November 2004 Archives

Free Dominion finally got the picture up of the President sharing a big Texas grin as he gives us the thumb's up...

Groningen Academic Hospital in the Netherlands has taken up a brave new policy of murdering defenseless, sick babies.

AMSTERDAM, Netherlands (AP) - A hospital in the Netherlands - the first nation to permit euthanasia - recently proposed guidelines for mercy killings of terminally ill newborns, and then made a startling revelation: It has already begun carrying out such procedures, which include administering a lethal dose of sedatives.

The announcement by the Groningen Academic Hospital came amid a growing discussion in Holland on whether to legalize euthanasia on people incapable of deciding for themselves whether they want to end their lives - a prospect viewed with horror by euthanasia opponents and as a natural evolution by advocates.

Pro-lifers can take grim satisfaction that the "slippery slope" has, as Wesley Smith says later, "descended already into a vertical cliff": in the 1960s, the death lobby argued that we should destroy unborn babies who were going to die anyway, or whose continued existence threatened the life of the mother. Eventually, the death lobby ended up arguing that babies are fair game no matter what the circumstance.

When pro-lifers pointed out that the West was on that "slippery slope" toward child murder, they were dismissed by most people, including far too many political conservatives. "Nonsense," they said. "Abortion is about removing cell blobs. It's a stretch to say we'd go from that to murdering an infant."

Behold, the masterpiece of the Culture of Death: using men with advanced medical degrees and years of experience to kill the most vulnerable members of our society. If some toothless redneck smothered his baby daughter because she cried too much, we would rightly call him a monster. But if parents can't stand to have a "defective" baby for any longer, even if the baby's pain could be medicated until the end of his short life, and they get well-dressed, well-paid, well-groomed men with serious expressions to murder their child -- well, that's medicine, isn't it?

May God have mercy on the blackened, shriveled souls who would even conceive of such a thing.

[Pictures care of FreeDominion.ca]

Wow, today was totally awesome! I was like fifteen feet from the President, the First Lady and Condi Rice. Here's the pic of the motorcade:

The RCMP kept their promise to Canadian pro-Bush activists. In exchange for not showing up at Parliament Hill where the anti-Bush hooligans (featuring more New Yorkers than Canadians, and Bob Dylan) had gathered, the police arranged for the pro-Bush demonstration to be held within the security zone at the airport. We were not told of this until after we had met at a neutral mall parking lot, where we could sift legitimate pro-Bush supporters from anti-Bush trouble-makers.

Connie Wilkins and Mark Fournier, co-founders of Freedominion.ca, organized the rally. Free Dominion is the official Canadian sister site of Free Republic. Here's a great pic of Connie at the pre-rally in the mall parking lot, just as she's surprising us with the news that we will be rallying for the President at the airport and not the mall:

About two hundred of us showed up to rally for Bush, including some Americans. This was pretty good given the temperature was below freezing. We welcomed our American cousins as they were of the sane variety (and not the New York rioters). Also unlike the anti-Bush rally, we outnumbered the Americans by about 10 to 1 at our pro-Bush rally. Nevertheless, the Americans who showed up displayed the class as the President -- after the pre-rally, they approached each of us Canadians and personally thanked us for giving the President a warm welcome. (They also showed American hospitality when, despite our protests we should treat them as our guests, they picked up the tab for coffee and donuts at Tim Horton's between the pre-rally and the rally.)

From there we headed off to the airport, where we were allowed into the outer security ring, checked out by the RCMP and Secret Service, and began to rally along the side of the road at the airport hangar -- meaning we would be the first Canadians that the President would encounter after touchdown. We had a great time, chanting "Dubya", "We Want Bush", and "Carolyn is a Mad Cow" (a reference to Canada's most anti-American member of parliament.)

Finally, the big moment -- the fake Bush came through with his motorcade and we cheered, not quite certain if this was the real thing. Fortunately, the Secret Service intervened and held us back, at which point everything clicked for those of us who weren't certain. In hindsight, it seemed a little strange that the President was driving his own cadillac.

