Clinton's (and Reagan's!) domestic spying legacy.

Byron York of National Review Online smacks down the Democrass addlepates with very short memories or insufficient dedication to preserving our civil liberties.

Clinton Claimed Authority to Order No-Warrant Searches

Heavens! Not King Goober II!

In a little-remembered debate from 1994, the Clinton administration argued that the president has "inherent authority" to order physical searches — including break-ins at the homes of U.S. citizens — for foreign intelligence purposes without any warrant or permission from any outside body. Even after the administration ultimately agreed with Congress's decision to place the authority to pre-approve such searches in the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) court, President Clinton still maintained that he had sufficient authority to order such searches on his own.

"The Department of Justice believes, and the case law supports, that the president has inherent authority to conduct warrantless physical searches for foreign intelligence purposes," Deputy Attorney General Jamie Gorelick testified before the Senate Intelligence Committee on July 14, 1994, "and that the President may, as has been done, delegate this authority to the Attorney General."

"It is important to understand," Gorelick continued, "that the rules and methodology for criminal searches are inconsistent with the collection of foreign intelligence and would unduly frustrate the president in carrying out his foreign intelligence responsibilities."

And this started when?

Executive Order 12333, signed by Ronald Reagan in 1981, provides for such warrantless searches directed against "a foreign power or an agent of a foreign power."

Reporting the day after Gorelick's testimony, the Washington Post's headline — on page A-19 — read, "Administration Backing No-Warrant Spy Searches." The story began, "The Clinton administration, in a little-noticed facet of the debate on intelligence reforms, is seeking congressional authorization for U.S. spies to continue conducting clandestine searches at foreign embassies in Washington and other cities without a federal court order. The administration's quiet lobbying effort is aimed at modifying draft legislation that would require U.S. counterintelligence officials to get a court order before secretly snooping inside the homes or workplaces of suspected foreign agents or foreign powers."

In her testimony, Gorelick made clear that the president believed he had the power to order warrantless searches for the purpose of gathering intelligence, even if there was no reason to believe that the search might uncover evidence of a crime. "Intelligence is often long range, its exact targets are more difficult to identify, and its focus is less precise," Gorelick said. "Information gathering for policy making and prevention, rather than prosecution, are its primary focus."

The debate over warrantless searches came up after the case of CIA spy Aldrich Ames. Authorities had searched Ames's house without a warrant, and the Justice Department feared that Ames's lawyers would challenge the search in court. Meanwhile, Congress began discussing a measure under which the authorization for break-ins would be handled like the authorization for wiretaps, that is, by the FISA court. In her testimony, Gorelick signaled that the administration would go along a congressional decision to place such searches under the court — if, as she testified, it "does not restrict the president's ability to collect foreign intelligence necessary for the national security." In the end, Congress placed the searches under the FISA court, but the Clinton administration did not back down from its contention that the president had the authority to act when necessary.

Introducing Senator Ida Know.

One of the Repansycan 7 Dwarfs pops up on tv and displays his bona fides as a conservative and a legal expert.

From the transcript of the 12/18/05 episode of Face The Nation:


SCHIEFFER: The Secretary of State said this morning that the president has statutory and constitutional authorization to do what he did. So I'll start with Senator Graham.

Does he have that authority, Senator?

Senator LINDSEY GRAHAM (Republican, South Carolina; Armed Services Committee):

If he has the authority to go around the FISA court, which is a court to accommodate the law of the war of terror, the FISA Act was--created a court set up by the chief justice of the United States to allow a rapid response to requests for surveillance activity in the war on terror. I don't know of any legal basis to go around that. There may be some, but I'm not aware of it. And here's the concern I have. We can't become an outcome-based democracy. Even in a time of war, you have to follow the process, because that's what a democracy is all about: a process.

SCHIEFFER: Well, you're saying he broke the law.

Sen. GRAHAM: I don't know. I don't know what legal basis or statute they're referring to. What statute would give the authority of the president to collaborate with a handful of congressmen and senators not to get a
warrant? What executive order or constitutional provision would give the authority of the president to avoid the warrant requirement? There may be some. I just don't know of it. But if there is not any, that's a problem.

SCHIEFFER: And you are a lawyer.

View PDF Document:

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

DISINFORMATION: 22 MEDIA MYTHS THAT UNDERMINE THE WAR ON TERROR
By Richard Miniter
(Regnery, $27.95, 275 pages )

Are suitcase nukes for real? Is Osama bin Laden on dialysis? Did the CIA fund bin Laden in the 1980s? These are the sorts of hard-to-reach questions that reporters covering the war on terror haven't answered definitively. So it's no surprise that they get shrouded in myth and error.

In that context comes ex-Wall Street Journal Europe editorial writer Richard Miniter's "Disinformation: 22 Media Myths That Undermine the War on Terror," a short generalist's guide to these three questions and 19 others. Words like "disinformation" and "media myths" suggest a conservative "mainstream media" basher, but Mr. Miniter's book is far from that: It urges original-source reporting where possible, scrutiny of motives, "tough editing" and above all reportorial honesty.

