Reflections

Ernest Hemingway

2010-07-21T12:00:00.005-04:00

Today is the birthday of Ernest Hemingway. At times neither a gentleman nor a good father Hemingway did represent masculinity, an altogether forgotten ideal, trait, a habit of being that has been almost eradicated from men in America. Today's male role model is either an athlete, musician or an actor completely self centered and self absorbed without any pretense of traditional masculinity. Hemingway, despite numerous character flaws lived a life of which most men can only dream, winner of the Pulitzer and Nobel Prizes and the Bronze Star, he wrote 27 books and 50 short stories all the while exhibiting world class sports fishing talents to go with big game hunting, boxing, bull fighting and a seemingly endless stream of grand adventures. The preface of The First Forty-Nine Stories sums up his approach to life: "In going where you have to go, and doing what you have to do, and seeing what you have to see, you dull and blunt the instrument you write with. But I would rather have it bent and dulled and know I had to put it on the grindstone again and hammer it into shape and put a whetstone to it, and know that I had something to write about, than to have it bright and shining and nothing to say, or smooth and well oiled in the closet, but unused."

A Road Less Traveled

2010-06-25T12:00:00.000-04:00

The Road Less Traveled

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood

And sorry I could not travel both

And be one traveler, long I stood

And looked down one as far as I could

To where it bent in the undergrowth

Then took the other as just as fair

And having perhaps the better claim

Because it was grassy and wanted wear

Though as for that, the passing there

Had worn them really about the same

And both that morning equally lay

In leaves no step had trodden black

Oh, I kept the first for another day!

Yet, knowing how way leads onto way

I doubted if I should ever come back

I shall be telling this with a sigh

Somewhere ages and ages hence

Two roads diverged in a wood

And I took the one less traveled by

And that has made all the difference

Robert Frost

The Way of Light

2010-06-11T12:53:00.000-04:00

The Way of Light is this: if any man wants to journey to his appointed home then he must put his whole heart into his work. To aid our steps on the road, illumination has been given to us as follows — love your Maker, fear your Creator, glorify him who redeemed you from death. Be simple in heart, and rich in spirit. Shun the company of those who walk in the way of death. Hate all that is not pleasing to God, hate all hypocrisy, and never desert the commandments of the Lord. Do not proclaim your own importance but keep a modest and humble mind. Do not seek to cover yourself in glory. Make no evil plans against your neighbour. Keep away from the sin of presumption.

Love your neighbor more than your own life. Do not procure abortion, do not commit infanticide. Do not withhold your discipline from your son or your daughter but teach them the fear of God from their childhood onwards. Do not covet your neighbour’s goods or avariciously hold on to your own. Do not cultivate intimacy with the great but keep company with humble and virtuous men. When tribulations come upon you, receive them as you would receive good things, seeing that that nothing happens without God. Do not equivocate or speak in double meanings.

Share your goods with your neighbour and do not insist that they are yours alone — for if you are sharers in that which is incorruptible, how much more must you be sharers in that which is corruptible. Do not be in a hurry to speak, for the tongue is a deadly snare. Keep your soul as pure as you can. Do not be someone who stretches out his hands to take, and but keeps them tight shut when it comes to giving. If anyone expounds the word of the Lord to you, love them as the apple of your eye.

Keep the day of judgement in mind, day and night. Seek the daily company of the people of God, either laboring by word of mouth — by going among them, exhorting them and striving to save souls by the word — or labouring with your hands, earning a ransom for your sins.

Do not hesitate to give, and give without grumbling: you will discover who can be generous with his rewards. Keep the commandments you have received, adding nothing and taking nothing away. Hold evil in detestation. Make your decisions fairly and uprightly. Do not cause quarrels, but rather bring together those who are in dispute and reconcile them. Confess your own sins. Do not set about prayer when you have a bad conscience. This is the Way of Light.

Saint Barnabas

Aciutas

2010-04-30T13:36:00.000-04:00

"It is a sad fate for a man to die too well known to everybody else and still unknown to himself."
Francis Bacon

Wow!

2010-01-20T12:41:00.003-05:00

In the special election to fill the Senate seat formerly held by the deceased Sen. Ted Kennedy, Republican Scott Brown defeated his Democrat opponent and sent shook waves throughout the political landscape. That a Republican who opposed Pres. Obama's healthcare reform and most other presidential initiatives could take the seat held by "the lion of the Senate" in the bluest of states is nothing short of miraculous unless of course your belief system runs to the more pedestrian in which case it was "stunning", "an upset of epic proportions"! An interesting footnote is that today's first reading in the Mass is 1Samuel, the story of David and Goliath!

Prayer for Haiti

2010-01-15T09:05:00.002-05:00

Oh, God our Father:
In faith we acknowledge your paternal care over us, your sons, daughters and children. In hope we trust in your divine providence of giving us wisdom and courage as we face the challenges in life. In love we invoke your help and guidance during these difficult days of death and destruction in Haiti.
Ours is a prayer of thanksgiving for once again reminding us that ours is an imperfect world, that heaven is not on earth. Ours too is a prayer of repentance for calling upon you when we are in need and desperation but forgetting you in favorable times and pleasing occasions. Ours as well is a prayer of petition as we say:
Grant eternal peace to those who lost their lives. Embrace the children who died in their innocence. Help those who are hurt and cure those who are sick.
Encourage those who suffer the destruction of their homes and properties, and to once again stand up and rebuild their future.
Bless all those who extend their helping hands to those in need of food, shelter and clothing, who share their time, talents and resources with others.
Inspire more people to be men and women for their neighbors, convinced that the more they are for others, the taller they stand before you.
Spare us please from other natural disasters and devastations if this be according to Your will and for our own spiritual good and growth.
Amen.

Kids!

2010-01-08T12:01:00.000-05:00

Some young men who attend Dearborn's Edsel Ford High School have found themselves in hot water after wearing sweat shirts described as "offensive" and in "poor taste" by the schools principle. The teens are members of the Class of 2011 and placed the 11 on the shirt with windows meaning to invoke the Twin Towers with "You can't bring us down" lettered underneath. So far so good, unfortunately they placed the school logo, the Thunderbid, this is Ford country remember, flying toward the towers. The boys like half those who attend Edsel Ford are Arabic. Oops!

Cryogenic Nonsense

2010-01-06T17:03:00.004-05:00

The Monday back after the Christmas celebration brings us news of people so afraid of death they are banking on cryogenics, the “ambulance of the future” to allow them to live forever. It is hard to imagine something more lonely, more desperate than wanting to live forever. This life we have is a stop on our soul’s eternal journey not the destination. We will be home when we reach heaven. While the fear of the unknown may be frightening, heaven is known and fearing death because we miss talking to a spouse or loved one is sad, very sad. We are not meant for this world but the next.

http://detnews.com/article/20100104/LIFESTYLE03/1040344

Merry Christmas

2009-12-25T00:01:00.001-05:00

What child is this, who laid to rest,

On Mary's lap is sleeping?

Whom angels greet with anthems sweet,

While shepherds watch are keeping?

This, this is Christ the King,

Whom shepherds guard and angels sing;

Haste, haste to bring him laud,

The Babe, the Son of Mary.

Why lies He in such mean estate,

Where ox and ass are feeding?

Good Christian, fear: for sinners here

The silent Word is pleading.
Nails, Spear, shall pierce him through,
The cross be borne for me, for you:
Hail, hail, the Word made flesh,
The Babe, the Son of Mary.

So bring him incense, gold, and myrrh,

Come, peasant, king, to own him;

the King of kings salvation brings,

Let loving hearts enthrone him.
Raise, raise, the song on high,
The virgin sings her lullaby:
Joy, joy, for Christ is born,
The babe, the Son of Mary!

On Giving

2009-12-22T12:49:00.000-05:00

The following essay was published by George Matthews Adams in his Today's Talk column in the Saline News. A truer thought may never have seen print.

Today’s Talk
By George Matthew Adams

On Giving

I have carried in my mind a sentence that I came across in my youth. “The only things we keep are the things that we give away”. It was Lowell who said that “the gift, without the giver is bare.” And then there is that example of the “Widow’s Mite, as told in the New Testament.

Many years ago, Henry G. Denny, who was then Treasurer of Harvard University, sent out an appeal for funds to buys books for its library. There was a printed caption as follows: “we hereby agree to contribute the sums set against our respective names towards a fund to be permanently invested, the income of which shall be applied to the purchase of books for the public library of Harvard College.”

This petition was sent to many, but the most interesting contribution came from a former graduate in these words:
“Dear Sir, Enclosed please find $5.00 for the object above described. I would gladly give more, but this amount exceeds my income from all sources for the last four months. Yours Respectfully, Henry David Thoreau”

We never know how far a small contribution wends its way. Thoreau never earned very much money. But he earned the gratitude of millions through his writings about life and Nature in all its moods. His fame will live in the hearts of lovers of the out-of-doors, because of his brave, beautiful interpretations. He gave more than money, as he did to Harvard. He gave himself.

People do not want what we have in our pockets half as much as they want what is in our hearts, If we combine both, we give wisely and well.

Worthy Books for Christmas

2009-12-17T12:00:00.001-05:00

The following are a few books I have read in the past year which I highly recommend for your reading pleasure.

A Canticle for Liebowitz by Walter M. Miller, Jr.
This book is a fine science fiction effort integrating a faithful view of the Church and her role in history. It is broken into 3 parts, Fiat Homo, “Let there be Man”; Fiat Lux, “Let there be Light” and Fiat Voluntas Tua, “Let Thy Will be Done” each set some 600 years apart in the distant future after mankind has destroyed most of itself with the technological achievements of an inventive mind unfortunately not matched with an equally prodigious development of humanity, compassion, grace, etc. If you are looking for a fine book of science fiction infused with Catholic values look no further, buy this book and enjoy!

The Great Divorce by C.S. Lewis
Lewis stated that this book was not necessarily about Purgatory. If it isn’t, I am not sure what is about. Given some artistic license regarding movement between Purgatory, Heaven and Hell this book is clearly about those things which keep us from Heaven and lead us to Hell. Various characters cling to pride, talent, love, a sense of duty, whatever may dominate their souls and attempt to argue their way into keeping whatever may actually prevent them from attaining Heaven! Very enjoyable.

Walden by Henry David Thoreau
I read this book last summer for the first time since the early 1970’s. I think I will start every summer reading it. I may have thought it good in my youth but after 8 kids, 20 years of marriage and developing and growing a business I can firmly state that this book is wasted on youth! This book, along with Josef Pieper’s “Leisure, The Basis of Culture” are must reads for all folks enduring the rat race!

The Feast of the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin Mary

2009-12-08T11:16:00.001-05:00

In the sixth month, the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a town of Galilee called Nazareth,
To a virgin betrothed to a man named Joseph, of the house of David, and the virgin's name was Mary.
And coming to her, he said, "Hail, favored one! The Lord is with you."
But she was greatly troubled at what was said and pondered what sort of greeting this might be.
Then the angel said to her, "Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God.
Behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall name him Jesus.
He will be great and will be called Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give him the throne of David his father,
And he will rule over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end."
But Mary said to the angel, "How can this be, since I have no relations with a man?"
And the angel said to her in reply, "The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. Therefore the child to be born will be called holy, the Son of God.
And behold, Elizabeth, your relative, has also conceived a son in her old age, and this is the sixth month for her who was called barren;
For nothing will be impossible for God."
Mary said, "Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord. May it be done to me according to your Word." Then the angel departed from her.
Luke 1:26-38

Swiss ban Minarets

2009-12-03T12:00:00.000-05:00

The Swiss have held a referendum and voted to ban construction of any minarets. Currently 4 mosques have minarets which are unaffected by the referendum. Predictably the Swiss bishops have put forth a statement lamenting the referendum because it will “aggravates interfaith tensions and could have negative repercussions on Christian minorities in Muslim countries”.
“The decision of the people represents an obstacle and a great challenge on the path of integration in dialogue and mutual respect," the bishops said. Banning the building of minarets "increases the problems of coexistence between religions and cultures," they said. The bishops said the measure "will not help the Christians oppressed and persecuted in Islamic countries, but will weaken the credibility of their commitment in these countries."
The real obstacle to interfaith dialogue is of course Islam, churches being prohibited in Saudi Arabia, bibles banned but hey lets not aggravate Muslims you know how they get! I think it is high time that Europe defend its patrimony. Go Swiss!!!

Thanksgiving

2009-11-26T12:01:00.000-05:00

Our Father in Heaven,
We give thanks for the pleasure
Of gathering together for this occasion.
We give thanks for this food
Prepared by loving hands.
We give thanks for life,
The freedom to enjoy it all
And all other blessings.
As we partake of this food,
We pray for health and strength
To carry on and try to live as You would have us.
This we ask in the name of Christ,
Our Heavenly Father.

--Harry Jewell

Black Friday

2009-11-25T14:06:00.000-05:00

I heard an announcement that Wal*Mart is planning on opening their stores at 5am on Black Friday and increasing security and crowd control after last years fiasco where temporary employees where trampled at some locations.

This is pathetic. A people so concerned with the next deal, the savings of another 10or 20% they would actually turn out to line up in predawn hours to shop. The God of Materialism can never be satisfied! Something is being sold somewhere, purchased by someone, snatching a sale item from your family, depriving your wallet of a potential savings. What a herd mentality, wealth was supposed to liberate us from starvation, depravation, poor health and the overwhelming pursuit of the basic necessities to survive. We have traded the requirement of leaving the house to farm or shoot dinner for saving 10% on a new DVD release. If I could I would close everything except grocery stores, gas stations and hospitals on Sunday – bring back the Blue Laws and figure out what it means to be human.

Study debunks theories on priests' sex abuse

2009-11-20T14:01:00.000-05:00

"BALTIMORE -- Researchers at New York's John Jay College of Criminal Justice, reporting initial findings in their look into causes of the Catholic church's 2002 sexual-abuse scandal, yesterday said they can't attribute it to gay priests or seminaries for teenagers.
"We do not have data to support ... those assertions," said Karen Terry, lead researcher for the $1.8 million study commissioned by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, which is meeting this week in Baltimore."

If this wasn’t so serious it would be funny. It is absolutely preposterous to suggest these “not homosexual” priests suffered from a lack of sexual contact in such a fashion as to propel them to assault boys, against their natural sexual orientation. Because access to boys was easier than finding girls and /or women and no doubt having sex with a female would of course introduce another potential problem namely procreation, don’t want to be worried about contraception … right? Not having sex does not result in homosexual behavior any more than not drinking results in cirrhosis of the liver or not smoking results in lung cancer. The priests who assaulted these boys were homosexuals who have fallen for the whisperings of our culture in general and Satan in particular. They have done as much damage to The Church as a human being possibly could, may God save their eternal souls. As regards the report published by John Jay College it simply confirms the lack of intellectual respect the educational elites have for the everyman. They assume we will swallow whole whatever they offer. More is the pity.

A Bishop Teaches (and leads)!

2009-11-12T12:45:00.001-05:00

Bishop Tobin’s response to the nonsense offered by Rep. Kennedy, Dem., R.I. is spot on and should be cheered by those among us crying for leadership from our bishops!

