Today's News

The latest on Obama and Notre Dame

Head of Holy Cross order asks Obama to rethink position on abortion

By John Thavis
Catholic News Service

ROME (CNS) -- The head of the Holy Cross religious order that founded the University of Notre Dame has written to U.S. President Barack Obama and asked him to rethink his positions on abortion and other life issues.

U.S. Father Hugh W. Cleary, Holy Cross superior general in Rome, said that when Obama receives an honorary degree from the Indiana university and delivers the commencement address in May, he should take to heart the objections of Catholics who have been scandalized by the invitation.

Father Cleary asked the president to use the occasion to "give your conscience a fresh opportunity to be formed anew in a holy awe and reverence before human life in every form at every stage -- from conception to natural death."

The 13-page letter, dated March 22, was made available to Catholic News Service in Rome. Father Cleary also prepared an abridged version of the text as an "open letter" to the president, which was expected to be published on the Web site of America magazine.

Father Cleary's letter began by congratulating Obama on being awarded an honorary doctorate from Notre Dame, and said the university was honored to have him deliver the commencement address.

The visit should be a "teachable moment" for all involved, Father Cleary said.

He asked the president to take advantage of the occasion to "rethink, through prayerful wrestling with your own conscience, your stated positions on the vital 'life issues' of our day, particularly in regard to abortion, embryonic forms of stem-cell research and your position on the Freedom of Choice Act."

Father Cleary repeatedly quoted Obama's words at the National Prayer Breakfast in February: "There is no God who condones taking the life of an innocent human being." Sadly, the priest said, legalized abortion implies that a person's choice for personal freedom supersedes this obligation to protect and nurture human life.

"An 'unwanted' child comes in many forms: an untimely presence; a disabled or deformed creature; an embryo of the wrong sex; a child conceived out of wedlock; a child conceived through a hideous crime," he said.

Father Cleary said the United States has a history of defining the parameters of human life "when it suits our self-interest." One example was slavery, justified by denying that a black human being of African descent was fully human, he said.

Father Cleary noted that many U.S. Catholics today feel their beliefs are dismissed without the serious attention they deserve. Catholics recognize that they live in a pluralistic society, he said, but also believe they have something vital to say about life issues.

"We want to be taken seriously. We insist on taking ourselves seriously; that is why there has been so much protest and turmoil in regard to your presence at Notre Dame," he wrote.

He suggested that at his Notre Dame appearance Obama speak about how Catholics "can be taken seriously for our faith convictions without being dismissed offhandedly and shunned; it is too offensive to be ignored, it is unacceptable."

Father Clearly said in his letter that he had been deluged with angry e-mails regarding Notre Dame's invitation to the president. He explained that he has no authority over the decision-making by the university, which is directed by a board of fellows and a board of trustees.

Priests and brothers of the Holy Cross order continue to serve at the university, and the university's president -- at present, Father John I. Jenkins -- is always a Holy Cross priest.

Passion Sunday was yesterday

Did your church follow the tradition of veiling the statues?

Saint Patrick's in Wilkes-Barre of course, did not. They did not under the previous pastor either, and the new priest does not inspire confidence where matters of tradition are concerned.

If anyone attended a church that did veil, please drop us a note here. Especially here in the Diocese of Scranton.

Will Doctors be forced to perform abortions?

Probably. If Barry the Butcher has his way.

I keep saying that everyday another stupid-ass thing comes from Obama or his administration to further weaken our moral fiber as a country. Now he is attacking medical personnel.

Oh! And Catholic hospitals!

From Catholic Online

WASHINGTON, D.C. (ACLJ) - President Barack Obama has directed the Department of Health and Human Services to rescind the "conscience clause" which protects health-care personnel from pressure to perform or participate in procedures they regard as violations of their personal moral and ethical beliefs.

This action would rescind a 2008 Executive Order which sought to protect those who conscientiously hold to life-affirming principles of medical practice.

Mandating professional compliance is a heavy-handed, despotic approach and hardly reflects Obama's self-described "moderate" approach to abortion policy.

Physicians in our country have been typically granted the most autonomy among members of the healthcare team, and abortion advocates have continuously trumpeted their insistence that government refrain from interference in the physician-patient relationship. Yet in this circumstance the mantra has been changed to suit the agenda: as noted by the Bioethics Defense Fund's Nikolas Nikas, "the 'right to choose' has become the 'right to coerce.'" Private citizens have a privilege against undue governmental influence on their ability to obtain abortions—not a right to demand one.

Mandated compliance generates tremendous disincentives for those already in practice, and those who are considering healthcare professions. Enactment of this Executive Order will have the effect of pushing moral refusers out of medicine. The field is likely to be deprived of some of the best and brightest candidates, those who will not make the demanding sacrifices of medical training, only to become puppets of the government. Many of those who currently practice in underserved and poverty-stricken areas do so because of their Biblical and ethical commitments. This Executive Order could drive them out of practice, generating huge gaps in medical services.

President Obama has clearly abandoned his stated goal of uniting Americans. There are alternatives to his plan, however, which could affect a compromise without sacrificing patient care. One solution would grant authority to state medical and licensing boards to determine which physicians are willing to perform certain services, allowing others to opt out. Patients and doctors could be matched, based upon shared values and beliefs.

The fact is that there’s not much time before President Obama acts on this important issue. We’re in the middle of a 30-day public comment period. A growing number of Americans – including medical professionals who don’t want to violate their conscience by engaging in abortion-producing procedures – are expressing their concern and opposition to President Obama’s desire to rescind the “conscience clause” protection.

The question: will he really listen?

More on the garden

Well, the planning for the garden continues to move along. I have chosen a majority of my varieties, and am still looking for a few more.

So far the definites are:

1. Pole Beans - Kentucky Wonder
2. Radish - Champion
3. Cucumber - Natural Pickler
4. Gourds - Small Mixed
5. Watermelon - Crimson sweet
6. Corn - Bodacious
7. Carrot - Scarlet Nantes
8. Peas - Sugar Snap
9. Tomato - Brandywine and others yet to be determined
10. Pumpkin - Jack O Lantern
11. Spinach - Space Hybrid (I will change this if I come across something better)
12. Wax Beans - Golden Wax
13. Summer Squash - Yellow Crookneck
14. Beets - Early Wonder

I also got a hold of my onion sets and seed potatoes.

Here are my Stuttgart Onions all nestled in their bag waiting to go outside.









My Yukon Gold potatoes ready to be mounded up. Don't they look yummy?

400th Post!

I hope you are all as disgusted as I by Notre Dame. As America's premier Catholic University prepares to welcome Der Obama as commencement speaker, they also plan to honor him by bestowing an honorary degree. This they plan to give to the man responsible for murdering 1,000's of babies. Indirectly, yes. He had the power tohelp save unborn babies, but he has helped to kill them.

It seems that almost daily something else unbelievable happens.

Keep praying we can come out of this in the midterm and then again in 2012. We are in deep shit if we don't.

Here is a great article from The American Spectator.