So how does Mr. Miniter's book measure up to those standards? Much of it is exemplary. Some of it aims too low: People who believe that the Mossad warned Jews to stay away from the World Trade Center on September 11 -- one of the 22 myths -- are beyond reason. In some cases, Mr. Miniter's politics get the best of him, like his chapter on Iraqi weapons of mass destruction, which he insists U.S. forces actually found. Even President Bush admits this is wrong: Sunday night, he told the nation that "we did not find those weapons." (From a review by Brendan Conway in The Washington Times.)

* Who? Look here.

Surprise! Another Federal judge rules in favor of ignorance and endarkenment!

A federal judge has ruled that "intelligent design" cannot be mentioned in biology classes in a Pennsylvania public school district.

"As stated, our conclusion today is that it is unconstitutional to teach ID as an alternative to evolution in a public school science classroom," U.S. District Judge John Jones wrote in his conclusion.

That would be the royal "We" His Dishonor Judge "Dumbass" Jones is using.

Jones said the Dover Area School Board in York County violated the Constitution when it ordered that its biology curriculum must include a statement on "intelligent design" -- the notion that life on Earth was produced by an unidentified intelligent cause. If you'd like to read the statement students were required to hear, click here.

See, lamebrain, the kiddies weren't being taught any such thing. They were to hear a statement that declared evolution had competition in the realm of ideas. In effect, Your Dishonor, you have declared your idea explaining reality to be the only valid one. You sir, are a fascist.

The school board policy, adopted in October 2004, was believed to have been the first of its kind in the nation.

The judge wrote: "The citizens of the Dover area were poorly served by the members of the Board who voted for the ID Policy."

That, Comrade Jones, is outside of your purview. The voters can (and did) remove elected officials with whom they disagree. Sounds like more fascism, boyo. BTW, would you care to regale us with the details of your last election?

"It is ironic," Jones wrote, "that several of these individuals, who so staunchly and proudly touted their religious convictions in public, would time and again lie to cover their tracks and disguise the real purpose behind the ID Policy."

So, you also believe yourself to be The Judge of men's souls, eh Commissar Jones? That's madness, moron.

The board's attorneys had said that the members were seeking to improve science education by exposing students to alternatives to Charles Darwin's theory of natural selection causing gradual changes over time.

Intelligent-design proponents argue that Darwin's theory cannot fully explain the existence of complex life forms.

The legal battle over the school's policy focused the national spotlight squarely on the Susquehanna Valley for months.

"The students, parents, and teachers of the Dover Area School District deserved better than to be dragged into this legal maelstrom, with its resulting utter waste of monetary and personal resources," Jones wrote.

Once again, none of your damned business, Herr Jones. The Board was elected and then defeated by the voters. Your opinion of said board is worse than irrelevant, it smacks of totalitarianism. Your attempt to violate the separation of powers and intimidate elected officials in the name of your ignorant political agenda is grounds for your removal from the bench and imprisonment.

So, you think ol' Bushie is snooping on your booty calls, eh?

On 28 March 2002, top al-Qaeda terrorist Abu "Zabba-Zooba" Zubaida was captured in Pakistan along with his cell phone and handed over to us. I can only hope he was tortured enough to extract everything he knew.

Anyway, Abu's cell phone had over three hundred US phone numbers in its memory. These numbers were surveilled, NOT yours. (See Richard Miniter's latest book here.)

Mr. Zubaida's drycleaner and favorite kosher New York deli, whose numbers were naturally found on the memory chip, were wiretapped for about ten minutes until the evil NSA realized these numbers were merely those of a drycleaner and a deli. The evil NSA then moved on and prevented the slaughter of untold numbers of innocents.

Please call your congressthing and Senatrixes and ask them to continue allowing the good guys (that's us, kiddies) to wage war against the bad guys (that's the goat rapists).

Saint of the day and daily Mass readings.

Today is the Feast of St. Philogonius, fourth century Bishop of Antioch, lawyer, and defender of orthodoxy. Pray for us, all you angels and saints.

Today's reading is Isaias 7:10-14.
Today's Gospel reading is Luke 1:26-38.


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


Everyday links:

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


Just in case you are wondering what exactly Catholics believe, here is

The Apostles Creed

I believe in God, the Father Almighty, Creator of Heaven and earth; and in Jesus Christ, His only Son Our Lord, Who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried.He descended into Hell; the third day He rose again from the dead; He ascended into Heaven, and sitteth at the right hand of God, the Father almighty; from thence He shall come to judge the living and the dead.I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy Catholic Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body and life everlasting. Amen.


Memorare

Remember, O most gracious Virgin Mary, that never was it known that any one who fled to thy protection, implored thy help or sought thy intercession,was left unaided.Inspired with this confidence, I fly unto thee, O Virgin of virgins my Mother; to thee do I come, before thee I stand, sinful and sorrowful; O Mother of the Word Incarnate, despise not my petitions, but in thy clemency hear and answer me. Amen.


St. Joseph, her most chaste spouse, pray for us.