WITHOUT A DOUBT
Dear Congressman Kennedy
BY BISHOP THOMAS J. TOBIN
11/12/09 12:00 am

Since our recent correspondence has been rather public, I hope you don’t mind if I share a few reflections about your practice of the faith in this public forum. I usually wouldn’t do that – that is speak about someone’s faith in a public setting – but in our well-documented exchange of letters about health care and abortion, it has emerged as an issue. I also share these words publicly with the thought that they might be instructive to other Catholics, including those in prominent positions of leadership.
For the moment I’d like to set aside the discussion of health care reform, as important and relevant as it is, and focus on one statement contained in your letter of October 29, 2009, in which you write, “The fact that I disagree with the hierarchy on some issues does not make me any less of a Catholic.” That sentence certainly caught my attention and deserves a public response, lest it go unchallenged and lead others to believe it’s true. And it raises an important question: What does it mean to be a Catholic?
“The fact that I disagree with the hierarchy on some issues does not make me any less of a Catholic.” Well, in fact, Congressman, in a way it does. Although I wouldn’t choose those particular words, when someone rejects the teachings of the Church, especially on a grave matter, a life-and-death issue like abortion, it certainly does diminish their ecclesial communion, their unity with the Church. This principle is based on the Sacred Scripture and Tradition of the Church and is made more explicit in recent documents.
For example, the “Code of Canon Law” says, “Lay persons are bound by an obligation and possess the right to acquire a knowledge of Christian doctrine adapted to their capacity and condition so that they can live in accord with that doctrine.” (Canon 229, #1)
The “Catechism of the Catholic Church” says this: “Mindful of Christ’s words to his apostles, ‘He who hears you, hears me,’ the faithful receive with docility the teaching and directives that their pastors give them in different forms.” (#87)
Or consider this statement of the Church: “It would be a mistake to confuse the proper autonomy exercised by Catholics in political life with the claim of a principle that prescinds from the moral and social teaching of the Church.” (Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, 2002)
There’s lots of canonical and theological verbiage there, Congressman, but what it means is that if you don’t accept the teachings of the Church your communion with the Church is flawed, or in your own words, makes you “less of a Catholic.”
But let’s get down to a more practical question; let’s approach it this way: What does it mean, really, to be a Catholic? After all, being a Catholic has to mean something, right?
Well, in simple terms – and here I refer only to those more visible, structural elements of Church membership – being a Catholic means that you’re part of a faith community that possesses a clearly defined authority and doctrine, obligations and expectations. It means that you believe and accept the teachings of the Church, especially on essential matters of faith and morals; that you belong to a local Catholic community, a parish; that you attend Mass on Sundays and receive the sacraments regularly; that you support the Church, personally, publicly, spiritually and financially.
Congressman, I’m not sure whether or not you fulfill the basic requirements of being a Catholic, so let me ask: Do you accept the teachings of the Church on essential matters of faith and morals, including our stance on abortion? Do you belong to a local Catholic community, a parish? Do you attend Mass on Sundays and receive the sacraments regularly? Do you support the Church, personally, publicly, spiritually and financially?
In your letter you say that you “embrace your faith.” Terrific. But if you don’t fulfill the basic requirements of membership, what is it exactly that makes you a Catholic? Your baptism as an infant? Your family ties? Your cultural heritage?
Your letter also says that your faith “acknowledges the existence of an imperfect humanity.” Absolutely true. But in confronting your rejection of the Church’s teaching, we’re not dealing just with “an imperfect humanity” – as we do when we wrestle with sins such as anger, pride, greed, impurity or dishonesty. We all struggle with those things, and often fail.
Your rejection of the Church’s teaching on abortion falls into a different category – it’s a deliberate and obstinate act of the will; a conscious decision that you’ve re-affirmed on many occasions. Sorry, you can’t chalk it up to an “imperfect humanity.” Your position is unacceptable to the Church and scandalous to many of our members. It absolutely diminishes your communion with the Church.
Congressman Kennedy, I write these words not to embarrass you or to judge the state of your conscience or soul. That’s ultimately between you and God. But your description of your relationship with the Church is now a matter of public record, and it needs to be challenged. I invite you, as your bishop and brother in Christ, to enter into a sincere process of discernment, conversion and repentance. It’s not too late for you to repair your relationship with the Church, redeem your public image, and emerge as an authentic “profile in courage,” especially by defending the sanctity of human life for all people, including unborn children. And if I can ever be of assistance as you travel the road of faith, I would be honored and happy to do so.
Sincerely yours,
Thomas J. Tobin
Bishop of Providence
http://www.thericatholic.com/opinion/detail.html?sub_id=2632

Ft. Hood Terrorist Attack

2009-11-06T14:01:00.000-05:00

This impetus for this terrorist act was Islam. As surely as smoking tobacco causes cancer practicing the “religion of peace” causes barbarous acts which affront humanity. Not everyone who smokes develops cancer and not everyone who practices the “religion of peace” becomes a terrorist, however, smoking does increase the risk of cancers and the practice of the “religion of peace” increases the likeliness of violent, murderous, barbaric acts of violence. Practicing this “religion” opens a door through which the spiritual forces seeking the ruin and destruction of souls enters the hearts and minds of its adherents. The voice these Muslim terrorists hear is not God but rather the prince of lies, the chief architect of the culture of death. The binding of the Koran should be stamped with the warning; WARNING: PRACTICING THIS ”RELIGION” WILL RESULT IN THE SPIRITUAL DESTRUCTION OF YOUR SOUL AND MAY RESULT IN ACTS OF VIOLENCE AGAINST PEOPLE.

Real Men Use Cast Iron

2009-10-30T13:00:00.000-04:00

Real men use cast iron. The heart of a home is the hearth and cast iron comes from this fire. Pig iron, heated until it flows, poured into sand molds, cooled and the rough edges knocked off. We are talking something primal, something that speaks to us from the past, telling us that the today’s respite starts with the feast fashioned from fire. Cast iron is used in fires, on fires, even with fire on top. It is practically indestructible unless you can generate heat in excess of 2,000 degrees. And if you burn food in it just throw it outside and let the critters have a go at it, take it down to the creek and rub it out with sand or gravel and presto, ready to go! You can use it as a hammer in a pinch; it does a decent job making kindling for your fire and smushes insects and small rodents with ease. Shoot, you let fly with a 12” lid and you will give a black bear pause. It also works real well on the sorry excuses for boys roaming around the neighborhood these days! Yes indeed, cast iron is the real deal. Americana writ large.

Rush to Judgement

2009-10-22T12:25:00.000-04:00

The Rush Limbaugh kerfuffle surrounding his participation in a group attempting to but the NFL St. Louis Rams is another fine example of liberal media bias. Limbaugh has been accused of saying that “slavery was a good thing”, James Earl Ray should receive a medal and a number of other things so outrageous you would think any responsible journalist would have checked the source for these quotes and questioned whether they were propagating another urban legend. But they didn’t, they ran with their preconceptions, slandered the character of someone who has endlessly promoted the notion that character counts and let the chips fall where they may. Some have admitted they were wrong, CNN’s Rick Sanchez for one has publicly apologized. We can only hope and pray that Sanchez and all the others realize they are also guilty of stereotyping those who do not hold their views as racist, white supremacists and endeavor to keep own biases out of the news.

Intersex Fish

2009-10-16T14:14:00.000-04:00

The government reported more findings from a study of intersex fish. These fish are male and have been “feminized” and carry eggs within their sexual organs. This study directly links women’s birth control pills and other unnamed “hormonal treatments.” The damage is generally limited to mostly black bass but the study found evidence of genetic damage in fish in nine river basins which covered 70% of the country. A report last year downplayed the birth control pill angle but the evidence must be so strong that it cannot be denied and I find it rather telling that the article notes the government stopped funding research in 2004!! It is amazing to think that we treat fertility as some kind of medical condition which must be “treated” as if it were a disease and now it appears that we have poisoned our water system with enough manufactured hormones going through the systems of fertility phobic women to damage fish!
U.S. Geological Survey: http://www.usgs.gov/newsroom/article.asp?ID2305

Our Lady of the Rosary

2009-10-07T09:30:00.001-04:00

Today is the feast day of Our Lady of the Rosary. This feast day is in commemoration of one the most decisive battles in the world and Christendom which took place October 7th, 1571. A Muslim navy which had not lost a battle in over 100 years was met by ships from The Holy League off the western coast of Greece. Pope Pius V led a procession around St. Peters Square praying the Rosary and instituted this feast day after Our Lady’s intercession which led to this crushing Muslim defeat.

Moral Clarity 101

2009-10-02T12:04:00.000-04:00

"Nearly 62 years ago, the United Nations recognized the right of the Jews, an ancient people 3,500 years-old, to a state of their own in their ancestral homeland. I stand here today as the Prime Minister of Israel, the Jewish state, and I speak to you on behalf of my country and my people. The United Nations was founded after the carnage of World War II and the horrors of the Holocaust. It was charged with preventing the recurrence of such horrendous events. Nothing has undermined that central mission more than the systematic assault on the truth. [Wednesday] the President of Iran stood at this very podium, spewing his latest anti-Semitic rants. Just a few days earlier, he again claimed that the Holocaust is a lie. ... To those who refused to come here and to those who left this room in protest, I commend you. You stood up for moral clarity and you brought honor to your countries. But to those who gave this Holocaust-denier a hearing, I say on behalf of my people, the Jewish people, and decent people everywhere: Have you no shame? Have you no decency? A mere six decades after the Holocaust, you give legitimacy to a man who denies that the murder of six million Jews took place and pledges to wipe out the Jewish state. What a disgrace! What a mockery of the charter of the United Nations! Perhaps some of you think that this man and his odious regime threaten only the Jews. You're wrong. Dead wrong. ... I speak here today in the hope that we can learn from history -- that we can prevent danger in time. In the spirit of the timeless words spoken to Joshua over 3,000 years ago, let us be strong and of good courage. Let us confront this peril, secure our future and, God willing, forge an enduring peace for generations to come."

Prime Minister of Israel Benjamin Netanyahu at The United Nations, 9.24.2009

The Culture of Death

2009-09-25T16:15:00.000-04:00

Birth Control Could Help Control Climate Change
Fri Sep 18, 9:29 am ET
“LONDON – Giving contraceptives to people in developing countries could help fight climate change by slowing population growth, experts said Friday in the British medical journal Lancet.
The Lancet editorial cited a British report which says family planning is five times cheaper than usual technologies used to fight climate change. According to the report, each $7 spent on basic family planning would slash global carbon dioxide emissions by more than 1 ton.
Experts believe that while normal population growth is unlikely to significantly increase global warming that overpopulation in developing countries could lead to increased demand for food and shelter, which could jeopardize the environment as it struggles with global warming.”
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090918/ap_on_he_me/eu_med_condoms_climate_change_2

Darn people, polluting the world, stressing Mother Nature with all these demands for food, shelter and resources. The world would be a lot better off without all these folks. So to that end why don’t we limit the number joining the club and start weeding out those who already survived running the gauntlet. Mandatory birth control, especially of those destined to be a burden, strict family size limits and realistic implementation of exit strategies, which sounds better than death panels don’tcha know, will do the trick. With a few realistic limitations on travel and food consumption both of which require huge amounts of energy and manpower we should be able to slow population growth and eventually reduce the number of people who are stressing our poor planet. Volunteers anyone?

The Green Revolution

2009-09-25T12:00:00.002-04:00

The man who diffused the population bomb and fathered The Green Revolution, Dr. Norman Borlaug died last week. His professional accomplishments are astounding and easily lengthened and in some instances literally saved millions of people from starvation. A column by Gregg Easterbrook at the following link is most enlightening and helps provide the full measure of his accomplishments.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203917304574411382676924044.html

Easterbrook's column elicited a Letter to the Editor defending the work of Paul Ehrlich (criticized by Easterbrook) which included a quote from Borlaug's Nobel Prize award speech which included the following, " But the frightening power of human reproduction must also be curbed; otherwise the success of the Green Revolution will be ephemeral only." What are we to make of this quote? From where I sit, absolutely nothing is gained from inferring anything from this quote. Dr. Borlaug like many others before him saw a need, starvation and the resulting human misery and used the gifts given him by God to set about to alleviate and reduce hunger and starvation. Whatever else he may or may not have thought about the problem of too many mouths for the available food supply, he spent his life creating an answer which did not include destroying the life he was trying to help. Western civilization is full of people of people who believe that life is a zero sum game with all new participants reducing the quality of life of those who proceeded them. Not so, the great characteristic of love is that it grows when watered with life. And vice versa. Here's to a life spent tirelessly working to better the human condition.
Eternal rest, grant unto them, O Lord,and let perpetual light shine upon them.

Disembodied?

2009-09-22T15:35:00.000-04:00

President Obama was recently overhead weighing in on Kanye West’s treatment of Taylor Swift at the MTV Video Music Awards. The comments were tweeted by ABC staffers in violation of the “off the record protocol” which created a bit of a firestorm both for the President’s “jackass” comment but all so for his being “tweeted “off the record. The entire exchange is as follows:
““I thought that was really inappropriate," Obama says. "What are you butting in (for)? ... The young lady seems like a perfectly nice person. She's getting her award. What's he doing up there?"
A questioner chimes in, "Why would he do it?"
"He's a jackass," Obama replies, which is met with laughter from several people.
The president seems to quickly realize he may have gone too far, and jovially appeals to those assembled that the remark be kept private. "Come on guys," he says. "Cut the president some slack. I've got a lot of other stuff on my plate."”

Two points need to be made regarding this exchange: The first point is the media were clearly in the wrong to tweet the President’s comments. The fact that they were tweeted vs. a more traditional approach is not germane, the fact that this needs to be pointed out to the media reflects how poorly these media “professionals” have been taught and trained. The second point is the President’s referring to himself in the 3rd person, “Cut the president some slack” is disturbing. Typically a person who refers to himself in the 3rd person is in serious need of help, both emotional and psychological. Perhaps the President was engaging his youthful questioners on their level, if so he missed an opportunity to elevate both himself and the office. I do not want a president who changes to meet the times, I want an embodied, spiritually and physically integrated president who leads. Period.

St. Timothy

2009-09-18T16:21:00.002-04:00

Today’s First Reading is from Timothy 6:2-12.

“Those whose masters are believers must not take advantage of them because they are brothers but must give better service because those who will profit from their work are believers and are beloved. Whoever teaches something different and does not agree with the sound words of our Lord Jesus Christ and the religious teaching is conceited, understanding nothing, and has a morbid disposition for arguments and verbal disputes. From these come envy, rivalry, insults, evil suspicions, and mutual friction among people with corrupted minds, who are deprived of the truth, supposing religion to be a means of gain.”

Doesn't he hit it square on with this? Those who teach something different or disagree with Jesus' teachings are "conceited, understanding nothing, and has a morbid disposition for arguments and verbal disputes. From these come envy, rivalry, insults, evil suspicions, and mutual friction among people with corrupted minds, who are deprived of the truth." Truer words have not been spoken.

Death Panels in Practice

2009-09-18T14:04:00.000-04:00

The Death Panels ridiculed by so many liberal, please see pages 425 – 430 of H.R. II, are a necessary result of the State sponsored health care system so desired by those on the other side of the aisle. It is rather silly to think that there will be 3 people sitting behind a desk listening with compassion to the “cases” being made by doctors and family members trying to decide what to do, which way to go. No, in practice, doctors will make decisions based on the requirements and guidelines written into The National Health Service Protocols. A perfect example of the system in practice is illustrated in the British NHS regarding how doctors are to treat premature babies.
The guidelines state: 'If gestational age is certain and less than 23+0 (i.e at 22 weeks) it would be considered in the best interests of the baby, and standard practice, for resuscitation not to be carried out.'
Medical intervention would be given for a child born between 22 and 23 weeks only if the parents requested it and only after discussion about likely outcomes.
The rules were endorsed by the British Association of Perinatal Medicine and are followed by NHS hospitals.
In practice, this was applied to Jayden Chappell born 2 days shy of the specified 23 weeks and left to die while his mother Sarah Capewell pleaded for doctors to help her baby. So, despite guidelines indicating help will be given, it was in fact denied, no need to waste time scheduling a meeting of the Death Panel! The very heart and soul of medicine will be eviscerated when health care is nationalized. Since the definition of medicine is “the art and science of healing” I think we should have a contest to come up with possible new names for whatever “health” care system emerges from the Inferno.

This referenced story is from The Daily Mail, 9.10.2009, the link is: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1211950/Premature-baby-left-die-doctors-mother-gives-birth-just-days-22-week-care-limit.html

September 11th

2009-09-11T12:30:00.000-04:00

Today is the eighth anniversary of the Islamic attacks on America on September 11th, 2001. I think we should celebrate this day by celebrating life and family which are the perfect and natural counterpoints to the Culture of Death which is Islam. The stories of the people who faced death on that day unanimously revolved around family and God. We didn’t hear of anyone rushing to complete an audit or letter which had to be emailed or texted before the end, no, when facing the end of their natural life these people called their loved ones to share their last minutes celebrating life, love and family. What could be a clearer witness to God?

