the creation of "The Defenders," a group organized by Shared Hope International, a Vancouver, Wash., organization that helps to stop human trafficking.

The Defenders launched anti- pornography television and radio public-service advertisements around Father's Day last month encouraging men to pledge they will work against commercialized sex.

"I am a man who is invested in the children of America and the protection of their futures from the commercial sex industry," reads the beginning of the pledge. "I am taking a stand, declaring that the sexual exploitation of children, using pornography and buying sex is not something real men will tolerate. I believe real men guard themselves and protect children with dignity."

It then lists various things Defenders will do, including refusing "to be a victim of the commercial sex industry. I acknowledge that pornography, prostitution and sexual addiction have no place in my life and (they are) not only harmful to the women and children involved, but also to myself and those around me."

The Defenders has a strong Christian component. It's the churches that have been fighting pornography most aggressively.

The leaders of Flatirons Community Church in Lafayette feel so strongly about the topic that they held a weekend-long anti-pornography event in May, with a conference on Saturday, and Sunday's services dedicated to the topic of pornography and sex. It was the first of its kind in Colorado.

"This is such a perfect storm for real erosion in our society," says Curt Cavnar, communications director for the church. "It's shameful, it's creepy, people don't want to talk about it, it's completely anonymous."

Hooray for the schismatics!

Some people left the church's 4,000-member congregation out of disgust with the topic. But it's too important to ignore, says John Zisch, one of the pastors.

"It's a problem that affects everybody in the church," he says. "There's a high shame level, like booze and cocaine in the 1980s. We've talked about this stuff a lot, people even wear badges of honor - 'I'm recovering' - but with pornography it's still behind the black curtain."

What's so bad about the world behind the curtain?

Anti-porn activists say it's addiction to pornography. Challenged relationships. Distorted expectations. And for young people who grow up in the porno-surround, ideas about the very nature of sex that are warped, stunted and toxic.

Yes, but one can have all that without pornography, says Big Masturbation.

Uh...uh...well, um...say the anti-porn protestant activists.

Well, what did you expect from people suffering from bad theology and no philosophy? (Do you detect a bit of a theme here today, kiddies?)

Here's the bottom line on porn: It is all about masturbation. Masturbation is a mortal sin . And mortal sins will screw you up in ways unimaginable.

That's it, kiddies. Reality is often quite simple.


Nonsense, says Paul Cambria, general counsel to the Adult Freedom Foundation, a pornography industry trade organization.

"We have solid scientific data that you can become intoxicated with alcohol, and it impairs your physical and mental ability, the same with drugs, but we don't have that for adult entertainment," says "There are addicts for everything," he says. "Video game addicts, gambling addicts. All sorts of people out there. You don't outlaw underwear because there are people who have underwear fetishes."

What about claims that pornography undermines relationships?

"I know marriages that broke up over money," he says. "Well, we don't ban money."

The widening spread of pornography doesn't illustrate a metastasizing cancer, Cambria says. Instead, it speaks to a healthy adult desire that always has been there, but held back by powerful scolds.

Increased access to pornography, he contends, has eroded stigmas about adult entertainment. People increasingly feel "less intimidated to express their honest feelings" about the genre, which has led to an ever-expanding embrace by mainstream culture of the industry's surging line of products.
It's a self-reinforcing loop, he says: More pornography and better access leads to greater acceptance, which leads to more pornography and better access.

If Cambria's formula is correct, then expect pornography's range to expand even more.

I would not be surprised.

Bought and paid for union thugs versus oppressed Aboriginal-Americans.

Imagine you are a dewy-eyed, squishy-soft leftist pinhead and you suddenly learn one of your most reliable sources of extorted money is leaning on an oppressed minority. Whom do you support?

Heehee. Silly me...

Casper Star-Tribune: Unions eye Indian casinos

SAN MANUEL INDIAN RESERVATION, Calif. -- Once steeped in poverty, the San Manuel Band of Mission Indians has become one of the nation's wealthiest tribes thanks to casino gambling.