Prayer to St. Anthony, Martyr of Desire

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


PRAYER TO SAINT MICHAEL THE ARCHANGEL

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

SEX IS DEATH. (Haven from reality)

From one of last week's posts: New York magazine's babykilling story is still creeping me out.

There is the title of the article. The New Underground Abortion Railroad: Destination NYC. I'm offended and I'm not even black. Of course, leftist blacks wouldn't be offended. Babykilling uber alles, baby.

But mostly it is how commonplace murdering kids is to these people. The banality of evil? These broads are spokesmodels for it.

Adeena, whose name has been changed to protect her privacy, is 24 years old and 24 weeks pregnant. She’d caught a Greyhound from Pennsylvania earlier that day, and spent the afternoon at a clinic in midtown getting part one of an abortion that will be completed tomorrow. “Pick whatever you want,” I’d said at Blockbuster.

Adeena says she’s never been in a white person’s home. She peers at the paintings on my walls and at the jammed bookcases and Cuban bolero CDs and cassettes of classics from the Yiddish theater.

“Can I ask you something?” she inquires. “Why you doing this?”

“You mean sharing my place with you?”

I tell her I’m upset that people like her have such a hard time getting abortions, and besides, I remember being young and being (more than once) in a similar fix. I don’t tell her about the differences: how I always had Blue Cross Blue Shield and never went past seven weeks.

Yeah. You don't want her looking too much like you before you have her snuffed.

Adeena tells me she makes minimum wage as a health-care aide for mentally disabled children. “You have to pay a lot of attention to them,” she says, and I can see she’s trying to attend to me too. She wants to be sociable, but tonight it’s hard. This afternoon, sticks made of seaweed were inserted into her cervix, and a drug that causes fetal heart failure was injected into her belly. Now the seaweed is getting moist and swelling, and Adeena no longer feels movement in her womb. By tomorrow the swelling will have opened her cervix a few centimeters, allowing a doctor to extract the dead fetus with surgical tools and a vacuum machine.

I don’t know how much Adeena knows about these details. But I know, and so do other Haven members. The organization gives us a handout explaining everything so we’ll be prepared if our guests experience side effects. Of course, some complications go beyond the medical.

Why did she wait so long? we all wonder. We never ask...

Apparently, she has a more highly developed conscience than you, dearie. Believe it or not, some people haven't spent their entire adult lives trying to silence theirs.

What happens when an accessory to many murders convinces herself she is doing good?

Every once in a while, after hosting a guest, I have bad dreams about sick babies. I have to remind myself that my dreams are just dreams, and that they’re less important than my guests’ realities...

That's right, kiddies. Ol' man conscience fights back in increasingly warped and terrifying ways. Those "dreams" are about to become nightmares, madam. Just wait until you wake screaming after being menaced by dismembered babies.

Adeena got here only with the help of the Women’s Medical Fund, a Philadelphia-based group that helps poor Pennsylvanian women pay for abortions. (There’s a similar group in Manhattan: the New York Abortion Access Fund.) “Patients often come in with part of the cost; they’ve borrowed $25 here and $25 there from friends,” says Susan Schewel, director of the Philadelphia fund. “They’ve postponed paying utility bills or they’ve pawned things. We had a woman the other day who sold her dog.”

Awwww...How tragic. At least the pup wasn't cut up and thrown away. That kind of evil will get you some serious jail time.

But chasing an ever-burgeoning fee isn’t the only thing that delays abortions. As Levine puts it, there’s often “some combination of denial and disorganization and general flakiness” going on as well. Some women have breakthrough bleeding, assume they’re having periods, and fail to realize they’re pregnant until after the first trimester. Other women delay seeking an abortion because they’re holding out hope that a relationship is going to work.

"Flakiness"??? Instant translation: I can't believe these dumb poor whores won't shut up and just kill their kids right away.

One woman I hosted had five kids and a husband in the military in Iraq. “He’s got an immature streak that the war is making worse. I think he’s running around on me over there,” she told me. “What’s for sure is he can’t handle another baby right now, and neither can I.” Her pants strained over her girth. She’d waited this long, she said, because her mother, whom she worshipped, told her that if she went through with it she’d burn in hell. And also because “my sister told me abortions hurt.” I kept my face straight.

Har dee har har har! Burn in hell? No such thing! Abortions hurt women? Nah! They're fun! No regrets ever! Just drown out that little voice saying "No!" that Christianity put in your head!


I was relieved for them, but at the same time I felt a twinge of paranoia. What if the older woman was really the girl’s aunt or big sister and just pretending to be her mom? Right now it wouldn’t matter: Unlike many states, New York does not have a parental- consent law requiring that a minor get permission from a parent for an abortion. But this spring, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the Child Interstate Abortion Notification Act, which would make it a crime to give a girl an abortion without her mother’s or father’s okay. The bill hasn’t passed in the Senate yet, but if it does, Haven could be in trouble. “It would only take one crazy person to say, ‘You kidnapped my daughter,’ if you host a 15-year-old,” warned a Haven coordinator at a recent meeting. The organization is incorporating, so that if this happens, its board of directors, and not individual hosts, will take the rap.

