Okay. That's enough. I'm gone through Tuesday... working.

New Blog!

23 Rationales for War

When I run up against 23 rationales for Why the Catholic Church is Totally Wrong About Everything, I smell a predetermined agenda in search of an excuse. When I run up against it in Gulf War II, I'm supposed to say, "There you go! Not just one reason, but *23* reasons!"

Somebody Sent Me This

I have no idea where it's from. Anybody know? And anybody know whether these guys know what they are talking about? A reader is greatly agitated by it.

Pending Draft Legislation Targeted for Spring 2005
The Draft will Start in June 2005

There is pending legislation in the House and Senate (twin bills: S 89 and HR 163) which will time the program's initiation so the draft can begin at early as Spring 2005 -- just after the 2004 presidential election. The administration is quietly trying to get these bills passed now, while the public's attention is on the elections, so our action on this is needed immediately.

$28 million has been added to the 2004 Selective Service System (SSS) budget to prepare for a military draft that could start as early as June 15, 2005. Selective Service must report to Bush on March 31, 2005 that the system, which has lain dormant for decades, is ready for activation. Please see website: www.sss.gov/perfplan_fy2004.html to view the sss annual performance plan - fiscal year 2004.

The pentagon has quietly begun a public campaign to fill all 10,350 draft board positions and 11,070 appeals board slots nationwide.. Though this is an unpopular election year topic, military experts and influential members of congress are suggesting that if Rumsfeld's prediction of a "long, hard slog" in Iraq and Afghanistan [and a permanent state of war on "terrorism"] proves accurate, the U.S. may have no choice but to draft.

Congress brought twin bills, S. 89 and HR 163 forward this year, http://www.hslda.org/legislation/na...s89/default.asp entitled the Universal National Service Act of 2003, "to provide for the common defense by requiring that all young persons [age 18--26] in the United States, including women, perform a period of military service or a period of civilian service in furtherance of the national defense and homeland security, and for other purposes." These active bills currently sit in the committee on armed services.

Dodging the draft will be more difficult than those from the Vietnam era.

College and Canada will not be options. In December 2001, Canada and the U.S. signed a "smart border declaration," which could be used to keep would-be draft dodgers in. Signed by Canada's minister of foreign affairs, John Manley, and U.S. Homeland Security director, Tom Ridge, the declaration involves a 30-point plan which implements, among other things, a "pre-clearance agreement" of people entering and departing each country. Reforms aimed at making the draft more equitable along gender and class lines also eliminates higher education as a shelter. Underclassmen would only be able to postpone service until the end of their current semester. Seniors would have until the end of the academic year.

Even those voters who currently support US actions abroad may still object to this move, knowing their own children or grandchildren will not have a say about whether to fight. Not that it should make a difference, but this plan, among other things, eliminates higher education as a shelter and includes women in the draft.

The public has a right to air their opinions about such an important decision.

Please send this on to all the friends, parents, aunts and uncles, grandparents, and cousins that you know. Let your children know too -- it's their future, and they can be a powerful voice for change!

Please also contact your representatives to ask them why they aren't telling their constituents about these bills -- and contact newspapers and other media outlets to ask them why they're not covering this important story.

More Answers to the Question of What We have to Give the World

A reader writes:

Recently, Michael Rose over at cruxnews.com (as you probably know) had been conducting a guerilla war of sorts with Ave Maria University over the controversial oratory and campus designs unveiled recently, with an update promised this weekend. So I logged on and found the guerilla war had been escalated to something close to trench warfare. Cruxnews published a reply from Fr. Fessio, posted a blistering rebuttal from Rose, and a further article about Monaghan's seeming abandonment of Ave Maria College.

I have some thoughts on all this but I'm kind of wondering what your take is.