Touchdown Obama
By George Neumayr on 3.27.09 @ 6:08AM

The Catholic Church in America has bred her own destroyers, graduating from doctrinally corrupt catechetical programs, schools and colleges two generations of pro-abortion politicians. Barack Obama, in his effortless Alinskyite style, has exploited this phenomenon to the hilt, seeking out Catholics such as Joe Biden and Kathleen Sebelius to serve as his agents of destruction.

The controversy this week at Notre Dame is one more snapshot of this self-implosion. Here we have the American bishops' most prominent university planning to confer an honorary degree upon Obama even as he accelerates the destruction of its moral teachings.

Were Saul Alinsky alive today, he would have to smile at the ease of it all. Obama can not only thwart the Church at every crucial turn and still retain the Catholic vote; he can even expect over the next few years prizes and pats on the back from Catholic colleges for doing so.

Jesuit Georgetown University is no doubt itching to honor him too; its professors ranked seventh among all university faculties in donations to Obama during the campaign, reported the Chronicle of Higher Education. The Jesuit magazine America and Jesuit Thomas Reese rushed to Notre Dame's defense this week.

Perhaps Obama enthusiast/fellow Alinskyite Father Michael Pfleger can travel over from Chicago for ND's commencement exercises to fill in for the boycotting Fort Wayne-South Bend Bishop John D'Arcy.

To his credit, D'Arcy, a long and lonely opponent of Notre Dame's secularization, wants no part in the sham, correctly noting that the school is once again panting after "prestige" at the expense of "truth." Four decades of surrendering to secularist culture and championing progressive politics at Notre Dame have culminated in an honorary degree to the most pro-abortion president ever.

Responding to this criticism, its president, Father John Jenkins, has had to dust off the "dialogue" defense from the recent Vagina Monologues controversy on campus to justify his decision.

Out rolled from the president's office the familiar cart of clichés. "You cannot change the world if you shun the people you want to persuade, and if you cannot persuade them…show respect for them and listen to them," Jenkins was quoted as saying.

What's the logic here? To dialogue with a public figure a school has to confer an honorary degree upon him? This makes no sense, but it is the kind of head-faking non sequiter that appeals to Jenkins.

Just as he twisted the Vagina Monologues controversy into a beside-the-point discussion about the value of free speech, so he is casting this recent one as some sort of test of Notre Dame's commitment to "positive engagement."

The White House, sensing the drift of this script, joined in the charade, saying in response to the controversy that it welcomes the "spirit of debate and healthy disagreement on important issues."

Which makes one wonder: When exactly will the debate take place? Before, during or after the commencement exercises? Will it proceed like Jenkins' "creative contexualization" panel discussions about the Vagina Monologues? Or is Obama's interest in "healthy disagreement" about as plausible as Jenkins' notion of "positive engagement"?

Notice also that for additional PR protection Jenkins is playing the race card. "It is of special significance that we will hear from our first African-American president, a person who has spoken eloquently and movingly about race in this nation. Racial prejudice has been a deep wound in America, and Mr. Obama has been a healer," he was quoted saying this week.

Again, how is this relevant to honorary-degree-conferring from a Catholic university? Does opposing racial injustice absolve supporting other injustices?

Imagine a reverse scenario, say a politician who supported the Church's moral teachings down the line but had some racist blot in his past. Would Jenkins honor him? No, he woudn't dare. But somehow Obama's formal cooperation in the injustice of destroying innocent lives just isn't so bad.

The Obama Song!

Let's chronicle the first two months of Der Obama's administration.

A Bill To Outlaw Gardening!

HR 875 http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/F?c111:1:./temp/~c1112RD9bb:e11439:

This bill is sitting in committee and I am not sure when it is going to hit the floor. One thing I do know is that very few of the Representatives have read it. As usual they will vote on this based on what someone else is saying. Urge your members to read the legislation and ask for opposition to this devastating legislation. Devastating for everyday folks but great for factory farming ops like Monsanto, ADM, Sodexo and Tyson to name a few.

I have no doubt that this legislation was heavily influenced by lobbyists from huge food producers. This legislation is so broad based that technically someone with a little backyard garden could get fined and have their property siezed. It will effect anyone who produces food even if they do not sell but only consume it. It will literally put all independent farmers and food producers out of business due to the huge amounts of money it will take to conform to factory farming methods. If people choose to farm without industry standards such as chemical pesticides and fertilizers they will be subject to a vareity of harassment from this completely new agency that has never before existed. That's right, a whole new government agency is being created just to police food, for our own protection of course.

DO NOT TAKE MY WORD FOR IT, READ THIS LEGISLATION FOR YOURSELF. The more people who read this legislation the more insight we are going to get and be able to share. Post your observations and insights below. Urge your members to read this legislation and to oppose the passage of this legislation.

Pay special attention to

• Section 3 which is the definitions portion of the bill-read in it's entirety.
• section 103, 206 and 207- read in it's entirety.

Red flags I found and I am sure there are more...........

• Legally binds state agriculture depts to enforcing federal guidelines effectively taking away the states power to do anything other than being food police for the federal dept.
• Effectively criminalizes organic farming but doesn't actually use the word organic.
• Effects anyone growing food even if they are not selling it but consuming it.
• Effects anyone producing meat of any kind including wild game.
• Legislation is so broad based that every aspect of growing or producing food can be made illegal. There are no specifics which is bizarre considering how long the legislation is.
• Section 103 is almost entirely about the administrative aspect of the legislation. It will allow the appointing of officials from the factory farming corporations and lobbyists and classify them as experts and allow them to determine and interpret the legislation. Who do you think they are going to side with?
• Section 206 defines what will be considered a food production facility and what will be enforced up all food production facilities. The wording is so broad based that a backyard gardener could be fined and more.
• Section 207 requires that the state's agriculture dept act as the food police and enforce the federal requirements. This takes away the states power and is in violation of the 10th amendment.
• There are many more but by the time I got this far in the legislation I was so alarmed that I wanted to bring someone's attention to it. (to the one person who reads my blog)

Didn't Stalin nationalize farming methods that enabled his administration to gain control over the food supply? Didn't Stalin use the food to control the people?

Last word...... Legislate religion and enforce gag orders on ministers on what can and can't be said in the pulpit, instituting regulations forcing people to rely soley on the government, control the money and the food. What is that called? It is on the tip of my tongue..........

I haven't read any of the Senate's version of the bill as I have been poring thru the House's version. Here is the link and I hope some of you can take a look and post your observations and insights below. One thing I am pretty sure of is that very few if any Senator's have actually read the legislation and when it comes up for a vote they will more than likely take someone else's word on how they should vote. The other thing I am pretty sure about is that the legislation was probably written by lobbyists and industry experts.

S 425 http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d111:s425:

Things you can do

1. Contact your members at 202-224-3121 and ask them to oppose HR 875 and S 425. While you are at it ask them if they personally have read the legislation and what their position is? If they have not read the legislation ask them to read it and politely let them know that just because other representitives are not reading the legislation and voting on it does not mean they can do the same.
2. Get in touch with local farmers and food producers by attending a local farmers market and asking them how business is.
3. Attend a local WAPF meeting, this is a good start to learning about what is going on in farming and local & state initiatives . The website is http://www.westonaprice.org/localchapters/index.html
4. Check out the Farmers Legal Defense Fund at http://www.ftcldf.org/index.html
5. Find out who sits on your states agriculture and farming committee and contact them with your concerns.
6. Continue to contact your elected officials and let them know your position on legislation and why.
7. Get active at the local and state levels, this is the quickest way to initiate change.

