Quips on the News

You know, the news feed I added right below Goal.com is really awesome (to me.) Real Clear Religion features all the stories I love to read about and they can certainly provide food for thought for everybody.

VietNam's Population Control Efforts Looks like forced abortions all the way around. I got a solution ... get the women masters degrees, raise the average salary to $40,000 that'll make those pesky kids go away.

Multi-culturalism has alienated an entire generation of young Muslims... Solution set: go back to where you came from. If my family moved to Dubai .. I'd sure as hell want to come back to Massachusetts (if only for the weather.)

Give us freedom to speak our minds A Canadian speaks out against homosexual behavior. He risking jail time for sure.

Episcopal diocese wants divorce from U.S.Ha, Ha from the church that made divorce a Sacrament. All of a sudden the Episcopal leadership wants authority recognized ... hey guys, come swim the Tiber and bring your Book of Common Prayer, smells and bells with ya. We'll trade our queer Bishops for your straight ones. Episcopal Bishop John-David Schofield of the San Joaquin Diocese for Bishop Tod Brown .. straight swap.

As population declines, Japan rethinks importing foreign workersHey, we have a spare 15 million crim-aliens, want them?

Quebec sees biggest birth-rate hike since 1909 Good news and good economic analysis. Sounds like the Quebecois are concerned about their culture getting wiped out.

Pope's Latinist pronounces death of a language "It is dying in the Church. I'm not optimistic about Latin. The young priests and bishops are not studying it," said Fr Reginald Foster, 68, a Carmelite friar who was appointed the Papal Latinist 38 years ago by Pope Paul VI. "You cannot understand St Augustine in English. He thought in Latin. It is like listening to Mozart through a jukebox," he told The Sunday Telegraph.

Ahhh, you see, that was the whole plan! To cut the Church off from her patrimony, her doctors and her soul by cutting out her Latin tongue.

Youth suicides soar in wake of Ecuador's exodusThe emigration of residents seeking better pay has left children lacking one or both parents -- and prone to killing themselves.

The culture of death rolls on, bank-rolled by cynical liberals and neo-cons and a fair amount of the Roman Catholic church hierarchy. Let the Church and the US Congress invesitage why South America and Central America are such rotten places to live, figure out a pastoral/legislative solution to that one!

Cardinal O'Malley on the Implications of Abortion: Blowback

from www.cardinalseansblog.org via www.cafeteriaisclosed.blogspot.com

Cardinal O'Malley of Boston is a blogger. The observation he offers in the second paragraph is not original one, I read it somewhere else some months ago in an article by a British chap who titled the article "Turnaround is Fair Play" but it is still a prphetic vision.

Instead of turnaround, I prefer the term blowback which in weapons parlance is the back blask from rocket launhers and the like. The CIA and Foreign Affairs types use it to describe the Osama bin Laden effect: arm a guy to the teeth to fight your common enemy, he defeats that enemy and then turns on you. The first paragraph sets the context, many people do not know about depopulation.

A recent article in the British news magazine, The Economist, indicates the present demographic crisis in the West. In the European community there is 1.4 fertility rate — that means that in five years deaths will outnumber births. The most prosperous areas have less children. The fertility rate in Italy and Spain is 1.2, that translates into a population in twenty years to half of what it is today. And the typical citizen will have no brothers and sisters, no cousins, no aunts and uncles. The British news magazine went on to say that our situation in the United States is better because Americans are more devout — we are churchgoers and churchgoers get married and have families. The Churches in the United States are family friendly and nurture family life. They even quote Hilary “It take a village to raise a child” but they added the Church is that village. I like that. I believe it is true. One of the reasons the Church defends marriage in the face of divorce, cohabitation and redefinition of marriage by the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court is that marriage and family are the Sanctuary of Life and when that sanctuary is violated, life liberty and the pursuit of happiness, real happiness, society itself is at risk.

The Church is a bastion of defense against the culture of death. In terms of the film Children of Men we are “the human project” — the alternative is the culture of death. As the populations of the Western world age, we will see that the generation of parents that aborted their own children, will be euthanized by the children who survived.

A Cruel Choice

Here's a profile on Barack Obama. Interesting read.