One of the great things about vacation is that one gets to vacate. I have heard nothing about this and can't comment about it at all beyond noting that Ave Maria seems like a nice idea to me and I'd hate for stupid in-fighting to kill it. But I don't know anything about what anybody from any side has said or done. I've been on Spencer Spit, feeling the sun on my face, the wind in my hair, and smelling the salt breeze full of pure clean oxygen. I've enjoyed good friends as we've chatted around a campfire. I've rejoiced at my oldest sons in their young manhood as they braved the freezing waters of Puget Sound and went swimming at Agate Beach on the south end of Lopez Island. I've read the Lord of the Rings to my two little ones and bedtimes (along with the story of Joseph in Egypt). I've celebrated Pentecost in a little clapboard church and seen the wind of the Spirit roll big breakers against the beach with the setting sun shining jade green through the waves. I stood under a waxing moon last night that was so bright it hurt my eyes. I walked arm in arm with my Janet through the woods. And I received the Eucharist with immense gratitude for my chance to be there--on vacation--and far from all the troubles of the world.

So. No. I don't have any remarks on anything about AMU. But I'm sure I'll hear about it soon. :)

The Infantilization of Black America Sputters on

A Portland lawyer says suffering by African Americans at the hands of slave owners is to blame in the death of a 2-year-old Beaverton boy.

Randall Vogt is offering the untested theory, called post traumatic slave syndrome, in his defense of Isaac Cortez Bynum, who is charged with murder by abuse in the June 30 death of his son, Ryshawn Lamar Bynum. Vogt says he will argue -- "in a general way" -- that masters beat slaves, so Bynum was justified in beating his son.

Captain, sensors detect bullshit readings greater than anything a Federation vessel has ever encountered. Recommend we go to maximum hip waders.

New Blog!

We all are stepping a faster pace

Look out! Here comes the Master Race!

You shall be as gods. Offer void where prohibited by law.

The Great Enema Reaches the Australian Anglicans

Congratulations, Pavel!

Ahem!

Catholic Press Association awards
Best Photo story
Honorable Mention: National Catholic Register, North Haven, CT, "In Washington, Pope Gathers Witnesses to Christ's Suffering", Pavel Chichikov

To see more of Pavel's beautiful work, go here.

I sit here jawing while Pavel enriches the world through his generous work.

Holy Moly! My Faith is in Ruins!

Everybody read this! The Catholic Faith has been *conclusively* debunked!!! Everything you know is wrong. One guy with a website has completely overturned the Faith of millions!!!!!!

Well... not really. But I thought I'd give Samuel Gipp a thrill since he went to the trouble of using my comments box to advertise for his brand of True Christianity[TM] and insult my faith.

To a large degree, the Faith has always been a regional matter

From our "Sin Makes you Stupid" files

One of my closest friends is an academic. They understand the term "Google". They're not stupid. That's how they got Ph.Ds.

Oddly, I've felt no impulse to beat Andy of World Wide Rant to death with a hammer for his numerous sneers at my faith

Some people think Islam is strong. I think Islam is brittle.

The Passion of the Christ Fails to Miraculously Cure Hollywood of Contempt for Christians

Say it with me: Bishop aren't pressuring voters. Bishops are governing their Churches.

Bishops can't tell you how to vote.

Bishops can't peek in your bedroom window.

Bishops have no access to your bank account.

Bishops don't know who you are seeing, whether you support abortion, or who you voted for.

Bishop (or at any rate some bishops) are saying, "If you believe and do things gravely contrary to the faith and refuse to change, then don't receive communion in my Church."

That's called "Doing their job."

Godzilla to wreck Sydney, NY, Paris, Shanghai, Japan in finale

Sorry, but these guys were wrong

It is not for laypeople to enact vigilante actions during Mass. If active and impenitent sinners wish to eat and drink damnation and the priest and bishop opt to let them, then it is not the task of a few self-appointed vigilantes to play Bishop For a Day.

More Answers to Buchanan's Question about What We have to Offer the World

The Lowdown on the Latest Head Iraqi Guy

All we know about these people is what the media chooses to report. I'm still trying to figure out who Chalabi was.