About ten minutes later, the real President Bush came bye. We recognized the presidential seal on his limo and started chanting "Bush!" over-and-over-again. We stopped when we saw the First Lady, and started to chant "Laura!" The president seemed a little taken aback at first, but we were sure he didn't mind.

At this point he confirmed our suspicions. The biggest Texas grin you ever saw came over his face as he slowed down the limo, stopped waving and gave us the big thumb's up. I cannot describe the euphoria we felt at that point. We were like ten to fifteen feet away from him. Some young mother pointed the president out to her toddler and said, "That's what a real leader looks like honey. He's pro-life." Half of us screamed "Bush!" while the other half screamed "Dubya!" Within a few seconds, the "Bush!" chant won out the president just nodded his head like he wanted to say, "This is way cool!"

Obviously this is what the President was thinking. We FreeDominioners would have been happy with the thumb's up and Texas grin he shared with us, but the President had something else in mind as his motorcade pulled away. He was happy we were there and he was darn well gonna show his Canadian supporters his gratitude. But we didn't know it.

From there our group disbanded as the President went downtown. He was greated by obnoxious protesters on parliament hill (protesters who became violent later on.) Meanwhile Connie and Mark joined Sonya and I for lunch downtown, near our place, which also happened to be near where the anti-Bush protest was taking place. So we had to hide our signs and whatnot. As the pizza arrived, we received news that the President was about to give a short press conference.

Then, during the press conference, the President stated: "I frankly felt like the reception we received on the way in from the airport was very warm and hospitable, and I want to thank the Canadian people who came out to wave — with all five fingers," About half an hour later is when the violence started, as we heard the sirens and watched all sorts of emergency vehicles make their way to the anti-Bush protest site.

But again, thanks to Connie and Mark from FreeDominion.ca for organizing such a warm, Canadian, five-fingered welcome for President Bush.

I finally got around to installing smoke detectors in the kids' rooms on Saturday, and I read something I didn't know: smoke detectors are only good for 10 years. After that, you should throw them out. As we have a 40-year-old house and the previous owner was something of a penny-pincher, I'm assuming ours are at least that old.

Also, you can now buy lithium-powered sealed detectors whose batteries will last 10 years, and then you throw them out. They're $20 at Home Depot, and they're one less thing I have to worry about. Just one more thing to worry about during the holidays, yes, but you might want to take a few minutes to replace your detectors. At worst, you'll lose less than an hour of your time, and at best, you will have prevented someone's premature death. Maybe even your own!

15 Reasons to consider adoption. The last two:

14. You can have some fun if your kids don't look like you, or like each other. One foster/adoptive mother of many responds to incredulous inquiries about her "unusual" family by saying: "Yes, they are all mine. They all have different fathers."

15. With adoption, you don't have to watch the development of cloning and wonder somewhere in the secret places of your heart whether you contributed in some small way to a society that accepts the manufacture of human beings.

BAGHDAD — Hope has become increasingly rare among Iraq's Christian minority, which says it is under threat as never before.

Some people who claim to believe in 'reproductive freedom' apparently don't believe in their opponents' freedom of speech.

They decided to vandalize a statue of our Lady and paint slogans next to a pro-life memorial at a Catholic parish in Cambridge, Massachusetts, over the weekend.

As an aside, so far the Boston Globe website has no coverage of this crime. Maybe they'll get around to it eventually.

Pro-lifers continue to spread the message of life: Sarah Terzo's Abortion Quotes page lets the people who've performed and experienced abortions speak for themselves.

I get the impression that my confessions are shorter than average. That is not because I sin less than other people. I try to go to confession at least once a month, and I rarely go more than six weeks without receiving the sacrament. (Grace is like gasoline to my soul: I run fine as long as I keep pouring it in regularly.)