My wife offered me a cruel choice: Who would you rather have in office Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama. I chose Hillary mainly because Obama was really starting to seem like the Manchurian Candidate. He seems too pan-national to me and the story proves it. At least Hillary is a known quantity: leninsit-marxist socialist, a power hungry and craven women with a capacity to lie that borders on the frightening.

Again, this is like asking villagers in a small Polish hamlet in 1939 if they want Stalin or Hitler.

Any other Democrat can forget about running.

For the Republicans: they're in big trouble. John McCain has gone two faced on immigration and gay marriage. This makes the Republican primaries impossible. He's kinda crazy but I like that.

Duncan Hunter .... I'm sorry nobody named Duncan is going to be President ... he looks like someone from Dick Cheney's B-list of cocktail party invitees. The guy wears an ascot.

Mitt Romney: there are allegations that he's completely two-faced on abortion and gay marriage. See www.massresistance.blogspot.com . It'll be tough for him to win the Repub. primary.

Sam Brownback: the only individual that a Roman Catholic could, in good conscience, vote for. He has no chance of winning.

Rudy Giuliani: He'll never get higher than 5th in any Republican primary except for New York.

Google is Evil but Word Press Sucks

I tried all morning to get going on Word Press blogging service. I have a name and password and have tried to log in again and again and again. I have responded to their confirming emails, changed my password through them, turned cookies on and have even tried the dreaded Microsoft Internet Explorer .... nothing.

Still hunting for new blogging software/host.

Don't be Evil, Just Cooperate with It

Some time ago I offered to friend that I did not want anything to do with gmail (Google email) and that I was starting to have my doubts about Google (which, to my horror, now owns Blogspot.) Quizically, he asked why. Well, when a high tech company start cooperating with evil, murderous, communist thugs, its time to think of one's associations. He asked for links to these stories of Google's actions ... well here's something better: A admission by one of the sniveling weenies who started Google. My comments in red.

China censorship damaged us, Google founders admit

Jane Martinson in Davos
Saturday January 27, 2007
The Guardian

Google's decision to censor its search engine in China was bad for the company, its founders admitted yesterday.

Google, launched in 1998 by two Stanford University dropouts, Sergey Brin and Larry Page, was accused of selling out and reneging on its "Don't be evil" motto when it launched in China in 2005. The company modified the version of its search engine in China to exclude controversial topics such as the Tiananmen Square massacre or the Falun Gong movement, provoking a backlash in its core western markets. The new Google slogan can be Don't be Evil, Just Cooperate with It

Last year in a speech in Washington Mr Brin admitted the company had been forced to compromise its principles to operate in China. At the time, he also hinted at a potential reversal of its stance in the country, saying "perhaps now the principled approach makes more sense". Perhaps? This kind of sentence reminds me of the stuff that Stalin used to utter after the rampaging murders of the purges, when things got really bad he used to offer that there had been some excesses.

Much of the harm had come from newspaper headlines, he said, which affected perception for most people, who then did not read the actual articles. Okay, now some back tracking, now he is saying people are dumb.

Speaking about one of the hot topics of this year's meeting in Davos, Mr Brin said he had decided to offset his carbon emissions after growing concerned about his own use of private jets, despite not really being sure about the efficacy of such programmes. "I was concerned about my private jet travel and whatnot ... I wanted to offset it so I did."

Mr Brin said yesterday that he would feel a "bit better about it" by doing something "more specific" but declined to outline what that might be. Classic liberal ... mentor Al Gore, father of the 1000 foot limosine ride to the environmental movie debut would be proud.

If anybody has a suggestions for a new blogging program, I'm all ears. GOOGLE IS EVIL!

Footballer Appeals to Love

Goalkeeper Carlo Nash has appealed to his club Preston North End to allow him to join Fulham and be closer to his fiancee, who lives in London.

from Goal.com:

"It is up to the club now, Fulham have made the offer," the 33-year-old Nash told BBC Radio Lancashire.

"I am just hoping they can open talks and negotiate and everything is sorted out sooner rather than later. This is not doing me or my family any good."

Geography lesson: Preston is in the west of England, just north of Liverpool and Manchester. Fulham plays in the northern part of London.

Speaking of Fulham ... I saw Fulham play to a draw against Tottenham Hotspurs which means I saw Clint Dempsey's amazing debut in the English Premiere League. Starting around the 70 minute mark he made a great sliding tackle in a defensive role and then made a "cheeky" back heel flick to start the Fulham drive to tie the match up.