We have to start over

Here is a kick ass article I wish I wrote. The article is so common sense that many of you won't believe it's that simple. But it is. I dare you to convince me otherwise.

545 PEOPLE
By Charlie Reese

Politicians are the only people in the world who create problems and then campaign against them.

Have you ever wondered, if both the Democrats and the Republicans are against deficits, WHY do we have deficits?

Have you ever wondered, if all the politicians are against inflation and high taxes, WHY do we have inflation and high taxes?

You and I don't propose a federal budget. The president does.

You and I don't have the Constitutional authority to vote on appropriations. The House of representatives does.

You and I don't write the tax code, Congress does.

You and I don't set fiscal policy, Congress does.

You and I don't control monetary policy, the Federal Reserve Bank does.

One hundred senators, 435 congressmen, one president, and nine Supreme Court justices 545 human beings out of the 300 million are directly, legally, morally, and individually responsible for the domestic problems that plague this country.

I excluded the members of the Federal Reserve Board because that problem was created by the Congress. In 1913, Congress delegated its Constitutional duty to provide a sound currency to a federally chartered, but private, central bank.

I excluded all the special interests and lobbyists for a sound reason. They have no legal authority. They have no ability to coerce a senator, a congressman, or a president to do one cotton-picking thing. I don't care if they offer a politician $1 million dollars in cash. The politician has the power to accept or reject it. No matter what the lobbyist promises, it is the legislator's responsibility to determine how he votes.

Those 545 human beings spend much of their energy convincing you that what they did is not their fault. They cooperate in this common con regardless of party.

What separates a politician from a normal human being is an excessive amount of gall. No normal human being would have the gall of a Speaker, who stood up and criticized the President for creating deficits. The president can only propose a budget. He cannot force the Congress to accept it.

The Constitution, which is the supreme law of the land, gives sole responsibility to the House of Representatives for originating and approving appropriations and taxes. Who is the speaker of the House? Nancy Pelosi. She is the leader of the majority party. She and fellow House members, not the president, can approve any budget they want. If the president vetoes it, they can pass it over his veto if they agree to.

It seems inconceivable to me that a nation of 300 million can not replace 545 people who stand convicted -- by present facts -- of incompetence and irresponsibility. I can't think of a single domestic problem that is not traceable directly to those 545 people. When you fully grasp the plain truth that 545 people exercise the power of the federal government, then it must follow that what exists is what they want to exist.

If the tax code is unfair, it's because they want it unfair.

If the budget is in the red, it's because they want it in the red.

If the Army & Marines are in IRAQ , it's because they want
them in IRAQ.

If they do not receive social security but are on an elite retirement plan not available to the people, it's because they want it that way.

There are no insoluble government problems.

Do not let these 545 people shift the blame to bureaucrats, whom they hire and whose jobs they can abolish; to lobbyists, whose gifts and advice they can reject; to regulators, to whom they give the power to regulate and from whom they can take this power. Above all, do not let them con you into the belief that there exists disembodied mystical forces like "the economy," "inflation," or "politics" that prevent them from doing what they take an oath to do.

Those 545 people, and they alone, are responsible.

They, and they alone, have the power.

They, and they alone, should be held accountable by the people who are their bosses.

Provided the voters have the gumption to manage their own employees.

We should vote all of them out of office and clean up their mess!

Charlie Reese is a former columnist of the Orlando Sentinel Newspaper.

I absolutely agree with this assessment. Those cited in the article and their corrupt media try to tell us that most Americans want a government that takes care of us, that wants government funded schools to raise our children, that we want Hollywood actors to tell us how we should feel and what we should think and, yes we must be told what it is to be a good American.

But, it's all a lie. I believe most Americans work hard, raise their kids, look after their family and even their community when they can. Most of the people that I know want little or no government, and would work their fingers to the bone to avoid a government handout.

We tell them what we want, but they vote how they want.

It is time to vote them out. All of them.

Unfortunately most voters vote according to what they want or what they perceive they can get. Pork is not good for anyone else BUT it's just fine when it's for their state or community.

We need to make the standards to stay in office so high that very few will pass the test.

We need to make them live like the rest of us. I don't know when the ticket to the promised land of wealth became a career in DC but we need to take that away from them.

I betcha they'll straighten out Social Security when they have to depend on it. That means we have to end their elite medical care they get for free. Let them deal with the nationalized health care Obama is planning where they can get a 3:45am appointment for an x-ray 6 months after they requested it.

Make them deal with a 1%, better yet 0% pay raise like everyone else and then you'll see the change these idiots in office now speak of. I used to work at a job where I got a 25 cent raise one year, out of a possible 35 cents. And I was supposed to be grateful.

They have not given us their best. They've given us nothing but excuses, finger pointing, bills we can never pay, and they are selling us into poverty and slavery. Surely there must be a special place in h-e-double L for the majority of these jerks.

What I'm trying to say is, the primaries are coming up. Get involved, talk to the candidates if you can. Find out how they really feel about the issues. Make them know how you feel.

And then when the election finally comes, throw them out of office.

We have to start over. If not now, I fear later may be too late.

Steps to Dictatorship

Step One: Devastate the Economy.

Glenn Beck tonight with Ron Paul

Read the bill, dumbass!

Is anyone else sick of this AIG nonsense?

Are you sick of Der Obama and the Congress claiming they didn't know the authorization for the bonuses was in the stimulus bill?

How could they not know? They read the bill before they passed it.

Didn't they? We need to be sure they do read the bills they pass.

Currently there is a legislation is search of a congressman to introduce it.

It is called the "Read the Bills Act of 2006". Yeah. 2006.

No one in the House or Senate will introduce it.

Read more about it here and then tell your dumbass congressman to introduce this legislation. It is badly needed.

Don't you think?

Check this out

Whenever I argue with someone who dislikes the church it always happens. And I know it's going to happen.

Invariably, the person with whom I am arguing will bring up priests and sexual abuse.

In their defense, they have to.

It's all they've got.

Well, that and the Inquisition.

So I was pleased to read this email I got from the Catholic League today.

Another reason to homeschool!

And don't miss the bit about the suing sexual predators bill thingy...

NEW YORK TIMES EMBRACES DISCRIMINATION

Catholic League president Bill Donohue comments on an editorial in today’s New York Times:

“It was reported yesterday that accusations of misconduct against New York City public school teachers are at an all time high. Thanks to Richard Condon, Special Commissioner of Investigation, we know that about a third of those accusations involved sexual abuse: there were 595 such accusations, of which 105 were substantiated by his office. The New York Times did not report on this story—it was published in the New York Post. Nor did the New York Times run a story on a recent report regarding priestly sexual abuse: a grand total of ten credible accusations were made last year across the United States.