Now the Southern California tribe is using its riches to fund a potentially precedent-setting legal fight contending that tribes are exempt from federal labor laws because they are sovereign governments.

A ruling against San Manuel could open the door for unions to organize an estimated 250,000 workers -- dealers, servers, cooks -- at the nation's 400-plus tribal casinos. Except for a handful in California, tribal casinos are generally not unionized; unions say it's difficult to make inroads without the protection of federal organizing rules.

"It's tremendously significant because tribal gaming is a target for labor, one of the significant targets for labor, and this would significantly open up the ability of labor to organize," said Joseph A. Turzi, an attorney who has represented tribes in labor disputes but isn't involved in this case.

Backed by many of the country's leading tribal organizations, San Manuel is fighting a 2004 opinion by the National Labor Relations Board that asserted the board's jurisdiction over tribal businesses.

Under the decision, tribes would be covered for the first time by the National Labor Relations Act that bars unfair labor practices and gives workers the rights to organize and bargain with employers.

"They've taken the tribe and simply defined us as an employer instead of a government, which we are," said San Manuel Vice Chairman Vincent Duro. "That is, to me, really outrageous. The erosion in and of tribal sovereignty is a serious threat."

Mr. Spock, call Star Fleet.

Finally, an ion drive...

The BG News: European spacecraft paves the way for future planet-probing expeditions

DARMSTADT, Germany - Europe's first spacecraft to the moon smashed into a volcanic plain as planned Sunday, signaling in a bright flash the end of a successful mission to test a new propulsion system and navigation technology for flights to other planets.

That pesky European scientific community (with apologies to Michael Fumento) is starting to pull its weight.

Staff at the European Space Agency's control center clapped when the SMART-1 orbiter hit a lunar hillside at 4,475 mph, coming down in the target zone a day after a hurried course correction.

The deliberate crash capped a three-year mission that tested new technologies such as a low-thrust ion engine that ESA hopes will inexpensively take other probes to Mercury and other planets. It also tested new ways of automating a spacecraft's guidance.

Yeah, right. Deliberate...

Ground controllers predicted the probe would hit the lunar plain called the Lake of Excellence at 20 seconds past 1:42 a.m. EDT. At 21 seconds past, spacecraft data suddenly stopped streaming onto a big screen above their consoles.

Controllers burst into applause as operations chief Octavio Camino announced, "We have landed."

Minutes later, the Canada France Hawaii Telescope on Mount Kea, Hawaii, relayed an infrared image of a white flash against the gray lunar landscape - SMART-1 as it struck what appeared to be a raised area.

ESA had asked astronomers to watch for the crash, hoping to collect data that will tell more about the geology of the area around the site.

They might have missed the chance to observe the crash if not for a hasty adjustment of the probe's descent early Saturday. Firing the craft's thrusters, controllers kept the probe from hitting a mile-high crater rim, an impact that might have gone unseen.

"We did it very quickly," Camino said. "We were under some stress."

During months in orbit around the moon, the spacecraft scanned the surface with X-ray and infrared spectrometers and took high-resolution pictures to collect information about geology that scientists hope will advance knowledge about how the lunar surface evolved.

India's Chandrayaan-1 moon mission, slated for 2007-08, will use some of the instruments developed for the ESA mission in another token of the growing globalization of space exploration.

Wow. Lookee there, kiddies. India has a space program.

But the SMART-1's primary mission was testing the ion engine that officials hope to use on the BepiColombo mission to Mercury slated for 2013.

The engine uses electricity from the craft's solar panels to produce a stream of charged particles called ions. It generates only small amounts of thrust but needed only 176 pounds of xenon fuel to power the craft, a cube measuring roughly 3 feet on each side.

Can you smell that, kiddies? It's John Chaney's legacy.