Looks like Coach Chris Coleman has confidence in the Texan.

I just added fellow American Brian McBride to my Goal.com fantasy team .. so count me as a Fulham fan. Last week I ranked 622nd out of 15000 participants in Goal.com's Premiere League Fantasy. Not bad for a Yank who has been following the Premiereship for a mere 5 months. Overall, I'm ranked about 2,000.

No Spanking in California

From the Mercury News in Sacramento, California.

Assemblywoman Sally Lieber, D-Mountain View, wants to outlaw spanking children up to 3 years old. If she succeeds, California would become the first state in the nation to explicitly ban parents from smacking their kids.
...

Making a swat on the behind a misdemeanor might seem a bit much for some -- and the chances of the idea becoming law appear slim, at best -- but Lieber begs to differ.

``I think it's pretty hard to argue you need to beat a child 3 years old or younger,'' Lieber said. ``Is it OK to whip a 1-year-old or a 6-month-old or a newborn?''

The bill, which is still being drafted, will be written broadly, she added, prohibiting ``any striking of a child, any corporal punishment, smacking, hitting, punching, any of that.'' Lieber said it would be a misdemeanor, punishable by up to a year in jail or a fine up to $1,000, although a legal expert advising her on the proposal said first-time offenders would probably only have to attend parenting classes.

Now I guess child psycologists and parent can have a reasonble deabte about spanking but there are some disturbing elements to this story, which I will ask in the form of rhetorical questions.

#1 Does the assembly woman also agree that partially delivering a baby and then sucking her brains out with a sharp vaccuum powered pike also constitute harm, and should not this greater (fatal in fact) harm be legislated against first? How about digging a baby out of the womb with a hook? Shop-vac, anyone?

#2 How about legislation that covers harm to children when they just happen to be riding inside their Mommy, say 3 days from being born for the sake of an argument. e.g. when that mother is assaulted or otherwise injured?

Let me set up the third question by quoting more of the story

But Lieber is optimistic that lawmakers will find her proposal hard to resist. For the record, she does not have children and says she was not slapped as a child. But she does have a cat named Snoop, which her veterinarian told her never to hit.

#3 Are you, Ms. Lieber, so disassociated from humanity that you need to get advice from veterinarians and only then attempt to apply it to human beings? Is that the only way that this legislation occurred to you?

Once again we see pet owners who, in their attempt to relate to young children, cannot resort to any natural feelings of protectiveness. It's all about their cat or dog. The next time the subject of parenting comes up in a conversation and somebody mentions their filthy animal I'm going to get in their face real quick. It'll be a moment they'll never forget.

I kinda hope this legislation goes through in a way because it can be used as a battering ram to knock down the murder of children, which Roe vs. Wade has been enshrined as unassailable law ( to paraphrase alleged Catholic- Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts.)

For the record, I think hitting cats is fine and if I find the dog that is crapping on my front lawn I'm going chainsaw it and mail it back to it's owner in small pieces.

Score $250 M for Scientology

A friend recently asked what I made of the David Beckham decision to come to the United States and play futbol for the LA Galaxy for $250 million. I demurred, claiming not to think anything in particular. Well, leave it to me (courtesy of the NY Daily News) to mix religion into this.

The New York Daily News is reporting that David Beckham spent hours consulting with Tom Cruise before making the leap over the pond. Their wives are already inseperable, Posh Beckham is eyeballing a house four doors down from the Cruise's and here's the kicker: The Cruises are attempting to sell the Beckham's on Scientology.

If the Cruises are into Scientology then dragging in their closest associates is a given. Scientologists are like Seventh-Day-Adventists on steroids. Your humble blogmaster has some experience with this "religion." I use quotes around the word religion becuase it is described as one and Scientology uses tax exemption laws intended for religions. Apparently there are beliefs held by the practicioners that attempt to explain salvation but I never was familiar with this end of the business.

From my experience Scientology is a sort of amalgum of human performance enhancement courses wrapped around Amway hard sell tactics and couched in specialized jargon designed to disconnect the inquirer and devotee from critical thought. The end game is to create economic slaves who dump all their money into the religion and try to recruit others into dumping their money into the religion.