Episcopalian Communion Troubles

It's comforting to know we Catholics are not alone.

Evangelicals and Catholics Join Forces

NY Times and various wine and brie types wet themselves with fear.

John J. Myers, Archbishop of Newark and Trekker

And while he prides himself on his intellectual heft as a canon lawyer, he is a devoted fan of "Star Trek" and spends his spare time working on a science fiction novel, "Space Hawk."

The book, which he is writing with his boyhood friend Gary K. Wolf (who wrote the novel that was turned into the animated Hollywood blockbuster "Who Framed Roger Rabbit?"), tells the tale of a writer and a priest named Jasper J. Moyers, who are living on a space station in the year 2052, battling a Nazi war criminal who possesses supernatural powers.

"Remember in geometry, when you changed one postulate and the entire equation is transformed?" he says. "To me that's what science fiction is like. You change one variable and then there's the intellectual exercise of imagining an entirely different world."

Somebody needs to give the bishop hell for this

A reader writes:

Well, the priest from Pax Christi here in Rochester, Minnesota, who was caught with his pants down in a homosexual sting operation in the Cities, and who was let free from jail time because the prosecution couldn't prove that it was not consensual, and because the diocese promised he wouldn't be posted where he would have access to boys, has been reassigned by the diocese to the only parish in Owatanna, which oversees the only Catholic school in the area.

FYI for whatever channels are best for correcting such issues.

Dunno who this guy's bishop is, but it appears to be a classic case of Bourbonism.

Old Man Shouts into Gale Force Wind

Young people hear him.

Internet Theology Resources: Church History and Historical Theology

All sorts of documents including ancient Christian and pagan writers and a photocopy of the Awful Disclosures of Maria Monk.

Fr. Johansen Provides Clarity about the Law Appointment

Meanwhile, a reader provides clarity for all those extremely angry readers out there who think that the way to happiness and peace is through the Church exacting the last drop of punishment from people they deem to be unsatisfactorily made to PAY:

This flap over Cardinal Law reminds me of a much smaller matter in my own life. I experienced a humiliating public failure in my very first job out of college - which left me alone, feeling rejected by God, and literally 25 cents away from homelessness.

The director of the organization for which I worked was something of a global "evangelical superstar" even through his leadership had created the instability of the firm, which set had me up for failure. In my last interview, he was obviously so clueless as to how to deal with me, that he kept talking about how "he had never failed at anything in his life" while I sat there sobbing.

For two years, I had to wrestle with my rage that he was secure and "successful" while I battled extreme poverty and public failure. But I knew from Scripture that Christ had commanded me to forgive. And it was that certainty and the knowledge that obedience was my only way out that ultimately saved me.

Two years, later, this man was publicly installed as missions pastor at a huge, wealthy evangelical Church nearby and I went to the installation as an act of forgiveness – a gesture, of course, of which he was and still is unaware. But I knew what it meant and God honored my intention. It set me free.

But that was just a job, not sexual abuse, you might say. That’s very different. Not in my experience.

As my close friends know, I am a survivor of nearly 20 years of very serious physical, emotional abuse growing up as well as of sexual abuse as a 6 year old child. Just last week, the individual who made my childhood a living hell apologized out of the blue and while I was happy for this evidence of his/her healing, it didn’t make any difference for me. I was already made free long ago.

My life just isn’t about “recovery from child abuse” anymore. Cooperation with God’s grace through a long and difficult obedience in the same direction has brought about a resurrection that I once could only dream about.

To those of you whose lives are filled with pain and justifiable rage because of abuse, this may seem impossible or even insulting. But all I can do is testify to what I have experienced.

I believe that when Jesus said to “bless your enemy”; he meant it for our sake as well as for the sake of the other. Going beyond initial forgiveness to the willed intention and finally the desire that one's enemy experience the same kind of blessedness that one hopes for oneself and those you love is the polar opposite of victimhood.