Senator Kennedy, R.I.P.

2009-09-04T17:00:00.000-04:00

Senator Ted Kennedy was buried on Saturday, August 29th after losing his fight with brain cancer. Senator Kennedy was a beloved figure to liberals, progressives and the media chattering classes. They lionized his support for every program and wish in their platform to remake man in the image of --- well unfortunately not God. Senator Kennedy’s moral failings from being booted from Harvard for cheating, to abandoning Mary Jo Kopechne and enticing his nephew, Will Smith to go out drinking on Holy Saturday which led to Smith’s arrest for rape were deep, fundamental and unfortunately, lifelong. As a Catholic man his public dissent from the Magisterium and Tradition of the Church have caused scandal and exposed many people to perdition’s touch. We can only hope and pray that Senator Kennedy made a heartfelt, sincere conversion before he died and was welcomed home by God.

Muslims in America

2009-08-28T12:02:00.000-04:00

This is a video of David Wood and Nabeel Qureshi asking questions at Arabfest, Dearborn. The date is June 21st, 2009. There was a booth at the festival which had a banner titled "Islam: Got Questions? Get Answers." >From their table, we picked up a pamphlet claiming that Islam promotes peace. We noticed that it was full of poor logic and errors, so we decided to make a video refuting it. We went to the booth that gave us the pamphlet to give them the opportunity to defend their claims. Security, however, stepped in and forced us to turn off our camera. We left the booth, received advice from police, and found out that the actions of the security guards were illegal. We went back to the booth to record a potential answer again. Realizing that the Muslims present had no answer, we left. When we came outside, we were asked some questions by two young men, who had been sent by security to entrap us. While we responded to them, festival security started assaulting us, as you will see in this video. The conclusion of this video is a mob of festival security attacking our cameras, pushing us back, kicking our legs, and lying to the police. We ask you, is it a coincidence that the city with the highest percentage of Muslims in the United States is the city where Christianity is not allowed to be represented (let alone preached) on a public sidewalk? Is it coincidence that in this city, people will say "No way!" when we say "This is the United States of America"? Is this what will happen when Islam takes over the United States?

The Youtube video is at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fEPod-hxD7g&eurl=http://www.jihadwatch.org/&feature=player_embedded

Unfortunately I do not think this is an aberration, it is becoming the norm and I believe the root problem is the inability and or unwillingness of Muslims to integrate. When I look around at the Muslims I know in Dearborn I see many, many who are integrated successfully and productive members of society. Many others do not appear so and I think the primary reason has to do with when they came to America. The Muslims who I see as integrated all came in the 1950's - 1970's. Recent arrivals haven't been integrated as successfully and I believe we can lay the blame squarely on multiculturalism. When we moved to Dearborn in the early 1990's I was surprised to see women in burkas at the DMV who were requesting / requiring the help of DMV employees who were Arab women and receiving the special treatment. We have not done our selves any favors by allowing the bilingual option at government agencies and I believe we have allowed people, Muslims in particular, to remain outside the mainstream of America and actively choose not to integrate. This will bear extremely bad fruit in the future. America has successfully integrated people from around the globe for better than two centuries and it remains the best way to bring Muslims out of the past and into the future but this will not happen if we provide avenues that are separate but equal.

Summer with Aristotle

2009-08-21T12:01:00.000-04:00

The Wall Street Journal had an article in its Opinion Section on 7.22.2009 entitled “A Summer With Aristotle”. The article details a Great Books Summer Program with 1, 2, and 3 week overlapping programs running at Stanford University or Amherst College.

“Reading the works of Homer, Virgil, Voltaire, Thomas Jefferson and so many others, the students are pushed to grapple with questions that have preoccupied the great thinkers of the past 2,500 years. What is the good life? How should I face injustice? What do I owe my neighbor?
The mere existence of these programs suggests an important trend in student learning habits. The academic radicalism of recent decades is receding, and students are ready to be serious again. Flaky courses—such as Sociology of Heterosexuality (Yale), Philosophy and Star Trek (Georgetown), or Whiteness: The Other Side of Racism (Mount Holyoke)—no longer interest them. Instead, students from book camp and Princeton are interested in “sitting down with Plato, St. Augustine, and James Madison, to think through the perennial issues of politics and citizenship,” says Robert George, a professor and director of Princeton’s James Madison Program.
Since its birth nine years ago, the James Madison Program has dramatically grown in its offerings and influence on the Princeton campus. That’s only been possible because “students are very interested in learning about founding principles.”

Once upon a time graduating from a school like Michigan with a Liberal Arts degree actually meant something. It meant that you were prepared to do anything, become anyone, it was degree that was invaluable. Not any more, liberal arts degrees have become virtually worthless academic degrees which signify that you have been intellectually abused by schools offering nonsense like “Sociology of Heterosexuality (Yale), Philosophy and Star Trek (Georgetown), or Whiteness: The Other Side of Racism (Mount Holyoke).

It is great to see some schools starting to return to the roots of education that have served mankind so spectacularly over the past couple of millennium. Thomas Aquinas College in Santa Paula, CA describes the Socratic method of the great books style: “There is a vital aspect of teaching that can never be implemented so well by lectures as by dialogue. Each one of us brings certain fundamental ideas to education which must be made explicit before learning can advance. Discussion is the optimum means to bring them forth. The student must, as it were, give them birth; the teacher, as a good midwife, only assists the labor. Tradition calls this the Socratic maieutic, from the Greek word for obstetrics, because the basic ideas we use in education come forth from our own minds, not from the teacher's.”

Atlas Shrugged

2009-08-14T10:35:00.003-04:00

When President Obama was elected I thought it time to pull out Atlas Shrugged and give it a reread. Suffice it to say that many parts were eerily prescient to today’s economic situation but you can also see why Ayn Rand ran afoul of William F. Buckley and others in the 1950’s debates about capitalism and its place and role in our society. “Give is a word we do not allow” Taggart is told when she arrives in the Galt’s Gulch, Colorado hideout of Galt, d’Anconia, et al. One would think you could give as you see fit, without compulsion but I guess not, it doesn’t fit the template. Rand has enjoyed some status as a seer of sorts but truth be told even a broken clock is right twice a day. I will give her the “artistic license” she deserves but seer, soothsayer, Karnack she ain’t. One final criticism, this book needs a serious diet as it is repetitive to the extreme, Galt’s radio address fills a chapter and we are told in the book that it ran for 3 hours!! Only a megalomaniac would have the conceited outlook required to believe that anyone in America would listen to someone on the air talking for 3 - 4 hours, enough already!! It’s fiction, sometimes fun and creative but ultimately overdone, self important and bloated.

Engaged to be Married, (Executed that is.)

2009-08-07T16:58:00.000-04:00

'I wed Iranian girls before execution'

Jul. 19, 2009, SABINA AMIDI, Special to The Jerusalem Post , THE JERUSALEM POST

In a shocking and unprecedented interview, directly exposing the inhumanity of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei's religious regime in Iran, a serving member of the paramilitary Basiji militia has told this reporter of his role in suppressing opposition street protests in recent weeks.
He has also detailed aspects of his earlier service in the force, including his enforced participation in the rape of young Iranian girls prior to their execution.
The interview took place by telephone, and on condition of anonymity. It was arranged by a reliable source whose identity can also not be revealed.
Founded by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini in 1979 as a "people's militia," the volunteer Basiji force is subordinate to the Iranian Revolutionary Guards and intensely loyal to Khomeini's successor, Khamenei.
The Basiji member, who is married with children, spoke soon after his release by the Iranian authorities from detention. He had been held for the "crime" of having set free two Iranian teenagers - a 13-year-old boy and a 15-year-old girl - who had been arrested during the disturbances that have followed the disputed June presidential elections.
"There have been many other police and members of the security forces arrested because they have shown leniency toward the protesters out on the streets, or released them from custody without consulting our superiors," he said.
He pinned the blame for much of the most ruthless violence employed by the Iranian security apparatus against opposition protesters on what he called "imported security forces" - recruits, as young as 14 and 15, he said, who have been brought from small villages into the bigger cities where the protests have been centered.
"Fourteen and 15-year old boys are given so much power, which I am sorry to say they have abused," he said. "These kids do anything they please - forcing people to empty out their wallets, taking whatever they want from stores without paying, and touching young women inappropriately. The girls are so frightened that they remain quiet and let them do what they want."
These youngsters, and other "plainclothes vigilantes," were committing most of the crimes in the names of the regime, he said.
Asked about his own role in the brutal crackdowns on the protesters, whether he had been beaten demonstrators and whether he regretted his actions, he answered evasively.
"I did not attack any of the rioters - and even if I had, it is my duty to follow orders," he began. "I don't have any regrets," he went on, "except for when I worked as a prison guard during my adolescence."
Explaining how he had come to join the volunteer Basiji forces, he said his mother had taken him to them.
When he was 16, "my mother took me to a Basiji station and begged them to take me under their wing because I had no one and nothing foreseeable in my future. My father was martyred during the war in Iraq and she did not want me to get hooked on drugs and become a street thug. I had no choice," he said.
He said he had been a highly regarded member of the force, and had so "impressed my superiors" that, at 18, "I was given the 'honor' to temporarily marry young girls before they were sentenced to death."
In the Islamic Republic it is illegal to execute a young woman, regardless of her crime, if she is a virgin, he explained. Therefore a "wedding" ceremony is conducted the night before the execution: The young girl is forced to have sexual intercourse with a prison guard - essentially raped by her "husband."
"I regret that, even though the marriages were legal," he said.
Why the regret, if the marriages were "legal?"
"Because," he went on, "I could tell that the girls were more afraid of their 'wedding' night than of the execution that awaited them in the morning. And they would always fight back, so we would have to put sleeping pills in their food. By morning the girls would have an empty expression; it seemed like they were ready or wanted to die.
"I remember hearing them cry and scream after [the rape] was over," he said. "I will never forget how this one girl clawed at her own face and neck with her finger nails afterwards. She had deep scratches all over her."
Returning to the events of the last few weeks, and his decision to set free the two teenage detainees, he said he "honestly" did not know why he had released them, a decision that led to his own arrest, "but I think it was because they were so young. They looked like children and I knew what would happen to them if they weren't released."
He said that while a man is deemed "responsible for his own actions at 13, for a woman it is 9," and that it was freeing the 15-year-old girl that "really got me in trouble.
"I was not mistreated or really interrogated while being detained," he said. "I was put in a tiny room and left alone. It was hard being isolated, so I spent most of my time praying and thinking about my wife and kids."

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1246443842931&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

When it comes to the "religion of peace" it seems almost impossible to shock ones senses regarding its application in day to day life and yet adherents continue to demonstrate behavior clearly rooted in evil.

Urban Renewal

2009-08-05T12:01:00.001-04:00

Detroit reportedly has in excess of 100,000 vacant lots within its borders. At 5,000 square feet minimum we are looking at somewhere between 11 – 12,000 acres of land that is vacant. How many acres of vacant and or abandoned commercial or industrial land is anyone’s guess but it seems that time is overripe for radical proposals for Detroit’s future. With its population of 900,000 headed toward 600-700,000 in the next 20 years Detroit has an opportunity to break from the past and plan for its place in the next century. I believe the City should encourage and relocate people to the neighborhoods that have demonstrated staying power, like the New Center Area, the DMC, Wayne State, the Theater District, Campus Martius and the riverfront thereby saving money on critical services that are budget targets like police, fire, schools, water, sewer and other infrastructure. The resulting vacant lands should be turned back to nature and lie fallow for future use as empowerment zones, parks, gardens and playgrounds. The Renaissance Center which opened in 1974 at a cost of $365,000,000 was supposed to anchor a renaissance in the city but unfortunately this has not happened. What is needed now is a radical vision of the future concretely grounded in realities of today.

House Health Care Reform Bill

2009-08-03T16:44:00.000-04:00

The House Health Care Reform bill is posted on line at http://docs.house.gov/edlabor/AAHCA-BillText-071409.pdf. The section on Advance Care Planning Consultation, pages 425 to 430 is troublesome. The consultation will be required every 5 years if the individual involved has not had a consultation and its purpose will include " An explanation of the continuum of end of life services and supports available, including palliative care and hospice, and benefits for such services and supports that are available under this title." It further describes a health care practitioner as a "physician and a nurse practitioner or physician's assistant who has the authority under State law to sign orders for life sustaining treatments." Page 430 details that "an indication to limit some or all or specified interventions." It further describes levels of treatment to include " the use of artificially administered nutrition or hydration". Food and water can never be described as a "health" treatment, they are simple requirements for human existence and to describe them as a "treatment" will provide the moral cover for euthanasia. This whole section reeks of the Culture of Death from the consultation every 5 years on your "options" to orders being signed by a nurse practitioner or PA who has authority under State law to sign orders for "life sustaining treatments" to looking at food and water as a treatment. People will be pressured to stop being a burden on family and society, we will find the authorization to sign life sustaining orders can of course be withheld and we will see someone make a determination that food and water fall under a protocol that a person decided they did not want at the end of their natural life. All under the guise of the Law and Benevolence and Health Care.

Gran Torino

2009-07-31T15:09:00.001-04:00

I had a chance to see Clint Eastwood’s most recent film Gran Torino this past weekend. The R rating for strong language is well deserved as Eastwood’s character spews an endless stream of racial, ethnic and sexual slurs and insults. Its also true that the film’s Catholic tone and theme’s are almost non existent in movies today. From the persistent priest trying carry out his promise to Eastwood’s dead wife to get her husband to Confession, the development and promotion of male virtue, the depiction of family and ultimately the self less sacrifice, (in atonement for Eastwood’s sin) the film exudes an unmistakable Catholic flavor. I do not know if Eastwood is Catholic but I can say he definitely understands what it means to be a man and he is unafraid to proclaim and teach the Catholic understanding of manly virtues. The scene where his son and daughter come over to celebrate his birthday with some cake and nursing home pamphlets while his Hmong neighbors ask him to a feast sparks his awareness that he has more in common with the foreigners next door than his own flesh and blood. The themes of family, the respect for elders and the place of food within framework of leisure are strong reminders of what really matters in this life.

Dearborn Public School Schedule

2009-07-28T12:30:00.000-04:00

The Dearborn Public School System announced its 2009 -2010 schedule last week. Ramadan is set to close on September 21 & 22 with the El al-Fitr Feast, Christmas break starts December 18th, mid winter break is in the middle of February and spring recess is from April 2 thru April 11th. Once upon a time spring recess was known by it proper name of Easter and it was celebrated on Easter, always and forever. Recently public school officials have divorced the break from Easter with some pabulum about the difficulty of planning around a holiday that moves a week at a time within a 4-5 week period. Not sure what the difficulty is as the Church has determined when Easter will be celebrated for the next couple of decades! El al-Fitr on the other hand falls on sunset after sighting the Shawwal moon in Saudi Arabia the birthplace of Islam. This spectacularly imprecise method has resulted in our Dearborn School District awaiting word from local imams for the official start of the holiday. They wait patiently, no doubt wanting to avoid offense and it probably does not occur to them the silliness of their Easter deliberations because their Christianity is something kept tightly under lock and key. I will go out on a limb and predict that the local school signage will announce the school’s holiday for Ramadan by name and will avoid the use of Christmas with some formulation like Holiday Break. I will keep you posted.

Thanks God!

2009-07-23T08:40:00.002-04:00

From the Space and Cosmos section of the Science section of the 7.21.2009 NY Times online paper comes the following excerpt:

“Something--probably a small comet--smacked into Jupiter on Sunday, leaving a bruise the size of the Pacific Ocean near its south pole,” the New York Times reports. Better Jupiter than Earth, we thought when we first heard about this. And it turns out we may have Jupiter to thank for the rarity of such events in this corner of the galaxy:
[Astronomer Frank] Marchis said the shape of the debris splash . . . suggested that whatever hit Jupiter might have been pulled apart by tidal forces from the planet’s huge gravity before it hit. In an e-mail message, he said humans should be thankful for Jupiter.
“The solar system would have been a very dangerous place if we did not have Jupiter,” he wrote. “We should thank our giant planet for suffering for us. Its strong gravitational field is acting like a shield protecting us from comets coming from the outer part of the solar system.”