At first, I thought I was just underestimating the time. "Time flies when you're recounting your offenses against God," as the saying goes. But a couple of weeks ago, I waited for more than an hour behind 10 people or so, and I couldn't have taken more than two minutes. This has happened with many different priests at several parishes, so I don't think I'm imagining it; even when the people in front of me are taking 5-10 minutes, I'm finished in half that time.

What's going on here? Usually, I think of my sins beforehand and rattle them off unless the confessor asks me for clarification. If there are some mitigating or exacerbating circumstances, I mention them. For example, a while ago I missed Mass through no fault of my own, but I felt relieved because I had a lot to do that evening. That was clearly not a mortal sin, but since I treated Mass that day as a chore, it showed how far I was from saintly perfection.

Do people try to get pastoral advice in the confessional? I take it if it's offered, but I don't ask for it unless I have a question about something I'm confessing. Or do a lot of people need on-the-fly catechesis, and priests try to teach the penitents that certain things are sinful? I have several spiritual shortcomings, but resistance to orthodox teachings isn't one of them.

I'm not fishing for someone to say "you're so holy, Eric," because I know that's not true. I'm truly curious.

Now is the time to pour out your wrath upon your least favorite Christmas songs. The musically feeble, the quasi-blasphemous, the cringe-inducing, the silly...vent your righteous criticism in the comments box.

Here are some of mine:

"Grandma Got Run Over By a Reindeer" wasn't funny the first time I heard it. It's even less funny the hundredth.

"Wonderful Christmas Time," by Paul McCartney. If it weren't Paul McCartney, nobody would play this insipid '70s synthesizer-driven trash. I note that Disney Corp.'s animatronic doll Hillary Duff has remade the song. Great! I look forward to hearing it in Macy's!

"Santa Baby." Creepy, creepy, creepy. Sexualizing a children's fantasy is always bad.

"I Saw Daddy Kissing Santa Claus." Totally inappropriate and...oh, wait — I think this is only sung by the Gay Men's Chorus of Washington. Nevermind.

"Last Christmas," by George Michael. This guy was responsible for more than his share of bad '80s lyrics ("Guilty feet ain't got no rhythm"), and this is a choice example:

Last Christmas, I gave you my heart
The very next day, you gave it away...

Ah, the cruelty of "regifting."

What are your favorite Christmas songs and hymns? For myself, I still love hearing "O Holy Night." "Tomorrow Shall Be My Dancing Day" is a lovely and blissfully non-ubiquitous song. Corelli's Christmas Concerto in G minor is probably my favorite piece of Christmas chamber music (I wrote about it last year.) I don't have a favorite hymn, but "Adeste Fideles" gets my blood moving.

As a public service, I would like to issue my annual reminder that the Hallelujah Chorus is for Easter, not the Nativity of Our Lord and Savior.

I went to the church nearest the Nameless Entity, in a blessed old urban parish run by the Dominicans. One of my Advent penances is to go to confession every week, and I thought I'd get started a week early.

This was the second time I had this particular Dominican. He is, I'm convinced, an entirely orthodox and kindly old man, with a genuine love for sinners and an evident joy for God's creation. However, both times he didn't ask me to make an act of contrition. The second time, I said one to myself as he gave me absolution.

I believe that this is a defect in the form of the confession itself, but the absolution is still valid. But what should I do when I have him next time? Charitably correct him? I'm uncomfortable with doing that — it doesn't seem very penitential. Maybe I should say, "Father, do you mind if I say my act of contrition?" I'm open to suggestions.

Bonus question: after I went to confession, I stayed for daily Mass, but I had finished eating lunch at around 11:45 and the Communion was at about 12:35 or 12:40. I abstained from the Eucharist because I had eaten less than an hour before, because I had not planned to attend Mass.

I think I did the correct thing, but is there any kind of exemption if you did not deliberately break the one-hour fast before receiving? I don't think there is, but I just thought I'd check to see if anyone knew.