The NY Daily News both report that Katie Holmes-Cruise and Victoria "Posh" Beckham were raised as Roman Catholics, so we need to pray especially hard for them. Perhaps only after their bank accounts have been emptied out and after the ruination of their husband's careers will these women will come to realize that Scientology is no substitute for a life centered on humble prayer, fear of the Lord and refuge in the Sacraments.

Clint Dempsey to Fulham Football Club

Ole Deuce
pic lifted from http://116soccer.blogspot.com

Clint Dempsey, midfielder for MLS finalists New England Revolution will be moving to London. Fulham has been negotiating with Clint and the EPL to get the Texan in-house for a few months now and I am glad to see it, Clint deserves it and so does the Major League Soccer (MLS).

The MLS has vastly underpaid Clint and they should be proud to offer their best to THE BEST, the English Premiere League. The MLS apparently came away with $4 million in the process which isn't too bad.

Fulham is in the thick of things. There's tons of pressure in the EPL and its been my observation that soccer is a very emotional and psychological sport and the players are especially thin skinned. Certainly the stakes are high. In real Futbol (not the MLS) teams get demoted to lower leagues if they finish in the bottom three so the stakes are incredibly highdue to the pride and the money involved. The MLS in the USA in its attempt to mimic the MLB, NHL, NBA and NFL has allowed teams to stay in the league and suck for however long they like. Teams in the English Premiere League (EPL) and all futbol leagues on this planet are arraned in one "conference" so every single game counts points wise. Despite having only a dozen teams or so, the MLS arranges this geographically and sends a disproportionately high percentage of teams to playoffs.

I like Fulham. One of the sweetest things I have ever seen in sport was defender Zat Knight running to hug his coach after scoring a rare goal. For hours I scoured the video websites looking for the replay but could not find it. Knight's action speaks volumes about the relationship between the Fulham players and their coach.

Clint was not happy with the MLS between the low pay and especially the poor refereeing. MLS should be proud that their best players are showing up in the EPL. The US Men's soccer coach should he happiest of all, that's one more player getting top flight playing time in preparation for the United States' eventual domination of world futbol.

Dempsey's move overseas should be eased by the fact that two of his Brian McBride and Carlos Bocanegra are Americans (good thing he didn't go to Arsenal where the official club house language is French.) This central London team with the trio of Yanks should be fun to watch.

Why a Pope?

This post came to me at 5:00 am this morning. During the previous evening my brother and I discussed the difference between the Episcopal Church and the Roman Catholic Church. The primary difference to my mind was that Roman Catholic Church have the Pope and the Episcopal Church does not. At best, they claim a leader who sits as Archbishop of Canturbury, really a layman who sits on property stolen from the Roman Catholic Church. With a Pope (and by implication) you get a Magesterium, a teaching office. Without one you just have to make up your own mind (and hope you get it right.) I think the Episcopal church weakly offers "guidance."

Now, this decision to go by the Pope is not an arbitrary one. The authority of the Pope comes from Jesus the Christ and it is laid out, quite simply, in the Bible. If ones open their Bible to the back section called the New Testament one of the first four books is called the Gospel of Saint Matthew. If one turns to Chapter 16, one finds these words starting with verse #15

Jesus said to them: But who do you say that I am? Simon Peter answered and said: You are Christ, the Son of the living God. And Jesus answering, said to him: Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jona: because flesh and blood hath not revealed it to you, but my Father who is in heaven. And I say to you: That you are Peter; and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. And I will give to you the keys of the kingdom of heaven. And whatsoever you shalt bind upon earth, it shall be bound also in heaven: and whatsoever you shall loose upon earth, it shall be loosed also in heaven.

Friends, we do not need a doctorate in biblical studies to understand what is going on here. Jesus is testing the disciples. Simon-Bar-Jona, a simple fisherman, blurts out what the Apostles have come to believe. Jesus is the Christ, the Messiah, whom the Jews have been waiting for thousands of years.

Simon-bar-Jonah gets a few rewords for answering this holy triva quiz from Jesus.

1) He gets a new name, Petrus which is "rock" in Latin and Greek.
2) He gets named by Jesus as the corner stone of Jesus' church. (Jesus does a word play on his name)
3) He gets keys to heaven.
4) He gets legal authority, "loosing and binding" on earth and heaven (a ton of authority for a simple fisherman)

So, Jesus sets up a eartly chieftain for his church. He DID NOT tell the disciples to decide for themselves, form a committee, take a vote, debate, or wait for personal revelation.