You are no longer victim but the strong protagonist once you realize that the redemptive purposes of God for your life can never be ultimately thwarted by the sins of others if you remain faithful. In Christ, we can never be thrown away.

And even better, we can become free enough to radiate back grace and healing to those who, intentionally or not, inflicted such suffering on us. Redemption, as C. S. Lewis, noted, works backwards, not annihilating history but transforming it’s earthly and eternal meaning and impact. That is the reality upon which the hope of all earthly sinners (including us) is based.

Obviously, I want (and demand - this is not about enabling evil!) my enemy to stop doing evil. But I honestly don't want my enemy to "suffer like I have" or never know some kind of forgiveness and redemption in this life. My own resurrection is made more joyful and complete by witnessing their healing.

My point? I don't have any any strong opinion about Law's recent appointment.

But many are saying that they are offended by his appointment to St. Mary Major because it doesn't look like penance or public humiliation and this just accentuates or adds to the pain of those abused while he was Archbishop of Boston.

The implication is that Law's public humiliation or his obvious suffering will somehow lessen the suffering of those who were abused because the Church now "gets it".

If the assurance sought is that it won't happen again to others, I agree absolutely. But people seem to be demanding more than that. They seem to be saying that any future goodness in Law's life can only inflict additional pain on those already wounded.

I'm just saying, from the perspective of one who has been there, that believing that the suffering or humiliation of your enemy will ultimately heal you can be a terrible trap. Christ is calling us to an identity vastly different than that of victim.

And that there are few things more joyful, more redolent of heaven, than realizing that God's grace has so restored your life that you can hope for the restoration of your enemy's life as well.

The Man Many of My Readers Want for Cdl. Law's Confessor

Almost Armageddon--Four Times

You shall not put the Lord your God to the test. I wonder how many times we get to thump our bellicose chests and call for the nuclear annihilation of somebody or other before God says, "Okay. If you insist."

A reader asks:

Would you mind polling your readers: I em lookeeng for a, 'ow you say, conversion patron saint. Maybe someone who hid it for a while, or went through it in hostile territory?

Geistesweisheit's Got a Brand New Blog

Another Big Lie Bites the Dust

Victorians in Power Suits Stunned to Discover Women are Capable of Evil

Apparently they've never heard of Ilse Koch, who made lampshades of human skin.

People Desperately Need the Sacrament of Confession

Brain Death Not an Obstacle to a Lucrative Career in the Fast-Paced World of Public School Administration

Reason #3904585793534983455 to home school.

Pro-Abortion Brownshirts on the March!

A reader writes:

See below regarding what essentially was the destruction of The Gabriel Project's (GP) offices this past Sunday night/Monday morning. The GP Director is an old Navy friend, Paul Mulligan, who resigned his Navy commission in order to become a full-time pro-life worker. As you'll read below,

"The Gabriel Project is an ecumenical movement of Churches standing together in their commitment to offer assistance to women and families facing crisis pregnancies. It is a program in which parishioners assist women in need with friendship and coordinate their needs such as transportation for medical care, housing, food, material needs and baby needs. Local resources can sometimes meet these needs, but the Church acts as a safety net and assures the expectant mother that she will be cared for. The Church also provides pastoral care if asked."

In other words, the GP helps churches set up homes or other means of subsistence to give women in crisis pregnancies a place to live and/or receive the physical, emotional and spiritual support they require during and after their pregnancies. See http://www.gabrielproject.com/ for their site and more info.

Bottom line: these are good folks doing good things in a very discrete, unobtrusive, and non-confrontational manner. The vandals, on the other hand, knew precisely what they were doing and what organization they were attacking. Paul and his family live quite literally directly across the street from the GP office, and had just returned that day from a small and well-earned vacation (great first day back at work, eh?). If you can help any way, shape or form, please do so. Details are in the attached email from the director of Saint Mary's County Right to Life.