Sports Illustrated wants your vote for Sportsman of the Year, and one of the candidates is Pat Tillman, the football player who gave up millions of dollars to enlist in the Army. As you recall, he was killed fighting murderous thugs in Afghanistan earlier this year.

I don't really pay much attention to sports, so I can't say much about the other candidates. But it seems to me that the heart of sportsmanship is realizing that no matter how important the game might be, it's just a game. That's why you treat your opponent fairly, you don't cheat, you act with dignity...and sometimes, you walk away for something more important.

If you have a moment, vote Pat Tillman for Sportsman of the Year. He's the second picture from the bottom.

"Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends." (John 15:13)

I kid you not. The Liberals up here are trying to have President Bush charged with War Crimes when he visits this week. (Canadian conservatives give Delta Force backed up by the NY State National Guard about 1:35 hrs to bust the Pesident out if the Canadian gov't were stupid enough to follow through.) While this seems silly enough, the lawyers behind this effort are now threatening reporters who provide unbiased commentary as well.

Speaking of which, I'll be at a pro-Bush rally in Ottawa this coming Tuesday. You can check out FreeDominion.ca for the information. If you don't see a blog entry from me by Wednesday at noon, it probably means the Velvet Curtain had Canadian pro-Bush protesters arrested for thought crimes.

Kathy Shaidle!

For those of you not tuned in to Relapsed Catholic (you should be) Kathy recently stated that she knew since her childhood that she would never win a beauty contest. While it is rare that our favorite Battle-Fem of the Dominion is wrong, we at Catholic Light's Canadian subsiduary disagreed.

Thus on behalf of many of Kathy's loyal readers, we now crown Kathy Shaidle Miss Catholic Light Canada 2004!

This week, Paige and I announced to our families and friends that we're expecting a baby next summer, right around Independence Day. For those of you keeping score, the next one should be a girl, since the pattern has been boy-girl-boy so far.

When we made the announcement last night at Thanksgiving dinner, Charlie, our older boy, thought it was great. Our daughter Anna didn't take it very well, asking if we could give the baby back. Christopher, the toddler, asked for more pie.

Paige's dad, ever the planner, was concerned about how tired she would be, the impossibility of paying for four college educations, etc. I would be lying if I told you that the same things didn't cross my mind. We have a general idea of how we will manage these things, but we hardly have things planned down to the last dime.

This year, I got a new job with a significant (though not gigantic) raise, and we bought a bigger house. Career-wise, I seem to be several years ahead of my contemporaries — during meetings at the Nameless Entity, I often look around and see no one without a few gray hairs.

I'm confident that God didn't provide these things because he wants me to ditch my crappy 14-year-old car for a Miata, or so Paige can start spending more money on clothes. I figure if we keep cooperating with him, he will continue to bless us. That's the way it's gone so far, and I don't see any reason to stop now.

Anyway, if you could spare a prayer to St. Gerard on behalf of Paige and the baby, I would greatly appreciate it.

As I write this, the 2001 Glutton Bowl is on the Fox Sports channel, with contestants vying to eat as much as possible of hot dogs (25), hamburgers (11), whole beef tongues (1.5), mayonnaise (128 fl oz), or whatever in a limited time. The Weekly Standard has a piece on the event and other forms of competitive eating.

Each competitor is introduced with some fact about their background; my favorite was the guy who had been banned from an all-you-can-eat shrimp restaurant.

It's a regular SpongeBob crime wave.

First some oversized figures of SpongeBob Squarepants were swiped from Burger Kings in Michigan, Minnesota and Utah.

Now police in Wisconsin are on the lookout for spongenappers who clipped a six-foot Squarepants that was promoting the SpongeBob movie opening.

No ransom note was left in Sheboygan -- although in Minnesota, the list of demands includes ten Crabby Patties for SpongeBob's return.

It's too late to get one for today!

New wine bottle holds 1200 glasses

The 153kg bottle was the work of master glass blowers in the Czech Republic, and holds the equivalent of 173 standard bottles of Beringer Vineyards 2001 Private Reserve Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon. That translates to 1200 glasses of wine.

