AND THE BAND PLAYS ON...

Midnight gay "marriage" in Massachusetts

We see dimly in the Present what is small and what is great,
Slow of faith how weak an arm may turn the iron helm of fate,
But the soul is still oracular; amid the market's din,
List the ominous stern whisper from the Delphic cave within, --
''They enslave their children's children who make compromise with sin.''

The Present Crisis
James Russell Lowell
1844

AND NOW FOR SOMETHING

completely different. May I present "The Shining" in 30 seconds?

Oh yes...as acted out by bunnies.

FOR PARENTS WHOSE CHILDREN WATCH TOO MUCH YUGI-OH!...

might I suggest they catch the first episode of SuperPope? It's called "Can't Keep a Bad Demon Down." Anime with a sense of humor.

THE DOMESTIC CHURCH

This caught my eye last week too. A wedding program cleverly designed by a couple as a parish bulletin. I thought it very original and have stored it away for future ideas.

THOU SHALT NOT WRITE LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

This one is a week old now, but I wanted to make sure I posted it. One of the more maddening things I read last week.

DeSales High School’s director of recruitment was fired yesterday because of her letter to the editor that ran in the Times May 6.

“I feel like I was stabbed in the back by the administration,” said Kathy Peters, former director of recruitment, retention and public relations. “I just knew [I was in trouble], but I didn’t think they were going to fire me. I thought I was going to get a reprimand.”

Peters’ letter said public schools spend too much money on new buildings instead of education and that a quality education stems from values and family support, especially when modeled after Jesus Christ.

Peters said she was shocked by how strongly she’s been attacked over her letter and by the lack of support from DeSales — especially Juliano — and the diocese.

“The thing that bothers me is that I have supported that woman every single time, even when I didn’t agree with her,” Peters said. “I always felt I was micro-managed by her constantly.

“I just feel like I was really betrayed by the diocese, because they gave the approval for this. I’m so tired of this diocese and their injustice to Catholic education. This diocese, I don’t care what they say, does not support Catholic education.”

Peters was also shocked that Juliano specifically reprimanded her for mentioning Jesus’ name in the letter. She noted that as Catholic educators, Jesus is the reason for everything they do.

INSULAR MAJUSCULE???

Wow! I would (as would many others I think) actually agree with this assessment about myself. :)


Insular Majuscule- You are spiritual and well
rounded. People look to you for advice, but
sometimes find you difficult to understand.


What Calligraphy Hand Are You?
brought to you by Quizilla

I'M BACK...

My apologies for being away for so long. I have been battling a sinus infection that kept my senses of smell and taste dormant for one week; I've had a very busy time at work; and to be totally honest, my heart just hasn't been in it for awhile.

I will try to be more faithful with my postings, and do have several links stored up to some interesting stuff. It's just that as a collective whole I basically got burned out and needed a break, especially once I became sick.

I also became very sick to my stomach, and then sick in my heart, after I made the decision to watch that wretched and evil video from Iraq last week...the one in which Nick Berg was beheaded. But it was NOT a beheading. That would have been merciful compared to the butchery that went on for a minute.

It stunned me into silence as much as the illness did...I'm still trying to find my voice. I hope I can this week.

WHAT TO DO WITH NORWAY'S CHURCHES

is perhaps the saddest question and most telling one of how their society is doing over there. Turning them into mosques is NOT the answer. Is it just me, or is this happening right before our eyes as we sleep more and more? First Spain, now Norway, and that city in Michigan.

The Council's suggestion included turning the decaying buildings into cultural centers, concert halls or mosques - the latter suggestion being one the Progress Party isn't going to take sitting down.

"The church means so much for Norwegian cultural heritage that they must at least not become a house of worship for another religion," Hagen said during parliamentary question time on Wednesday.

PM Bondevik conceded that he felt it would be "unnatural" for Norwegian churches to become mosques, but felt this was finally a decision for the church.

THE "OTHER" SHOW LEAVING THE AIR

is Frasier....one of the smartest and funniest shows I've ever watched. Although I haven't watched it much the past 3-4 years, that's mostly due to the fact that I don't watch much of ANY television (except for too much football in the fall, and baseball whenver I can, which isn't as often as I'd like. Oh, and some Home & Garden TV...and really bad sci-fi "B" movies from the 50s and 60s).

Catherine Seipp writing for National Review, sums it all up very nicely.

Not that Friends isn't a fine and funny show. But Frasier, which centers around the relationships between an urbane and fussy psychiatrist, his even fussier brother, and their cranky retired cop dad, is remarkable not only for its longevity but for how this was managed despite flouting conventional TV wisdom.

"It's the only sitcom on TV that has no internal score," pointed out co-creator/executive producer David Lee. "There's not jaunty little melody telling us it's time to go on to the next scene."

"And no d**k jokes," Grammer pointed out.

The show also refused to cater to shrinking American attention spans. "We specifically said, we're going to write longer scenes," Lee added. "And every chance we get, we still try to make the scenes as long as possible because now [on most sitcoms] it's like you pop in, you see the outside of a building, you hear a jaunty tune, you have two jokes, then you're off to the next exterior of a building and another jaunty tune."

"We tried not to write down to the audience," Lee continued. "If there was a joke we felt was genuinely funny that a lot of people might not understand, we just went, well then, they won't understand it."

"I just thought, the ones that do get it will explain it to the ones that don't," Grammer added.