You can contact Paul directly at:

The Gabriel Project
PO Box 2116
Bowie, MD 20718-2116.
301-262-9011 or 410-741-1228.
gp.director@verizon.net (since all of their computers were destroyed via baseball bats to the monitors and Coke poured into the CPU's and keyboards, it may be a while before he can answer email).

The Gabriel Project (GP) Office in Bowie, MD was severely vandalized this past Monday, early in the AM on the 24th of May. The office was essentially destroyed along with their data base. As Tom Grenchik, the president of GP stated, "The devil uses all kinds of tools to stop, or discourage an effective, Christian and pro-life ministry."

As you may know, STMRTL hosted the Gabriel Project at a recent pro-life breakfast at the Holiday Inn in the Solomons. The Gabriel Project is an ecumenical movement of Churches standing together in their commitment to offer assistance to women and families facing crisis pregnancies. Help is normally advertised on signs in front of participating churches. In fact, Holy Face RCC is one of those churches in St. Mary's County.

They need financial help.

The KofC Sacred Heart Council #2577 is hosting a Golf Tournament on Friday, the 4th of June to raise money. David Grabowski (301)464-2059 is the POC. The cost to sponsor a hole is $100.

If you want to help directly or you're not a very good golfer, please send a donation to the Gabriel Project, Inc. at PO Box 2116, Bowie, MD 20718-2116. If you want to talk to them directly, their number is 301-262-9011 or 410-741-1228.

God bless this effort,
Jim McFillin
President
St. Mary's County Right to Life

Outta here till Tuesday

Gotta work, then a concert (my son is singing "A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square" with a jazz quartet). Then tomorrow we head out for our traditional "Sheas and Co. on Lopez Island" Memorial Day Weekend extravaganza!

Do us a favor and pray for decent weather.

Mazeltov!

Low Humor



I like to laugh at Al Gore's expense. I title this picture "Former Veep Coughs up Hairball"

Feel free to provide your own title.

Law Goes to Rome

Much anger over at Amy's blog.

As is more or less my custom, I don't seem to be having the same emotional reactions as most of the correspondents--probably due to my ignorance of Church politics or something. I wanted Law gone and was glad when he went. I also wanted to see some sign of serious contrition. By all reports that seems to be the case with him. If Caesar had wanted to jail the guy, I would have been in favor of it, but (such are the mysteries of the legal system) Caesar didn't jail him. However, he's gone and he appears to be penitent, so beyond that I figured the wisest thing for me to do as a layman with zero input in the case was to give the guy back to God, extend forgiveness insofar as his actions have hurt me, and move on.

Now the Pope is reportedly taking him out of whatever trivial job he has now and sticking him in some trivial ceremonial position at some Church in Rome. I don't know much about what priests do in trivial ceremonial positions in Churches in Rome, but it sounds a lot like "being put out to pasture" to me. This strikes me as a typical John Paul act of mercy to a screwup*, characteristic of the author of "Dives in Misericordia'. My response as a layman is: "Okay". But the response of many readers is outrage. It's seen as a "golden parachute", an old boy network, etc. From this, I can only conclude that there is a theory of crime and punishment here that needs to be more clearly explored. My understanding was that the task of the Pope was to, among other things, grant mercy to penitents, not exact the last ounce of punishment that sinners deserve. I understand the need for penance, and if Law were impenitent and wilfully clueless (like, say, O'Brien appears to be) I'd be very irritated. But I don't see why putting Law out pasture at this Church is seen as a reward, much less an honor. Maybe I'm missing something.

* "Screwup" = Idiosyncratic Sheaism for "sinner so blinded by sin that he committed unbelievably *stupid* sins", not "well-meaning person who just made dumb mistakes but who did his best"

Interesting piece on Marian Shrines in China

Another prayer request

Please pray for a young woman in State College, PA, who is with child (2 weeks pregnant) - she is being strongly pressured by her current boyfriend and pro-choice roommate to get an abortion. Providentially, she also has friends who are pro-life.

