Archive for the ‘catholic’ Category

I’ve got an errand or two to run this morning…

Posted: March 17, 2010 by datechguy in catholic, opinion/news
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…so blogging might be light.

Lucky for everybody others are on the ball:

Casey Fiano takes a pause from her pro life blogging to remind us of the small annoyances that the Obama administration brings us:

“An international partner”?? This may be an international relief effort — with the United States as usual giving far more than any other country — but that hasn’t kept other countries from flying their flags. France, Germany, and Croatia are all flying their flags, just like every other country. I doubt anyone in Haiti is weeping over the French, German, and Croatian occupations taking place because of it. No one besides Obama is idiotic enough to think that flying our flag means that we’ll be seen as an occupation force. It’s perfectly clear to everyone with a brain that we are in Haiti for one reason alone, and that is to give relief.

Considering the amount of money, time, and manpower we’ve contributed to the relief effort in Haiti, one would think that Obama would be proud to have our flag flying in Haiti. But Obama isn’t a president who is proud of his country, is he? He’d rather apologize for the United States than take pride in it. We are literally saving lives for no gain of our own in a foreign country, and he’s still apologizing.

If we aren’t even allowed to be proud of the country when we are doing a humanitarian mission when will it be.

At the other McCain Smitty has a word about St. Patrick’s day at google:

As a Christian, I’ll venture as a default position that Saint Patrick would be as excited about the attention directed at himself, and not Christ, as, say, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. would be.
Heaven forbid anything ever be about me personally, in all seriousness.

I don’t know it sure looks like a cross on that G to me and anyways we Catholics don’t have a problem asking the saints to pray for us. After all these guys have proven that they know what they’re doing.

Meanwhile the Washington Monthly bemoans CNN’s desire to try to actually get people to watch them.

This is easily the worst decision CNN has ever made. That the network probably reviewed Erickson’s work before hiring him, and offered him a job anyway, suggests CNN’s professional standards for what constitutes “an important voice” have all but disappeared.

The point here isn’t that it’s disappointing to see CNN hire yet another conservative voice, adding to its already-large stable of conservative voices. To be sure, it’s frustrating, but it’s nothing new.

The problem here is with Erickson himself.

Well Erickson did give me CPAC credentials so that’s a strike against him.

And if you need a sign of spring, look no further than the site of Father Z. He not only give you a taste of the birds of spring he handles the attacks on the Pope exactly the right way:

Pray.

Just pray.

Forgiveness for the haters.

Forgiveness for the failings of all professed Catholics.

Consolation for the damaged.

Courage, health and length of days for the Pope.

And he provides a prayer for those who might not have one handy.

I’ll be back in a bit, meanwhile pop in The Quiet Man and enjoy St. Patrick’s day

When One Protest is not enough

Posted: March 16, 2010 by datechguy in catholic, internet/free speech, opinion/news, short films/interviews
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It is rare enough for Fitchburg to have protests, It is even rarer for a group to have two protests in one day, but it is totally unheard of for Two different groups to be protesting two separate issues within a block of each other at the same time here.

The first of the two was the daily protest against Planned Parenthood’s attempt to open a clinic in Fitchburg. Ted Turner and his hearty band were once again standing tall. Every time I come down I see new faces but the message remains the same:

I’ve known Lorraine and her sister and her son for decades. I was surprised to see her.

Therese Cross comes down weekly to protest. she has no intention of giving up.

Ted spoke about the regular protests that have gone on since Feb 8th. He said it was a good experience and allowed him to meet a lot of good people. A new zoning resolution is going up before the city counsel tonight and he is hoping that regular order will be followed allowing the petition to pass to the zoning board without being blocked by the city counsel.

As for the tea party protesters down the block Turner and the rest of the regular group of protesters to a person expressed their support for their goals. When they left they expressed that support with a symphony of car horns.

Down the block I saw some familiar faces from the morning. Anne Andrews was there as was Michael Wertz. A local reporter showed up and asked a few questions, unfortunately for the group he left before the crowd reached its height.

I started my interviews with Kate Wirtz:

I never thought to ask if they were related. Joyce Jacobs talked to me as well.

Clark Straight had a perspective that most of the other people I talked to did not. Unlike everyone else I had met he was a long time activist who was active in Republican Political circles.

The big question is why now? We had smaller movements like Porkbusters during the Bush years but what has made the difference is? Ted Turner had one interesting thing to say. He suggested that the policies of President Obama lit a fire among the electorate. It motivated folks to get involved and an involved electorate is an informed one. You can’t have a healthy republic without one.