Ol' John gave ol' Bob Huggins (The Demise Of Bob Huggins ... In four of nine reporting years, the graduation rate was zero...) a run for his money, but you really can't beat a 0% graduation rate.

Sports Illustrated: Temple's Tyndale, Marshall ruled academically ineligible

Temple starters Wayne Marshall and Mark Tyndale have been declared academically ineligible, a big blow for the Owls and new coach Fran Dunphy.

It's not really fair making fun of unitarians, either...

More bad theology and non-existent philosophy from the town that brought you that arch-fool, Sharon Stone:

Phillyburbs.com: Police: Breast buried at Pa. church belonged to cancer victim

MEADVILLE, Pa. - Workers renovating a church unearthed a package of medical waste that contained a woman's breast, and police believe it was buried there by someone who had cancer.

Officials at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Meadville told police it may have been put there by a woman 10 to 15 years ago who had requested prayers for healing of breast cancer, Meadville police Detective Sgt. Craig Gump said Friday.

"Unitarian worship dens are like a box of chocolates..."

Church officials told investigators they do not believe the woman was given permission to bury the breast, which would violate a city ordinance governing the burial of human tissue. But police suspect the woman may have done so anyway, Gump said.

An Erie County pathologist examined the tissue, which was dug up Wednesday by construction crews, and confirmed it was clearly the product of a medical procedure, Gump said. There were medical labels on the plastic package, but police were unable to determine where the surgery took place, Gump said.

Police do not know the woman's name but were told by church officials that she has since moved from the area. Police decided to close the case Friday because they're confident no serious crime was committed, Gump said.

And you thought I was just being mean when I called it Tom Cruise's Scatology Update...

Did somebody mention bad theology and no philosophy?

Fox News: The Treasured Memory of TomKitten's 1st Poop

TomKat may not let you see their baby, but they were happy to have an artist create a bronzed sculpture of her doodoo — or so he says.

Daniel Edwards, the off-kilter artist who shocked many a museum-goer with his extremely detailed Britney Spears birthing sculpture just months ago, says he's created a bronze cast depicting Suri Cruise's first solid stool — and he plans to sell it on eBay for charity, the AFP reports.

The shrouded infant's prized poopy, which sits proudly on a wooden mounting, will be displayed at the Capla Kesting gallery in Brooklyn, N.Y., before it is auctioned off to benefit the March Of Dimes next month.

"A bronzed cast of baby's first poop can be a meaningful memento for the family," gallery director David Kesting said.

Kesting said he hopes the work will attract bids of up to $30,000.

So far, the biggest scatological spender has offered $41 for the … um … art.

Suri, the 19-week-old daughter of Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes, has already been the focus of many a tabloid story questioning everything from her health to her very existence. If the sculpture is the real deal, at least we now know she has a well-functioning colon.

May God have mercy on that poor little girl. It may be too late for her parents...

The protestant crackup continues apace.

Bad theology, no philosophy, and infantile leftism sends you straight to Hell and gets your book remaindered in sixty days.

The Wichita Eagle: Presbyterian publisher's book blames U.S. government for Sept. 11
BY RICHARD N. OSTLING
Associated Press

The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) has tumbled into a new dispute over the Sept. 11 attacks of five years ago.

I think he means stumbled, not tumbled. But then again, do words really matter?

Its Presbyterian Publishing Corporation has issued "Christian Faith and the Truth Behind 9/11" (Westminster John Knox), containing perhaps the most incendiary accusations leveled by a writer for a mainline Protestant publisher.

Author David Ray Griffin tells of concluding that "the Bush-Cheney administration had orchestrated 9/11 in order to promote this (American) empire under the pretext of the so-called war on terror."

"No other interpretation is possible," he asserts.

His conspiracy theory includes criminal involvement of the U.S. military and collusion by members of the 9/11 Commission, politicians of both parties and American journalists, who willfully ignored the plot, he says.