“Anyone who is serious about seeking justice would begin by addressing the public schools. But not the New York Times. Its editorial today never mentions the public schools. Indeed, it begins by saying, ‘For decades, priests who preyed sexually on children did so with shocking ease and impunity.’ Why were priests singled out? What was the motive? The editorial also talks about ‘shuttling abusive priests among parishes.’ In the public schools, shuttling abusers is so common—to this day!—that it is called ‘passing the trash.’

“The Times today endorsed a bill that would allow victims to sue even if the abuse took place in the 1960s. But only if the abuse occurred in a private institution. Under the bill the Times likes, the current protections afforded public school teachers—alleged victims have only 90 days to file a claim—remain in place. Yet the Times has the audacity to say that ‘The bill does not explicitly target any institution,’ knowing full well that unless the bill explicitly negated the 90-day rule for the public schools, the net effect would be to discriminate against Catholic schools.

“There is another bill that would create an equal playing field. But the Times, of course, never even mentioned it. We can only guess why.”

Contact NYT senior editor of the editorial page, Robert Semple, at semple@nytimes.com

Thank God for humor. And those with a sense of it.

Some prayers...

...for my mother who broke her hip and is refusing to have surgery.

It's been a rough day....

Thanks.

I am torn

I used to think Gerry Adams and Sinn Fein were heroes.

I used to believe that Sinn Fein would finally bring unification to Ireland.

11 years now since the Good Friday Agreement which brought peace to Ireland.

Where's the unified Ireland we were promised? The one where all of Ireland, the whole 32 counties would be one country again, free to determine her own destiny?

All I know is that Gerry Adams, president of Sinn Fein since 1983 has been sitting on the new Northern Ireland assembly as MP for West Belfast. Don't get me wrong, Adams and Sinn Fein, along with the IRA really did believe once. I don't know if they do anymore. Adams and Sinn Fein have proven totally ineffectual to stop the Democratic Unionist Party dominated Assembly from forging even closer ties with Britain. The Brits are more firmly entrenched in the north than ever before.

It seems that the days of the people of Ireland waiting patiently for unification is drawing to a close. So called "dissident" or "splinter" groups of the IRA, lets just call them "republicans" have had enough. So it seems. But I'm not sure about that either. With the two atacks last week that killed British soldiers and police, have these republicans simply attacked the peace process as Adams suggested?

Were these attacks REALLY the work of the republicans?

Has anyone else detected an element of foul play in these killings? For 23 years the Continuity IRA failed to land a single hit on a British soldier, and for 12 years the Real IRA could not hit the side of a barn, never mind score a hit against the Brits.

Then all of sudden we have the reports of British special forces being brought into the 6 counties to counter the 'dissident threat'?

Bringing special forces in to counter a nonexistent threat? What for?

Fast forward 72 hours later and what do you know? The RIRA discover how to use their guns after 12 years and kill two soldiers.

And then the CIRA come out of semi-retirement after 23 years and they get a kill.

Coincidence?

I have been told by some folks in the know in Northern Ireland that the Brits have their agents very well placed in these "splinter" groups.

We'll have to wait and see what is really going on.

It's all so very complicated.

St. Patty's is almost gone!

Well it is 11:18pm on St. Patty's Day as I write this.

Now I get to start my countdown to next year.

It's very far away.

Hope you all had a great one!

Tomorrow I'm gonna have some stuff up about Northern Ireland and the IRA and Sinn Fein. Maybe I'll throw Gerry Adams in there for good measure. I don't know. Stay tuned, true believers!

G'nite!

Now what will Casey do?

Dear Senator Casey:

It gives me great pleasure to extend my gratitude to you for your vote in favor of the Wicker Amendment which would have stopped the sending of U.S. taxpayer dollars to the United Nations Population Fund. It is my understanding that UNFPA cooperates with the Chinese government to enforce its one-child family policy through forced abortions, sterilizations and other human rights violations.

Please know how sorry I am that the amendment was defeated. I urge you and the thirty-eight other senators who supported it to continue your efforts to oppose policies that are destructive to life and the dignity of all persons everywhere in the world.

In that spirit, I urge you further to oppose the nomination of Governor Kathleen Sebelius for Secretary of Health and Human Services. As you must be aware, Governor Sebelius is one of the most militant pro-abortion politicians in the country. She has voted several times against her own legislature in their efforts to prevent late-term abortions.

As secretary of HHS, she will be in the position to advance the cause of making abortion a “basic health care service.” This will mean that physicians, nurses and health care institutions will be required to provide abortion even when conscience forbids them to do so.

The protection of the right to refuse abortion is essential to the continuation of Catholic health care.

Finally, I join Archbishop Naumann in his concern for the spiritual wellbeing of Governor Sebelius and so many other Catholic politicians who support legalized abortion contrary to the clear and consistent teaching of the Catholic Church.

I remain,

Sincerely yours in Christ,

Most Reverend Joseph F. Martino, D.D., Hist. E.D.
Bishop of Scranton

Torture and Gitmo!

Riots Erupt in N. Ireland after 3 arrested

Irish nationalist gangs hurled gas bombs at police Saturday after three alleged IRA dissidents were arrested on suspicion of killing two British soldiers in an attack designed to trigger wider violence in Northern Ireland.


Police operating in armored cars and flame-retardant suits said none of their officers was injured during the rising mob violence in the Irish Catholic end of Lurgan, a religiously divided town southwest of Belfast. Rioters also blocked the main Belfast-to-Dublin railway line that runs alongside the hardline Kilwilkie neighborhood of the town.


Later, police said they arrested a 37-year-old man and 30-year-old woman, and seized a gun and ammunition in the neighboring town of Craigavon, where Irish Republican Army dissidents shot to death a policeman Monday

Police would not say whether those arrests and the arms find were connected to the March 7 shooting of the soldiers or the subsequent killing of the policeman. Police said the couple were being questioned about unspecified "serious terrorist crime.
"

The unrest came in response to Saturday's arrest of Colin Duffy, 41, the best-known Irish republican in Lurgan. Police arrested two other suspected Irish Republican Army dissidents, aged 32 and 21, in the overwhelmingly Catholic village of Bellaghy — all on suspicion of shooting to death two soldiers last weekend.


Police advised motorists to stay away from the Catholic north side of Lurgan to avoid having their cars seized and burned as road barricades. An Associated Press reporter driving through the area at dusk Saturday night had to make a rapid escape to avoid youths — some wearing masks or with scarf-covered faces — hurling rocks and bricks in an apparent attempt to stop his vehicle.


Police long considered Duffy the IRA godfather of Lurgan and twice charged him with murders in the town in the run-up to the IRA's 1997 cease-fire — which breakaway factions are now trying to destroy.


Duffy was convicted of killing a former soldier in Lurgan in 1993, but was freed on appeal three years later after the key witness against him was identified as a member of an outlawed Protestant gang.


He was back behind bars within a year after police identified him as the gunman who committed the IRA's last two killings before its cease-fire: two Protestant policemen shot point-blank through the backs of their heads while on foot patrol in Lurgan in June 1997.


