Posts Tagged ‘tv’

Meet some of the exhibitors at the Catholic Men’s conference

Posted: March 22, 2010 by datechguy in catholic, local stuff, short films/interviews
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In addition to the people there quite a few exhibitors attended the men’s conference.

Adopt a Student helps people pay for Catholic education.

I should make it plain you don’t have to be Catholic to get that aid

Lighthouse Catholic Media Offers CD’s from great Catholic speakers to help evangelize the faith.

I have a few of these CD’s myself, they are first rate and will tell you a lot more about the actual Catholic Faith as opposed to what people say it is.

If your interest is more political then you might want to check out Catholic Citizenship

Would that Bart Stupak did.

Thomas Moore liberal Arts College in Southern NH had a booth:

Magdalen College also attended but didn’t go on Camera with us. Strangely enough The College of the Holy Cross, Assumption College and Anna Maria college, all in Worcester had no presence at all. You would think colleges in Worcester that proclaim themselves Catholic would bother to show up. Feel free to contact them and ask why.

A Vatican representative from Rome attended promoting pilgrimages to holy places. Journey of the Spirit is the web site.

This is exactly the type of woman (a faithful Italian) that my mother urged each one of her sons to marry. Alas for mom none of us did.

As a member of the Knights of Columbus I would be derelict in my duty to not give my group a plug:

There were actually three Knights booth there. I actually joined the Knights at the Men’s conference last year.

Finally you likely have heard of ETWN but you might not have heard of Catholic TV. If you haven’t Bonnie Rogers solves that problem.

And beyond that there was a dizzying array of devotional books available from many different vendors.

Around my blogroll Ides of March 2010 edition

Posted: March 15, 2010 by datechguy in internet/free speech, opinion/news
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We start our trip around my blogroll with a little coffee at Ruby Slippers, a blog I really should be linking to more often. Mary Sue had this to say about the Coffee parties that CNN was so impressed with:

So, just how strong were these coffee party gatherings? One might describe them as intimate. North Carolina had all of five people show up An estimated crowd of 3000 protested today in Minnesota. What’s a couple thousand people though? CNN reports the two groups have much more in common besides their group strength, that is. Do they now?

Well both groups are made up of carbon based life forms that are made in the image of God that depend on the intake of oxygen to survive and are named after breakfast beverages, but beyond that I don’t see much. It is simply a truism that any group of any size that supports a cause that the MSM agrees with is more newsworthy than any group 50,000 times as large that they do not. It’s why the media is slowing starting to resemble a salesman who can only sell his wares to relatives.

Over at Legal Insurrection Bill Jacobson finds that one little word that would have saved Eric Massa his seat:

Timing is everything. Only recently, when it became clear that a single vote in the House may be the difference, was there a whispering campaign and leaks about Massa.

Massa’s departure has made it easier for Nancy Pelosi to get the necessary votes because the vote will be that close. If Obamacare passes later this week, as Pelosi is predicting, the departure of Eric Massa may be the reason.

Eric Massa may be paranoid, but that does not change the truth that people in the Democratic Party who wanted to pass Obamacare really did hate him.

Ask yourself this question: If Eric Massa had announced that he would vote “Yes” on Obamacare, would he still be in Congress?

Does he mean to suggest that Nancy Pelosi and company might actually consider letting someone stay in congress who is undeserving just to gain a vote? Why that’s a shocking suggestion. If you believe that then you’d believe that democrats would allow someone with tax issues to be treasury secretary or allow a person with irregularities to chair an important financial committee.

Finally Big Hollywood notes Megan Mullally’s shock at Jay Leno’s decision to appeal to a segment of the population hitherto ignored by the Hollywood elites:

She recently blasted former Gov. Sarah Palin’s stand-up comedy debut on “The Tonight Show with Jay Leno” at movieline.com, mocking both Leno’s comedy bits and his attempt to woo conservative audiences.

“Could it be any more bald-faced that he’s going after the red states? It’s insane. It’s just right out there, full on … amazing. And she was wearing jeans [note: said with a drawn out snarl]. ‘I’m gonna wear denim! I’m gonna dress it down!’”

Sounds insane, all right. Why would the host of a popular late night show give a platform to a gorgeous, charismatic politician who appeals to a wide swath of viewers?

Yeah, having a best selling author who commands large audiences wherever she goes makes no sense. Does Jay actually think it will get him to #1 in late-night again? After all appealing to conservatives hasn’t done Fox any good in the ratings has it?