Yet another example of the intricacies of God’s design.

Are We Having Fun Yet?

2009-07-20T20:00:00.003-04:00

A local pool in Nanjing, the capital of the Jiangsu Province, China is overflowing with people who seem to be all smiles!

BRICK Camping

2009-07-18T09:31:00.000-04:00

I went with our 3 oldest kids camping with the BRICK teen youth group in Wilderness State Park this past week. 37 teens, 14 adults, 19 tents, no running water and pit toilets!! To some it may sound like a recipe for disaster but 5 days unplugged in the outdoors was just this side of heaven. The kids played volleyball for hours every day on “our” beach as the wilderness campground is separated from the modern campground by a mile of woods. With 51 people to gather wood, water and prepare food the work load for any one person was negligible and we were afforded the opportunity to do almost anything which didn’t require electricity! The only organized activities were a ½ hour of personal prayer time at 9:30am and the praying the Rosary around the campfire at 9:30pm. The stars were not washed out by urban lights and were absolutely brilliant with portions of the Milky Way so dense with stars that areas appeared as a haze in the night time sky. Hard to imagine anything better.

Summer Reading

2009-05-29T12:00:00.000-04:00

"There is a temperate zone in the mind, between luxurious indolence and exacting work; and it is to this region, just between laziness and labor, that summer reading belongs."

Henry Ward Beecher

Memorial Day

2009-05-25T15:47:00.000-04:00

The night before the burial of her husband's body, Katherine Cathey refused to leave the casket, asking to sleep next to his body for the last time. The Marines made a bed for her, tucking in the sheets below the flag. Before she fell asleep, she opened her laptop computer and played songs that reminded her of "Cat," and one of the Marines asked if she wanted them to continue standing watch as she slept. "I think it would be kind of nice if you kept doing it," she said. "I think that's what he would have wanted."

“No arsenal, no weapon in the arsenals of the world, is so formidable as the will and moral courage of free men and women”
Ronald Reagan

1 Corinthians

2009-05-18T16:00:00.000-04:00

"What eye has not seen, and ear has not heard, and what has not entered the human heart, what God has prepared for those who love him,"

1 Corinthians 2:9

Intercessory Prayer

2009-04-17T14:34:00.000-04:00

I had another thought about our discussion of Protestants questioning the Catholic practice of praying to saints instead of directly to God.
On May 5th, 1917 Pope Benedict publicly appealed to the Virgin Mary, asking her to help bring peace on earth. Eight days later Our Lady appeared to the children at Fatima and said “I shall come to ask the consecration of Russia to my Immaculate Heart …. If they (the pope and the bishops of the Church) heed my request, Russia will be converted, and there will be peace. If not, she will spread her errors throughout the world … and the Holy Father will have much to suffer for.” She again appeared to Sister Lucia on June 13th, 1929 after Sr. Lucia was in the Dorothean convent. She was holding her Immaculate Heart and told Sr. Lucia “The moment has come in which God asks the Holy Father in union with all the bishops of the world to make the consecration of Russia to my Immaculate Heart.” Sr. Lucia gave the message to her spiritual director, who in turn passed it on to the local bishop who passed it on to Rome. We aren’t sure if Pius XI was made aware of the request but the consecration wasn’t done as Heaven asked. Pius XII consecrated Russia on October 31st, 1942 and it is worth noting the prayer included specific language about the war, “Peace in truth, justice and the charity of Christ. Give them peace of the arms and peace of mind he asks from the Conqueress in God’s battlefield.” The Allies won a significant number of battles on both fronts and the war’s momentum changed in our favor literally overnight. (The Battle of El Alamein in N. Africa stopped the German advance on the Suez Canal, think oil, and General Rommel ordered his retreat on Nov. 4th. Winston Churchill said that before El Alamein “we never won a battle and after it we never lost.” In the Pacific theater we won the Battle of the Solomon Islands a few days after the consecration and in Europe the Russians completed surrounding the German army at Stalingrad on Nov 19th, 1942 after which they started their long offensive from the east.)
The fascinating thing is that the Pope appealed to Mary, not God directly. And she answered by appearing to these children and asked for prayers, intercessions. Clearly God knew what was needed and He could have moved forward, rescued us, etc., but He did not. In fact, He said you “need to pray to Me through Mary’s Immaculate Heart.” It is noteworthy that He didn’t directly reply to the Pope, He sent His mother with a message to 3 peasant kids who were to pass it along up the chain from priest to bishop to Pope. It seems rather clear that He wanted (s) His people to participate in communion when we pray. There must be something about the communion of His Church praying that increases the efficacy of prayer. No doubt God heard all the prayers of His children prior to the Consecration but He had a form and a format that He wanted fulfilled and it started with intercession and includes the communion of His Church.
On May 31st, 1931 at Fatima 300,000 people witnessed the Portuguese bishops consecrate their nation to Mary’s Immaculate Heart. There were a number of immediate tangible blessings which followed not least of which was Portugal remaining neutral in World War II. Sr. Lucia wrote Pope Pius II on Dec. 2nd, 1940 telling him that Portugal was receiving special protection which other nations would enjoy if they were consecrated. It has also been reported that the Bishop of Seville in Spain consecrated his diocese and it did not suffer any violent deaths during the Spanish Civil War.

Easter

2009-04-12T08:00:00.000-04:00

On the first day of the week, Mary of Magdala came to the tomb early in the morning, while it was still dark, and saw the stone removed from the tomb.
So she ran and went to Simon Peter and to the other disciple whom Jesus loved, and told them, "They have taken the Lord from the tomb, and we don't know where they put him."
So Peter and the other disciple went out and came to the tomb.
They both ran, but the other disciple ran faster than Peter and arrived at the tomb first;
He bent down and saw the burial cloths there, but did not go in.
When Simon Peter arrived after him, he went into the tomb and saw the burial cloths there, and the cloth that had covered his head, not with the burial cloths but rolled up in a separate place.
Then the other disciple also went in, the one who had arrived at the tomb first, and he saw and believed.
For they did not yet understand the scripture that he had to rise from the dead.

John 20: 1-9

Good Friday

2009-04-10T12:01:00.000-04:00

Jesus went out with his disciples across the Kidron valley to where there was a garden, into which he and his disciples entered.Judas his betrayer also knew the place, because Jesus had often met there with his disciples.So Judas got a band of soldiers and guards from the chief priests and the Pharisees and went there with lanterns, torches, and weapons.Jesus, knowing everything that was going to happen to him, went out and said to them, "Whom are you looking for?"They answered him, "Jesus the Nazorean."He said to them, "I AM."Judas his betrayer was also with them.When he said to them, "I AM," they turned away and fell to the ground.So he again asked them,"Whom are you looking for?"They said, "Jesus the Nazorean."Jesus answered,"I told you that I AM.So if you are looking for me, let these men go."This was to fulfill what he had said, "I have not lost any of those you gave me."Then Simon Peter, who had a sword, drew it, struck the high priest's slave, and cut off his right ear.The slave's name was Malchus.Jesus said to Peter,"Put your sword into its scabbard.Shall I not drink the cup that the Father gave me?"
So the band of soldiers, the tribune, and the Jewish guards seized Jesus,bound him, and brought him to Annas first.He was the father-in-law of Caiaphas, who was high priest that year.It was Caiaphas who had counseled the Jews that it was better that one man should die rather than the people.
Simon Peter and another disciple followed Jesus.Now the other disciple was known to the high priest, and he entered the courtyard of the high priest with Jesus.But Peter stood at the gate outside.So the other disciple, the acquaintance of the high priest, went out and spoke to the gatekeeper and brought Peter in.Then the maid who was the gatekeeper said to Peter, "You are not one of this man's disciples, are you?"He said, "I am not."Now the slaves and the guards were standing around a charcoal firethat they had made, because it was cold,and were warming themselves.Peter was also standing there keeping warm.
The high priest questioned Jesus about his disciples and about his doctrine.Jesus answered him,"I have spoken publicly to the world.I have always taught in a synagogue or in the temple area where all the Jews gather, and in secret I have said nothing. Why ask me?Ask those who heard me what I said to them.They know what I said."When he had said this, one of the temple guards standing there struck Jesus and said, "Is this the way you answer the high priest?"Jesus answered him,"If I have spoken wrongly, testify to the wrong; but if I have spoken rightly, why do you strike me?"Then Annas sent him bound to Caiaphas the high priest.
Now Simon Peter was standing there keeping warm.And they said to him,"You are not one of his disciples, are you?"He denied it and said,"I am not."One of the slaves of the high priest, a relative of the one whose ear Peter had cut off, said, "Didn't I see you in the garden with him?"Again Peter denied it.And immediately the cock crowed.
Then they brought Jesus from Caiaphas to the praetorium.It was morning.And they themselves did not enter the praetorium, in order not to be defiled so that they could eat the Passover.So Pilate came out to them and said, "What charge do you bring against this man?"They answered and said to him,"If he were not a criminal, we would not have handed him over to you."At this, Pilate said to them, "Take him yourselves, and judge him according to your law."The Jews answered him, "We do not have the right to execute anyone," in order that the word of Jesus might be fulfilledthat he said indicating the kind of death he would die.So Pilate went back into the praetorium and summoned Jesus and said to him, "Are you the King of the Jews?"Jesus answered,"Do you say this on your own or have others told you about me?"Pilate answered,"I am not a Jew, am I?Your own nation and the chief priests handed you over to me.What have you done?"Jesus answered,"My kingdom does not belong to this world.If my kingdom did belong to this world, my attendants would be fighting to keep me from being handed over to the Jews.But as it is, my kingdom is not here."So Pilate said to him,"Then you are a king?"Jesus answered,"You say I am a king.For this I was born and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth.Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice."Pilate said to him, "What is truth?"
When he had said this,he again went out to the Jews and said to them,"I find no guilt in him.But you have a custom that I release one prisoner to you at Passover.Do you want me to release to you the King of the Jews?"They cried out again,"Not this one but Barabbas!"Now Barabbas was a revolutionary.
Then Pilate took Jesus and had him scourged.And the soldiers wove a crown out of thorns and placed it on his head, and clothed him in a purple cloak, and they came to him and said,"Hail, King of the Jews!"And they struck him repeatedly.Once more Pilate went out and said to them, "Look, I am bringing him out to you, so that you may know that I find no guilt in him."So Jesus came out, wearing the crown of thorns and the purple cloak.And he said to them, "Behold, the man!"When the chief priests and the guards saw him they cried out, "Crucify him, crucify him!"
Pilate said to them,"Take him yourselves and crucify him.I find no guilt in him."The Jews answered, "We have a law, and according to that law he ought to die, because he made himself the Son of God."Now when Pilate heard this statement,he became even more afraid, and went back into the praetorium and said to Jesus, "Where are you from?"Jesus did not answer him.So Pilate said to him,"Do you not speak to me?Do you not know that I have power to release you and I have power to crucify you?"Jesus answered him,"You would have no power over me if it had not been given to you from above.For this reason the one who handed me over to youhas the greater sin."Consequently, Pilate tried to release him; but the Jews cried out, "If you release him, you are not a Friend of Caesar.Everyone who makes himself a king opposes Caesar."
When Pilate heard these words he brought Jesus out and seated him on the judge's bench in the place called Stone Pavement, in Hebrew, Gabbatha.It was preparation day for Passover, and it was about noon.And he said to the Jews,"Behold, your king!"They cried out,"Take him away, take him away! Crucify him!"Pilate said to them,"Shall I crucify your king?"The chief priests answered,"We have no king but Caesar."Then he handed him over to them to be crucified.
So they took Jesus, and, carrying the cross himself, he went out to what is called the Place of the Skull, in Hebrew, Golgotha.There they crucified him, and with him two others, one on either side, with Jesus in the middle.Pilate also had an inscription written and put on the cross.It read,"Jesus the Nazorean, the King of the Jews."Now many of the Jews read this inscription, because the place where Jesus was crucified was near the city; and it was written in Hebrew, Latin, and Greek.So the chief priests of the Jews said to Pilate, "Do not write 'The King of the Jews,'but that he said, 'I am the King of the Jews.'"Pilate answered,"What I have written, I have written."
When the soldiers had crucified Jesus, they took his clothes and divided them into four shares, a share for each soldier.They also took his tunic, but the tunic was seamless, woven in one piece from the top down.So they said to one another, "Let's not tear it, but cast lots for it to see whose it will be," in order that the passage of Scripture might be fulfilled that says:They divided my garments among them,and for my vesture they cast lots.This is what the soldiers did.Standing by the cross of Jesus were his motherand his mother's sister, Mary the wife of Clopas,and Mary of Magdala.When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple there whom he lovedhe said to his mother, "Woman, behold, your son."Then he said to the disciple,"Behold, your mother."And from that hour the disciple took her into his home.
After this, aware that everything was now finished, in order that the Scripture might be fulfilled, Jesus said, "I thirst."There was a vessel filled with common wine.So they put a sponge soaked in wine on a sprig of hyssop and put it up to his mouth.When Jesus had taken the wine, he said,"It is finished."And bowing his head, he handed over the spirit.
Here all kneel and pause for a short time.
Now since it was preparation day,in order that the bodies might not remain on the cross on the sabbath,for the sabbath day of that week was a solemn one, the Jews asked Pilate that their legs be broken and that they be taken down.So the soldiers came and broke the legs of the first and then of the other one who was crucified with Jesus.But when they came to Jesus and saw that he was already dead, they did not break his legs, but one soldier thrust his lance into his side, and immediately blood and water flowed out.An eyewitness has testified, and his testimony is true; he knows that he is speaking the truth, so that you also may come to believe.For this happened so that the Scripture passage might be fulfilled:Not a bone of it will be broken.And again another passage says:They will look upon him whom they have pierced.
After this, Joseph of Arimathea, secretly a disciple of Jesus for fear of the Jews, asked Pilate if he could remove the body of Jesus.And Pilate permitted it.So he came and took his body.Nicodemus, the one who had first come to him at night, also came bringing a mixture of myrrh and aloes weighing about one hundred pounds.They took the body of Jesus and bound it with burial cloths along with the spices, according to the Jewish burial custom.Now in the place where he had been crucified there was a garden, and in the garden a new tomb, in which no one had yet been buried.So they laid Jesus there because of the Jewish preparation day; for the tomb was close by.

John 18:1-19:42

Holy Thursday

2009-04-09T12:01:00.000-04:00

Before the feast of Passover, Jesus knew that his hour had cometo pass from this world to the Father.He loved his own in the world and he loved them to the end.The devil had already induced Judas, son of Simon the Iscariot, to hand him over.So, during supper, fully aware that the Father had put everything into his power and that he had come from God and was returning to God, he rose from supper and took off his outer garments.He took a towel and tied it around his waist.Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples feet and dry them with the towel around his waist.He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, "Master, are you going to wash my feet?"Jesus answered and said to him,"What I am doing, you do not understand now,but you will understand later."Peter said to him, "You will never wash my feet."Jesus answered him, "Unless I wash you, you will have no inheritance with me."Simon Peter said to him, "Master, then not only my feet, but my hands and head as well."Jesus said to him, "Whoever has bathed has no need except to have his feet washed,for he is clean all over; so you are clean, but not all."For he knew who would betray him;for this reason, he said, "Not all of you are clean."
So when he had washed their feet and put his garments back on and reclined at table again, he said to them, "Do you realize what I have done for you?You call me 'teacher' and 'master,' and rightly so, for indeed I am.If I, therefore, the master and teacher, have washed your feet, you ought to wash one another's feet.I have given you a model to follow, so that as I have done for you, you should also do."
John 13:1-15

We are a Judeo-Christian Nation

2009-04-07T15:52:00.005-04:00

At a press conference in Turkey, Sunday April 5th, President Obama casually rebuked the old chestnut that the United States is a Judeo-Christian nation. "One of the great strengths of the United States," the President said, "is ... we have a very large Christian population -- we do not consider ourselves a Christian nation or a Jewish nation or a Muslim nation. We consider ourselves a nation of citizens who are bound by ideals and a set of values."