The bottle, dubbed Maximus, was certified as the world's largest by the Guinness World Records. The Morton's steakhouse chain, to celebrate its 25th anniversary, partnered with California-based Beringer to create the record-setting bottle.

ANNAPOLIS, Md. — Maryland public school students are free to thank anyone they want while learning about the 17th century celebration of Thanksgiving — as long as it's not God.

And that is how it should be, administrators say.

Young students across the state read stories about the Pilgrims and Native Americans, simulate Mayflower voyages, hold mock feasts and learn about the famous meal that temporarily allied two very different groups.

But what teachers don't mention when they describe the feast is that the Pilgrims not only thanked the Native Americans for their peaceful three-day indulgence, but repeatedly thanked God.

"We teach about Thanksgiving from a purely historical perspective, not from a religious perspective," said Charles Ridgell, St. Mary's County Public Schools curriculum and instruction director.

But Gov. Ehrlich says that is inaccurate:

The article also quoted school administrators from several counties who said they do not include religious matter in their curriculums. None of the persons quoted said the state had directed the schools to exclude the teaching of religion.
However, Mr. Ehrlich criticized the article, saying it reported that the state has set the local school districts' curriculums.
"I have checked with my education folks [and] that is not accurate at all," the Republican governor said. "Obviously, curric- ulum issues are local in nature. Local school boards have a lot of input in curriculum issues."

No, it doesn't really look like this:

But there's a real-life Confession-Mobile in Germany, offering "reconciliation with God and men":Of course, for the charity Aid to the Church in Need, taking the grace of the sacraments into the marketplace is standard procedure.

Robert Conrad sentenced for DUI accident

Or do is this a true patriot?

Great-Grandmother Being Deployed to Iraq

"I volunteered," said Lena Haddix... "I wanted to do something for the country, because I was always left behind taking care of the children."

Please keep Kathy Hannan in your prayers, she has terminal cancer and will likely pass into eternity in the coming days. She had been an administrative assistant at our parish.

(Thanks to Grig at FreeDominion.ca)

Since the following comment from the thread on Tim Drake's new book was, for lack of a better expression, off-topic, I thought I would re-post it here:

-----------
Why would anyone accept Peter Vere's opinions? Even the Adoremus Bulletin disagrees with his views (see the letters section in the October 2004 edition of the Adoremus Bulletin). He likes to think that he doesn't criticize traditional Catholics as a whole, yet his many writings (letters, articles, etc) tend to lean in that direction.

The bottom line is that like many modern Catholics, he does not know anything about the Traditional Latin Mass, fails to define it in accord with traditional Church teaching, and fails to know its true history and development. Tim Drake has this same problem! They lack intellectual honesty. Yet Vere will say he attends the "old" Mass but where is his defense of it? He is more of a critic of the traditionalist movement than a friend. Meanwhile, the Church is being infiltrated with blasphemies such as the charismatic pentecostal-style Life Teen Mass and the "gay mass", but no books or articles are written against these issues by neo-catholics, yet the Traditionalist movement, which is far less common in the Church, is more criticized

-fr. adler, STL
-----------------------

Anyway, time for another plug of More Catholic Than The Pope...

This snipet of "hocus-pocus Catholicism meets pop-culture and gets paid for it" guarantees we'll be seeing images of the Virgin Mary in all sorts of things...

And here's the winner of the most counter-productive devotional statement of all time:

"I would like all people to know that I do believe that this is the Virgin Mary Mother of God," Duyser, a work-from-home jewelry designer, said in the casino's statement.

Often, when I'm looking for something at CVS, I notice the aisle containing something called "Family Planning." I've looked at the contents, and except for the ovulation detectors, it's all about contraception.

Shouldn't the aisle thus be called "Family Prevention"?