Today, she is going to an abortion clinic for her first consultation. People will be praying outside it at noon today. Please pray that she may experience the peace of God's extraordinary love that is being wrapped around her and her unborn baby. She has been approached by the Gabriel Project (a CPC) with the option of adoption.

On a related note, every Saturday afternoon, pro-lifers peacefully pray outside the same abortion clinic (near Penn State's campus on College Ave.). Last weekend, some pro-choice members showed up for the first time in strong protest. As aptly commented by a friend:

"Prayer outside the abortion clinic was truly spiritual warfare... it's so heartbreaking to see other human beings, created in God's image, fighting angrily for the right to kill children...It just goes to show what a truly spiritual battle the abortion issue is, and how much conversion of heart is needed."

Our Lady of Victory and Queen of Peace, pray for us.

Thank you so much for your prayers - I am very confident that God actively hears every single prayer of the faithful.

Take care and God bless.

Canada: Our Soft Totalitarian Neighbor to the North!

A reader writes:

Make a good looking "gay teenager" the poster child for " I want to bring my 23 year old date to a Catholic high school prom that I happened to meet in an online chat room."

Have the lib-left media take up your cause.

Have the gay member of the provincial legislature (from a completely different part of the province) become your litigation guardian.

Make a movie about the beautiful story.

Allow no one to speak against it - that would be "anti-gay."

And when someone trashes the offices of the production company in a shitty part of toronto - its obviously a "hate crime."

Go figure.

Reverse roles where a "former gay" wishes to join and marry in the Catholic Church and try to get the movie made, or better yet, the media to cover the story other than to call it thumbing your nose at "the gay community."

NY Times Peers Deep Into Its Soul and Discerns the Dim Traces of Bias There

Purely an anomaly. Think nothing of it. Highly unusual. Trust them.

John Kerry Worships at the Altar of Gay Fabulousness

Recognizes gay sex as the source and summit of all that is great and good in the human race since the beginning of recorded history.

In related news, Cdl. Mahony bound Los Angeles parishioners to vote for Kerry or face eternal damnation.

Just kidding.

Scenes from a Sexually Hyper-Sensitized Culture

Ugslay Ugbay Ueblay!

Brain Death No Hindrance to a Career in Public School Administration

Cheer at your kid's graduation, get kicked out of graduation festivities.

Pro-life obstetrician runs for Senate and, in contrast to Arlen Specter, gets little help from the Stupid Party

The Stupid Party continues to eat its young.

LaserMonks!

They put the "pro" in Ora Pro Nobis.

Prayers appreciated

...for the sister of a friend who has a very rare form of cancer of the eye. She may lose her eye, but the main fear is that it has metastasized. If your gift is intercession or healing, she could sure use your charism right now.

Now I'm confused again

What's the difference between this proposed truce and Sadr winning and us withdrawing?

Am I missing something?

How come...

the media don't routinely speak of the Holy City of Rome, or Jerusalem, or Antioch, or Moscow? Why doesn't Beijing rank as a Holy City? It used to have a divine emperor and everything!

I'm going to ask my congressman to designate Everett, Washington as a Holy City. I was born there. That's good enough for me.

11 Year Old Girl Helps Provide Answer to Pat Buchanan's Question About What Our Culture Has to Offer to the World

Uppity CANN Webelves Refuse to Sit in the Back of the Bus

I wonder if they've started tapping Kathy Shaidle's phone yet

Torture in the Sudan

Don't worry about it. No big deal. It's just a Christian. And besides he was a priest. So he probably had it coming.

Now about those reparations for cruelty to black people two centuries ago...

From our "Big Lie" Headline Dept.

You know what? Man and Ape are hugely, amazingly, obviously extremely different anyway.