Such a massive cover-up is possible, he explains, because people don't want to believe high officials would "launch an attack on their own citizens," which would be "treason of the worst sort."

Indeed. And if unfounded, it's an accusation of the worst sort.

"If unfounded", Citizen Ostling? Is that what they call journalism in the East?

Griffin is unable to provide hard evidence and connects few dots. Rather, he discusses the metallurgy of the World Trade Center towers and various murky details and odd occurrences regarding the fateful day. He spins forth the speculations after deeming the accepted version of events implausible.

Such 9/11 conspiracy theories have heretofore been spread abroad by Internet sites and Muslim extremists (some of those theories have blamed Jews, something Griffin goes out of his way to avoid).

Now a venerable, respectable religious publisher has baptized such thinking as an acceptable part of public discourse.

Griffin also asserts claims about "abundant evidence" of Bush administration orchestration of 9/11 in a separate anthology from Westminster and did so also in two previous books for a small secular publisher. He has also spoken to campus and church groups.

He's a member of "Scholars for 9/11 Truth" along with Kevin Barrett, a Muslim instructor at the University of Wisconsin who's under fire for making similar accusations.

This is a notable event for mainline Protestantism, where leaders' attacks on U.S. foreign policy have escalated. Last spring, the social issues spokesman for President Bush's own United Methodist Church even called for his impeachment.

Griffin has solid mainline credentials. He's an ordained minister in the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) and recently retired after a long teaching career at the United Methodists' Claremont (Calif.) School of Theology.

DAY 13: PLUTO HELD HOSTAGE

Bob Mathias, Requiescat in pace.

America has lost yet another hero.

SAN FRANCISCO -- At the 1948 Olympics in London, Bob Mathias became the youngest gold medalist to win a track and field event. British journalists asked the 17-year-old decathlon champion how he planned to celebrate.

"I guess I'll start shaving," he said.

Mathias died of cancer Saturday in Fresno at age 75, his record intact.

An Olympic historian said Sunday that Mathias' achievements, which included a second gold medal in decathlon at the 1952 Helsinki Olympics, came at a simpler time in the history of sports.

"There were no sponsors. There was no money. There were no drugs," said David Wallechinsky, author of "The Complete Book of the Summer Olympics.' "He was just doing it to perform well -- not to be in an advertisement."

Mathias' 1948 medal came in only his third decathlon. He qualified for the Olympics by winning two events in the United States.

At the 1952 Helsinki Games, he became the first athlete to repeat as Olympic champion in the decathlon. A Stanford star who led that team to the Rose Bowl, Mathias was drafted by the Washington Redskins but never signed. He won the 1948 Sullivan Award as America's top amateur athlete.

Eugene Mathias said his brother was a gifted athlete from childhood, often outperforming older children.

"I tried jumping the high jump and I couldn't make it. He was three years younger and he said, 'Let me try it.' He did it and he made it," Eugene Mathias recalled. "We knew then that he could just do anything athletic."

Although fans marveled at his athleticism, Mathias worked determinedly at both sports and academics. As a child, he suffered from anemia and had to eat special foods, take vitamin supplements and frequent naps, and he fell ill to measles, whooping cough and scarlet fever.

He spent a year at The Kiski School, an all-boys boarding college in Saltsburg, Pa., before entering Stanford in 1949. The 6-foot-3, 204-pound Mathias led Stanford to a Rose Bowl appearance in 1952.

After retiring from sports, he served four terms as a Republican congressman representing California's San Joaquin Valley from 1967-74. After his political career, Mathias became the first director of the U.S. Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, Colo.

He also is a member of the U.S. Olympic and national track and field halls of fame.

"Bob Mathias was one of those rare individuals with the ability to inspire a nation through his determination and perseverance. He was a champion in every aspect of life, and he embraced the values that make our country and the worldwide Olympic movement special," U.S. Olympic Committee chairman Peter Ueberroth said in a statement. (Thanks to The Sporting News for this obituary.)