Peter outlived Jesus, wound up in Rome, was crucified there, and a successor was named. Quite naturally ole Church headquarters would up in Rome. There have been over 300 Peters, some better than others, all with authority handed directly from Jesus himself. The Pope is the legitimate successor of Saint Peter, 1st Century Christians all knew this, St Paul knew it, the Apostles knew it, even the wicked Roman Emperors knew it. No other christian sect can claim any Biblical or Godly authority like the Roman Catholic Church. These privatistic sects are forced to go into "decide for yourself" mode.

Does one dare usurp authority on earth and in heaven granted by Jesus Christ to someone else?

The herme... what?

The Hermeneutics of Continuity:

her-me-neu-tics [hur-muh-noo-tiks, -nyoo] Noun (used as a singular verb)
1. The science of interpretation, esp. off the Scriptures.
2. the branch of theology that deals with the principles of Biblical exegesis.

Hermeneutics of Continuity, a great blog by an English priest, Father Tim Finigan, parish priest of Our Lady of the Rosary, Blackfen, UK (somewhere southeast of London). I'm an unabashed Anglophile and I pray for the resurgence of Roman Catholicism in England as much and as often as I do in my native United States (especially New England). The English Catholics have suffered worse in many ways than the Americans but that tells me that their recovery may outstrip and lead ours. The U.S. is a religious country but a thoroughly Protestant one. Britain teeters on the edge of secularism as the Church of England has whithered like a salt-sprayed slug ... there's a vacuum there. The choice, for England, will be clear in the not so distant future: The Church or Islam.

A little on this hermeneutic of continuity vs. hermeneutic of disocntinuity from the site, quoting Pope Benedict XVI:

Why has the implementation of the [Vatican II] Council, in large parts of the Church, thus far been so difficult? (note for our non-Catholic readers: The Second Vatican Council was a grand meeting of all the leaders of the Roman Catholic Church held in the mid-sixties, changes that flowed or allegedly that allegedly flowed out of that Council have been a matter of grave concern for participants like Pope Benedict XVI and for humble parishioners born after its close.)

Well, it all depends on the correct interpretation of the Council or - as we would say today - on its proper hermeneutics, the correct key to its interpretation and application. The problems in its implementation arose from the fact that two contrary hermeneutics came face to face and quarrelled with each other. One caused confusion, the other, silently but more and more visibly, bore and is bearing fruit.

On the one hand, there is an interpretation that I would call "a hermeneutic of discontinuity and rupture"; it has frequently availed itself of the sympathies of the mass media, and also one trend of modern theology. On the other, there is the "hermeneutic of reform", of renewal in the continuity of the one subject-Church which the Lord has given to us. She is a subject which increases in time and develops, yet always remaining the same, the one subject of the journeying People of God.

In keeping with my working class, street Catholicism perspective here's my take on all this stuff:
Hermeneutic of Discontinuity: pure evil, aka diabolical disorientation.
Hermeneutic of Reform: probably seemed like a good idea at the time but it is kinda like re-arranging deck chairs, it needs to make way for steering away from iceburgs.
Hermeneutic of Continuity: necessary to combat Modernism, the syntheseis of all heresies, to combat Satanism and all other evils.... call it a strategic re-depolyment, not a rejection of reform but a re-emphasis on fundamental and unchangeable truths which needs to precede any reform.

It is my guess that a traditionalist should pick the third hermeneutic ... a hermeneutic of continuity. I won't put words into the blogmaster's mouth and, to be frank, I have avoided subtle theological issues on this blog for several reasons but ... ultimately ... I like this hermeneutic of continuity and I think I like this blog.

Redefining Marriage is Not a Civil Right

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(I like the picture, see the priest
to the right of the flag bearer?)

During a recent discussion among friends, defenders of same sex marriages, made a link to the civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s. Unfortunately, this is a false comparison. There is a reason why the civil rights movement was 1) right and 2) victorious. The reason is this: those rights that the Afro-Americans asked for may have been denied by the Constitution but they were unalienable because they came from GOD. Two men laying with each other and wanting everyone to call it marriage is not from GOD. It is from Satan. It is diabolical disorientation

This brings up the fundamental truths of the two struggles. The civil rights movement was fomented and led by religious men and women, spearheaded by Southern Baptist ministers. The radical homosexual movement is composed of wealthy, white, liberals. The homosexuals want to destroy this society, the Afro-Americans wanted to participate in it.

