Amazing - the Bush campaign is refuting Kerry's claims with his own words, including video, while the debate is going on. They are really on the ball over there! Think of the all the info they had to have on hand in order to do this so quickly.
And there is some sassy coverage at the Corner.
Sizing up the 'wives of' at townhall.com.
Two quotable quotes, one from the beginning and one from the end, in this piece about how the First Lady, or the prospective First Lady, shows just what her husband is made of.
A schoolboy once asked Nancy Reagan how she liked being married to the president. "Fine," she answered with a wry smile, "as long as the president is Ronald Reagan."
...
A man marries a woman, not a prospective first lady, but how a first lady projects her husband's message tells us as much about him as it does about her.
I'd like this so I can use an aggregator to read the blogs. It's much more convenient than reading them in a web browser. I remember seeing some kind soul had exported a file with all the feeds but I can't remember who has it. If anyone out there knows who generated this or where I can get a list please let me know!
Thanks!
Major League Baseball announced yesterday that the Montreal Expos will move to the District, in one day turning 33 years of frustration and heartache for the Washington area into unbridled joy.And, don't forget, huge traffic jams on game days. They are getting a new name, too. Any suggestions?
Bp. Kurt Krenn has resigned from his diocese in Austria in the wake of a seminary sex scandal.
The Alexandria Day School, where tuition is about $15,000 a year, accidently served margaritas to its students at lunch. The school had to issue an apology to parents.
I don't see what the big deal is -- if you're charging fifteen grand to teach multiplication tables to 8-year-olds, I think the kids should drink for free.
From Lifesite, via Amy:
Bp. Rene Gracida (retired, Corpus Christi) reveals his efforts to dissuade a "pro-choice Catholic" politician from his errors. After the politician gave no response to the bishop's letters of correction and warning, Bp. Gracida applied the penalty of "interdict", which forbids the offender from receiving the sacraments of the Eucharist or Anointing of the Sick.
If I understand aright, this is close to the approach Pete has recommended, and I can see why: the letters of instruction, the warnings, and even the choice of interdict rather than excommunication help to show that the bishop's aim is to dissuade, correct, and reform the erring Catholic, and not to 'expel' him from the Church. The bishop even goes so far as to keep the process private between himself and the dissenter, unless he finds that the latter disregards the penalty and insists on receiving the Eucharist.
Sad to say, the politician in this case died in 2001, apparently without recanting his errors. And what gain did his worldly-minded supporters give him in reward for his stubbornness? The power and privilege of being a member of the state legislature: which is to say, not much.
Thank you, Bp. Gracida, for your efforts to correct a sinner and defend the sacredness of human life and of the Most Holy Sacrament. May the Lord always keep us (or make us, to the extent that we are not) faithful to His Gospel.
Update: I previous had Bp. Gracida's title wrong, but have fixed it now.
What with four hurricanes pummeling Florida, Iran going nuclear, Iraq going nuts, an earthquake in California, and Mount St. Helens getting indigestion the end must be near. Oh, and I forgot to mention George Soros. He's a sign the end is near as well. I went to confession today and purchased seven years worth of canned goods at Costco. Got my absentee ballot application, too. For 2008. Hillary and Obama against whom?
In Eagle Pass, Texas, Border Patrol agents found a five-foot figure of our Lord washed up from the Rio Grande, and devout faithful are welcoming it.
"Buried Treasure - Can the Church recover her musical heritage?" in the online version of the Adoremus Bulliten
This includes such favorites as Tra le Sollicitudini by Pope St. Pius X and Mediator Dei and Musicae Sacrae Disciplina by Pope Pius XII.
An excellent article! Especially the conclusion which I have copied below.
I prefer that the bad guys repent and submit themselves to the local authorities for punishment. But that's a lot to hope for, and it's too much for a bumper sticker.
Over on the Kerry Spot on NRO.
Blogger Slings and Arrows is on the "secret plan" beat, and has found that Kerry has accused Bush of having secret plans to privatize Social Security, wage nuclear war, cut social services, manipulate oil prices to benefit the Saudis, cut VA Benefits, cut Education Funding, and send jobs overseas.Meanwhile, Kerry has refused to specify some of his foreign policy and economic proposals... because they're secret, and "as president there's huge leverage that will be available to me, enormous cards to play, and I'm not going to play them in public. I'm not going to play them before I'm president."
Could this be a case of projection?
Via Yahoo
Bishop Thomas Dupre, the former head of the Springfield Diocese, was indicted on child rape charges, accused of molesting two boys in the 1970s, the county prosecutor said Monday.