The Notre Dame Scandal reminded me of this story…

Posted: March 5, 2010 by datechguy in catholic, personal
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Years ago I knew a local priest he was an ND Alum and fiercely proud of it, he was known for a tone of speech that just reeked of intellect. I always liked him. He had been particularly kind to me and my then fiancee in a tough spot involving our marriage. His reassurance made our lives easier and I’ve never forgotten it.

About 15 years ago I went to him for advice on a family matter that conflicted with Church teaching. His advice frankly surprised me but he was the priest so I took it. It turned out to be pretty poor advice and I’ve regretted it greatly over the last few years to the point where I felt I needed confession for taking it.

There are times when a Priest can be too empathetic. By looking at a situation from a worldly perspective rather than from the damage of sin a priest can do more harm than good. What must be remembered is that the job of the church is to interdict sin for the sake of the soul. Once one gets in the habit of excusing it then it becomes easier and easier. I would imagine it is a regular temptation that any priest or religious must face.

It reminded me of the UK TV show Cracker staring Robbie Coltrane. There was an episode where a woman due to guilt over an abortion combined with her husband’s frequenting prostitutes set her on a killing spree of hookers. When confronted by the priest she talked about how to tore her to get her abortion particularly since there WAS enough money to support another child if the husband wasn’t spending it on women. The priest interjected that he had been supportive of the decision to abort and the character of the woman said something that stuck with me and still does:

“I didn’t need you to be supportive, I needed you to tell me NO!”

A lot of times in life we know what the right thing is but it is very hard to do it. We don’t want to face the music or the sin in question is one of our favorites, or it involves something we really want badly. The sacrament of confession allows us both the Sacramental support of Christ in resisting sin but gives us the human reinforcement of the priest to keep us in the right direction. If one goes regularly that reinforcement is even stronger.

Saying no to oneself is one of the most difficult tasks a person has. When the church helps one do this it is a source of sanctifying grace. When it chooses to go with the flow for the sake of ease it not only harms the person in question it harms the entire body of Christ.

This is why this type of thing is so bad. Temptation is always around us, it is the Church’s job to help us resist rather than take the easy way out (giving in). As Christians we owe it not only to ourselves but to others to help resist things we know are wrong no matter how much they might feel right at the time. At times it can be a rough duty, but as we must carry it.

That is the difference in a nutshell between the narrow path and the wide one.

Choose wisely!

Update: Miss Attila Gets it.

Stone and Parker see it…

Posted: February 28, 2010 by datechguy in opinion/news
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One of the things that always amazes me about the MSM is that they don’t seem to realize how tilted they are. (That’s one of the reasons why even though she drives me nuts I love Mika Brzezinski, not just because she is a handsome woman but because she is not afraid to come out and say it). It’s the elephant in the room that almost everybody gets except for the media and the very liberal liberals.

That is emphasized in this Huff-Po interview with Matt Stone and Trey Parker of South Park.

“It’s so much more fun for us to rip on liberals only because nobody else does it, and not because we think liberals are worse than Republicans but, just because…”

“..it’s like fresh snow. I mean how’re you gonna rip on Sarah Palin in a new way?” Trey pointed out.

“I think sometimes we do gravitate towards things other people haven’t done and a lot of times that makes us gravitate away from ripping on Republicans cause it’s just done very well by a ton of people. It’s hard to compete with Jon Stewart, etc — those guys are brilliant.”

I also love the fact that on the single most important issue facing the west they get it:

“I think Comedy Central totally f****** p***** out. Now, they weren’t any different than anyone else, so it’s not like you can single them out. But I think it would’ve been an important statement for one media outlet in America to stand up. That was one of my most disappointing moments as an American–the American press’s reaction to the Muhammad cartoons. It was completely wimpy,” Matt Stone said. “Cartoonists, people who do satire–we’re not in the army, we’re never going to be f***** drafted and this is our time to stand up and do the right thing. And to watch the New York Times, Comedy Central, everybody just go ‘No, we’re not going to do it because basically we’re afraid of getting bombed’ sucked. I was so disappointed”

The fact that the Alex Leo felt compelled to include the next line suggests she doesn’t get it:

The irony of it all? The pair did a show that included an image of Muhammad years before and a clip of it (pictured below) runs during the show’s opening in dozens of countries, in syndication, on Comedy Central.

South Park is disgusting, sacrilegious and with very rare exceptions not allowed in the house. It is also brilliant, topical, laugh out loud funny and one of the most honest shows on television.

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