This is obviously wishful thinking on the President's part and perhaps even a long term goal for him and his fellow travelers but one must wonder to whom he is addressing these comments. It is obvious to anyone whose has read our founding documents, the Federalist Papers, any correspondence from or between our Founding Fathers that this country is a Judeo-Christian nation in concept and design. It is great because of our Judeo-Christian heritage. Only someone ignorant of history would accept the President's statement to the contrary so why put it forth? So why imply that we are not bound by Judeo-Christian ideals and values? And does it really matter why he said it? He either believes this to be true or is embarrassed by our country and its heritage. Either way he appears weak and small.

Il Divo

2009-03-27T17:25:00.000-04:00

Il Divo: Amazing Grace at the Coliseum

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YtrnB4FZ-yc

Tragedy at Sea

2009-03-20T17:20:00.001-04:00

The story of the four football players, including 2 current NFL players, who were lost after their boat capsized, turned into the bizarre with the release of the Coast Guard’s official report thru a Freedom of Information request granted on Monday, March 16th. The report states that the first night one of the men “freaked out” took of his life jacket and disappeared. Later that night another became unruly, threw punches, took off his life jacket and dove down and never resurfaced. On the second day the third thought he saw land and attempted to swim to it never to return. 4 men, in top physical condition, all football players at the highest level with a lifetimes worth of mental toughness beaten in to their psyche and only 1 survives. If the report is accurate 3 actually suffered some kind of emotional or mental collapse that led directly to their deaths. Why, why 3 out of 4? What did one have the others did not? Faith, love? Seems there is more to this story. Much, much more.

A dollar here, a dollar there.....

2009-03-18T10:09:00.001-04:00

During the presidential campaign President Obama was sharply critical of Pres. Bush's war on terror and in particular its cost. It is worth noting that during the eight years of the Bush administration a total of 2.8 trillion dollars was added to our national debt. It is also worth noting that during the first 2 years of the Obama adminstration the President will add 3.2 trillion dollars to our national debt. Oops!

Grace

2009-03-18T08:15:00.004-04:00

Former President George W. Bush says he won't criticize President Barack Obama because Obama "deserves my silence," and says he plans to write a book about the 12 toughest decisions he made in office. Bush's speech Tuesday at a luncheon in Calgary, Alberta was his first since leaving office.

Once again President Bush demonstrates the grace that has served him so well during his presidency. The tradition of presidents not speaking on public policy or their predecessors is invaluable and all too often ignored by former Presidents Carter and Clinton.

Islam Should Prove It's a Religion of Peace

2009-03-13T17:00:00.000-04:00

Wall Street Journal, Monday, March 9th, 2009

By TAWFIK HAMID
The film "Fitna" by Dutch parliament member Geert Wilders has created an uproar around the world because it links violence committed by Islamists to Islam.
Many commentators and politicians -- including the British government, which denied him entry to the country last month -- reflexively accused Mr. Wilders of inciting hatred. The question, however, is whether the blame is with Mr. Wilders, who simply exposed Islamic radicalism, or with those who promote and engage in this religious extremism. In other words, shall we fault Mr. Wilders for raising issues like the stoning of women, or shall we fault those who actually promote and practice this crime?
Many Muslims seem to believe that it is acceptable to teach hatred and violence in the name of their religion -- while at the same time expecting the world to respect Islam as a religion of peace, love and harmony.
Scholars in the most prestigious Islamic institutes and universities continue to teach things like Jews are "pigs and monkeys," that women and men must be stoned to death for adultery, or that Muslims must fight the world to spread their religion. Isn't, then, Mr. Wilders's criticism appropriate? Instead of blaming him, we must blame the leading Islamic scholars for having failed to produce an authoritative book on Islamic jurisprudence that is accepted in the Islamic world and unambiguously rejects these violent teachings.
While many religious texts preach violence, the interpretation, modern usage and implementation of these teachings make all the difference. For example, the stoning of women exists in both the Old Testament and in the Islamic tradition, or "Sunna" -- the recorded deeds and manners of the prophet Muhammad. The difference, though, is that leading Jewish scholars agreed to discontinue these practices centuries ago, while Muslim scholars have yet to do so. Hence we do not see the stoning of women practiced or promoted in Israel, the "Jewish" state, but we see it practiced and promoted in Iran and Saudi Arabia, the "Islamic" states.
When the British government banned Geert Wilders from entering the country to present his film in the House of Lords, it made two egregious errors. The first was to suppress free speech, a canon of the civilized Western world. The second mistake was to blame the messenger -- punishing, so to speak, the witness who exposed the crime instead of punishing the criminal. Mr. Wilders did not produce the content of the violent Islamic message he showed in his film -- the Islamic world did that. Until the Islamic clerical establishment takes concrete steps to reject violence in the name of their religion, Mr. Wilders's criticism is not only permissible as "controversial" free speech but justified.
So, Islamic scholars and clerics, it is up to you to produce a Shariah book that will be accepted in the Islamic world and that teaches that Jews are not pigs and monkeys, that declaring war to spread Islam is unacceptable, and that killing apostates is a crime. Such a book would prove that Islam is a religion of peace.

Mr. Hamid, a former member of an Egyptian Islamist terrorist group, is an Islamic reformer and senior fellow at the Potomac Institute for Policy Studies.

Wise Blood

2009-03-06T14:13:00.001-05:00

Our book club met last night to discuss our latest read, Flannery O'Connor's "Wise Blood". This book is nothing if not surreal, bizzare, and ultimately full of Catholic symbolism and soaked in redemption. It is not possible to summarize, simply and coherently, a story which includes an Army veteran starting The Church of Jesus, without Jesus, a mummy, a rat colored car, a gorilla, a blind preacher and his bastard daughter, a prostitute, competition from a competing church and preacher without completely spoiling the plot! Just pick up a copy, put up your feet and enjoy the ride with Hazel Motes. This is a fine introduction to O'Connor.

Help Us O Lord

2009-02-27T15:18:00.000-05:00

Help us, O Lord, to learn

the truths thy word imparts:

to study that thy laws may be

inscribed upon our hearts.

Help us, O Lord, to live

the faith which we proclaim,

that all our thoughts and words and deeds

may glorify thy name.

Help us, O Lord, to teach

the beauty of thy ways,

that yearning souls may find the Christ,

and sing aloud his praise.

W.W. Reid

Men, Bikinis and Life

2009-02-20T15:39:00.001-05:00

Research presented by Susan Fiske, professor of psychology at Princeton University shows that in men, the brain area associated with handling tools and the intention to perform actions lights up when viewing images of women in bikinis. She, of course, falls back on the dogma of evolution in believing this to be a byproduct of men’s incentive to seek fertile women as a means of spreading their genes. Yawn. So what exactly is the relationship between fertility and bikinis? There is a relationship between women and “tools and the intention to perform action” as the study indicates but the REAL question is “why did God make us that way?” Right? We were made by God to love, serve and know him, but why, when He created us, did God design us so that what was observed in the study would be apparent? I think we miss the point when we think of tools merely as objects or possessions. In fact, historically, tools have meant something radically different, they have meant in a very real fashion, life itself. A man would take his tools, his saw, axe, plane, drill, etc and hew out of the wild, shelter, food and would create wealth by building and crafting whatever was needed. A “real” man, the kind who would live long enough “to pass on his genes” would subject the wilderness to his will and would create what was needed for shelter, food, etc., for his FAMILY. Women, and ultimately his wife, would occupy the same niche in his brain with those things required for life, survival and success in the world. This is not an accident. God has made man and woman, together, as a family, as the PREFERRED means for successful living in the world. I put myself thru college working as a union carpenter on the Belle River and Greenwood DTE power plants, bridges, hospitals, schools and other large commercial projects and the carpenters I worked with looked at their tools with a rather profound respect because they understand these things are the means by which they support themselves and their families.

The Religion of Peace..............

2009-02-13T17:00:00.001-05:00

A suburban Buffalo man who founded a cable TV station to promote better understanding of Muslims in the U.S. has been arrested on charges he beheaded his wife. Muzzammil Hassan is the founder and chief executive officer of Bridges TV, which he launched in 2004 amid hopes that it would help portray Muslims in a more positive light. Its slogan was "connecting people through understanding."
When it comes to Islam you just cannot make this stuff up.

When Government is Involved.........!

2009-02-11T13:01:00.004-05:00

Today's Wall Street Journal reports that GM is planning on cutting 10,000 white collars jobs as it "rushes" to put the finishing touches on the plan it must submit to the Treasury Dept. by February 17th detailing how it will return to profitablility and compete with its Japanese rivals.
So, at the same time we have President Obama and the Democrat controlled Congress pushing thru a $900 trillion stimulus package ostensibly focused on job creation we see the government dictating job CUTS as a part of the loan package given to GM. This is the kind of lunacy we should expect to see until the government leaves the marketplace.

And so it Begins

2009-02-10T17:00:00.002-05:00

Bank of America has a full page ad on page A11 of yesterday’s Wall Street Journal touting a 10 year program investing $1.5 trillion in low income and minority communities and $20 billion on “sustainable” business practices. The former is the root cause of the mortgage crisis and the latter is a joke. Businesses are “sustainable” when they turn a profit not when they turn their eye to Washington, DC. BofA is one of the white knights of the government bailout of the financial industry and it appears they have become exactly the type of firm they helped rescue. Heaven help us.

Pres. Obama Limits Executive Pay

2009-02-06T11:40:00.000-05:00

Today’s Wall Street Journal has an article indicating President Obama’s plan to limit executive pay for companies receiving TARP funds from the government. This is a terrible idea. Executives who run their companies into the ground or the hands of a “white knight” should be fired with prejudice. An executive taking over a fallen company might very well find the offer from the Board to be below standard or the market because of the damaged situation they are inheriting but thought of government dictating pay policies should give us all pause. If the government feels right to limit the pay of CEO’s whose pay is a very small percentage of labor costs why stop there? They will start to exert influence in all manner of ways concerning costs and why stop there why not look at revenues? They will pressure firms to invest in alternative energy, emerging industries, mortgage relief, any number of policy ideas which would never reach the boardroom let alone mid level corporate decision makers! I am afraid that “pork” which is in the stimulus bill will emerge in the investment decisions of the firms who receive TARP funds. The life ring thrown to these firms may turn in hindsight to be seen as an anchor.

Books

2009-01-30T15:01:00.000-05:00

"Books are not made for furniture, but there is nothing else that so beautifully furnishes a house."

Henry Ward Beecher

Prayer for President Obama

2009-01-20T08:00:00.003-05:00

God of power and might, wisdom and justice, through you authority is rightly administered, laws are enacted, and judgment is decreed. Assist with your spirit of counsel and fortitude the President and other government leaders of these United States. May they always seek the ways of righteousness, justice and mercy. Grant that they may be enabled by your powerful protection to lead our country with honesty and integrity. We ask this through Christ our Lord.

War of the Worlds

2009-01-16T12:30:00.000-05:00

I recently rented the War of the Worlds version directed by Steven Spielberg and watched it with my oldest son. When I asked him how he liked it he responded enthusiastically, raving about the special effects which were in fact quite “special”. And yet I found the movie to be very disappointing, especially given Spielberg’s involvement. I explained to my son that while Spielberg has always worked magic with “effects” his movies usually have a decent story to propel the action. The WotW’s story must have been written by someone under 30 who read the Cliffs Notes on the original movie. In the original WotW the aliens land on Earth and start their invasion by marauding the countryside. In Spielberg’s WotW the aliens are transported to ships buried underground via lighting strikes where they activate their ships, arise from underground and start with their mayhem. This begs the question, Why would anybody bury ships underground hundreds or thousands of years before they are needed? What a colossal investment in machinery buried on a planet that may not be needed. What if the planet never developed the resource they were planning to harvest? What if you solved the problem these machines were designed for so that you needn’t have invaded? What if your technological advances rendered these machines obsolete? What if we had developed superior machines in the interim? Why not save your time and money and simply invade when you needed or wanted? Where was the adult supervision of these writers?

A Really, Really, Really Big Place

2009-01-09T17:00:00.000-05:00

The picture above is from the Hubble telescope which was trained on a small section of the universe and taken over an 8 day period, slowly soaking up all available light. The visible galaxies filling the little section of sky that the Hubble was viewing really illustrate the immensity God's creation. Our galaxy the Milky Way is a smaller galaxy in the universe with some 100 billion stars which takes light travelling at the speed of 186,000 miles per second approximately 70,000 years to traverse. With another 150 billion galaxies spinning around creation it is very easy to become overwhelmed by the sheer size and scope of God's masterpiece.

Merry Christmas

2008-12-25T08:00:00.000-05:00

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God.
All things came to be through him, and without him nothing came to be. What came to be through him was life, and this life was the light of the human race;
the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.
A man named John was sent from God.
He came for testimony, to testify to the light, so that all might believe through him. He was not the light, but came to testify to the light.
The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world.
He was in the world, and the world came to be through him, but the world did not know him. He came to what was his own, but his own people did not accept him.
But to those who did accept him he gave power to become children of God, to those who believe in his name, who were born not by natural generation nor by human choice nor by a man's decision but of God.
And the Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us, and we saw his glory, the glory as of the Father's only Son, full of grace and truth.
John testified to him and cried out, saying, "This was he of whom I said, 'The one who is coming after me ranks ahead of me because he existed before me.'"
From his fullness we have all received, grace in place of grace, because while the law was given through Moses, grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.
No one has ever seen God. The only Son, God, who is at the Father's side, has revealed him.

John 1:1-18

Pundit wannabe's

2008-12-19T16:33:00.002-05:00

I was listening to an afternoon talk radio show recently and the host was ruminating about a survey which indicated that 50 -55% of people believe that God was mentioned in our Constitution. This talk show host has won numerous awards for his sports journalism work, written best selling books and plays which have seen the stage. He was incredulous that these people were so ignorant and or ill informed as to believe that God might actually be "in" our Constitution, "why you would almost think they would believe that women and blacks don't have equal rights under the Constitution". Well, unfortunately, neither women nor African Americans had full rights under the Constitution, it took the 19th Amendment to guarantee equal suffrage for women and the 14th and 15th Amendments to guarantee rights blacks. Hopefully this wannabe pundit corrected himself after the commercial break but the broader question is why so many people believe that excellence in one medium or field translates into success in another.