The prosecutors' case against Duffy collapsed after their key witness suffered a nervous breakdown and withdrew her testimony. Two years later, Protestant extremists assassinated Duffy's lawyer, Rosemary Nelson, with an under-car booby trap bomb in a case still being investigated today because of allegations that police were involved.


Sinn Fein in spotlight

Saturday's arrest of Duffy appeared likely to pose a political challenge for Sinn Fein, the IRA-linked party that is the leading Irish nationalist voice in Northern Ireland's power-sharing administration — and is trying to convince Protestants of its newfound support for British law and order.


The leading Sinn Fein member of the coalition, Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness, earlier this week denounced IRA dissidents as "traitors" and pledged to support the police's hunt for the gunmen. But previously, Sinn Fein has defended Duffy as an innocent man and a victim of British conspiracies.


Sinn Fein declined to comment on the arrests. McGuinness was traveling Saturday in the United States and could not be reached for comment.


Saturday's arrests came a week after the Real IRA splinter group fired more than 60 bullets at several unarmed, off-duty soldiers outside an army base as they collected pizzas.


Two soldiers, aged 21 and 23, died and four other people were seriously wounded, including both pizza delivery men — whom the Real IRA described as legitimate targets because they were "collaborating" with the enemy. Police said the attack involved two masked men armed with assault rifles and a getaway driver.


Splinter groups

The IRA dissidents next struck Monday when Constable Stephen Carroll, 48, was shot fatally through the back of the head as he sat in his police car in Craigavon, the town beside Lurgan. A different splinter group, the Continuity IRA, admitted responsibility for that killing.


Three people — a 17-year-old boy and two men — have been arrested since Tuesday on suspicion of involvement in killing the policeman. All remained in custody Saturday.


The dissidents insist they have no intention of stopping attacks on British security forces and the civilians who work with them — the policy that the IRA pursued during its own 1970-97 attempt to force Northern Ireland out of the United Kingdom.
Most IRA members agreed to renounce violence and disarm in 2005~

And it continues to build

I am glad to see so much good news coming from my Ireland right before St. Patrick's Day.

From North Belfast News

Catholic Bar Targeted by Loyalist Pipebombers

A North Belfast bar owner said his staff are "lucky to be alive" after loyalists threw a pipe bomb into the Greencastle pub's beer garden this week.

The device was thrown over a fence into the grounds of the Fountain Bar as staff cleared up after closing time on Tuesday night. The pipe bomb, which did not explode, was thrown into the outside smoking area, adjacent to the bar.

The bar is primarily used by Catholics from the Whitewell Road and Bawnmore areas.

The Fountain Bar owner Paul Gillen said his staff were traumatised after the incident and believes it was intended to cause serious harm.

"They are very uneasy, they are simply working and providing a good service to the public and this is what happens," said Paul.

"We are all very anxious after this. I believe the bomb was left to do serious harm, it was only that they did not make it up properly. It was thrown right into the spot where customers have a smoke and was meant to do serious damage."

The bomb was found by the PSNI after the bar staff first discovered a suspicious package outside their doors as they locked up. After ringing the PSNI - who took almost an hour to arrive at the scene for fear it was an ambush - the first device was declared an elaborate hoax.

However after searching the scene they discovered the second bomb in the beer garden which was not a hoax but simply made incorrectly.

It is understood a phone warning was made to the PSNI just minutes before the bomb was discovered from a phone box in the Rathcoole Estate. CCTV images of a hooded male planting the devices was recovered on the bar's security cameras. He had travelled in a car with two other males and they are believed to have been tracked by CCTV to the same area. Mr Gillen said he is now stepping up security measures in the bar.

"I will be looking at other ways to make the place more secure and make sure the my staff are safe."

Sinn Fein councillor Tierna Cunningham condemned the incident and made an appeal for the community not to retaliate to the loyalist threat.

"First of all I want to offer my sympathies to the staff and owners of the bar who are understandably shaken up after this. The Fountain is an excellent bar with very responsible owners who do their best for the community," she said.

"I would appeal to our own community to keep calm and not react to this. We have to show leadership and not respond to it in anyway or the situation can only get worse."

Police have appealed for anyone with information to contact them at Antrim Road station on 0845 600 8000.

Are "The Troubles" back?

In the first killings of British occupation forces since 1997, two separate republican groups have stepped forward accepting responsibility for recent slayings.

The Continuity IRA claimed responsibility for killing Stephen Carroll, a colonial policeman in Craigavon, County Armagh on March 10. The IRA released the statement “As long as there is British involvement in Ireland, these attacks will continue. ”

Two other British soliders were killed and two were wounded on March 7 while coming out of their barracks for a pizza delivery. The Real IRA claimed responsibility for that.

And now the response?

Bobby Sands Grave Smashed in cemetery attack.

The grave of the hunger striker and republican hero Bobby Sands has been destroyed and all 16 IRA headstones desecrated in the republican plot in Milltown Cemetery in West Belfast - the nearest thing the Provisionals have to a Cenotaph.

The granite memorials were smashed by attackers in the early hours of yesterday morning, including the grave of Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams's father, who died in November.

A dummy pipe-bomb was also left at the plot, which was was the scene of a slaughter in 1988 when the lone loyalist gunman, Michael Stone, attacked mourners at the funeral of three IRA members killed by the SAS in Gibraltar. Their graves and the graves of the mourners who died that day were also vandalised.

The headstone of Bobby Sands, who was the first of 10 Republican prisoners to die on hunger strike in 1981, was smashed into three.

The dead have often been targets throughout the Troubles, and there have been more attacks on graveyards since the ceasefires. The republican plot was last attacked four years ago.

In the past year there has been a series of attacks on Catholic graves in Carnmoney cemetery which borders the loyalist Rathcoole estate in North Belfast.

The grave of Daniel McGolgan, a postman shot dead by loyalist paramilitaries in 2002, has repeatedly been targeted and was vandalised last month.

Michael Browne, Sinn Féin councillor for West Belfast, said the vandalism showed that Northern Ireland's polarised communities were still at war despite the ceasefires and efforts to restore the political process.

He said: "The reality is that this sort of thing is happening. You only need to look at the sectarian strife in interface areas [where Catholic and Protestant neighbourhoods meet].

"Look at the problems, such as harassment, which communities like this one still have with members of the Police Service of Northern Ireland. It is happening away from the glare of publicity, but it is happening on a daily basis.

"My gut feeling is anger that someone could come in and do this in a cemetery, irrespective of the graves that have been attacked." He said the perpetrators were "beneath contempt".

Sinn Féin said questions would be asked about why surveillance equipment at the nearby Anderstontown barracks did not pick up images of the attacks. The SDLP condemned the attacks as "wanton acts of vandalism".

Time to vote third party?

How did this idiot Michael Steele get to be the head of the RNC? Can someone explain it to me? And can anyone understand what he said below in his interview with GQ's Lisa DePaulo

L: How much of your pro-life stance, for you, is informed not just by your catholic faith, but by the fact that you were adopted?

M: Oh, a lot. Absolutely. I see the power of life in that. I mean, and the power of choice! The thing to keep in mind about it, uh, you know, I think as a country we get off on these misguided conversations that throw around terms that really misrepresent truth.