Chesterton is simply right when he says that we are "a race that is in its relation to others a race of gods. The fact is not lessened but emphasised because it can behave like a race of demons. Its distinction is not an individual illusion, like one bird pluming itself on its own plumes; it is a solid and a many-sided thing. It is demonstrated in the very speculations that have led to its being denied. That men, the gods of this lower world, are linked with it in various ways is true; but it is another aspect of the same truth. That they grow as the grass grows and walk as the beasts walk is a secondary necessity that sharpens the primary distinction. It is like saying that a magician must after all have the appearance of a man; or that even the fairies could not dance without feet. It has lately been the fashion to focus the mind entirely on these mild and subordinate resemblances and to forget the main fact altogether. It is customary to insist that man resembles the other creatures. Yes; and that very resemblance he alone can see. The fish does not trace the fishbone pattern in the fowls of the air, or the elephant and the EMU compare skeletons. Even in the sense in which man is at one with the universe it is an utterly lonely universality. The very sense that he is united with all things is enough to sunder him from all."

In short, the ape looking at the kid is not, and never will, be capable of contemplating his likeness to the kid. Nor will he be discussing it with other apes any time soon. The puzzle is not that the shape of his body is vaguely similar. The puzzle is that the shape of our mind is so radically different from him and every other creature that has ever existed. We are the only creatures capable of even *noticing* that we resemble other creatures.

The most reasonable explanation for this immense gulf between us and the rest of the natural world remains "God created them in his image and likeness."

Clergyman Commits All-Out Assault on Wall of Separation between Church and State

But it's okay because he's black and he's attacking George Bush.

Fulton Sheen on What Catholics (Should) Know About Reaching Muslims

We Catholics have a weapon in the war on terror that is a million miles away from the thoughts of geopolitical strategists

Mary and the Muslims

By Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen

Muslimism is the only great post-Christian religion of the world. Because it had its origin in the 7th century under Mohammed, it was possible to unite within it some elements of Christianity and of Judaism, along with particular customs of Arabia. Muslimism takes the doctrine of the unity of God, his majesty and his creative power, and uses it, in part, as a basis for the repudiation of Christ, the Son of God. Misunderstanding the notion of the Trinity, Mohammed made Christ a prophet announcing himself (Mohammed) just as to Christians, Isaiah and John the Baptist are prophets announcing Christ.

The Christian European West barely escaped destruction at the hands of the Muslims. At one point they were stopped near Tours and at another point, later on in time, outside the gates of Vienna. The Church throughout northern Africa was practically destroyed by Muslim power, and at the present hour, the Muslims are beginning to rise again.

If Muslimism is a heresy, as Hilaire Belloc believes it to be, it is the only heresy that has never declined. Others have had a moment of vigor, then gone into doctrinal decay at the death of the leader, and finally evaporated in a vague social movement. Muslimism, on the contrary, has only had its first phase. There was never a time in which it declined, either in numbers, or in the devotion of its followers.

The missionary effort of the Church toward this group has been, at least on the surface, a failure. For the Muslims are so far almost unconvertible. The reason is that for a follower of Mohammed to become a Christian is much like a Christian becoming a Jew. The Muslims believe that they have the final and definitive revelation of God to the world and that Christ was only a prophet announcing Mohammed, the last of God’s real prophets.

At the present time, the hatred of the Muslim countries against the West is becoming a hatred against Christianity itself. Although the statesmen have not yet taken it into account, there is still grave danger that the temporal power of Islam may return, and with it, the menace that it may shake off a West which has ceased to be Christian, and affirm itself as a great anti-Christian world power. Muslim writers say, “When the locust swarms darken countries, they bear on their wings these Arabic words: We are God’s host, each of us has ninety-nine eggs, and if we had a hundred, we should lay waste the world, with all that is in it.”