From what I’ve seen today, the republic is healthy indeed.

What part of “intrinsic evil” don’t you understand?

Posted: March 14, 2010 by datechguy in catholic, internet/free speech, opinion/news
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The Catholic faith has a rich tradition , actual Catholics fight against abortion as an intrinsic evil.

Geroge Soros has a rich bank account, rich enough to fund pseudo catholic groups to give a veneer of respectability to what is not.

As you know I’m not working right now, I suspect if I was willing to sell my faith this way on the blog I would never have to worry about money again. It’s amazing what some people will do for funding and publicity. It brings a whole new meaning to the expression: “Selling one’s soul”.

And to answer Stacy McCain, we Catholics are aware of groups like this and of the National Catholic Reporter for some time. With them actual belief is an optional extra. Just check the archives of the American Papist.

The best way to describe them is a “modernist”, as per this clip from Yes Prime Minister. The church being described is Anglican but the principle is the same.

Yup that the NCR all right, a cross between a socialite and a socialist.

Around the blogroll after midnight edition 3/13-3/14 edition

Posted: March 14, 2010 by datechguy in catholic, elections, internet/free speech
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This is what happens when you take a much longer nap that you expect (and dream that you have already woken up).

Let’s start with Baldilocks who finds that one can’t escape liberalism even at a TED conference:

…notice the language the guy is using here. He’s speaking to one political party, one political tradition, about another political tradition or two. The entering argument is that everyone at TED, each of those well-off fancy schmancy hoi polloi types, is assumed to be of one political persuasion.

Well of course they do, you don’t think that there are any of the central Massachusetts rednecks there.

Damian Thompson has two beauties at his place. The first focusing on priests unclear about the job description:

The Church must turn back to prayer and place God, and not itself, at the centre of this prayer. At the same time it should re-emphasise that suffering and pain are not best papered over with folksy communal singing and hand-shaking any more than they are by narcotics or recreational sex.

Indeed. And there’s the further danger, of course, that exposure to Celebration Hymnal folksy communal singing might drive sensitive souls to narcotics to erase those shocking memories of elderly groovers…

Shades of the Curt Jester there, his second concerns SMP (stand media procedure) of trying to smear the Pope and the informed nature of the commentary.

And then there is this gem:

The Pope is pretty unassailable. He is not elected…

Ruth, it long ago became clear to me that you do not know nearly enough about the Catholic Church to comment on it authoritatively. But surely even you have heard of something called a conclave.

Ah, nothing like those layers of fact checkers that the media employs.

At David Pinto’s Baseball musings we see a really interesting article on the all time doubles record that has stood for nearly a century (The great Tris Speaker with 793):

Whoever is going to break the record needs to be close through age 34. Albert Pujols currently has 387 doubles through age 29, so he has to hit 200 more doubles over the next five seasons to really have a shot at the record. With his current average of 45 doubles a year, he should be able to break the record. If he averages 35 a year over the next five seasons, however, I doubt he’ll get there, because he’ll only decline more after that.

There is an experience curve to home runs that someone compensates for the decline phase of power hitters. Since home runs are purely about the swing, better pitch recognition and perfection of the swing with experience can keep totals high as other skills decline. Doubles, however, are also about speed, and experience can’t help there much. Maybe a batter will recognize a mistake by an outfielder and stretch a single into a double, but the pure speed doubles go out the door.

Speaker is one of the great players who has been forgotten these days. He doesn’t deserve to be.

Finally at American Freedom Barbara Espinsoa continues her series of “Jukebox John McCain” in her words “Changing his tune on every issue”. Today’s topic Military issues:

1. McCain recently claimed that he was the “greatest critic” of Rumsfeld’s failed Iraq policy. In December 2003, McCain praised the same strategy as “a mission accomplished.” In March 2004, he said, “I’m confident we’re on the right course.” In December 2005, he said, “Overall, I think a year from now, we will have made a fair amount of progress if we stay the course.”
2. McCain has changed his mind about a long-term U.S. military presence in Iraq on multiple occasions, concluding, on multiple occasions, that a Korea-like presence is both a good and a bad idea.

Barbara’s site was trying to re-direct me, might be an embedded ad or script gone wrong. I dropped her an e-mail about it, if it starts to happen to you just click on the “Stop” (red x) button once the site comes up. She is all over the race in Arizona.

Update: E-mailed Barbara there was an issue with a gadget, it’s now fixed.

Well that will do for now, we’ll have more on Monday.

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