The News: June 2003 Archives

ORLANDO, Fla. — A severely retarded rape victim who was thrust into an abortion debate when Gov. Jeb Bush said he wanted a guardian appointed for her fetus will carry her pregnancy to term under a plan approved by a judge Wednesday.

From the NY Times.

"We are witnessing an old-new, escalating, global and even lethal anti-Semitism," Irwin Cotler, a Canadian member of Parliament, said in a speech to the conference today. Its chief characteristic, Mr. Cotler and other delegates argued, is that it singles out Israel for criticism and condemnation beyond any other nation, and asserts that a Jewish homeland, by its nature and the nature of its citizens, violates the rights of others.

"It is anti-Semitism under the banner of human rights at a time when human rights is the new secular religion," Mr. Cotler said.

A Few Bad Shepherds - from an Op-ed from the Washtimes

When appointed last year, Mr. Keating said that, "The Church needs a thorough scrubbing." This was a call to clean up immorality, not to do away with moral standards, as some of the dissenters are trying to do. The response to hypocrisy cannot be relativism. The scandals have given many leftists a club with which to take whacks at an institution that stands against much that is bad in our culture. By their lack of contrition, many bishops have aided and abetted the revolutionaries in their pews. Mr. Keating's frustrated probe, and the politics behind it, signal more troubles for the Catholic Church in the future.

A friend of mine who is a priest has a saying, "It's going to get worse before it gets worse."

Chief 'show me the money' Moose has resigned rather than comply with a local county ethics commission ruling that barred him from writing a book about the DC Sniper ordeal last Fall.

See Michelle Malkin's scathing commentary on Moose's unapologetic and atrocious opportunism. A few highlights:

He is an outlaw opportunist.

He is an ineffective, absent leader.

He is a money-grubbing menace who has put his personal ambition over public safety.

And what would this game of political poker be without someone playing the race card?

Instead of following the law, he and his big-mouthed wife, an image consultant and CEO of Chief Moose Inc., have hurled reckless charges of racism at county employees. Mrs. Moose whined to the panel that the couple resented having to answer to "a fully white group to give him permission to make some money." She likened her spouse to Martin Luther King Jr. and Nelson Mandela as a civil-rights trailblazer who "stood for principle."

Mrs. Moose equates principle with abusing one's position as a government employee to profit from the publicity of heinous crimes and put the trial of the perpetrators in jeopardy. I wish Dr. King were alive today to rebuke the both of them.

Israeli Antiquities Authority Says 'James Ossuary' a Phony foxnews.com

JERUSALEM — An ancient burial box purported to have held the bones of Jesus' brother, James, is a fake, Israel's Antiquities Authority (search) said Wednesday.

The ossuary, which bore the inscription "James, son of Joseph, brother of Jesus," had been touted by some scholars as the oldest archaeological link to New Testament (search) figures.

But Israeli officials described that inscription, as well as another purported archaeological marvel, the "Yoash inscription," as "forgeries."

I think he's responsible for global warming...

Hill cool to Clinton's president-term idea - WashTimes

Last week, Mr. Clinton told an audience at the John F. Kennedy Library and Museum in Boston that the amendment, which limits presidents to serving two elected terms, should be changed only to limit a president to two consecutive terms.
"There may come a time when we elect a president at age 45 or 50, and then 20 years later the country comes up against the same kind of problems the president faced before," he said. "People would like to bring that man or woman back but they would have no way to do so."

The same problemsthe president faced before? I hope the moral and ethical problems Bubba had as president are never repeated!

And the Republican reaction:

Mr. DeLay said he agrees the amendment should be changed, but he wants to do away with it entirely. He said Mr. Clinton should join him in that effort.
"If he would help me maybe we could repeal the 22nd Amendment and then he can run again and we can beat him once and for all," Mr. DeLay said.
Other Republicans just dismissed Mr. Clinton's remarks.
"I think two terms is quite enough," said Sen. Rick Santorum, Pennsylvania Republican.
"I just say good try, Mr. President, good try," said Sen. Orrin G. Hatch, Utah Republican.
Mr. Hatch is chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, which would have to approve any change, and he said that's just not going to happen.
"Nobody's going to do that," he said.

The funny thing about Sen. Orrin Hatch is that the Republicans can't always count on him to vote with the party on tough issues. "Don't count your Hatches before they chicken," they say.

From cnn.com

Peterson, 30, is accused of killing his wife, Laci, and unborn son, Conner, who disappeared from their Modesto home on Christmas Eve and washed out of the San Francisco Bay in April. He could face the death penalty if convicted.

Peterson as in Scott. Laci as in Scott Peterson's murdered wife. Conner as in the Peterson's unborn son. I don't know anything about California law with regard to what age a fetus must be to be considered a murder victim, but this unborn victim has a name and the mainstream media isn't shy about printing it. Is this is the culture of death changing for the better?

I might post some thoughts on this later today along with some terrible things I learned about the AIDS epidemic in Africa today from a visiting priest at our parish.