A grandmother's love is "crazy". Ain't that the bee's knees, kiddies? See our moral and intellectual superiors on parade. I wish I could be surprised most of these "Haven" enablers are nominally Jewish. Sadly, the JINOs (Jews In Name Only) far outnumber the Chosen People who remember the admonitions of the One True God. But hey, 5,000 years is a long time. We're having the same problem and it's only been 2,000 years for us.

The next morning, we take the subway together back to the elegant neighborhood where the clinic is located. It is completely unnoticeable from the street, impossible to tell that inside there will be a waiting room that looks like a welfare office, with institutional chairs, soap-opera TV, and dozens of women sitting, sitting, sitting. In the several times I’ve gone there to pick up or drop off a patient, I’ve seen one protester, one time. She was white, well dressed, and birdlike, and when she tremulously scolded a young Latina woman about “killing your baby,” she was practically blown backward by a blast of “Get the hell outta my way what business is it of yours fuckin’ goddamned puta bitch!”

Isn't the joy inherent in the exercise of our free wills a beautiful thing to behold?

On this day, the birdlike lady is nowhere to be seen. Adeena and I say good-bye at the clinic doors. She thanks me for making her feel “just like you was my moms.” In a few hours, she’ll be back on a bus to Philadelphia, free to do her thing, whatever that may be.

I can imagine her thing won't be pleasant at all. Somehow, Old Man Conscience will manage to keep reminding this poor misguided woman of the daughter she had killed with the help of the nice rich white ladies in New York. For all their sakes, I hope they recognize their sins and repent before their consciences lash out in a way that harms them and others in irreparable ways.

For more Truth, Justice, and the American Way courtesy of New York magazine, see also:

How New York Became the Abortion Capital of America

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.

Sobran routs the petit fasciste thugs who make our Constitution an instrument of domestic terrorism.

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

Here we go again. A newly released document indicates that Judge Samuel Alito once formulated a plan for the “eventual overruling of Roe v. Wade,” which might have resulted in the horror — dreadful to contemplate — of unemployed abortionists.

The good Darwinists of the U.S. Supreme Court had decided that a human fetus is a lower life form, unprotected by the multitudinous penumbras formed by emanations from the U.S. Constitution and therefore eligible to be killed, at least during the first two trimesters of its life. A further penumbra, discovered more recently, apparently extended this all the way through the third trimester too, making it eligible to be killed even in the birth canal.

All this falls under the right of privacy, which the legislatures of all 50 states had somehow failed to discern in the Constitution. The Court found it there in 1965 and found further in 1973 that it covered feticide.

Where is this right of privacy, exactly? Well, nowhere, exactly, but it’s sort of, like, you know, distributed through the Fourth, Ninth, and Fourteenth Amendments. The main thing is that the Constitution is a living document, with a will of its own, and its oracular meanings can be pinned down only by liberal justices.

If you look hard enough, you can find p, r, i,v, a, c, and y in there somewhere. If Larry Tribe can do it, you kiddies can too.

The danger, of course, is that conservative justices could get the same idea and start finding a whole different set of meanings. This would be especially likely if they read the Constitution more literally instead of abiding by liberal precedents, as conservatives are supposed to do. This is why liberals see guys like Sam Alito and John Roberts as threats. Such men might conceivably rule that the right to bear arms, or the right not to be deprived of life without due process of law, also emanate penumbras.

For instance: We might have the right to shoot those who take away our rights. (See George Washington, et al.)

For liberals, the crucial part of the Constitution is the Fourteenth Amendment, which can be made to mean — or at least emanate — just about anything your heart desires, particularly if your heart is liberal. In its liberal heyday, the Court decided in effect that the Fourteenth, though ratified under duress after the Civil War, basically repealed the Tenth Amendment. As a result, the Federal Government can do pretty much whatever it wants and Federal judges can strike down pretty much any state law, local ordinance, or high-school dress code they dislike.

The more power the Federal Government has, the more surely America is a democracy governed by a majority under a living document. Such is the liberal view, anyway. It’s one of those things about which All the Experts Agree. (Meaning that those who disagree don’t count as “experts.”)

Federal judges now play the Constitution like an accordion, alternately squeezing and expanding. They squeeze the parts they don’t care for, such as the Second and Tenth Amendments, which they have rendered virtually meaningless (the Supreme Court has declared the Tenth a mere “truism”); while they expand the parts that can be made more to their liking, such as a few phrases in the First and Fifth Amendments.

So the “living document” turns out to mean one that is judicially “edited” in such a way that some of its passages don’t count at all, whereas other passages contain meanings nobody ever dreamed of. The Constitution as a whole becomes something its own authors wouldn’t recognize.

As I’ve often observed, the U.S. Constitution poses no serious threat to our form of government; it now bears roughly the same relation to that government that the Book of Revelation bears to the Unitarian Church. (Heehee!) And liberals aim to keep it that way.

Which is what, at one level, the fight over Roe is all about. And some liberals are honest enough to admit this. You will find some advocates of legal abortion who agree that Roe was badly reasoned; but you won’t find any opponents of legal abortion who think it was well reasoned.

