Sal – Page 39 – Catholic Light

Logic lesson for the day

Let’s start with a hypothetical proposition:

If God exists, I will not see the movie “Catwoman.”

Sounds simple enough! I mean to say that if God exists, He makes certain demands on us with regard to moral behavior. Seeing Halle Berry (proverbially) prowl around the world seeking the ruin of male souls in her Catwoman outfit would be acting contrary to those demands. Her disguise can harldy be called an “outfit” – it’s more like cat ears and three postage stamps. To see this movie would be a near occasion of sin at the very least and in all likelyhood actually sinful. Consequently, I will not see the movie “Catwoman.”

The mixed hypothetical syllogism in standard form, minus the stuff about demands, moral behavior, cat ears, postage stamps, and sin:

If God exists, then I will not see the movie “Catwoman.”
God exists.
I will not see the movie “Catwoman.”

This is a formally valid syllogism. It’s logical form is known as modus ponens, or affirming the antecedent.

Maria asks about angels and saints

Maria is a new convert to the faith who lives in Vermont.

Maria: I’m still a little fuzzy on the whole saint and angels thing, I read recently that saints are the avatars of angels, is that what you believe? I’m gathering it’s not, or I would think you’d pray directly to the angels? That’s what I mean by still being a little “fuzzy” on all this stuff!!!

Here’s my reply.

Two must-reads

The Battle of the Mosque by Arnold Kling. Publish 07/27 on Tech Central Station
If the Dead Could Talk by Victor David Hansen. Publish today on NRO.

Both of these speak to the challenges of the terror war and how it’s not going to be won with platitudes and irrational idealism. I would add that entrusting our national security to the party of those who formerly eviscerated our intelligence capabilities with budget cuts and who suggest now that we make every islamofascist read “All I Ever Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten” to change their minds about us is not going to win this war.

We need to face the fact that we’re at the beginning of an active conflict with Islamic terrorism, not at the end. This is going to be won by besting the enemy, not surrending to their capability to influence the media. It seems to me the terrorists are in control of the debate in this country, not us.

As VDH says,

billions of American dollars flow to Jordan, Iraq, and Egypt. We have even given billions to that wretched Arafat kleptocracy and saved Muslims from Kuwait to Bosnia. U.S. jets, not deranged riff-raff from Afghanistan, stopped Milosevic. There is no legitimate complaint of the Arab world against the United States — any more than Hitler had a right to Czechoslovakia or the Japanese to Manchuria. Just because the Japanese whined that the cutting-off of U.S. petroleum forced them to bomb Pearl Harbor didn’t make it true.

I apologize in advance for the disjointedness of this missive. I’m in a hurry as I have an exam for my summer class today.

A vast, interstellar conspiracy

Don’t let the smile fool you – this woman at the DNC is proof that extraterrestrials have taken over the Democrat party. If Kerry gets elected they’ll use Republicans as cheap fuel for their spaceships. Here’s a photo of their leader who gave Capt. James T. Kirk (R-Idaho) a run for his money back in the 60’s. The Federation should have outlawed dancing!

This just makes me cringe

Drudge: KERRY FILM DIRECTOR: THE BULLETS IN THE WATER WERE NOT FROM THE ACTUAL EVENT

“I would have used archival footage,” Moll tells the NEW YORK OBSERVER’s Joe Hagan, “but it was a pleasant surprise that he had taken his own footage while in Vietnam.”
Kerry’s homemade films are at the center of a growing controversy in Boston.
A bombshell new book written by the man who took over John Kerry’s Swift Boat charges: Kerry reenacted combat scenes for film while in Vietnam! “Kerry carried a home movie camera to record his exploits for later viewing,” charges a naval officer in the upcoming book UNFIT FOR COMMAND.
“Kerry would revisit ambush locations for reenacting combat scenes where he would portray the hero, catching it all on film. Kerry would take movies of himself walking around in combat gear, sometimes dressed as an infantryman walking resolutely through the terrain. He even filmed mock interviews of himself narrating his exploits. A joke circulated among Swiftees was that Kerry left Vietnam early not because he received three Purple Hearts, but because he had recorded enough film of himself to take home for his planned political campaigns.”