Yesterday, we sang the "Battle Hymn of the Republic" as the recessional hymn. Only in "Gather," it's listed as "Mine Eyes Have Seen the Glory." Wouldn't want to use the common title! So bellicose!

I could live with the name change, but I can't take the politically correct bowdlerization of the hymn's words themselves.

Verse 3: "He is sifting out the hearts of men before His judgement seat"
becomes
"He is sifting out all human hearts...."

Verse 4: "As he died to make men holy, let us die to make men free"
becomes
"As he died to make all holy, let us die that all be free."

Which, I suppose, is a little better than "let us live to make all free," which is another variation I've seen. Who dares to do such things? Probably the same people who lecture us about the integrity of "art" and the "artist." Unless the artist is dead, and the art in question's copyright has expired.

Somebody made these changes so that "men" is not used as a generic plural noun for male and female human beings. The rationale is that women are oppressed when such a thing gets printed in a hymnal.

The reason this is stupid -- and I apologize if you think "stupid" is name-calling, but the adjective is perfect -- the words of the hymn were written by Julia Ward Howe. As the name implies, she was a woman!

To all those who want to impose their feminist ideas on the rest of us by changing the words to one of the most well-known and beloved hymns in American history, I have four words of advice: Write your own damn hymn.

Amen.

An ad for "Spam Washer E-mail Software"

Ah, irony.

...Tim Drake has a new blog to celebrate his new book of the same name. It's a great book, which I recommend to anyone wondering where the Church is headed or anyone tempted to despair over the Church in America. You can visit Tim's new blog at www.youngandcatholic.com and find out more about Tim's new book, and about what young Catholics are up to and even submit your own profile as a young Catholic.

[Update -- at the request of some of my old homeschooling friends, I'm also opening up this contest to homeschoolers who wish to participate, provided they have the permission of their parents.]

As my long-time readers are aware, each fall I put up a copy of one of my books for a mini-competition. This year, the book is Surprised by Canon Law and the competition is open to all Catholic homeschooling moms hanging around St. Blog. In 100 words or less, please share in the comments' section why canon law should be a part of your child's homeschooling curricula. Best entry receives a free autographed copy. Contest closes Dec. 15th, 2004.

[Here's the unedited version of my November Of Canons and Culture column for the Wanderer.]

For the first time since returning to Canada, I’m surrounded by young orthodox Catholics. Like the rest of the Canadian cottage industry, literally speaking, the Viamede Resort considers late autumn the off-season. The weather is beautiful and the cottage rentals are inexpensive. Thus about sixty of us have gathered outside of Peterborough to relax, pray, and network among ourselves.

John O’Brien, son of Catholic novelist Michael O’Brien, is the main organizer of this gathering. As principal of Wayside Academy, John is part of the growing private Catholic education movement in Canada. According to the school’s website, Wayside Academy “is dedicated to forming young Catholic students into the leaders of tomorrow, and teaches according to the ‘classical curriculum’ method, which stresses the grammar, logic, and rhetoric of each subject.”

While the school currently teaches students from grades one to ten, O’Brien plans on adding a junior high-school year in September of 2005 and a senior year in 2006. Readers concerned with the modern state of Catholic education may should stop by Wayside’s website and read John’s excellent reflection: Catholic Education: Principles of Recovery.

Fr. Scott McCaig from the Companions of the Cross is this year’s retreat master. His preaching on the Sacrament of Confession is legendary among Catholics and in Canada. He did not disappoint. Father spoke of personal prayer, Lectio Divina, and the need for regular confession within the context of St. Ignatius of Loyola’s spirituality. “To be effective in carrying out the Church’s apostolate,” Father states, “you must face your sins honestly in the confessional. God already knows your sins, but you must face them candidly and receive the grace of this sacrament, or both you and your apostolate will falter over time.” Sage advice from an experienced confessor.

John Pacheco and his family rented a nearby cottage. We have five girls between the two families, and other young couples brought the fruit of their marriage as well. So this is a wonderful opportunity for our wives to form lasting friendships as our children run along the beach and explore nature’s mysteries.