I wish Joe would name one of those more or less honest liberals. I can't think of a single one.

Apart from being morally monstrous, Roe was constitutionally absurd. As Justice Byron White said in his dissent, it was an exercise of “raw judicial power”; and it was also an almost unequalled exercise of judicial bad faith. Never was the overworked appeal to the “living document” more necessary to sustain a feeble semblance of legitimacy for a truly rotten decision.

Protestants taking The Christ out of Christmas Update.

Remember the "We're too busy to go to church on Christmas!" kerfuffle? Even some schismatics got pissed off! (Thanks to WND for the heads up.)

With many large churches across the U.S. announcing they won't be open on Christmas Day, some pastors are defending their decision to stay closed, even going so far as to blast those who question their motives.

Among them is Jon Weece, pastor of Southland Christian Church in Lexington, Ky., who received complaint e-mails from Christians in all 50 states.

"I was deeply saddened by the knee-jerk response of the Christian community as a whole to give the benefit of the doubt to the media and not a church or a brother in Christ," Weece said in his Dec. 10 sermon. "I'm still troubled that more Christians in this community specifically did not stand up for us knowing what this church represents."

Nobody needs to care about your motives when your deeds are objectively wrong, numbskull.

(Audio of the entire sermon is available here.)

Weece blamed Satan the devil for using the Christmas issue as a distraction, prompting Christians to bicker among themselves.
"People are not the enemy," he said. "The devil is, and it is obvious that he has been at work in this situation."

Flip Wilson, call your office.

Weece said the services being offered on Christmas Eve were still technically the "first day of the week" if one went by the custom of starting days at sunset, which some believe was the case in Jesus' day.

He went on to note: "Christmas began as a pagan holiday to the Roman gods, and if we were to really celebrate the historical birth of Jesus, it would either be in January or mid-April. I'm only pointing out the historical technicalities not out of intellectual arrogance, but again because of the illogical, ill-informed and even hypocritical arguments that were aimed at me personally this last week."

Oh, please. What are you, some kind of neo-7th Day Adventurist?

Methinks the arrogant intellectualoid schismatic doth protest too much.

Weece also said Jesus himself walked all over opinion and tradition: "Do not lose sight of the controversy that Jesus incited by turning traditions on their head. And always remember in the economy of Jesus, the one whose birthday so many are claiming to be so passionate about, Jesus placed value and emphasis on people over policy and procedure and protocol every single time."

I get it. So you'll be imitating Jesus if you do something really edgy next Sunday like dress like a hooker and urinate on your flock? There you have the essence of protestant theology, kiddies.

Meanwhile, the largest Christian church in South Florida has reversed itself on its closure Christmas Day, and now says it will be open for a single service next Sunday morning, Dec. 25.

Calvary Chapel of Fort Lauderdale now promoting its Christmas Day service online after initially announcing a Dec. 25 closure
Calvary Chapel of Fort Lauderdale originally decided to give its members and workforce a day off to spend with their families on Christmas, even though it falls on Sunday, its traditional day of worship. Instead, it had scheduled a slate of extra services for Saturday night, Christmas Eve.

"I've been called a bad person and a shame to Christianity," pastor Bob Coy told the South Florida Sun-Sentinel. "It made me realize that many people misunderstood our motives."

Nope. Everyone understood your actions.

But after an onslaught of negative public reaction from both inside and outside his congregation, Coy had a change of heart.

"Say it isn't so," read one e-mail, according to Coy. "You're shutting your doors on Jesus' birthday. I'm appalled at the message you're sending to the community."

Coy also was advised by some church members who said they wouldn't be able to attend services on Christmas Eve, and preferred to come on the actual holiday.

"Christmas is filled with unrealistic expectations," he said. "I don't want to fuel that. If people need Jesus on Christmas, I want to make Him available."

How condescending of you.

The entire issue has exacerbated the national Christmas controversy at a time which many believe is supposed to harken back to the Gospel of Luke's "peace on Earth."

"There is no biblical mandate that we meet on Sunday, only that we meet," writes Larry Baden in an online messageboard. "This is clearly a nonessential issue. Nobody's orthodoxy stands or falls on having a Sunday service. Nobody's salvation depends on having a Sunday service."

Wanna bet, wise guy?

Minister Jeff Chitwood contends: "I think the issue centers on canceling worship on a day that is supposed to be centered on Christ. Too many times the church accuses the world of taking Christ out of Christmas but now the church is the one changing things because a day centered on Christ conflicts with schedules. What kind of message does it send to those who we have condemned in the past? At our church we are rescheduling service times but not eliminating the opportunity to worship on a day centered on Christ."

Finally, evidence of intelligent thought!

One poster said true worship is about much more than just singing or attending a church service.

Yeah, that's what happens when your "worship" is an empty mockery of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass.

"The way I greet my family when I go home from work is an act of worship. The way I talk to my co-workers. The dedication I give to my employer. The passion and inspiration I find in teaching or writing or editing or reading or mowing the lawn or ironing my shirts. ...