Cheryl Ford, the Registered Nurse who is assisting the Schindler family in their quest to save their daughter Terri from the Culture of Death, recently joined St. Blog Parish. As we have come to expect from Cheryl, it is spirited, professional and contains much compelling information. Please stop by Fight4Terri.blogspot.com and say hello.
Additionally, Fr. Rob Johansen is reporting that Terri's parents will be on Larry King Live tonight.
Surprised by Canon Law!
150 Questions Catholics Ask about Canon Law
by Pete Vere & Michael Trueman
Forward by Patrick Madrid
For centuries, canon law has been for most Catholics a mysterious and esoteric aspect of Catholicism, […] Not anymore. - Patrick Madrid, Envoy Magazine
Vere and Trueman have made canon law accessible to the average Catholic for the first time. - Karl Keating, Catholic Answers
From time to time, all Catholics have them: nagging questions about church life, often prompted by some personal encounter or challenging situation:
Is a layperson allowed to preach a homily?
Is a pastor required to report to someone regarding parish finances, or is he on his own?
It seems like the parish council is running your parish. Does it have the authority to do so?
Must a child be baptized in a church, or may the baptism take place at home?
Surprised by Canon Law tackles these and many other questions, all of which have been formally addressed by the Roman Catholic Church's Code of Canon Law. The Code-the internal legal system that governs the church's day-to-day workings-deals with far-flung concerns of interest to the person-in-the-pew. This practical guide to the Code provides answers to a range of questions, from "Can the pope resign?" to the more sensitive query "Do you have the right to tell your bishop what the diocese needs?"
In straightforward language the authors discuss the nuts-and-bolts of church life, making canon law accessible to the everyday Catholic.
This volume is readable, interesting, pastoral and completely faithful to Church teaching and discipline. – Fr. Peter Stravinskas, The Catholic Response
I recommend it as a valuable starting point for anyone interested in becoming familiar with canon law. + Adam Cardinal Maida, Archbishop of Detroit
To order your copy today, please visit SurprisedbyCanonLaw.com or call 1-800-488-0488.
That we’ve misunderstood the beheadings. Some snippets:
This is not about us — it is about them. The beheading films are recruitment tools. They've been around for a long time, part and parcel of the first generation of "jihad" home movies, circulated mostly in North Africa to excite homicidal fanatics and lure them into the Islamist bands. The main difference between then and now is that their marketing and distribution have improved, thanks to their comrades at al Jazeera and al Arabiya, and the Internet.
...
We cannot wage an effective war unless we understand the nature of our enemy. If we do not grasp that the terrorists' ranks are full of people who are there precisely because they are thrilled by the prospect of beheading human beings, we will fail to see the war through to its necessary conclusion. The beheadings are about them, not us. They show us very important things we need to know: What they are, what they want, what they will do if we do not stop them.
Read the whole thing!
Find a preponderance of Adam at "Ponderings of Adam."
Green vs. black by Thomas Sowell in the washington times today. This will make your head spin.
Among the many luxuries wealth can buy is insulation from reality -- the most dangerous luxury of all. Another dangerous luxury is a sense of being one of the wonderfully special people with superior wisdom and virtue. Environmental extremism flourishes among those who can afford both luxuries.Did you know people in the wealthy San Francisco suburb of Sausalito, across the bay, own 80,000 acres of land in Kenya? What are they doing with it? They are setting it aside as a nature preserve,to keep poor people in Kenya from hunting animals for food on those 80,000 acres.
As one of Zell's Angels (traditional Democrat supporting Bush), I find it laughable when certain people claim that Kerry has Bush beat on every social justice issue of interest to Catholics apart from abortion. So I'm happy to see the following website that shows where Kerry fails on a whole bunch of social justice issues of interest to Catholics.
FYI: An AP article on soldier bloggers in Iraq.
I mentioned some time ago that I was organizing a monthly chant Mass at my suburban parish in Stoneham, MA. Well, the project reached a milestone with our first such Mass Sunday evening, and everything came off just fine. Here's what we did:
Before Mass: the Introit Omnia quae fecisti
Procession Hymn: Praise, My Soul, the King of Heaven
Kyrie XVI
Glory to God, recited
Psalm 146 (in English): verses on tone V; refrain to an OCP setting
Alleluia, on the simple tone from Jubilate Deo; verse in English on tone VI
Creed: recited
At the offertory: I transplanted the Gradual Oculi omnium and we sang it at this time.
Sanctus XVIII
Memorial Acclamation: Danish Amen Mass
Great Amen: Danish Amen Mass
Our Father: recited
Agnus Dei XVIII
Communion Hymn: Shepherd of Souls, Refresh and Bless
Communion Antiphon: Memento verbi tui, with verses from ps. 118
Hymn: To Jesus Christ, our Sovereign King
The propers were sung a cappella; everything else was done with organ accompaniment.