Satan cannot create he can only mimic. It is telling that my atheist friends invoke the civil rights movement in an effort to bolster the legitimacy of their agenda. This is the godless citing the work of the godfearing as precedent. This is akin to Adolf Hitler citing the artist influence of the Yiddish folk music as the a source of inspiration for the Nazi anthem Deutschland Uber Alles. A hostile comparison indeed.

Unbeknownst to the liberal social experimenters there is a dark lord at the head of there movement but most of these foot soldiers know not the ultimate plan nor the identity of their general.

from citizenlink.org by Glenn T. Stanton

Same-sex marriage proponents have made surprising strides in getting a hearing for their radical marriage counterfeit. No society at any time has ever raised a generation of children in same-sex families, yet these family revolutionaries only needed to convince four judges in Massachusetts and one lawless mayor in San Francisco to inflict their highly experimental ideas on the rest of us.

Gay activists have gained their ground through emotional manipulation and by diverting the public’s attention away from the thousands of scientific studies that tell us how healthy child-development requires mothers and fathers. They have manipulated us by high-jacking civil rights language. And as a result, millions of boys and girls will be subjected to intentionally motherless and fatherless families for no other reason than to fulfill the desires of adults who want such families.

A moment’s reflection reveals that “giving marriage a gay make-over” as one gay protester in Denver recently put it, is not a civil rights issue. Sex preference is not skin color. San Francisco is not Selma. Marriage is not a lunch counter or a seat on a bus.

...African-Americans are not allies of same-sex marriage advocates – certainly not brothers and sisters marching arm in arm in the struggle for equality. They are, instead, same-sex marriage’s greatest opponents, even more so, surprisingly, than the religious community.

The same-sex marriage proponent’s slippery rhetoric would have us denounce most blacks as bigots. Or maybe African-Americans see this not as an issue of equality, but morality -- and very little morality at that. Jesse Jackson recently challenged the comparison that gay “marriage” is a civil rights issue by explaining that “gays were never called three-fifths human in the Constitution and in that they did not require the Voting Rights Act to have the right to vote.” Is Jackson a bigot?

More

Judaism Teams With Vatican to Counter Worldwide Homosexual ‘Marriage’ Push

A “New Ecumenism”

By Cassidy Bugos

ROME, January 3, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) – In a move that Orthodox Jews assert marks a “new ecumenism” with Rome, a special emissary of the Rabbinical Alliance of America, representing over 850 Orthodox Rabbis, gathered in an emergency meeting with Vatican officials in Rome January 2 to discuss ways of blocking the worldwide push for homosexual “marriage.”

In particular they wanted to coordinate with Rome to stop the Italian government’s proposed homosexual civil union legislation, which could appear as a bill in the Italian Senate by the end of this month.

In a recent press release Rabbi Yehuda Levin, a leading representative of the Rabbinical Alliance, declared that this proposed legislation marks “the latest attempt by the worldwide Homosexual network to impose their amoral values on normative society. We can no longer respond to these pressures in a piecemeal manner. A reenergized religious leadership needs to reassert its role in protecting the family—24/7.

“We support the Pope’s call for the defeat of the Homosexual Civil Union legislation now pending in the Italian legislature. This is just ‘Gay Marriage,’ by another name. Like ‘Gay Marriage,’ it undermines the special place of marriage in the life of decent family people.”

Indeed, though the Italian government is pushing to legalize homosexual civil unions, it seems that the average Italian would not support their government in doing so. A late 2005 Ipso Ltd. poll revealed that 70% of Italians would not condone homosexual “marriage.” An even more recent poll asked 30,000 citizens of the European Union if they would condone homosexual “marriage”; 49% said they would not.

That so many Europeans remain opposed to homosexual marriage and civil unions indicates that the homosexual lifestyle runs counter to beliefs even more fundamental than religious differences. Rabbi Levin addressed the surprise of some that Orthodox Jews should undertake to work so closely with the Vatican.