Oy vey!

"Let's all just focus on God this Sunday. He's a big Guy. I'm sure those who look for him will find him – even if they don't set foot in a church building."

Pat Buchanan on the counter-revolution's wins against the religion of neo-darwinism...

...or, Thomas Malthus, call your office.

Among the most influential men of the 20th century were a pair of 19th-century scholars: Charles Darwin and Karl Marx.

Don't sleep so soundly, Herr Freud. You're on our list as well.

Recent years have not been kind to either. Marxism-Leninism, the ideology that welded together and drove the Soviet empire, has been discredited by the horrors it produced and the colossal failure of Marxist theory when put into practice.

Comes now Darwin's turn. In his 1859 "The Origin of Species" and other works, Darwin posited his thesis that man is not the work of any Creator, but a being that evolved from lower forms of life out of the primordial ooze.

In his "Politically Correct Guide to Science," Tom Bethell, who Tom Wolfe calls "one of our most brilliant essayists," has, in 36 pages, gathered and briefly described a few of the difficulties that Darwinists are facing in defending their dogmas against skeptics.

For generations, scientists have searched for the "missing link" between ape and man. But not only is that link still missing, no links between species have been found. As Bethell writes, bats are the only mammals to have mastered powered flight. But even the earliest bats found in the fossil record have complex wings and built-in sonar. Where are the "half-bats" with no sonar or unworkable wings?

Their absence does not prove – but does suggest – that they do not exist. Is it not time, after 150 years, that the Darwinists started to deliver and ceased to be taken on faith?

In the Galapagos Islands, which Darwin visited in HMS Beagle in 1835, his later disciples discovered, after a drought, that the beaks of finches expanded 5 percent to help them crack the dried and hardened seeds – i.e., Darwinian adaptation. But when the rains returned, researchers found the beaks returned to normal size.

No one denies "micro-evolution" – i.e., species adapting to their environment. It is macro-evolution that is in trouble.

The Darwinian thesis of "survival of the fittest" turns out to be nothing but a tautology. How do we know existing species were the fittest? Because they survived. Why did they survive? Because they were the fittest.

While clever, this tells us zip about why we have tigers. It is less a scientific theory than a notion masquerading as a fact.

Here's a thought:

For those seeking the source of Darwin's "discovery," there is an interesting coincidence. Darwin and his collaborator Alfred Russel Wallace both read Thomas Malthus' famous "An Essay on the Principle of Population." Malthus theorized that since the production of food grew by small annual increments, while population was almost doubling with each generation, the struggle for food would lead to conflicts and wars in which only the strongest would survive.

Bethell is not alone in suggesting Darwin smuggled Malthus' mid-Victorian political economy into biology. As Bertrand Russell observed, Darwin's theory is "essentially an extension to the animal and vegetable world of laissez-faire economics."

A coincidence? I think not:

Marx's ideas also seem to have a Malthusian root. Marx predicted that the great wealth spawned by capitalism would be accumulated by fewer and fewer capitalists. And as it was, the constant expansion and immiseration of the proletariat would lead to a workers' revolution in which the expropriators would be expropriated. This was catnip for anti-capitalists.

What's the connection? Materialism. The common thread is rebellion against God and the rejection of Love in favor of Power. Life really can be broken down this easily, kiddies.

But American capitalism proved Marx dead wrong. While U.S. capitalism did indeed create plutocrats, the years 1865 to 1914 saw historic gains in the incomes and well-being of workers. By World War I, to the rage of Lenin, even Marxists theoreticians were saying the old boy's theories needed some serious revision.

There are other questions Darwinists need to answer. If believing that Christ raised people from the dead is a matter of faith – and it is – is not the Darwinist claim that nature created life out of non-life a matter of faith? If it is science, why can't scientists replicate it in microcosm in a laboratory?

If scientists know life came from matter and matter from non-matter, why don't they show us how this was done, instead of asserting it was done, and calling us names for not taking their claims on faith?

Clearly, a continued belief in the absolute truth of Darwinist evolution is but an act of faith that fulfills a psychological need of folks who have rejected God. (Emphasis mine.) That picture on the wall of the science class of apes on four legs, then apes on two legs, then homo erectus walking upright is as much an expression of faith as the picture of Adam and Eve and the serpent in the Garden of Eden.

Amen to that, Brother.

Hence, if religion cannot prove its claim and Darwinists can't prove their claims, we must fall back upon reason, which some of us believe is God's gift to mankind.

And when you consider the clocklike precision of the planets in their orbits about the sun and the extraordinary complexity of the human eye, does that seem to you like the result of random selection or the product of intelligent design?

Prediction: Like the Marxists, the Darwinists are going to wind up as a cult in which few believe this side of Berkeley and Harvard Square.
(Thanks to WorldNetDaily for the heads up.)

Clinton's domestic spying legacy.

Ol' Goober II was listening. Does anybody remember this one from CBS in 2000? (Thanks to Drudge for the heads up.)

CBS FLASHBACK 2000: Echelon Eavesdrops On Citizens...