L: Explain that.

M: The choice issue cuts two ways. You can choose life or you can choose abortion. You know, my mother chose life. So, you know, I think the power of the argument of choice boils down to stating a case for one or the other.

L: Are you saying you think women have the right to choose abortion?

M: Yeah. I mean, again, I think that's an individual choice.

L: You do?

M: Yeah. Absolutely.

L: Are you saying you don't want to overturn Roe v. Wade?

M: I think Roe v. Wade--as a legal matter, Roe v. Wade was a wrongly decided matter.

L: Okay, but if you overturn Roe v. Wade, how do women have the choice you just said they should have?

M: The states should make that choice: that's what the choice is. The individual choice rests in the states. Let them decide.

Democrats are stupid

The DNC obviously has nothing better to do with their money than to put up stupid billboards in response to something that a private citizen said.

How stupid are they?

Couldn't they come up with a better use for their money? Maybe make a contribution to a women's shelter? Or to a food bank? Some other charity perhaps?

I mean, it's not even a timely issue any more. It was over last week.

Perhaps the democrats should pay their taxes instead of targeting Rush Limbaugh on billboards.

What do YOU think?

Pope on SSPX Excommunications

Here's that letter I promised you yesterday. With Father Z's comments and emphasis cuz I'm at work. Go visit him.

LETTER OF HIS HOLINESS POPE BENEDICT XVI
TO THE BISHOPS OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH
concerning the remission of the excommunication
of the four Bishops consecrated by Archbishop Lefebvre

Dear Brothers in the Episcopal Ministry!

The remission of the excommunication of the four Bishops consecrated in 1988 by Archbishop Lefebvre without a mandate of the Holy See has for many reasons caused, both within and beyond the Catholic Church, a discussion more heated than any we have seen for a long time. Many Bishops felt perplexed by an event which came about unexpectedly and was difficult to view positively in the light of the issues and tasks facing the Church today. Even though many Bishops and members of the faithful were disposed in principle to take a positive view of the Pope’s concern for reconciliation, the question remained whether such a gesture was fitting in view of the genuinely urgent demands of the life of faith in our time. Some groups, on the other hand, openly accused the Pope of wanting to turn back the clock to before the Council: as a result, an avalanche of protests was unleashed, whose bitterness laid bare wounds deeper than those of the present moment. I therefore feel obliged to offer you, dear Brothers, a word of clarification, which ought to help you understand the concerns which led me and the competent offices of the Holy See to take this step. In this way I hope to contribute to peace in the Church. [His Holiness is a great optimist.]

An unforeseen mishap for me was the fact that the Williamson case came on top of the remission of the excommunication. The discreet gesture of mercy [this is a key point] towards four Bishops ordained validly but not legitimately suddenly appeared as something completely different: as the repudiation of reconciliation between Christians and Jews, and thus as the reversal of what the Council had laid down in this regard to guide the Church’s path. A gesture of reconciliation with an ecclesial group engaged in a process of separation thus turned into its very antithesis: an apparent step backwards with regard to all the steps of reconciliation between Christians and Jews taken since the Council – steps which my own work as a theologian had sought from the beginning to take part in and support. That this overlapping of two opposed processes took place and momentarily upset peace between Christians and Jews, as well as peace within the Church, is something which I can only deeply deplore. [This is interesting: a direct mention of the use of the internet by a Roman Pontiff] I have been told that consulting the information available on the internet would have made it possible to perceive the problem early on. I have learned the lesson that in the future in the Holy See we will have to pay greater attention to that source of news. [I am available. o{]:¬) ] I was saddened by the fact that even Catholics who, after all, might have had a better knowledge of the situation, thought they had to attack me with open hostility. [Their enmity was greater than their respect or their sense of justice.] Precisely for this reason I thank all the more our Jewish friends, who quickly helped to clear up the misunderstanding and to restore the atmosphere of friendship and trust which – as in the days of Pope John Paul II – has also existed throughout my pontificate and, thank God, continues to exist.

Another mistake, which I deeply regret, is the fact that the extent and limits of the provision of 21 January 2009 were not clearly and adequately explained at the moment of its publication. The excommunication affects individuals, not institutions. An episcopal ordination lacking a pontifical mandate raises the danger of a schism, [NB: "danger" of schism… not the present fact of schism.] since it jeopardizes the unity of the College of Bishops with the Pope. Consequently the Church must react by employing her most severe punishment – excommunication – with the aim of calling those thus punished to repent and to return to unity. Twenty years after the ordinations, this goal has sadly not yet been attained. The remission of the excommunication has the same aim as that of the punishment: namely, to invite the four Bishops once more to return. This gesture was possible once the interested parties had expressed their recognition in principle of the Pope and his authority as Pastor, albeit with some reservations in the area of obedience to his doctrinal authority and to the authority of the Council. [NB: "obedience to teaching authority"] Here I return to the distinction between individuals and institutions. The remission of the excommunication was a measure taken in the field of ecclesiastical discipline: the individuals were freed from the burden of conscience constituted by the most serious of ecclesiastical penalties. This disciplinary level needs to be distinguished from the doctrinal level. The fact that the Society of Saint Pius X does not possess a canonical status in the Church is not, in the end, based on disciplinary but on doctrinal reasons. [This is a very interesting statement. The point seems to me to be that the doctrinal differences are the real problem and not, in the mind of the Roman Pontiff, the matter of obedience to the Bishop of Rome in matters of discipline. There is a difference between respecting the Pope’s authority to govern the Church and the Pope’s authority to teach and the Church’s authority to have a Council and promulgate documents of any nature, dogmatic or pastoral.] As long as the Society does not have a canonical status in the Church, its ministers do not exercise legitimate ministries in the Church. There needs to be a distinction, then, between the disciplinary level, which deals with individuals as such, and the doctrinal level, at which ministry and institution are involved. In order to make this clear once again: until the doctrinal questions are clarified, the Society has no canonical status in the Church, and its ministers – even though they have been freed of the ecclesiastical penalty – do not legitimately exercise any ministry in the Church. [Good: The real problem is doctrine. I have been saying this all along. The liturgical or disciplinary problems can be solved with the stroke of a pen. The doctrinal issues must be hammered out.]

[This is important….] In light of this situation, it is my intention henceforth to join the Pontifical Commission "Ecclesia Dei" – the body which has been competent since 1988 for those communities and persons who, coming from the Society of Saint Pius X or from similar groups, wish to return to full communion with the Pope – to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. This will make it clear that the problems now to be addressed are essentially doctrinal in nature and concern primarily the acceptance of the Second Vatican Council and the post-conciliar magisterium of the Popes. The collegial bodies with which the Congregation studies questions which arise (especially the ordinary Wednesday meeting of Cardinals and the annual or biennial Plenary Session) ensure the involvement of the Prefects of the different Roman Congregations and representatives from the world’s Bishops in the process of decision-making. [read: there will be wider consultation once the PCED is involved more closely with the CDF] The Church’s teaching authority cannot be frozen in the year 1962 – this must be quite clear to the Society. [That was a direct instruction to the SSPX.] But some of those who put themselves forward as great defenders of the Council [Not really their role in the Church.] also need to be reminded that Vatican II embraces the entire doctrinal history of the Church. Anyone who wishes to be obedient to the Council has to accept the faith professed over the centuries, and cannot sever the roots from which the tree draws its life.