A FOLLOW UP TO THE CRYBABY COACHING FLAP

is posted here. Further lessening any possible shred of respect I have for teacher's unions in America.

CARL OLSON ON DVC & LEFT BEHIND

Writing in the National Review online, Carl goes into the juggernauts that are the Da Vinci Code and the "Left Behind" series of books. I had read the first eight LB books, and finally got tired of them...especially once I found I just could not handle the anti-Catholic rhetoric anymore...even moreso once I did some research into one of the authors, Tim Lahaye, and his confirmed anti-Catholic stance. That, and his "theology" was born in 1830. Mine was born 2000 years ago.

His review of "Glorious Appearing" is also online.

However, if this is true, then just about everyone is a Christian, including those who reject the existence or the divinity of Jesus and therefore are Christian simply by virtue of having an opinion about the Christ. Exhibit A is Brown, who says he is a Christian, but adds, "although perhaps not in the most traditional sense of the word." (Meaning he doesn't believe Jesus was the Christ, just a "mere mortal prophet," in the words of one of his characters.) But Brown does believe "we are all trying to decipher life's big mysteries, and we're each following our own paths of enlightenment." So there you have it: Anybody can be a Christian, as long as he doesn't mind the term and can define it however he desires.

Both novels cite a common enemy: the institutions of man, especially the Catholic Church. This is far more overt in "The Da Vinci Code", which contains a cacophonous recitation of how evil, violent, misogynist, murderous, backward, and corrupt the Catholic Church allegedly is. (No mention of Protestantism is ever made in Brown's novel, but "the Vatican" is omnipresent.) The authors of the "Left Behind" books agree with that assessment, as an examination of non-fiction works such as "Are We Living In the End Times?" demonstrates, but they are more muted in saying so in the "Left Behind" novels. There is no doubt, however, that LaHaye and Jenkins include the Catholic Church in a list of man-made institutions (e.g., the U.N., the European Union, Hollywood, etc.) contrary to the will and work of God. The bottom line is that faith is individualistic — "Me and Jesus" or "Me and the Goddess" — and that any spiritual or religious community larger than an intimate home church or a cozy secret society is to be viewed with great suspicion.

People who will never seriously examine what a 2,000-year-old institution states about what is true or false are voraciously chewing up the fictional fast food of a mediocre novelist from New England as though he had a direct line to the Supreme Intellect of the Universe. Free thinkers and libertines who once believed that marriage was boring and humdrum now think it is the most exciting thing in the world — as long as it's Jesus marrying Mary Magdalene. What gives? Setting aside those who simply want a "good read," I have to conclude that many people have lost their minds. We live in an information age, but this era is arguably the most historically illiterate of any in American history. When people say (and they are saying it), "The Da Vinci Code is the greatest thing I've ever read," you have to wonder: What have they read? Cereal boxes?

SPAIN SURRENDERS FOR SECOND TIME IN TWO MONTHS

The Spanish are trying to give the French a run for their money it seems, as head cheese-eating-surrender-monkeys of the world.

A statue in a Spanish cathedral showing St James slicing the heads off Moorish invaders is to be removed to avoid causing offence to Muslims.

Cathedral authorities in the pilgrim city of Santiago de Compostela, on Spain's north west coast, plan to move the statue to the museum.

Among the reasons for the move is to avoid upsetting the "sensitivities of other ethnic groups".

The statue of St James "the Moor-slayer" is expected to be replaced by one depicting the calmer image of St James "the Pilgrim", by the same 18th century artist, Jose Gambino.

WORDS FAIL ME

Having coached high school baseball, and helping out with my son's little league...despite all the contact I've had with kids and their parents, I still just can not believe stuff like this when I read it. You'd think I know better by now. I suppose I still choose to have faith in people. But jeez-mineez...this really sets me off.

I have no words for what I think of these two individuals. Only contempt.

Suffer the little children. "Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a great millstone hung around his neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea." (Matthew 18:6)

PLEASANTVILLE, N.J. (AP) -- The coaches of a middle school basketball team who humiliated one of their players by giving him a "crybaby award" will likely face disciplinary action from district officials.

The 13-year-old boy's coach called him just before last month's team banquet and told him to make sure he attended because he was getting a special trophy, the boy's father said.

At the event, the boy watched as all of his Pleasantville Middle School teammates received trophies or certificates.

He was then called up to receive his award, and a coach told the crowd that the boy was being honored because "he begged to get in the game, and all he did was whine."

The trophy had a silver figure of a baby atop a pedestal engraved with the boy's name, which was spelled incorrectly. Family members said the teen -- an honor roll student -- was so embarrassed that he stayed home from school on the following Monday.

A ROLE MODEL FOR BUSINESSPEOPLE

Gary Heavin, of Curves for Women

A successful Christian business owner has come under attack by feminist extremists for using his profits to support pro-life charities.

Gary Heavin, the owner of a chain of extremely successful health and fitness centres for women, is a born-again Christian who gives 10% of his gross annual income to charities. Heavin is also the author of two books on fitness that take a Christian approach. His wife, Diana produces Christian music. Curves fitness centres cater particularly to middle-aged women who may be intimidated by other more youth-oriented fitness venues.

Curves franchises have surpassed Starbucks in numbers in the United States and are closing on McDonalds with sales that have hit $750 million a year. Heavin chooses to support the pro-life movement and that has elicited a powerful response from some feminist organizations and writers. We get a lot of heat because we're so expressive of our faith, and we encourage our faith,'' Heavin says.