I haven't tried to recruit folks from the parish yet, but invited in some "ringers", volunteers mostly from the schola of the indult Mass in Boston, including our organist member Randolph Nichols. I'm exceedingly grateful to them all for coming out to spread the beauty of the Church's proper music (and not standing me up for the first such event I've ever organized!).
The congregation sang the ordinary well, especially the Kyrie; Shepherd of Souls wasn't familiar to some, but they did all right on the other hymns.
After Mass, a few people came by to thank us, including one very enthusiastic lady, a revert who has been watching Mass on EWTN and pining for something like that in a real parish. She was thrilled to hear "real hymns".
When the celebrant thanked us at the end of the Mass, he mentioned we'll be here again monthly: so I guess we're confirmed to be in.
While I work on my paper, I have a London Broil marinating in soy sauce, lime juice, sugar, chopped scallions and ground white pepper. It's looking good - much better than my paper!
"It is not only bishops, presbyters, deacons and even those who govern monasteries who are to be understood to be pastors; but also all the faithful who keep watch over the little ones of their house, are properly called pastors."Homily 1.7 - Homilies of the Gospels
Interesting. Even Newsweek is admitting that abortion is killing the Democrat Patry by driving Catholic voters -- a traditional Democrat constituency -- over to the GOP. Here are some interesting excerpts from the article in question:
The Democrats are likely to lose the Catholic vote in November—and John Kerry could well lose the election as a result. It’s about abortion, stupid. And “choice,” make no mistake, is killing the Democratic Party.
[cut]
It begins with the tale of Tom Ampleman, “a blue-collar union member who lives … just outside St. Louis, says he voted for Bill Clinton twice and then Al Gore, but … is now grappling with deep religious misgivings about the Democratic Party.” He says, “I’m not happy with the moral issues at all with the Democrats. The Republicans will hurt me in the long run in providing for my family, but it’s probably more important to watch out for the unborn and that kind of stuff.”
First, I find it wonderful that there are Tom Amplemans out there for whom voting is not only an economic calculation—a what’s-in-it-for-me? decision—but a moral exercise, a matter of trying to do the right thing.
But Democrats don’t seem to get that. And they don’t get Tom at all.
Yale holds a conference on the so-called King of Pop. Was there any mention of his narcissism? His life truly serves as an example to others and could be summed up in three simple words: don't go there.
...that you've been thinking: where has Schultz been? I mean, even Pete has posted more than I have lately.
The answer is: I am up to my eyebrows in schoolwork. I have an eight page paper due on Monday at midnight on Competitive Intelligence and Agent technology. If anyone has access to an online library that has the "Competitive Intelligence Review" you can be my friend forever.
The good news - this is the last paper of the seminar. I start finance in two weeks, and I'm looking forward to the shift. I graduate in June 2005 and will be able to spend more time with my wife.
Nihil O: are you in the mood to proof read my paper?
which St. Blogs parishoner wrote this without clicking on the link?
I plan to kill some Ewoks later today.
Be afraid. Be very afraid.
Can we all agree that God does not like Florida?
...if they replaced the Prime Directive with the Law of Eminent Domain?
And, I might add, not a moment too soon. I doubt all the contemplatives on the planet couldn't hold back God's wrath with their prayer and mortifications if this were broadcast.
"Popetown," featuring the voices of comedienne Ruby Wax as the pontiff and model Jerry Hall as a fame-hungry nun, was commissioned for the digital channel BBC3. The animation featured corrupt cardinals and an infantile pope who bounced around the Vatican on a pogo stick.Try blasphemous and sacrilegious, not "scurriously funny." What the hell is "creative risk" anyway? Why don't they admit they just want to sell ads and be done with it.BBC chiefs said Thursday it was too offensive to broadcast.
"After a lot of consideration and consultation, balancing the creative risk with the potential offense to some parts of the audience, we have decided not to transmit the program," said BBC3 Controller Stuart Murphy.
"Despite all the creative energy that has gone into this project and the best efforts of everyone involved, the comic impact of the delivered series does not outweigh the potential offense it will cause," he added. "There is a fine judgment line in comedy between the scurrilously funny and the offensive."
The Muslim formerly known as Cat Stevens was deported from the US because of potential links to terrorists. -link via Drudge
My older brother used to listen to his hippy crap. I always hated it with a burning passion. Even thinking about "Peace Train" makes me want to staple myself to a burning building so I might have something else to think about. I suppose I hate so much even to this day because a lot of modern liturgical music sounds like his banal style. Even the memory of Stevens singing "Morning Has Broken" gives me the urge to kill puppies and kittens. Yeah, it's that bad. Maybe I need therapy - music therapy even. I'm going to listen to "The Dream of Gerontius" three times between now and dinner.