Mommy, who was Valerie Plame?*

All marriages weather storms, but only this career diplomat and his outed spy wife know what it's like to be at the center of the year's biggest political scandal. As the CIA-leak case heated up, Wilson kept criticizing the Administration, while Plame kept a low profile, ultimately leaving the CIA for a better assignment: taking care of the couple's 5-year-old twins. (Thanks to Time's Thing of the Year Extravaganza for the heads up.)

Wow.

Wow.

Is she wearing pajamas?

This photo wouldn't even get them replies if they sent it to a swingers' magazine. Joe, if you are trying to pimp her out as an "actress/model" you'll need some better photos.

Your fifteen is up, Mr. and Mrs. Wilson.

* For the bottom line on the Plameplot Dome scandal, look here.

War on Christmas (and everything else) Update.

University Administrator Declares Christmas 'Forbidden'
(CNSNews.com) - An administrator at California State University in Sacramento has banned decorations in her office pertaining to Christmas and the 4th of July, among other holidays, because they represent "religious discrimination" and "ethnic insensitivity." Full Story

Results of this weekend's football picks.

On Saturday 12/17, Sunday 12/18, and Monday 12/19, I was a gratifying 10 and 6 picking NFL games.

Hey kiddies! Only 6 more confessing days until Christmas!

Contact a priest and let him know you would like to participate in the Sacrament of Penance. The chances are excellent it will make his day.

A review of the "nature" documentary every animal sentimentalist must see by Roger Ebert (who surprisingly seems to make some sense here.)

Timothy Treadwell (right) studied and lived with grizzly bears (left) until he was killed and eaten by them. (This is the actual photo caption from the Chicago Sun-Times. I kid you not.)


If this documentary was the enviro-symp equivalent of Spinal Tap, it would be roll-in-the-aisle funny. As it is, it is difficult enough to avoid chuckling at the words and deeds of Mr. Timothy Treadwell, the winner of the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Horrible and Ironic Way to Die Institute.

Grizzly Man
BY ROGER EBERT

Cast & Credits
As themselves: Timothy Treadwell, Amie Huguenard, Medical Examiner Franc G. Fallico, Jewel Palovak, Willy Fulton, Sam Egli.

Lions Gate Films presents a documentary written and directed by Werner Herzog. Running time: 103 minutes. Rated R (for language).


"If I show weakness, I'm dead. They will take me out, they will decapitate me, they will chop me up into bits and pieces -- I'm dead. So far, I persevere. I persevere."

So speaks Timothy Treadwell, balanced somewhere between the grandiose and the manic, in Werner Herzog's "Grizzly Man."

He is talking about the wild bears he came to know and love during 13 summers spent living among them in Alaska's Katmai National Park and Reserve. In the early autumn of 2003, one of the bears took him out, decapitated him, chopped him up into bits and pieces, and he was dead. The bear also killed his girlfriend.

Mr. Ebert seems less than reverential himself.

In happier times, we see Treadwell as a guest on the David Letterman show. "Is it going to happen," Letterman asks him, "that we read a news item one day that you have been eaten by one of these bears?" Audience laughter. Later in the film, we listen to the helicopter pilot who retrieved Treadwell's bones a few days after he died: "He was treating them like people in bear costumes. He got what he deserved. The tragedy of it is, he took the girl with him."

May God have mercy on their souls.

Letterman is Nostradamus?

"Grizzly Man" is unlike any nature documentary I've seen; it doesn't approve of Treadwell, and it isn't sentimental about animals. It was assembled by Herzog, the great German director, from some 90 hours of video that Treadwell shot in the wild, and from interviews with those who knew him, including Jewel Palovak of Grizzly People, the organization Treadwell founded. She knew him as well as anybody.

Treadwell was a tanned, good-looking man in his 40s with a Prince Valiant haircut, who could charm people and, for 13 years, could charm bears. He was more complex than he seemed. In rambling, confessional speeches recorded while he was alone in the wilderness, he talks of being a recovering alcoholic, of his love for the bears and his fierce determination to "protect" them -- although others point out that they were safe enough in a national park, and he was doing them no favor by making them familiar with humans. He had other peculiarities, including a fake Australian accent to go with his story that he was from Down Under and not from New York.

There you have it, kiddies. Either Treadwell was a looney animal lover who was ignorant enough to believe wild animals loved him back or he was out to make money off such people. Either way, he was a dope.

"I have seen this madness on a movie set before," says Herzog, who narrates his film. "I have seen human ecstasies and darkest human turmoil." Indeed, madness has been the subject of many of his films, fact and fiction, and watching Treadwell I was reminded of the ski-jumper Steiner in another Herzog doc, the man who could fly so far that he threatened to overshoot the landing area and crash in the parking lot. Or the hero of "Fitzcarraldo," obsessed with hauling a ship across land from one river to another.

These quotes from the director make me want to see this film. What he calls madness I call defective will.