“It is well known that we, as Orthodox Jews, are not permitted to engage in inter-religious theological discussion. However, we must join together with the Vatican, and with all others, who defend the family, lest we end up as Sodom and Gomorrah.

More

What I'm Reading

The Rise and Fall of the Communist Revolution, Warren H. Carroll, Christendom Press 1989, 1995.

A few jems from this masterpiece, the only one of dozens of books that I've read on the subject that gives proper treatment on the evils of communism:

On page 155 Carroll cites Pipes, Russia under the Bolshevik Regime p331 who quotes Zlata Zinoviev, wife of the president of the Comitern in 1921 Russia:

"Is not parental love to a large extent harmful to the child?... The family is individualistic and egotistic and the child raised by it is, for the most part, anti-social, filled with egotistic strivings...Raising is not the private task of parents, but the task of society.

and he cites Pipes' own words

Basest and most criminal of all is the moral slavery introduced by the Communists: they have laid their hands on the inner world of the working people, compelling them think only as they do.

These quotes give a hint as to the type of thinking prevalent now (expressed with more subtlety) in the Communistwealth of Massachusetts in 2007.

Carroll documents many things well: the routine use of terror and murder by all communists, the fellow travellers and sympathizers who apologized for them in the the western media, academia and certain governments, the genocides committed by Stalin and Mao and Pol Pot, the incompetance of western leaders and the grinding consistent evil perpetuated by communist adherents.

As an example, Carroll recounts the stories of families deported from the Ukraine in the 1920s who were loaded onto freight cars for weeks on long treks out to the vast wilderness of Siberia. In most cases, babies died on the way and would have to be thrown from the moving train. I attempted to convey the sense of horror and injustice of the collectivization of the "kulaks" to a friend and he too acknowledged this historical event with the wistful observation, "Well, they (the communists) had to get people to work in the right place." Indeed.

This book for me is almost like a deprogramming session. I had been involved in years of study of the Soviet Union starting in high school in 1986. The course work was lead by a teacher who, at best, could be described as naive, and at worst as an apologist for Communist atrocities. I sopped up the apologetics hook line and sinker. In 1986, the experts knew something was happening in the Soviet Union, and academics, journalists and fellow commies were watching the events with a bit of worry that I never understood, until now. Their lack of elation said it all.

For the Children !

"“For my grandchildren and all the children around the world,” Representative Carolyn McCarthy of New York said as she cast her vote for Mrs. Pelosi."

"This Congress is going to be all about the children" was the quote that was played on WFNX 101.7 FM in Boston this morning.

Hmm, on the subject of children, Amy Welborn compiled Grandma Pelosi's record on murdering them in the womb:

• Voted YES on allowing human embryonic stem cell research. (May 2005)
• Voted NO on restricting interstate transport of minors to get abortions. (Apr 2005)
• Voted NO on making it a crime to harm a fetus during another crime. (Feb 2004)
• Voted NO on banning partial-birth abortion except to save mother’s life. (Oct 2003)
• Voted NO on forbidding human cloning for reproduction & medical research. (Feb 2003)
• Voted NO on funding for health providers who don't provide abortion info. (Sep 2002)
• Voted NO on banning Family Planning funding in US aid abroad. (May 2001)
• Voted NO on federal crime to harm fetus while committing other crimes. (Apr 2001)
• Voted NO on banning partial-birth abortions. (Apr 2000)
• Voted NO on barring transporting minors to get an abortion. (Jun 1999)
• Rated 100% by NARAL, indicating a pro-choice voting record. (Dec 2003)
• Supported funding contraception and UN family planning. (Jul 1999)

Meanwhile,

WASHINGTON, DC, United States (UPI) -- The Christian Defense Coalition will hold a demonstration and vigil Wednesday at Trinity University in Washington, D.C., while House Speaker-elect Nancy Pelosi is attending a mass to remember the children of Darfur and Katrina.

The CDC will be praying that Ms. Pelosi will remember the 50,000,000 innocent lives that have been lost through abortion and that as the newly elected Speaker she will work to end the horror and barbarism of abortion, Christian Newswire reported, according to a statement released on Christian Newswire Tuesday.

As I've written here before, abortion is a satanic sacrament. It's supporters know how important the Church is in combatting evil so they hide like cockroaches behind her walls all the more fervently. Someone call an exterminator.