Earlier this evening, I enjoyed a glass of brandy with Luc Gagnon, no stranger to the Wanderer, and Jason Kenney. Jason is the thirty-five years old Member of Parliament from Calgary, Alberta. Since winning his first federal election over seven years’ ago, Jason has grown into the most reliable voice of social-conservatism in Canadian politics.

During the Clinton years, Jason became the subject of a strange Canadian sex scandal. The controversy began when the mainstream media reported Jason had previously sworn off pre-marital sex near the beginning of his political career . After his conversion to Catholicism, Jason would share that Pope John Paul II was his main inspiration to do so. Nevertheless, Canada’s mainstream media found Kenney’s revelation more upsetting than that of the former US president. Given the nation’s permissive approach to sex education, how had the public school system failed Canada’s youngest and most promising politicians? Yet Jason survived this episode with his morals intact. He is living proof one can aspire to a political career in Canada without forfeiting one’s moral virtue–a lesson our “Catholic” prime minister likely finds disconcerting.

For my own part, I enjoyed this opportunity to reconnect with fellow orthodox Catholics in Canada and share in what G.K. Chesterton once dubbed “the fellowship of the pint, the pipe and the cross.” After a hectic move during the summer followed by a punishing schedule this past fall, I needed to rekindle my prayer life. It had become rather dry as I increasingly found myself simply going through the motions. Like any good physician of the soul, Fr. McCaig drew upon Holy Scripture and the wisdom of the saints to heal me from this latest bout of spiritual malaise.

Additionally, O’Brien invited me to introduce my two new books to the Canadian audience gathered. These are: More Catholic Than the Pope: An Inside Look at Extreme Traditionalism, co-authored with Patrick Madrid, and Surprised by Canon Law: 150 Questions Laypeople Ask About Canon Law. I co-authored this last title with Michael Trueman who is also a lay canonist. Although the books have been available in the United States for over a month, they are just hitting Catholic bookstores in my native land.

After watching the Catholic faith die in Canada over the past three decades, this weekend left me optimistic. Other young Catholics are working to reclaim Catholic orthodoxy in Canada, and we are slowly networking and coming together for the greater glory of Christ and His Church. Please keep us in prayer.

there's a Web site for everything.

On NRO, Jack Dunphy gives his take on the marine accused of killing a wounded Iraqi insurgent in Fallujah. Trust me, it's worth reading the whole thing for last couple of paragraphs.

Addiction to porn destroying lives, Senate told - link via Drudge

Mary Anne Layden, co-director of a sexual trauma program at the University of Pennsylvania, said pornography's effect on the brain mirrors addiction to heroin or crack cocaine. She told of one patient, a business executive, who arrived at his office at 9 a.m. each day, logged onto Internet porn sites, and didn't log off until 5 p.m.

A friend of mine is a divorced mother of a 17 year old. She tells me she keeps track of what her son is doing on the internet with the computer in his room. "I don't mind him looking at porn as long as it's not too sick," she said.

That's a real problem. I explained to her what the probable effects of a habit of pornography begun during such formative years. How is he going to view women if he looks at porn all day? As sexual objects for his own gratification. Do you think he's going to be able to be chaste when he's dating if he spends a good chunk of time watching porn every day? Do you think he'll have a long-term, loving marriage with a woman if all he's focused on is sexual gratification. Do you think he'll want to get married at all or just shack up while it's convenient and expedient?

She wasn't willing to consider any of the potential effects of his budding porn habit. I think she was afraid to confront him about it, perhaps she didn't even see anything wrong with it. But that's just one kind of victim of pornography. The "performers" themselves are also victims, probably the worst victims. I know the Old Oligarch has posted on this in the past but I can't find any links on his site. O-O, if you're reading, post a link if you will.

Help a brother out here. I'm looking for an Encyclopedia of Catholic Symbols in general and information about dominican symbols specificially: the Dominican Shield, the habit, and the Dominican Cross.