Our Lady of Guadalupe

2008-12-12T12:00:00.000-05:00

Early on a crisp Saturday morning, on Dec. 9, 1531, the Aztec Juan Diego was walking to the town of Tlatelolco, where he had begun to receive Christian catechism lessons. As he reached a nearby hill, he heard a sweet and full sound, like the rich and beautiful singing of birds. Juan Diego listened, stopped, and told himself, "I must be dreaming." In a kind of ecstasy he followed the sound, looking up to the top of the hill where it seemed to lead. Suddenly the music ended, and he heard a voice calling from the top of the hill--"Juanito, Juan Dieguitto."
He climbed to where the voice was coming from. (Later he would say he felt not fear but great peace.) When he got to the top, he saw a young woman, who motioned for him to come closer. When he stood before her, he was amazed: Her dress shone and shimmered like the sun; the cliff on which she stood seemed like a bracelet of precious stones. And she was beautiful, with dark hair, dark brows, big eyes, like a Mexica (or, they later said, like a young girl from the Middle East).
Her voice was warm and gentle as she asked him where he was going. He said: To Tlatelolco, to learn of God.
She said, "Know this as true, my smallest child: I am the perfect ever-Virgin Mary, mother of the most true God through whom everything lives, the creator of persons, the master of closeness and proximity, the master of heaven and earth." She said it was her desire that a temple be built to glorify her Son. She asked him to go and tell this of the bishop of Mexico. "You have heard it, my little son, my strength, my word: Go and do your part."
At this, Juan Diego fell to his knees and said, "My lady, my little girl, I will carry out your desire."
And he went straight to the heart of the nearby city, to the palace of the first bishop of Mexico. He begged to see the bishop. He had to wait a long time, but was finally called in. The bishop, a Spaniard, Fray Juan de Zumarraga, heard Juan Diego out, but he did not seem to believe him. Juan Diego was just an Indian, an old man with a fanciful tale.
Juan Diego left, and on the way home he passed the hill and found the beautiful lady waiting for him. He told her he wanted to do what she wished and that he had seen the bishop but he was not believed. He pleaded with her to relieve him of the task, and to give it instead to a nobleman, a somebody. "I am a peasant, a porter, a tail, a wing, a poor leaf," he told her.
But she told him to rest assured--"I do not lack for servants or messengers"--but it was important that it be he who carried the bishop the message again, tomorrow.
Juan Diego agreed, and the next morning he walked back to the bishop's palace. After a great deal of effort he was allowed in. The bishop asked detailed questions, insisting on specifics. Juan told him everything he could remember. The bishop said he would need some proof. Could Juan ask the lady to send it to him? Juan agreed, and left.
He did not know that the wily bishop had sent some servants to follow him home and spy on him. But the servants soon lost him in the hills. This was humiliating for Aztec trackers, and when they returned to the bishop they angrily denounced Juan Diego, calling him a liar and a troublemaker. They vowed among themselves that when they next saw him they would beat him.
Juan went to the lady and related the bishop's request for proof. She promised to send him a sign, and asked Juan Diego to return the next day and receive it from her. But he did not return the next day. His uncle, who had been like a father to him, became violently ill that night, and in the morning he asked Juan Diego to go for a priest to give him last rites. Juan Diego went to town but by a different route, so the lady would not see him. First things first, he thought. But as he walked the other way around the hill, she appeared to him anyway and asked him where he was going. When he told her, she told him not to be anxious, that at that moment his uncle was being cured.
Juan believed her, and thanked her. She asked him to go to the top of the hill and gather the Castillian roses he would find there. He climbed, knowing he would not find roses in the December frost. But when he got to the top, he saw flowers spread over the hilltop--hundreds of roses that gave off a sweet fragrance. He cut as many as he could and put them in his tilma, the rough woven blanket Indians wore tied behind their necks. When he showed the roses to the Virgin, she rearranged them in his tunic.
Juan Diego returned to the bishop's palace. But the doorkeeper and the servants, warned that he was trouble, pretended not to understand him and ignored him. Juan Diego remained outside at the gate, standing there for hours, motionless, head bowed. At daybreak the next day, the servants saw he was still there. And for the first time they noticed he was hiding something in his tilma. Now they surrounded him and told him they'd beat him if he didn't show what he was hiding. As they drew close, they smelled the perfume of the flowers. They tried to snatch them, but each time they took a rose, it would seem to disappear, or seem somehow to be painted on the cloth of the tilma.
They ran to the bishop. He listened to them, realized this might be the proof he had asked for, and went to Juan Diego, who was now surrounded by the entire household. As Juan Diego opened his tilma to show the bishop the roses, an amazing thing happened. At the moment the rough material unfurled the image of the woman on the hill suddenly appeared on it. The bishop and all present fell to their knees. The bishop cried out and asked the lady to forgive him for not having carried out her will. Then he stood, untied the tilma from Juan Diego's neck, and carried it to his chapel.
The whole city was shaken by the event. It took Indians and Spaniards working together only 14 days to build a small adobe shrine on the hill where Juan Diego saw the lady. The tilma itself was put in the main church, and then carried to one larger still.
In his home, Juan Diego's uncle told everyone that a beautiful young woman with dark hair and dark eyes had come to him and cured him. She had called herself "the perfect Virgin Mary of Guadalupe." Soon he was brought to see the tilma. That is her, he said.

Leisure: The Basis of Culture

2008-12-05T10:00:00.001-05:00

This is one interesting book. Like most people with true insight Pieper starts his analysis by noting that the very root of the word "leisure" is scola in Latin, schule in German, school in English. The original meaning of leisure has been lost in our culture of "total work". He notes that Max Weber made a statement that "One does not only work in order to live, but one lives for the sake of one's work",. This statement makes only to much sense to us today. In fact how many times have you heard someone use the word work as a noun or pronoun as in "I have to go to my work". The second part of the book is fairly dense as you might expect for a traditional book of philosophical analysis but the first section is approachable and well worth your time. We seem to have a vision of work and life that is upside down, treating work as paramount, boasting of the hours we spend on this project or that, as if using our most precious "commodity" time, something which is unrecoverable and hence invaluable, to secure the means to vacation as the greatest measure of our character and nature. Not! Leisure is not simply not working like a lunch break or a day off work, it is contemplative, restorative, a singularly human endeavor.

Mumbai Madness

2008-12-03T10:58:00.006-05:00

Somewhere in the past couple of years I came across an article which stated that every single incident of international terrorism, terrorists leaving their country and striking in another, has been committed by Muslim men between the ages of 18 -35 years old. The Mumbai assault continues that dubious record and yet the blame America crowd led this time by Deepak Chopra dutifully trots out their tune oblivious to the inconvenient truth that something within Islam lends itself to the most destructive human behavior possible. Living here in Dearborn, MI I can testify that Muslims are a reasonable, honest, hard working, family oriented people. And yet we are confronted with a consistent pattern of terrorists who embrace Islam as the defining characteristic of their life, the thing which animates their being and propels them to act without compunction for the glory of a culture rooted in death. What is a civilized world to do? From where I sit the how and why of Islamic terrorism is something to discuss around the fire, the action we must take is simple; prevent, pursue and prosecute with passion this war on terror.

Thanksgiving

2008-11-28T12:00:00.001-05:00

Thanksgiving is a favorite not only because retail construction is almost completely nonexistent during the Christmas "season" and therefore work is naturally slow but because the holiday is about giving Thanks to God who is all deserving. It is a celebration centered on a feast and time spent with family, enjoying the simple yet invaluable treasures of life.

Giving Thanks

2008-11-27T08:00:00.001-05:00

Every day I will bless you;

I will praise your name forever.
Great is the LORD and worthy of high praise;

God's grandeur is beyond understanding.

Psalm 145:2-3

Sunday Funnies

2008-11-21T15:37:00.001-05:00

We watched Brian Regan's "I walked on the moon" DVD last night with the kids and found ourselves laughing out load! An entire hour of real comedy with swearing or jokes about bodily functions, sex, race, physical characteristics or the like. He brings a wonderful vision and insight of the world and adds a touch of physical imagery really present the whole comedic package. We laughed with him not at him or through some nervous compunction intended to cover up for our minds harboring some fleeting embarrassing thought before we threw it out from whence it came. Does anyone remember Steve Martin on The Tonight Show before he was "famous" or Martin Mull, Steven Wright or George Carlin before "The Seven Words You Can't Say on TV". To find and mine the human experience and our world for comedic gems that brings tears to your eyes from laughing yourself silly is a gift, a unique, human gift that adds years to our lives. Reportedly, the last words of Sir Donald Wolfit, British actor and director, were "Dying is easy, comedy is hard." Should you find yourself perusing the Comedy section at the video store do not shy away from Regan, he nails the genre with this bit.

Challenge to Life

2008-11-13T16:01:00.001-05:00

The election last week has placed a serious challenge in front of the pro life movement. Here in Michigan Proposition 2 was passed which opens the door to embryonic stem cell and the destruction of human life to benefit others. Horrible is not an understatement. And with Barak Obama being elected President we now have the most pro death anti life president ever. Obama 4 times voted against Born Alive legislation in Illinois and supports abortion in any and all phases and forms. Obama stated his support is unconditional because "I don't want my girls punished for a mistake". What a view of life, something which no one can create, which by definition should mean incredibly valuable, but not for this man, this party, this time. It would be very easy to be depressed about our ability to stop or slow the abortion holocaust with Obama becoming president but we must fight this feeling. Remember we are called to serve, not necessarily to win, but to serve and to speak the Truth in all places in all times, sometimes when necessary using words. There is a great scene in The Lord of The Rings where Samwise bucks up Frodo saying “I know. It's all wrong. By rights we shouldn't even be here. But we are. It's like in the great stories, Mr. Frodo. The ones that really mattered. Full of darkness and danger, they were. And sometimes you didn't want to know the end. Because how could the end be happy? How could the world go back to the way it was when so much bad had happened? But in the end, it's only a passing thing, this shadow. Even darkness must pass. A new day will come. And when the sun shines it will shine out the clearer. Those were the stories that stayed with you. That meant something, even if you were too small to understand why. But I think, Mr. Frodo, I do understand. I know now. Folk in those stories had lots of chances of turning back, only they didn't. They kept going. Because they were holding on to something... . That there's some good in this world, Mr. Frodo... and it's worth fighting for." Amen.

2008-11-06T08:29:00.000-05:00

Senator Barack Obama was elected 44th President of the Unites States of America on Tuesday. The outpouring of "emotional" support and joy was stunning as if people never thought a black person could be elected President, some commentators likening slavery to our "original sin". Personally, I see this as another sign of the strength of the American dream and ultimately our country. What other western democratic country can boast the same? England? France? Germany? Italy? None can. At present only America offers its sons and daughters access to all levels of society be it social, economic or political, all they need is a dream and the willingness to work hard.

President Bush: Right man, right place, right time.

2008-11-03T17:00:00.002-05:00

Through out history leaders have risen up to guide people through difficult and perilous times and I believe President George W. Bush is another in a long line of men who have answered the call to provide strong, moral leadership in a crisis. I also believe that his being in the right place at the right time can only be described as an accident to those without faith. The contested election between Pres. Bush and Al Gore was decided on 2 key dates; December 8, The Feast of the Immaculate Conception was the day Florida Judges Terry Lewis and Nikki Carr refused to throw out any of the 25,000 absentee ballots challenged by the Gore campaign in the Martin and Seminole counties and December 12, the newly assigned Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe saw The Florida Legislature approve the 25 electors pledged to Bush, the Florida Supreme Court upheld the decisions of Judges Lewis and Carr and in a lighting-like strike the Supreme Court of the United States ruled the Florida recounts unconstitutional. The legal wrangling was ended and the election of 2000 was complete on the feast day of the new Patroness of the Americas. We have also benefited from Pres. Bush’s choice of Dick Cheney as running mate. VP Cheney had served as Secretary of Defense under Pres. Bush’s father and had stated many times that he served because he was asked and had no personal ambition to higher office. The fact the President’s VP would not seek the presidency means they were free to prosecute this war without political concerns that would burden his potential presidential candidacy. And while President Bush would surely have wanted another focus for his presidency, we the people, have benefited greatly from having the right man in the right place at the right time. Thank you for your service Mr. President.

The End of Prosperity?

2008-10-29T08:00:00.000-04:00

The Treasury Department will start disbursing funds from the $700 billion dollar bailout package this week and I do not find this solution to be a welcome result of the financial chaos of the last 3-4 weeks. The root cause of this crisis is political in nature and having the very people who created the problem now organizing and coordinating the solution seems fraught with peril not to mention irony. Our government has struggled to efficiently and effectively run organizations on any level with one notable exception being the military. Politicians whose pensions and health care are guaranteed by the government simply do not "have a dog in the fight" and expecting them to to act with integrity handling the financial lifeblood of our economy is naive. In the most charitable of times I think we all would agree that they spend money like a drunken sailor and rarely exhibit the vision necessary to sidestep unintended problems resulting from good intentions. Prayers are needed now more than ever. The Monday edition of The Wall Street Journal has a sobering opinion column written by Arthur B. Laffler entitled "The End of Prosperity". The link is: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122506830024970697.html?mod=todays_us_opinion

John Adams

2008-10-24T16:43:00.004-04:00

It has been a real treat to watch this mini series. The camera work is such that you feel you are in the room with the actors as they speak, actually moving around with them as opposed to viewing something through a glass wall. The economy of words is also breathtaking – we live in a time where words have become almost meaningless with the most extreme adjectives and adverbs used to describe simple bumps, bruises or slights. When Adams describes his physician being bayoneted and stripped with “the full measure of British atrocity beyond description” you see the pained and horrified look upon the faces of delegates listening and understand that a detailed description is simply unnecessary. I also learned that John Adams defended the British soldiers who stood trial for The Boston Massacre and they were all acquitted, by New England men suffering from the King’s yoke no less! I would like to think it would happen today but our legal system seems hopelessly perverted by our secular culture and cast adrift from the foundation of God’s moral order. Politicians do not seem to have any foresight or vision and simply make laws as if thought equals deed. Our founding fathers were very special men of virtue and vision and we have been greatly blessed by the sacrifices that they and their families made in crafting our Constitution and country.

A Very Special Place

2008-10-16T16:46:00.000-04:00

A new study to be detailed in the upcoming issue of Physical Review Letters puts forth the idea that the Earth may reside within a bubble of space-time that is particularly devoid of matter. Current thinking is that 74 percent of the universe is dark energy, 21 percent dark matter with the balance normal matter. Dark energy is the hypothetical force that could be drawing or pushing everything in the universe outward. If we were in an unusually sparse area of the universe then things could look farther away than they really are and we would be no need to rely on dark energy for an explanation for some observations. If we were in an area with less matter than normal then space-time around us would be different because matter warps space-time. This however would negate the Copernican principle which states that we live in a typical place in the universe not a special place. It is probably bad science to start with a presumption but let us concede that God has made our universe and ask what benefit do we derive from living in this special place?

The "Ethics" of Death

2008-10-09T17:00:00.000-04:00

Baroness Mary Helen Warnock has said that people suffering dementia have a duty to commit suicide. She told the Church of Scotland's Life and Work magazine, "If you're demented, you're wasting people's lives - your family's lives - and you're wasting the resources of the National Health Service." In another article for a Norwegian periodical, titled "A Duty to Die?" she suggests, "There's nothing wrong with feeling you ought to do so [commit suicide] for the sake of others as well as yourself. In other contexts, sacrificing oneself for one's family would be considered good. I don't see what is so horrible about the motive of not wanting to be an increasing nuisance."
The good Baroness should be careful for what she wishes as her analysis shows some seriously flawed thinking on her part one might think she is “losing it”. Yes it is true that people do sacrifice themselves for their family, friends, coworkers etc. but her analogy is fatally flawed. People who selflessly act to save others while putting themselves in harms way are all acting on their own volition. No one is suggesting to them “throw yourself on that grenade Fred, take one for the team buddy”! They are also motivated by a love of family, God and country which nourishes incredibly selfless acts not by fear of being a “burden”. Any most importantly they are all quite sane not demented, depressed or mentally challenged.

Health Care is not a Right

2008-10-08T14:29:00.003-04:00

I watched the debate last night with my wife and older kids. If you were not practiced in Senator speak or political mumbo jumbo you might think that both candidates were essentially muddling around the middle of most policy issues. We owe a big thanks to the debate moderator, Mr. Tom Brokaw for asking a simple yet incredibly defining follow up question on health care. Is health care a privilege, a right or a responsibility? Senator Obama responded “I think it should be a right of every American”. Rights like free speech, life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, the right to assemble, right to worship, redress the government, bear arms and all the other rights listed in our Constitution, the Declaration of Independence and with the natural law or God given and require nothing from anyone else. When I exercise my rights I cannot by definition require something from you. Calling health care, education, housing, etc rights is completely preposterous as each of these requires some material aspect to be taken from someone and given to someone else. Senator Obama’s answer clearly illustrates his world view is in line with all manner of communists and socialists in stark contrast to our country’s founding fathers and the documents they generated to govern this great country. Beware America.

John Cardinal Henry Newman

2008-10-07T14:36:00.003-04:00

Church officials who were present when Cardinal John Henry Newman’s body was exhumed Thursday were surprised to find his grave almost completely empty when it was opened. All that remained were a brass plate and handles from Newman’s coffin, along with a few red tassels from his cardinal’s hat. Wow, imagine that. Completely empty save a brass plate with his name “in the world” and a few tassels from his galero signifying his office in God’s church.

“By the sweat of your face shall you get bread to eat, Until you return to the ground, from which you were taken; For you are dirt, and to dirt you shall return." Genesis 3:19

Greenfield Village

2008-10-03T17:35:00.003-04:00

We are so fortunate to have this collection of Americana in our backyard. A fall favorite is wandering thru the Village at a time when it is less crowded and enjoying a walk backward in time. It seems almost sacrilegious to feel rushed when visiting. They were cooking at the Ford Home, the Sasquahanna Plantation, the Firestone Farm and at the Daggett House. You would think that gas ovens and stoves and microwaves and dishwashers and all our modern conveniences would allow us to enjoy life just a little more and yet everything seems to be rushed to such a point that we eat in our cars racing from one place to another. Back to the future anyone?