"My life is on the precipice of death," Treadwell tells the camera. Yet he sentimentalizes the bears, and is moved to ecstasy by a large steaming pile of "Wendy's poop," which is still warm, he exults, and was "inside of her" just minutes earlier. He names all the bears, and provides a play-by-play commentary as two of the big males fight for the right to court "Satin."
During his last two or three years in the wilderness, Treadwell was joined by his new girlfriend, Amie Huguenard. Herzog is able to find only one photograph of her, and when she appears in Treadwell's footage (rarely) her face is hard to see. Treadwell liked to give the impression that he was alone with his bears, but Herzog shows one shot that is obviously hand-held -- by Amie, presumably.

Ironically, Treadwell and Huguenard had left for home in the September when they died. Treadwell got into an argument with an Air Alaska employee, canceled his plans to fly home, returned to the "Grizzly Maze" area where most of the bears he knew were already hibernating, and was killed and eaten by an unfamiliar bear that, it appears, he photographed a few hours before his death.

The cap was on his video camera during the attack, but audio was recorded. Herzog listens to the tape in the presence of Palovak, and then tells her: "You must never listen to this. You should not keep it. You should destroy it because it will be like the white elephant in your room all your life." His decision not to play the audio in his film is a wise one, not only out of respect to the survivors of the victims, but because to watch him listening to it is, oddly, more effective than actually hearing it. We would hear, he tells us, Treadwell screaming for Amie to run for her life, and we would hear the sounds of her trying to fight off the bear by banging it with a frying pan.

Actually, I think the audio (or video) of their deaths would eliminate the urge to laugh. It might serve as a wake up call for our pampered and isolated citizens who continue to pretend they can control everything including Nature.

The documentary is an uncommon meeting between Treadwell's loony idealism, and Herzog's bleak worldview. Treadwell's footage is sometimes miraculous, as when we see his close bond with a fox who has been like his pet dog for 10 years. Or when he grows angry with God because a drought has dried up the salmon run and his bears are starving. He demands that God make it rain and, what do you know, it does.

Blasphemy. Why I am not surprised?

Against this is Herzog, on the soundtrack: "I believe the common character of the universe is not harmony, but hostility, chaos and murder." And over footage of one of Treadwell's beloved bears: "This blank stare" shows not the wisdom Treadwell read into it, but "only the half-bored interest in food."

Although Herr Herzog's weltanschuung is a bit bleak (Ok, downright terrifying), he is more realistic than Treadwell. One of the great intellectualoid conceits of the Endarkenment is the myth of man's separation from nature and his need to reunite with it in order to be "whole" again.

In a word, I'd rather have Herzog as a neighbor. Less chance of him getting me killed stupidly.

"I will protect these bears with my last breath," Treadwell says. After he and Amie become the first and only people to be killed by bears in the park, the bear that is guilty is shot dead. His watch, still ticking, is found on his severed arm. I have a certain admiration for his courage, recklessness, idealism, whatever you want to call it, but here is a man who managed to get himself and his girlfriend eaten, and you know what? He deserves Werner Herzog.

The bottom line? This fool got his girlfriend, a bear, and himself killed for no good reason. Treadwell's life was a stupid and ultimately evil one.

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

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

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

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

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

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


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

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

Call:(800) 919-9338

Contribute Now Online


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

FAQs
FAQ - Donations
FAQ - Hurricane Relief

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


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

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

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

Saint of the Day and daily Mass readings.

Today is the Feast of St. Thomas De, St. Dominic Uy, St. Francis Xavier Mau, St. Augustine Moi, and Blessed Francis Man, Vietnamese martyrs. Pray for us, all you angels and saints.

Today's reading is Judges 13:2-7, 24-25.
Today's Gospel reading is Luke 1:5-25.

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


Everyday links:

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


Just in case you are wondering what exactly Catholics believe, here is

The Apostles Creed

I believe in God, the Father Almighty, Creator of Heaven and earth; and in Jesus Christ, His only Son Our Lord, Who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried.He descended into Hell; the third day He rose again from the dead; He ascended into Heaven, and sitteth at the right hand of God, the Father almighty; from thence He shall come to judge the living and the dead.I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy Catholic Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body and life everlasting. Amen.


Memorare

Remember, O most gracious Virgin Mary, that never was it known that any one who fled to thy protection, implored thy help or sought thy intercession,was left unaided.Inspired with this confidence, I fly unto thee, O Virgin of virgins my Mother; to thee do I come, before thee I stand, sinful and sorrowful; O Mother of the Word Incarnate, despise not my petitions, but in thy clemency hear and answer me. Amen.


St. Joseph, her most chaste spouse, pray for us.


Prayer to St. Anthony, Martyr of Desire

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


PRAYER TO SAINT MICHAEL THE ARCHANGEL

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

Mighty slim pickens in today's edition of the Find The Hottest TV News Babe Contest.

Deanna Richards (Above left - There is something about those glasses.) and Brooke Wehner (Above right) hail from 6News in Lawrence, Kansas.


Here's Nicole Ferguson from WECT in Wilmington, NC.

Battle of the Day.

On this date in 1944 the Battle of the Bulge began. My father received his second Purple Heart for wounds he suffered in the Ardennes.