Please help me out in the comments or over email! Thanks a million!

A reader in Massachusetts sent a note the other day looking for some advice. She's thinking of moving to Virginia, together with her husband and their several little kids, and she'd like to know if she can find strong and sound church life there. Can our Virginia readers and writers recommend places to live or schools to attend (Catholic or public)? How the Commonwealth is doing in regard to Catholic issues? (Probably better than Massachusetts.)

Discuss.

Just found out via Mark Shea's blog that Gerard Serafin, writer of the Catholic Blog for Lovers and keeper of St. Blog parish roll has passed on. His warmth really shined through in his writings. He was always a ray of light among us and will be missed very much. Please pray for his soul.

A meteor is coming and we're all going to die, British teacher tells pupils- link via Drudge

A British schoolteacher, attempting to motivate her pupils into making the most of each day, told them a meteorite was about to smash into the Earth and that they should all return home to say goodbye to their families, a report said.

The teacher at the high school in Manchester, northwest England, only realised her lecture was misjudged when many of the assembled teenagers started crying, the Sun newspaper said in its Friday edition.

According to the report, the unnamed female teacher made the announcement to around 250 pupils at St Matthew's Roman Catholic High School during their regular morning assembly..

The Times of London doesn't seem to be terribly sympathetic to the beleagured insurgents of Fallujah.

THE last hours of the mujahidin are terrifying. With the city they once ruled with the absolute authority of medieval caliphs now overrun by American and Iraqi troops, they have to keep moving. To pause even for a few minutes can mean instant death from an unseen enemy. A group of 15 fighters dressed in black and carrying an array of weapons ducked into a two-storey house in war-torn southern Fallujah yesterday morning. Their movement was picked up by an unmanned spy plane that beamed back live footage to a control centre on the edge of the city. Within minutes, an airstrike was called and the house disappeared in a giant plume of grey smoke.

From a house across the road, the explosion flushed out another group of guerrillas. Deafened by the blast, they stumbled out into the street, formed a ragged line and started off on the marathon to postpone their deaths, the drone dogging their every step.

Like the Psalmist, I rejoice at the destruction of the wicked. More:

The battle for Fallujah is all but over. The main north-south road in the once-dreaded Jolan district is a US military highway. Any guerrilla who could make his way back up from the last pockets of resistance in the south would see the mujahidin graffiti — “Jihad, jihad, jihad, God is Greatest and Islam will win” — replaced by slogans daubed by the US-backed Iraqi Army, posted the length of the route.

Gosh, it's almost like we're winning or something. And if you had even a tiny doubt about the people that the Marines and soldiers are fighting, read this:

Apart from a few women and children, the only civilians [the Iraqi officer] had seen were men of fighting age, about 500, detained for vetting. He said that some civilians had said that insurgent snipers had shot anyone trying to leave their homes. As US troops sweep through the houses, they are unearthing the insurgents’ horrifying secrets — more akin to the handiwork of serial killers than guerrillas or even terrorists — that have shocked the world and explain why this offensive has met with so little opposition from the Arab world.

In the south of Fallujah yesterday, US Marines found the armless, legless body of a blonde woman, her throat slashed and her entrails cut out. Benjamin Finnell, a hospital apprentice with the US Navy Corps, said that she had been dead for a while, but at that location for only a day or two. The woman was wearing a blue dress; her face had been disfigured. It was unclear if the remains were the body of the Irish-born aid worker Margaret Hassan, 59, or of Teresa Borcz, 54, a Pole abducted two weeks ago. Both were married to Iraqis and held Iraqi citizenship; both were kidnapped in Baghdad last month.

US and Iraqi troops have discovered kidnappers’ lairs filled with corpses or emaciated prisoners half-mad with fear, and piles of bodies of men who had refused to fight with the insurgents. As the guerrillas run their last sprint from death, sympathy for their cause is running out among Iraqis.