Full of Life

2008-10-02T11:58:00.002-04:00

The governor of Alaska, Sarah Palin has been nominated as the Republican Vice Presidential candidate and one would think the world is upside down and crosswise to itself. Here is a woman who was on the sidelines politically, got involved in local politics and rode the reformers horse into the governor's office in part by railing against the big oil company, BP, who employs her husband part time when he isn't fishing for a living, has daughter who is pregnant before being married and has herself given birth in office to a Down Syndrome baby and returned to work 3 days later, no Family Leave for her. Doesn't this sound like a candidate that would be embraced by the party of the little guy, ostensibly the Democratic Party and yet she isn't a Democrat she is a Republican and most Democrats and liberals are all a twitter spewing incredibly mean and contemptuous invective in the Governor's direction, except one, Bill Clinton, who "gets why she is hot"!!! This is too rich for words. Governor Palin, like Clarence Thomas and Condoleeza Rice and countless others do not fit the liberal world view, they simply do not know what to do with her and in their hearts they feel threatened by her. She has put light to the lie that liberals are pro choice. Both she and her daughter have made a choice for life and there is no support for them from the left. More than a few have condemned her choice including Dr. Andre Lalonde, executive vice president of the Society of Obstetricians and Gynecologists in Ottawa, worries that Palin's now renowned decision may cause abortions in Canada to decline as other women there and elsewhere opt to follow suit. Granted, the good doctor is Canadien but I would think that her life would be the kind of thing that everyone on the left would celebrate and yet it seems that only the conservatives have the love. I guess this gun toting, moose hunting, life loving gal is too far outside the box for the Democrats.

The Feast of Saints Michael, Gabriel and Raphael, Archangels

2008-09-29T12:07:00.004-04:00

They come, God's messengers of love,

they come from realms of peace above,

from homes of never-fading light,

from blissful mansions ever bright.

They come to watch around us here,

to soothe our sorrow, calm our fear:

ye heavenly guides, speed not away,

God willeth you with us to stay.

But chiefly at its journey's end

'tis yours the spirit to befriend,

and whisper to the faithful heart,

"O Christian soul, in peace depart."

To us the zeal of angels give,

with love to serve thee while we live;

to us an angel-guard supply,

when on the bed of death we lie.

To God the Father, God the Son,

And God the Spirit, Three in One,

From all above and all below

Let joyful praise unceasing flow.

The Writer's Almanac

2008-09-26T16:00:00.003-04:00

I came across The Writer's Almanac recently and have been pleasantly surprised with Mr. Keillor's daily posts of poems, prose and literary history. The political commentary on the site is rather juvenile but the writing work presented is enjoyable. This week Mr. Keillor has focused on the impact the Norman invasion and conquest of the English speaking Saxons has had on the development of the English language. English went from being a strictly Germanic language to one infused with a large Latinate vocabulary, which came via French. He gives examples of words and discusses their French and Latin roots and how they have evolved. These examples are almost as pleasant as listening to him read. Mr. Keillor has a voice which seems to be gift specifically designed for radio. Orson Welles was another. You may listen to The Writer's Almanac at http://writersalmanac.publicradio.org/

Valedico

2008-09-19T17:00:00.000-04:00

Mayor Kilpatrick had a few comments in his last days in office which require comment.

“I know that supporting me has not always been easy, but it has not been boring either."

Dear Mr. Mayor should I feel the need for excite I will generally attend some sporting event, movie and maybe do something slightly dangerous or foolish. I do not look to elected officials for excite. I want consistent, dependably boring people whose focus is on their job. Your lack of maturity after all you've put the City through is pathetic.

Cockrel inherits a city "in much better shape than the city I inherited seven years ago.”

I cannot imagine by what standard you make this claim. 85% of all kids born in Detroit are born into single parent households, 25% of Detroit students graduate high school, the Public Schools have a $400 million deficit, the City's deficit is $150 million and the City spurned the $200 million GIFT put forth by Richard Thompson to finance charter schools.

"Y'all done set me up for a comeback"

This is priceless. 38 years old, mayor, lawyer, public school teacher, son of a US Congresswoman and still cannot construct a meaningful sentence in English. Playing to your "base", as if there was a racial angle to your lies is shameful, shallow and belies all the grace imbued by God. Should you wish to politically resurrect your career let me offer a bit of advice. Apologize to your family in private, the City in public, profusely and with sincerity and perform numerous acts of penance with humble grace outside the limelight.

Day of Reflection

2008-09-11T16:26:00.002-04:00

The first September 11th memorial was dedicated today at the Pentagon. Memorials are fitting and I look forward to those at Shanksville, PA and New York but I would like voice the opinion that a Day of Reflection be observed on a national basis as a holiday. On that day, when people looked at the face of evil and personally confronted their immanent demise they universally turned to family and friends to say good bye, "I Love You". Their thoughts were not of work or sports or any of the other small narrow things which seem to bond and divide people across every artificial line we can imagine. Around the world, everyone whose heart was not possessed by the evil one, reacted with shock and in a humanness which unites all.

20th Anniversary

2008-09-10T15:17:00.000-04:00

Our 2oth anniversary was yesterday. And while it may seem trite my how the time has flown! The time BK (before kids) has now shrunken to a mere 25% our marriage while the number of our lovely kids has increased to 8! I no longer have any trouble falling to sleep nor worry about what is coming next - it is happening now! Again and again! And regardless of some of the challenges we have faced, mostly health related, I cannot think of anything I would do differently or want to change. Love you baby!

Walden

2008-09-05T17:08:00.005-04:00

"Those who have not learned to read the ancient classics in the language in which they were written must have a very imperfect knowledge of the history of the human race; for it is remarkable that no transcript of them has ever been made into any modern tongue, unless our civilization itself may be regarded as such a transcript. Homer has never yet been printed in English, nor Aeschylus, nor Virgil even -- works as refined, as solidly done, and as beautiful almost as the morning itself; for later writers, say what we will of their genius, have rarely, if ever, equalled the elaborate beauty and finish and the lifelong and heroic literary labors of the ancients. They only talk of forgetting them who never knew them. It will be soon enough to forget them when we have the learning and the genius which will enable us to attend to and appreciate them. That age will be rich indeed when those relics which we call Classics, and the still older and more than classic but even less known Scriptures of the nations, shall have still further accumulated, when the Vaticans shall be filled with Vedas and Zendavestas and Bibles, with Homers and Dantes and Shakespeares, and all the centuries to come shall have successively deposited their trophies in the forum of the world. By such a pile we may hope to scale heaven at last."

Henry David Thoreau

Summers end was as restorative as any day Thoreau spent watching dead leaves on the bottom of Walden's Pond. We went to Port Huron and water skied, tubed, swam and just plain relaxed on the beach. I could spend every day doing that again and again, no problem. It doesn't take long for the kids to get into the groove of an unplugged weekend and just play like kids did before there were leagues for soccer and baseball, and iPod's or any other number of things which seemed determined to prevent kids from being kids and exercising their minds and hearts in a way that isn't organized by some silly adult. If you haven't read Walden you really should and in my mind read it before summer so you can practice what Thoreau lived for 2 years, simply enjoying life whose beauty and wonderful surround us completely. Simply alive, simply being.

Pheromone Findings

2008-08-27T11:49:00.001-04:00

Two recent studies point to the importance of odor in human interactions. The first study indicates that women who are fertile exude an order that men are able to detect and obviously enough find rather attractive. The second study indicates that women who use the Pill may find that it disrupts their ability to judge the genetic compatibility of men by means of their smell. Researchers were able to evaluate that the use of the Pill alters what male odor they find attractive and of more importance they were able to confirm that the men the Pill users chose were of a genetic make up which may present problems with fertility, increased miscarriage risk and immune system problems in the resulting offspring. Experts believe that women are naturally attracted to men with immune system genes different to their own because of their smell. Use of the Pill interferes with major histocompatibility complex (MHC), which governs the immune system and which several previous studies have suggested "directs" women to prefer the smell of men who are genetically different from them. This is fascinating stuff as it brings to mind countless examples of people whose odor is strong, offensive, it really does prejudge one away from that individual. And with 50% of Americans contracepting and the Pill the largest subset within that group what role might this play in the number of cases of autism, peanut allagies, ADD, ADHD and any manner of health problems and concerns which were nonexistent a few decades ago. On a lighter note can you imagine what success the first perfume company to extract the fertility "odor" will experience?

Divine Intervention

2008-08-20T13:16:00.002-04:00

A recent survey of 1,000 of adults found 57% believe “God's intervention could save a family member even if physicians declared that treatment would be futile”. At first blush this would seem to be a solid majority “for” God but with Americans regularly exceeding 90% in surveys questioning a belief in God this recent survey raises more questions than it answers. Foremost in my mind would be why if 90% believe in God do only 57% believe He may be able to stop death? Do they believe that the Author of life cannot create, alter, renew life or stop death and/or disease as He sees fit? That would seem to be a rather limited definition of divine don’t you think? It would seem to indicate a belief that there are things outside God’s purview, limits to His power. Or perhaps they simply believe that God does not care what happens to His children, which again is a rather stunted view of God and His relationship with us. Poorly catechized might be more accurate. At any rate the fullness of God’s love for us does not seem to be recognized by a solid number of Americans. God created us to love Him, to serve Him and to be with Him. He as the Author of life can create, modify or alter life as He sees fit. His answer to our prayers may be yes, no or not yet, but His love for us is real and so radically profound that He sent His only Son to die on a cross and be raised again so that we may have eternal life with Him.

Assumption of Mary

2008-08-15T00:01:00.005-04:00

The God whom earth and sea and sky

Adore and laud and magnify,

Whose might they own, whose praise they swell,

In Mary's womb deigned to dwell.

O Mother blessed! the chosen one shrine

Wherein the architect divine,

Whose hand contains the earth and sky,

Vouchsafed in hidden guise to lie.

Blessed in the message Gabriel brought,

Blessed by the work the Spirit wrought;

Most blessed to bring to human birth

The long desired of all earth.

O Lord, the Virgin-born, to the

Eternal praise and glory be,

whom with the Father we adore

and Holy Ghost for evermore.

On Holy Ground

2008-08-10T08:00:00.000-04:00

New Oxford Review July/August 2008

Pilgrimage to Meryem Ana Evi By Nan Rooksby Rohan

Nan Rooksby Rohan is the former Assistant Managing Editor of the NOR, a straw artist, and Editor of Straw Talk, the newsletter of the California Wheat Weavers Guild.

On a misty mid-January morning earlier this year, my husband, older son, and I were driven by our hotel host, Adem, southwest out of Selçuk, Turkey (pronounced "sell-chuck," about two miles from Ephesus), and up Bülbül Dag (Nightingale Mountain). Our destination was the House of Mother Mary, or Meryem Ana Evi as the Turks know it. As we rose higher and higher on the winding mountain road, views of the Aegean Sea on one side, and the agricultural town of Selçuk (reminiscent of small Irish towns with tractors chugging down the main street) on the other, alternately opened up before us. We could still see wisps of mist in the low-lying areas, but within minutes we were in full radiant sun.

In another few minutes we had completed the 5.6-mile journey, arriving in a wooded, park-like area. A large parking lot has been built to accommodate tour buses, but on this particular day, there were only a handful of cars. (January is the off-season.) We walked up the path, past the inevitable vendors of postcards, icons, and other holy items (profane items too), past the olive trees planted by priests of the Vincentian order, and the statue of Mary that greets visitors, and past the covered outdoor area adjacent to the house where Popes John Paul II and Benedict XVI said Mass when they visited the site in 1979 and 2006, respectively (daily and Sunday Masses are regularly celebrated here).

LINK: Photos courtesy of Çakan Osman Tanidik

Dappled light from the surrounding trees filtered down upon the modest, honey-colored, stone-and-brick house adorned with a façade of three shallow arches. Standing there gazing at the house, and knowing that many factors had worked together to enable us to be present at that moment, I felt that a small miracle had occurred. With its lovely woods and many pine trees, the surrounding environs might have partly explained the profound peace I felt, but those physical characteristics could not completely account for my sense that I was standing on holy ground. The center of the three arches served as an entry way, so I went in.

Once inside, I was struck with the simplicity and elegance of this house-become-chapel. Sadly, for this shutterbug, photography is not allowed inside the chapel. On the positive side, I was released from involvement with a mechanical contrivance that can obscure or obstruct the real experience of being in a place. A lone nun was praying before the altar, and I too knelt to pray. (Because of the special status accorded to Mary in Islam, Muslims are often seen performing namaz -- prayer -- in this chapel, although none was present this day.) A soberness and peacefulness borne of gratitude overwhelmed me. The deep stillness I felt brought me close to tears, but few words came. How does one describe simultaneous joy and sorrow?

Making my way toward the altar, I found myself putting both my hands on some blackened stones on the inner walls. The chapel is actually two small rooms connected by a beautifully proportioned stone archway. This theme is echoed behind the altar with a rounded brick arch and niche framing the black statue of Mary on the altar, and by two small arched side niches. The statue on the altar has no hands, and I remember reading that it was found among the ruins when the house was discovered in 1891, disappearing twice, and reappearing after the house was returned to the Vincentians in 1931. I looked around for a candle to light, but did not see any. Turning right at the altar, I came to the only other room open to visitors, a cell-like room thought to have been where Mary slept. Immediately outside the exit door was a bank of candles protected from the wind by a clear enclosure. I have read that on August 26, 2006, a devastating fire swept this vicinity but came to a halt about a meter (less than three feet) from Meryem Ana Evi. I lit a candle in thanksgiving for blessings past and present, both those known and as yet unperceived.

Descending a short flight of steps to the terrace below, we came upon the sacred spring (ayazma -- the Turks have borrowed this word from the Greeks) whose water is said to be curative. Both Muslims and Christians visit this sacred spring. The water comes out from taps in the arches that have been built into the mountainside. Crutches and other limb supports have collected here. Just past the spring is a section of terrace wall, mounted with a metal grid upon which Turkish Muslim pilgrims have tied strips of cloth to represent prayers or petitions they hope will be answered. I was moved to see thousands of cloth strips tied to this grid.

So, what is the story of the House of Mother Mary? Donald Carroll has recounted it cogently in his book Mary's House (Veritas Books, London, 2000). Although the Church has made no official pronouncement, three popes have visited here, Paul VI (1967), John Paul II (1979), and Benedict XVI (2006). The most enigmatic question regarding Meryem Ana Evi is: How could the house of the Blessed Mother have gone undetected for almost 1,900 years? Nobody has the answer. A saying comes to mind (some say its origin is Portuguese, some say Spanish): God writes straight with crooked lines.

The story of its discovery begins with Blessed Anne Catherine Emmerich, a German stigmatic nun, who began experiencing visions of the life of Christ and of Mary in 1818, visions that continued off and on until her death in 1824. She was bedridden for all this time, and had never in her life left Germany. A German poet, Clemens von Brentano, visited her and began transcribing these voluminous visions, which were finally published in several volumes, fifty years later.

Sr. Emmerich wrote in The Life of the Blessed Virgin Mary, translated into English by Sir Michael Palairet (TAN Books, 1954):

"Mary did not live in Ephesus itself, but in the country near it where several women who were her close friends had settled. Mary's dwelling was on a hill to the left of the road from Jerusalem.... Narrow paths from Ephesus lead southwards to a hill near the top of which is an uneven plateau, some half-hour's journey.... It was on this plateau that the Jewish settlers made their home. It is a very lonely place, but has fertile and pleasant slopes as well as rock-caves, clean and dry and surrounded by patches of sand....

[St.] John had had a house built for the Blessed Virgin.... Christian families and holy women had already settled here, some in caves in the earth or in the rocks, fitted with light woodwork to make dwellings, and some in fragile huts or tents. They had come here to escape violent persecution.... Mary's house was the only one built of stone. A little way behind it was the summit of the rocky hill from which one could see over the trees and hills to Ephesus and the sea with its many islands....