Brought to you by Dom Bettinelli.
Jesu, spes poenitentibus
Quam pius te petentibus
Quam bonus te quaerentibus
O quid invenientibus?
Jesus, hope of the penitent
How kind you are to those who ask
How good you are to those who seek
What must You be to those who find?
Beautiful! And An apt quote also for the memorial of St. Pio of Pietrelcina.
But why now? This should have been military policy long ago.
This whole unfortunate incident with [sic.] "Catholics for Free Choice" filing a complaint with the IRS against Catholic Answers' voting guide has got me thinking. In the heat of the election campaign, I think we Catholics have to pay closer attention to the truthfulness of our statements. For example, many of my fellow Catholics have accused John Kerry of being a flip-flop and of never keeping his promises. Well, what do the facts say?
In a 1984 interview, Kerry promised to vote against "Any restrictions on age, consent, funding restrictions, or any law to limit access to abortion." (John Kerry As Quoted In "Mass. Senate Candidates Quizzed On Women’s Issues," Sojourner: The Women’s Forum, 6/30/84)
To the best of my knowledge, Kerry has never broken his word in this regard. For twenty years, Kerry has consistently voted against any legislation that would limit abortion. I have yet to see anyone expose or bring to light an exception. So rather than being a liar and a flip-flop, Kerry has kept his promise when it comes to supporting the barbaric butchery of our children in the womb.
I heard today's vocabulary word from a pundit on Fox News; I hope you enjoy it too.
A couple of weeks ago, some former CBS exec derided bloggers who criticized that network's journalistic failings as a bunch of guys sitting at home in their pajamas, typing mere opinions -- definitely not worthy of the Tiffany Network's attention.
Today CBS acknowledged that the documents in the Rathergate case were indeed forgeries, and that they shouldn't have run the story. The PJ-clad warriors of the net turned out to be some competent fact-checking ninjas.
Gee, and I thought I had it bad with my 2001 KIA Sportage. (I'm still waiting, almost seven weeks later, for their customer service support to fax me a letter they claim to have sent out six weeks' ago. I need this before Friday to import the car if I wish to avoid a nasty fine.) This poor fellow allegedly hasn't even racked up 30,000 miles and his KIA has been in the shop nine times! (Mine has only been in the shop three times over the past year. And the second time was shortly within the first, so I'm tempted to count them as one breakdown.)
Here are some other horror stories with KIA cars. To be honest, mine has performed quite well since the first two visits (mind you, the car is in the shop having its brakes looked at as I blog this), but the customer service in trying to have this car imported has been horrible. For example, when I called KIA Canada today to complain, George at Extention 5085 said there was nothing KIA Canada could do because the car was purchased in the US. He would neither forward my call to a manager nor provide me with a last name. "I don't have a last name," he snapped when I ask. "It is just George at Ext. 5085."
Jason Cook at KIA USA was pretty polite this morning, but he couldn't forward my call to the department allegedly looking after this or wouldn't give me their phone number. But if I think he said some guy named Wayne Spencer was suppose to be looking after it, and Jason stated he would pass him along my name and phone number. I'm still waiting to hear back.
No, it's not a scene from an Indiana Jones movie or some hip-hop music video.
The Oriental potentate in the pic is the real-life Crown Prince of Brunei with his Swiss-born wife, a commoner, at their wedding service. The pièce de résistance in the bling department is, you'll note, the "bouquet" of gold and diamonds.
The sinister jazzy sound of the MIDI file embedded on this page is about as far as you can get from this pop duo's sweet version.
...and it is co-sponsored by none other than John Kerry's fellow MA senator. Here's pretty much what you can expect if this bill passes.
I’m reading a book by Dom Columba Marmion, O.S.B. called “Christ – the Ideal of the Priest.” Marmion had a number of great books published by B. Herder Book Co. but they have been out of print for years. A publisher should pick them up again. From what I’ve read so far all his works appear to be treasures.
“I find I am greatly helped in the recitation of the divine Office by the thought that I am really an ambassador sent by the Church many times each day to bear a message to the throne of the Most High. This message must be presented in the terms and according to the ceremonial prescribed by the Church.”
The same applies to Mass, of course. Someone please tell the libs!
When it comes to thugging our children, Team Kerry/Edwards/Fonda are equal opportunists...