Steve Irwin, Requiescat in pace.

Animals are dangerous, kiddies, and must always be treated with respect.

Mr. Irwin knew the sea was not his element. Let us hope it was not a mistake he or a member of his crew made...

Remember, you know not the hour. That is why you always must be prepared to meet your Maker.

CAIRNS, Australia - Dramatic videotape of Steve Irwin's last moments shows him pulling a poisonous stingray barb from his chest, officials said Tuesday, as tributes poured in for the beloved naturalist.

As TV's "Crocodile Hunter," Irwin made a career out of getting dangerously close to deadly beasts. But police said there was nothing suspicious about his death and no evidence he provoked the animal.

Irwin, 44, was stabbed through the heart on Monday while snorkeling with a stingray during filming of a new TV program on Australia's Great Barrier Reef.

John Stainton, Irwin's manager who was among the crew on the reef, said the fatal blow was caught on videotape, and described viewing the footage as having the "terrible" experience of watching a friend die.

"It shows that Steve came over the top of the ray and the tail came up, and spiked him here (in the chest), and he pulled it out and the next minute he's gone," Stainton told reporters in the Queensland state city of Cairns, where Irwin's body was taken for an autopsy.

Police were holding the tape as evidence for a coroner's inquiry - a standard procedure in high-profile deaths or those caused by other than natural causes.

Experts agree human deaths caused by stingrays are extremely rare and speculate the stingray may have felt trapped between the cameraman and the TV star.

But Queensland Police Superintendent Michael Keating said there was no evidence Irwin threatened or intimidated the stingray, a normally placid species that only deploys its poisonous tail spines as a defense.

Stainton said Irwin was in his element in the Outback, but that he and Irwin had talked about the sea posing threats the star wasn't used to.

"If ever he was going to go, we always said it was going to be the ocean," Stainton said. "On land he was agile, quick-thinking, quick-moving and the ocean puts another element there that you have no control over."

Irwin's American wife Terri and two young children returned late Monday from a trekking vacation in Tasmania to Australia Zoo, the wildlife park where the family lived at Beerwah in Queensland's southeast.

Australia Zoo was open Tuesday - staff said it was what he would have wanted - but the mood was somber and most visitors were to a makeshift shrine of bouquets and handwritten condolence messages that emerged at the gate.

"Mate, you made the world a better place," read one poster left at the gate. "Steve, our hero, our legend, our wildlife warrior," read another.
Khaki shirts - a trademark of Irwin - were laid out for people to sign.

Parliament interrupted its normal schedule so lawmakers could pay tribute to Irwin, whose body was flown home Tuesday from Cairns. No funeral plans were announced but state Premier Peter Beattie said Irwin would be afforded a state funeral if his family agreed.

"He was a genuine, one-off, remarkable Australian individual and I am distressed at his death," Prime Minister John Howard said.

Irwin was propelled to global fame after his TV shows, in which he regularly wrestled with crocodiles and went face-to-face with poisonous snakes and other wild animals, were shown around world on the Discovery Channel.

The network announced plans for a marathon screening of Irwin's work and a wildlife fund in his name.

"Rarely has the world embraced an animal enthusiast and conservationist as they did Steve Irwin," Discovery Networks International President Dawn McCall said in a statement. (Thanks to the Salt Lake Tribune.)

Saint of the Day and daily Mass readings.

Today is the Feast of St. Lawrence Giustiniani, Bishop of Venice, mystic, and writer. Pray for us, all you angels and saints.


Today's reading is 1 Corinthians 2:10-16.
Today's Responsorial Psalm is Psalms 145:8-9, 10-11, 12-13, 13-14.
Today's Gospel reading is Luke 4:31-37.


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.



Anima Christi

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


Prayer to St. Anthony, Martyr of Desire

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


Prayer To Saint Michael The Archangel

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


Prayer to End Abortion

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


Prayer For Vocations

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


Prayer Before The Crucifix

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