I hope, dear Brothers, that this serves to clarify the positive significance and also the limits of the provision of 21 January 2009. But the question still remains: Was this measure needed? Was it really a priority? Aren’t other things perhaps more important? [The idea here is this: Why risk damaging relations with the Jews by doing this? Why give the impression that you are rolling back the Council? Etc. Pick your issue.] Of course there are more important and urgent matters. I believe that I set forth clearly the priorities of my pontificate in the addresses which I gave at its beginning. Everything that I said then continues unchanged as my plan of action. The first priority for the Successor of Peter was laid down by the Lord in the Upper Room in the clearest of terms: "You… strengthen your brothers" (Lk 22:32). Peter himself formulated this priority anew in his first Letter: "Always be prepared to make a defence to anyone who calls you to account for the hope that is in you" (1 Pet 3:15). In our days, when in vast areas of the world the faith is in danger of dying out like a flame which no longer has fuel, the overriding priority is to make God present in this world and to show men and women the way to God. Not just any god, but the God who spoke on Sinai; to that God whose face we recognize in a love which presses "to the end" (cf. Jn 13:1) – in Jesus Christ, crucified and risen. [This next part is marvelous. It is a gem of the letter…. ] The real problem at this moment of our history is that God is disappearing from the human horizon, and, with the dimming of the light which comes from God, humanity is losing its bearings, with increasingly evident destructive effects.

Leading men and women to God, to the God who speaks in the Bible: [Not any other God.] this is the supreme and fundamental priority of the Church and of the Successor of Peter at the present time. A logical consequence of this is that we must have at heart the unity of all believers. Their disunity, their disagreement among themselves, calls into question the credibility of their talk of God. ["talk of God" ... "theo-logy"] Hence the effort to promote a common witness by Christians to their faith – ecumenism – is part of the supreme priority. Added to this is the need for all those who believe in God to join in seeking peace, to attempt to draw closer to one another, and to journey together, even with their differing images of God, towards the source of Light – this is interreligious dialogue. Whoever proclaims that God is Love "to the end" has to bear witness to love: in loving devotion to the suffering, in the rejection of hatred and enmity – this is the social dimension of the Christian faith, of which I spoke in the Encyclical Deus Caritas Est.

So if the arduous task of working for faith, hope and love in the world is presently (and, in various ways, always) the Church’s real priority, then part of this is also made up of acts of reconciliation, small and not so small. [I like that: even small acts of reconciliation play a part in the larger reconciliation we must pursue.] That the quiet gesture of extending a hand [excellent] gave rise to a huge uproar, and thus became exactly the opposite of a gesture of reconciliation, is a fact which we must accept. But I ask now: Was it, and is it, truly wrong in this case to meet half-way the brother who "has something against you" (cf. Mt 5:23ff.) and to seek reconciliation? Should not civil society also try to forestall forms of extremism and to incorporate their eventual adherents – to the extent possible – in the great currents shaping social life, and thus avoid their being segregated, with all its consequences? Can it be completely mistaken to work to break down obstinacy and narrowness, and to make space for what is positive and retrievable for the whole? [This is classic Ratzinger. It shows you something of his heart.] I myself saw, in the years after 1988, how the return of communities which had been separated from Rome changed their interior attitudes; I saw how returning to the bigger and broader Church enabled them to move beyond one-sided positions and broke down rigidity so that positive energies could emerge for the whole. [Important: They bring gifts into the larger Church. This precisely is what the Pope’s enemies, the Rupturites seek to block.] Can we be totally indifferent about a community which has 491 priests, 215 seminarians, 6 seminaries, 88 schools, 2 university-level institutes, 117 religious brothers, 164 religious sisters and thousands of lay faithful? Should we casually let them drift farther from the Church? [Again.. the Pope spoke above about danger of schism, not of a state of schism.] I think for example of the 491 priests. [NB: I noted on many occasions that Summorum Pontificum was especially a gift to priests. Benedict is especially concerned for the priests of the SSPX.] We cannot know how mixed their motives may be. All the same, I do not think that they would have chosen the priesthood if, alongside various distorted and unhealthy elements, they did not have a love for Christ and a desire to proclaim him and, with him, the living God. Can we simply exclude them, as representatives of a radical fringe, from our pursuit of reconciliation and unity? What would then become of them? [I hope SSPX priests are paying attention.]

Certainly, for some time now, and once again on this specific occasion, we have heard from some representatives of that community many unpleasant things – arrogance and presumptuousness, an obsession with one-sided positions, etc. [SSPXers take note: This is PETER saying this to you.] Yet to tell the truth, I must add that I have also received a number of touching testimonials of gratitude which clearly showed an openness of heart. But should not the great Church also allow herself to be generous in the knowledge of her great breadth, in the knowledge of the promise made to her? Should not we, as good educators, also be capable of overlooking various faults and making every effort to open up broader vistas? And should we not admit that some unpleasant things have also emerged in Church circles? [This next part is fantastic!] At times one gets the impression that our society needs to have at least one group to which no tolerance may be shown; which one can easily attack and hate. And should someone dare to approach them – in this case the Pope – he too loses any right to tolerance; he too can be treated hatefully, without misgiving or restraint.

Dear Brothers, during the days when I first had the idea of writing this letter, by chance, during a visit to the Roman Seminary, I had to interpret and comment on Galatians 5:13-15. I was surprised at the directness with which that passage speaks to us about the present moment: "Do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love be servants of one another. For the whole law is fulfilled in one word: ‘You shall love your neighbour as yourself’. But if you bite and devour one another, take heed that you are not consumed by one another." I am always tempted to see these words as another of the rhetorical excesses which we occasionally find in Saint Paul. To some extent that may also be the case. But sad to say, this "biting and devouring" also exists in the Church today, as expression of a poorly understood freedom. [The Holy Father’s personal experience has shed light for him on that verse of Scripture.] Should we be surprised that we too are no better than the Galatians? That at the very least we are threatened by the same temptations? That we must always learn anew the proper use of freedom? [Freedom… interesting word, here.] And that we must always learn anew the supreme priority, which is love? The day I spoke about this at the Major Seminary, the feast of Our Lady of Trust was being celebrated in Rome. And so it is: Mary teaches us trust. She leads us to her Son, in whom all of us can put our trust. He will be our guide – even in turbulent times. And so I would like to offer heartfelt thanks to all the many Bishops who have lately offered me touching tokens of trust and affection, and above all assured me of their prayers. My thanks also go to all the faithful who in these days have given me testimony of their constant fidelity to the Successor of Saint Peter. May the Lord protect all of us and guide our steps along the way of peace. This is the prayer that rises up instinctively from my heart at the beginning of this Lent, a liturgical season particularly suited to interior purification, one which invites all of us to look with renewed hope to the light which awaits us at Easter.

With a special Apostolic Blessing, I remain

Yours in the Lord,

BENEDICTUS PP. XVI

Fun 4 U!