During my frisking of [sic.] Katholics for Dean earlier this year, I stated something to the effect that pro-abort John Kerry was prejudiced against our children in the womb. I now wish to retract this statement. As of last Thursday, the Democrats have proven themselves to be equal opportunists when it comes to thugging our children. Here's the photo along with the accompanying AP story:
Three-year-old Sophia Parlock cries while seated on the shoulders of her father, Phil Parlock, after having their Bush-Cheney sign torn up by Kerry-Edwards supporters on Thursday, Sept. 16, 2004, at the Tri-State Airport in Huntington, W.Va. Democratic vice presidential candidate John Edwards made a brief stop at the airport as he concluded his two-day bus tour to locations in West Virginia and Ohio. (AP Photo/Randy Snyder)
Man, it has been a rough summer with two of my conservative heroes passing away. The first, of course, is former president Ronald Reagan. The other, last Thursday, is Johnny Ramone -- the godfather of punk. So I have spent most of the day listening to the Ramones while judging annulments.
Johnny, I hope you made your peace with Our Lord Jesus Christ before passing on. May your soul, and the soul of all the faithfully departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace.
Now that our phone line and internet is hooked up again, I have spent part of the day surfing the net. In so doing, I couldn't help but notice some of the debates over homeschooling take place. While nobody disagrees that the education usually is superior to that of public schools, there is some question as to how well adapted homeschooled children are socially after they graduate.
In my experience, it depends upon the parents. I have seen both good and bad. In one particularly egregious example, one of my friends roomed in college with a homeschooled fellow who grew up in a very sheltered environment -- to the point of social inneptitude. For example, he was clueless as to who Darth Vader was.
Another story takes place within the context of a particular post-conciliar traditionalist schisms, which has attracted many adherents to a certain geographical locale. As soon as the girls reach their late teens or early twenties, they marry guys in their late thirties to early forties. They simply cannot relate to guys their own age, as the girls find the guys their own age too socially immature and too sheltered to maintain decent employment and support a family. So, obviously, this is the downside.
On the other hand, some of the most socially well-adjusted young men I have met were also homeschooled. I'm thinking, in particular, of a friend of mine whom I met through the FSSP. His parents were both military officers and took the view that homeschooling was about raising their children to be tommorrow's Catholic leaders. Therefore, they didn't see homeschooling as sheltering their children, but as an apprenticeship to maintaining one's faith while venturing forth in the real world.
So besides the usual homeschooling activities of catechesis, reading, writing, mathematics, history, geography, etc... their kids also participated in sports, the arts, community service, choir practice, boy scouts and even scuba-diving (my friend's father explained that this wasn't just phys-ed, but a reinforcement of the lessons learned in mathematics and geography as well.) Another homeschooled friend of mine, who I met through the charismatic movement, did small-aircraft piloting rather than scuba-diving.
In each case, some of the other parents in the respective parish thought these parents were too libertine, wasteful and risky with the lives of their children. But their children have all turned out well. They came out from homeschooling well-adjusted young adults, with real life skills and capable of assuming responsibility. All have all kept the faith. They are all grateful for their home-schooling background, and remain close to their parents. One is about to graduate with a double-degree in fine arts and engineering. The other is a well-liked pilot and aircraft mechanic. Both are active in their faith.
On the other hand, a lot of my homeschooled friends whose parents sheltered them have turned out aweful. The one that breaks my heart the most is an ex-girlfriend who rebelled against her parents, got involved with a drug-addict, had a child that was given up for adoption, never finished high-school, and now works in the so-called "adult entertainment" field and is bitter against both her family and the Catholic faith. Others have become a variation, albeit not as bad.
So my point is that homeschooling depends upon the parents. If parents use homeschooling to shelter their kids from the real world, this is not good. But if parents use homeschooling to prepare their kids for the real world, then the results are much better than a public school education.
The same can be said about private Catholic schools. I know some traddy schools that simply shelter kids, and the kids graduate knowing all sorts of facts and figures, but still socially and emotionally immature. On the other hand, St. Gregory's Academy -- under the auspices of the FSSP -- openly has as its purpose not only classical education of teenage boys, but their formation and growth from boys into responsible young men. Thus the boys are expected to participate in sport, theatre, music and various social activities. When they graduate, it is a educated and well-adjusted young men.
Why are church secretaries so... sour?
Talk amongst yourselves.
Does the EU think adultery is some kind of human right?
Teresa Heinz Kerry on the hurricane relief efforts:
"Clothing is wonderful, but let them go naked for a while, at least the kids," said Heinz Kerry, the wife of Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry. "Water is necessary, and then generators, and then food, and then clothes."-link via Drudge.