Mary's house was built of rectangular stones, rounded or pointed at the back; the windows were high up near the flat roof. The house was divided into two compartments by the hearth in the center of it. The fireplace was on the floor opposite the door; it was sunk into the ground beside a wall which rose in steps on each side of it up to the ceiling.... The front part of the house was divided from the room behind the fireplace by light movable wicker screens on each side of the hearth. In this front part, the walls of which were rather rough and also blackened by smoke, I saw little cells on both sides, shut in by wicker screens fastened together. If this part of the house was needed as one room, these screens, which did not nearly reach to the ceiling, were taken apart and put aside. These cells were used as bedrooms for Mary's maidservant and for other women who came to visit her. To the right and left of the hearth, doors led into the back part of the house, which was darker than the front part and ended in a semi-circle or angle....

The Blessed Virgin lived here alone, with a younger woman, her maidservant, who fetched what little food they needed. They lived very quietly and in profound peace. There was no man in the house, but sometimes they were visited by an Apostle or disciple on his travels. There was one man whom I saw more often than others going in and out of the house; I always took him to be John.... He came and went in the course of his travels.... "

Sr. Emmerich goes on to describe a Way of the Cross paced out by Mary herself a little distance up the hill, which she followed every day (stones with Hebrew inscriptions were found during excavations); Sr. Emmerich also describes the circumstances of Mary's death and Assumption.

Her voluminous tomes were not bestsellers, but in 1880, the volume The Life of the Blessed Virgin Mary came into the hands of a French abbot, Fr. Julien Gouyet, who was so intrigued that he traveled from Paris to Smyrna (now Izmir) to investigate. Encouraged by Archbishop André Timoni of Smyrna, he traveled to Ephesus (34 miles from Smyrna/Izmir), and found the ruins of an ancient house. His superiors, however, did not believe him, and the matter was dropped.

It wasn't until another decade had passed that the Emmerich/von Brentano book again came to light -- in the convent library of the sisters in charge of the French Hospital in Smyrna. Marie de Mandat Grancey, Mother Superior of the Sisters of Charity, asked a visiting priest if he would read from a book of his choice after dinner. This priest, Fr. Eugène Poulin, a Vincentian (also known as Lazarist), was the Director of the French Sacred Heart College in Smyrna, and was opposed to any form of mysticism. He happened to pick up the Emmerich/von Brentano book, and, in spite of himself, became fascinated. Entering the story shortly thereafter was another Vincentian priest, Fr. M.H. Jung, a Hebrew scholar and professor of science at Sacred Heart College. He ridiculed Sr. Emmerich's visions, but ironically it was he who ended up leading an expedition to try to establish the truth of the existence, on the hill above Ephesus, of the house where Mary lived and died.

On July 29, 1891, Fr. Jung, accompanied by three companions -- another priest, a Greek friend, a luggage carrier, and a combination mountain guide/bodyguard (the area had a reputation for bandits and thieves) -- after one day's searching in the wrong place (having not paid attention to Sr. Emmerich's description), set out walking up Bülbül Dag (the hill above Ephesus). The group ran out of water and asked some women working in a tobacco field if they had water. The women said no, but pointed up the hill and said they thought there was a spring up at the "monastery." Within fifteen minutes they found the spring, and near it a ruined stone structure, open to the sky. Around it were some rickety huts, whose inhabitants gradually emerged once they determined that the visitors were not government officials.

Andreas, one of the hill-dwellers (these people were all Greek), told Fr. Jung and his party that he had built the huts with his helper, Yorgy; that he actually lived in the town of Sirinçe (pronounced "shirin-jeh") about ten miles away (five hours by foot over mountain paths); and that he and his family camped in this place during the tobacco-growing season. Andreas also said that these ruins had long ago been a monastery known as Panaghia-Capouli, or "The Gate of the All Holy." (In ancient Ottoman land registers, the land where Mary's house stands was listed as "The Three-Doored Monastery of the All Holy.") Andreas also told them that he and his fellow Christians from Sirinçe come annually to this site on pilgrimage during the octave of the Feast of Mary's Dormition, August 15. He had been coming there every year since he was five, and his father before him had come all his life. The Vincentian priests did some research among the residents of the area and confirmed the existence of a centuries-old devotion that recognized in the ruined chapel the place of the last residence of Meryem Ana, Mother Mary.

This land, once known as Asia Minor, was all Greek for centuries, and predominantly Christian from the fourth to the twelfth century. When, in the eleventh century, the Seljuk Turks invaded Aegean Turkey, including the area around Selçuk, the Christians fled up into the mountains and established the town of Sirinçe. Andreas and Yorgy were descendants of these Christians.

It gradually dawned on Fr. Jung that the ruins they had discovered conformed almost exactly to Sr. Emmerich's description of Mary's house. When Fr. Poulin heard of the discovery, he too wanted to go and see for himself. There were a few more expeditions, and much investigation. Excavations indicated that, although the walls of the ruined monastery were of seventh century origin, the foundations dated from much earlier, as early as the first century -- that is, from Mary's time. To preserve the house, the Vincentians decided to try to buy the land. Back in Smyrna, Mother Grancey offered her personal inheritance to buy the land. It took a while to find the owner, and he stalled for a long time, but eventually the purchase was successful.

The Turkish government confiscated the property during World War I, and subsequent to that, the country was in great upheaval as Kemal Atatürk led a revolt against the Ottomans, and a mammoth Turkish and Greek population exchange took place. Few cared about an obscure shrine, but the Vincentians patiently petitioned for the return of their property on Bülbül Dag (Mother Grancey had in 1910 signed over the property to Fr. Poulin, who then signed it over to the order). Finally, in 1931, the Turkish court ruled in the Vincentians' favor. Nevertheless, Mary's house remained essentially hidden from the world until 1950, when Pope Pius XII issued his apostolic constitution Munificentissimus Deus, which proclaimed the dogma of the Assumption of Mary into Heaven. Within months, the Pope declared Mary's house an official shrine for Catholic pilgrims.

The afternoon prior to our visit to Meryem Ana Evi was spent exploring the ruins of the Basilica of St. John on Ayasolek Hill within the town of Selçuk. St. John wrote his Gospel here and died here. Past excavations of the basilica site have brought to light the existence of five tombs, placed in a cross formation around the grave of St. John. For the early Church, this indicated a place of pilgrimage. Emperor Justinian, who had built that greatest church of Christendom -- St. Sophia, Church of Holy Wisdom, in Constantinople -- cleared the ruins of a smaller church (earthquakes and plagues regularly struck this area), and in the 500s had a basilica built on this spot. What we saw were the ruins of this basilica. One of the arguments in favor of Mary coming to Ephesus with John is that Jesus entrusted Mary to him (and John to Mary) from the cross. It seems unlikely that John would have left her in Jerusalem, where persecution of Jesus' followers was rampant. Ephesus was then the capital of Asia Minor, so it was a natural base for proselytizing.

Another argument in favor of Mary's living in Ephesus is that the first church dedicated to her is here: the Basilica of the Virgin Mary, also known as the Council Church, in honor of the Third Council of Ephesus, which was held here in A.D. 431. (In fact, all seven of the great councils of the early Church -- recognized by both Eastern and Western Christianity -- were held within the borders of what is now Turkey.) In the early days of the Church, places of worship were only dedicated to persons who had lived or died in the locality. At the Third Council, Mary was declared to be the Mother of God (Theotokos -- "God-bearer" in Greek). Since 1895 the Austrian Archeological Institute has overseen the research concerning the Council Church, as well as several other local sites. Evidence suggests that the Council Church, which served as a cathedral, the seat of the Bishop of Ephesus throughout late antiquity, was built on the ruins of an earlier Roman basilica-like building that was abandoned around the third century. Archeological finds include coins with a date range of A.D. 364-426.

Ephesus itself is a living history lesson, and features the Odeon, Curetes Street, the Temple of Hadrian, the much-photographed Celsus Library, and the Grand Theater. Seated in the arena, the biblical passage from Acts 19:23-40 came alive for us. St. Paul had reprimanded the Ephesians for making graven images. Irate about this reprimand, a silversmith named Demetrios instigated the Riot of the Silversmiths (who made their living making images of Artemis). Paul barely escaped with his life. Artemis's great temple, one of the seven wonders of the ancient world, and four times larger than the Parthenon in Athens, was situated here, a mile or so outside the city gates. Harbor Road, the grand ceremonial entrance to the city from the harbor, silted up over the centuries, with the result that Ephesus lost its importance, and the town moved inland to become Ayasoluk, now Selçuk.

My foremost sense during our visit to this history-saturated part of the world was of my own ignorance. God willing (and with a bit more study), I would return to Turkey in a heartbeat. Though there are reports of Islamic violence against Christians, who now make up less than one percent of the population (religious freedom is guaranteed in the Turkish Constitution), I felt safe at all times, largely due to the warmth and hospitality of the Turkish people with whom we came into contact -- except the carpet touts! Considering the reverence that both Christianity and Islam give to Mother Mary -- she is mentioned about thirty times in the Koran and is the only woman mentioned by name, and the virgin birth of Jesus is fully acknowledged by Islam -- what better bridge between us could there be? As Pope Benedict XVI prayed in 2006 at the end of his homily during his Mass at Meryem Ana Evi, "Aziz Meryem Mesih'in Annesi bizum için Dua et" -- "Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us!"

Ouch!

2008-08-08T12:48:00.005-04:00

The PGA Championship is being held this week at Oakland Hills Country Club. The tournament, the last major of the year, draws players, journalists and corporate sponsors who lavish dollars on advertising, promotions and the like. This area, suffering economically like few others with the ailing auto manufacturers and cities reeling from the reduced tax dollars generated by the industry, should be reveling in this upbeat, positive attention. Unfortunately, the mayor of the City of Detroit, Kwame Kilpatrick, was released from jail this morning having spent the night for violating his bond only to be charged by the State Attorney General with two felonies for an alleged assault on an officer of the law. All this having transpired after the text messaging scandal which resulted from the mayor's lying under oath. Is there a grownup available to speak with the mayor? Someone who might be able to convince him that men must do what is required even if they find it personally uncomfortable. That service is about sacrifice and putting yourself after others. Anyone? Please!

The Man Who Was Thursday

2008-08-07T17:39:00.007-04:00

Our Men's Book Review read G.K. Chesterton's The Man Who Was Thursday and found it an enjoyable read that veered into surreal territory at the end. The book is a somewhat conventional detective story involving a police detective infiltrating the central Council of Anarchist, 7 men named after the days of the week. Apparently some of the other council members are policemen as well and a madcap chase ensues and the cops chase after the big boss, named Sunday. They confront this fabulously large man at a favorite meeting spot on a balcony. Sunday flees by leaping over the balcony but not before "floating" back up to leave them with a few thoughts before finally departing. The chase involves elephants running across fields and hot air balloon rides landing at an estate where servants await to dress the men in costumes decorated with the themes from the Book of Genesis where God formed everything on specific days! Sunday not only recruited the detectives to infiltrate the council of anarchists he also was council president! Sunday would seem to represent God, the antagonist named Lucian, the protagonist named Gabriel bring to mind a few angels all should know and the aforementioned men dressed as the days of Genesis continue the Christian themes but for the life of me I cannot think why God would coordinate the Council of Anarchy, a role more appropriately played by Lucifer, or discern what Chesterton is trying get across with this particular allegory. All in all it was a book worth the time. Orson Welles and The Mercury Theater on the Air also performed this book and it is really quite good in its own right. You may listen at:

http://www.archive.org/details/TheManWhoWasThursday

LA Council Approves Fast-Food Curbs

2008-08-01T12:30:00.001-04:00

On Tuesday the Los Angeles City Council unanimously approved a one year moratorium on new fast food restaurants in low income areas. Councilwoman Jan Perry believes this will attract restaurants that offer healthier choices and help combat obesity. The errors and presumptions of this legislation are numerous:

- Banning something does not promote alternatives, on the contrary the arbitrary use of legislation gives pause to businesses who favor a predictable approach to the "rule of law."

- One would promote healthier restaurants thru the use of tax credits, enterprise zones and the like.

- Fast food does not equal obesity. Obesity results when your calorie consumption is greater than calories burned resulting in calorie retention, i.e., weight gain.

- Fast food in fact may be quite appropriate for poor residents, a double cheeseburger can be had for one dollar and yields in excess of 440 calories, approximately 25 -30% of the daily requirement.

- Fast food restaurants bring jobs, tax dollars and help spur further development to the areas they locate. While poor people have many needs, by definition poor people need more income which can only be derived thru jobs, work.

While the LA Council's motives may be honest and true the route they have chosen betrays an arrogance and condescension frequently evident when liberals look at the least advantaged among us.

A Culture of Death

2008-07-30T18:00:00.006-04:00

Four homicide bombers struck civilians in Baghdad yesterday. These homicide bombers were female which while not common is no longer uncommon. I guess we shouldn't be surprised as Islamic "culture", such as it is, has always glorified murder, rape, torture and various forms of human degradation as strategic and tactical instruments of advancement. Unfortunately what we are seeing is that Islamism and its "culture" are incapable of resisting Satan and all the evil spirits roaming the world as evidenced by Islamic women now embracing the evil one's Culture of Death. Women who carry life within them have always been blessed with a natural reverence for life and all its potential are now murdering innocents. It would seem that there is no floor to low for Islam to fall as these people march in lockstep with evil. No doubt we will hear they're rushing forward to martyrdom and the promised 72 virgins or is that a guy thing? What are we to make of a philosophy which renders heaven and all God's glory to the mere status of a discount bordello? Why not just go to Las Vegas?

Humanae Vitae

2008-07-28T10:37:00.008-04:00

Humanae Vitae's 40th annivesary was July, 25th. If you have not read this encyclical letter from Pope Paul VI you may do so at: http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/paul_vi/encyclicals/documents/hf_p-vi_enc_25071968_humanae-vitae_en.html

Pope Paul VI, blessed with the Holy Spirit, really nails the issue with clarity and prescience. It is a short read written in a manner which allows we laymen to wrap our minds around this most important church teaching. Some highlights are:

"Marriage, then, is far from being the effect of chance or the result of the blind evolution of natural forces. It is in reality the wise and provident institution of God the Creator, whose purpose was to effect in man His loving design. As a consequence, husband and wife, through that mutual gift of themselves, which is specific and exclusive to them alone, develop that union of two persons in which they perfect one another, cooperating with God in the generation and rearing of new lives."

"Finally, this love is fecund. It is not confined wholly to the loving interchange of husband and wife; it also contrives to go beyond this to bring new life into being. "Marriage and conjugal love are by their nature ordained toward the procreation and education of children. Children are really the supreme gift of marriage and contribute in the highest degree to their parents' welfare.""

"the fundamental nature of the marriage act, while uniting husband and wife in the closest intimacy, also renders them capable of generating new life—and this as a result of laws written into the actual nature of man and of woman. And if each of these essential qualities, the unitive and the procreative, is preserved, the use of marriage fully retains its sense of true mutual love and its ordination to the supreme responsibility of parenthood to which man is called. We believe that our contemporaries are particularly capable of seeing that this teaching is in harmony with human reason."

Pope Paul VI clearly foresaw how contraceptive use would degrade women, provide public support for homosexual unions and "pass power into the hands of those public authorities who care little for the precepts of the moral law." Looking back with 40 years of hindsight is a marvelous confirmation that The Vicar of Christ is blessed with the Holy Spirit and even a biased observor would have to admit that Pope Paul VI's foresight is regretably, vastly closer to the reality of our culture and life than their own misguided musings.

To Every Time a Purpose

2008-07-26T15:10:00.000-04:00

There is an appointed time for everything, and a time for every affair under the heavens.
A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to uproot the plant.
A time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to tear down, and a time to build.
A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance.
A time to scatter stones, and a time to gather them; a time to embrace, and a time to be far from embraces.
A time to seek, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away.
A time to rend, and a time to sew; a time to be silent, and a time to speak.
A time to love, and a time to hate; a time of war, and a time of peace.

Ecclesiastes 3: 1-8