I thought this was hilarious. You'd better as well.

"Lex Luthor Bailout" with Jon Hamm - watch more funny videos

Longley to Westminster

From Holy Smoke

Leading Vatican commentator Paolo Rodari says that Bishop Bernard Longley, a conservative auxiliary bishop from Westminster, will be named Archbishop of Westminster today.

If the news is true, then the Pope is indicating a change of direction for the Church in England and Wales: the Oxford-educated Bishop Longley, 53, is notably friendly to the traditional Latin Mass, and not a member of the Magic Circle. He is also popular, a fine public speaker (with a splendidly patrician voice) and a man who impresses with a quiet, warm manner.

Rodari was right about Timothy Dolan for New York, so everyone is taking this tip very seriously. More on the story later. But what a good choice this would be.

This really is a change

Barack Hussein Obama is almost president two months, and I must admit, I think he sucks.

I'm not saying this because I hate him, or because I didn't vote for him, or because I never wanted him within 40 acres of the White House, let alone LIVING there, but because I think this is true.

He is in WAY over his head, and just along for the ride. At our expense.

Let's forget about his so called executive orders. They speak for themselves.

He doesn't open his mouth unless someone else has written down exactly what he should say.



Want proof? Listen to him without a teleprompter.

He's the smart ass rich kid we all knew that always got whatever he wanted.

And this particular smart ass rich kid wanted to be president.

Somewhere a community is looking for it's organizer.

Please take him back.

I'll even give him a ride.

Never in the history of the presidency has there been one such as this.

Constant parties at the White House. You and I are paying for that.

Did you know Obama presented Stevie Wonder with the nation's highest award for pop music? Did you know we actually have a national "top honor" for pop music? I always thought that was a Grammy. Guess not. How much did that nonsense cost us?

Earth, Wind, and Fire played the White House last month. They probably didn't cost too much.

And there was a conga line too.

Luckily an organization called Freedom Watch is investigating the White House fetes.

Larry Klaymna, founder of Freedom's Watch released this:

“This party atmosphere sends the wrong message to the

American people. As the Obama-Clinton crowd party

on, the American people are suffering greatly. It was right to

criticize corporate execs for using taxpayer bailout money

on bonuses and corporate junkets. In the face of this

criticism, it is an outrage for Barack and Michelle Obama to

party on, as Rome burns. It’s like throwing a party at a

funeral.”

Williamson Letter Coming!

Tomorrow at noon look for the Holy Father to release to all of his Bishops a letter dealing with the revocation of the SSPX Bishops' excommunications, and Bishop Williamson's anti-holocaust comments.

Some people think the Pope is going to apologize for this scandal.

I think not. When this Holy Father makes his decisions they aren't based on popular cultureor with scant thought. He is not one for sentiment and emotion, this will be a reasoning.

He will not back down, but I hope that he will take the opportunity to show how this situation has been twisted by the enemies of the Church, both within as well as outside of the Church.

Tune in here tomorrow for the scoop!

Around the Year with the Trapp Family

In 1955, Maria Augusta Trapp—the real Maria who was portrayed in The Sound of Music—wrote a book celebrating the customs and seasons of the Catholic Church’s liturgical year. Such customs, she wrote, are “an expression of a deeply Catholic feeling, and they have grown out of times and from people who found it natural to carry over their beliefs into the forms of everyday life.”

Her aim in writing was to help “make Catholic home life more warm and expressive of our religion, and above all bring children and parents closer together.”

Here is some of what she wrote about the season of Lent. I will present more of this excellent book as we progress through the year.

Lent is primarily known as a time devoted to fast and abstinence. Our
non-Catholic friends feel sorry for us because we have to watch our food.
"Isn't it an awful strain?"

But this is only one side of the season of Lent, and not even the most
important one. First and foremost, these weeks between Ash Wednesday and
Holy Saturday are set aside as a time of preparation for the greatest
feast of the year, Easter.

We are not fasting in commemoration of Our Lord's fast of forty days, but
are imitating Him in his fast of preparation--preparation for His great
work of Redemption. It is the same with us. Once a year we take forty
days out of the three hundred and sixty-five, and we too fast in
preparation: in preparation for the commemoration of our Redemption.

We all should get together and work toward the restoration of the meaning
of Lent. People nowadays see in it just a gloomy time full of "must
nots." That is a great pity, because Lent is a solemn season rich in
hidden mysteries. We must also keep in mind that Lent is only a part of
the great Easter season, that it is for Easter what Advent was for
Christmas, and that Lent taken by itself would make no more sense than
Advent without Christmas at its end. Therefore, we should let Holy Mother
Church take us by the hand and lead us--not each soul alone, but the
whole family as a group--away from the noise of the world into a
forty-day retreat.

No other time of the year has been so singled out by the Church as this,
in that a completely different Mass is provided for every single day,
beginning with Ash Wednesday and continuing through the octave day of
Easter; and again for the crowning feast of the Easter season, the eight
days of Pentecost. If we keep the closed time as faithfully as our
forefathers did--which means keeping away from all noisy outside
entertainment such as cocktail parties and dances--then we shall find
ample time for the imitation of Christ as it is outlined in every
morning's Mass.

The restoration of the season of Lent was begun in the year when the Holy
Father gave back to us the Easter Night. As we now know that in this
holiest of all nights we shall be permitted to be reborn in Christ,
renewing solemnly, with a lighted candle in our hands, our baptismal
vows, we understand more and more clearly the two great thoughts which
the Church is developing throughout the whole of Lent: the instruction of
the catechumens and the deepening of the contrition of the penitents.
Instruction and penance shall become our motto also for these holy weeks.

Into the garden

Not actually INTO the garden. Just planning the garden is all.

First thing to do is to choose the garden size for this season. Currently the field is still covered with it's fall planting of annual rye grass which has retained it's vibrant green color even after being buried in snow for most of the winter. It measures out to 20x24, 480 sq. ft. I am probably going to enlarge it. Maybe an extra ten feet, that would roughly be three additional rows for planting depending on the what's going in there.

I am picking the varieties I want for this season. I am trying not to do any hybrids this year. I'm all about seed purity and the ability to save seeds on my own.

While the popular trend these days has been toward only growing hybrids, this is not a good policy for folks aiming at self sufficiency like myself. First of all, the seed of hybrid vegetables does not grow true, should you save your own seed. Only open pollinated (or “heirloom” or “traditional”) varieties will produce seed which, when saved and planted next year, will give you the same results as the parent plant.

You should study your seed catalogs carefully. Any seed listed as “Hybrid” or “F1” should be avoided. Get in the habit of saving your own seeds. This simple practice can cut your gardening costs down by 1/4 or 1/2. Seed saving is simple and very satisfying. Many seed catalogs, such as the ones published by Native Seeds/Search and Garden City Seeds, also have extensive information on seed-saving.

An additional reason to raise non-hybrids is that most of the open pollinated varieties taste better. That’sexactly the opposite of what we have been led to believe...often by seed companies, who by the way, often hold the rights to certain hybrids they developed and/or sell.

Interesting, huh?