The problem is, how shall we prevent the hatching of the hundredth egg? It is our firm belief that the fears some entertain concerning the Muslims are not to be realized, but that Muslimism, instead, will eventually be converted to Christianity—and in a way that even some of our missionaries never suspect. It is our belief that this will happen not through the direct teachings of Christianity, but through a summoning of the Muslims to a veneration of the Mother of God. This is the line of argument:

Mary
The Qu’ran, which is the Bible for the Muslims, has many passages concerning the Blessed Virgin. First of all, the Qu’ran believes in her Immaculate Conception, and also in her Virgin Birth. The third chapter of the Qu’ran places the history of Mary’s family in a genealogy which goes back through Abraham, Noah, and Adam. When one compares the Qu’ran’s description of the birth of Mary with the apocryphal Gospel of the Birth of Mary, one is tempted to believe that Mohammed very much depended upon the latter. Both books describe the old age and the definite sterility of the mother of Mary. When, however, she conceives, the mother of Mary is made to say in the Qu’ran: “O Lord, I vow and I consecrate to you what is already within me. Accept it from me.”

When Mary is born, the mother says: “And I consecrate her with all of her posterity under thy protection, O Lord, against Satan!”

The Qu’ran passes over Joseph in the life of Mary, but the Muslim tradition knows his name and has some familiarity with him. In this tradition, Joseph is made to speak to Mary, who is a virgin. As he inquired how she conceived Jesus without a father, Mary answered:

Do you not know that God, when he created the wheat had no need of seed, and that God by his power made the trees grow without the help of rain? All that God had to do was to say, “So be it, and it was done.”

The Qu’ran has also verses on the Annunciation, Visitation, and Nativity. Angels are pictured as accompanying the Blessed Mother and saying: “Oh, Mary, God has chosen you and purified you, and elected you above all the women of the earth.” In the nineteenth chapter of the Qu’ran there are 41 verses on Jesus and Mary. There is such a strong defense of the virginity of Mary here that the Qu’ran, in the fourth book, attributed the condemnation of the Jews to their monstrous calumny against the Virgin Mary.

Fatima
Mary, then, is for the Muslims the true Sayyida , or Lady. The only possible serious rival to her in their creed would be Fatima, the daughter of Mohammed himself. But after the death of Fatima, Mohammed wrote: “Thou shalt be the most blessed of all women in Paradise, after Mary.” In a variation of the text, Fatima is made to say, “I surpass all the women, except Mary.”

This brings us to our second point: namely, why the Blessed Mother, in the 20th century, should have revealed herself in the significant little village of Fatima, so that to all future generations she would be known as “Our Lady of Fatima.” Since nothing ever happens out of Heaven except with a finesse of all details, I believe that the blessed Virgin chose to be known as “Our Lady of Fatima” as a pledge and a sign of hope to the Muslim people, and as an assurance that they, who show her so much respect, will one day accept her divine Son, too.

Evidence to support these views is found in the historical fact that the Muslims occupied Portugal for centuries. At the time when they were finally driven out, the last Muslim chief had a beautiful daughter by the name of Fatima. A Catholic boy fell in love with her, and for him she not only stayed behind when the Muslims left, but even embraced the faith. The young husband was so much in love with her that he changed the name of the town where he lived to Fatima. Thus, the very place where our lady appeared in 1917 bears a historical connection to Fatima, the daughter of Mohammed.

The final evidence of the relationship of Fatima to the Muslims is the enthusiastic reception which the Muslims in Africa, India, and elsewhere gave to the pilgrim statue of Our Lady of Fatima. Muslims attended the church services in honor of our Lady, they allowed religious processions and even prayers before their mosques; and in Mozambique, the Muslims who were unconverted, began to be Christian as soon as the statue of Our Lady of Fatima was erected.

Missionaries
Missionaries in the future will, more and more, see that their apostolate among the Muslims will be successful in the measure that they preach Our Lady of Fatima. Mary is the advent of Christ, bringing Christ to the people before Christ himself is born. In an apologetic endeavor, it is always best to start with that which people already accept. Because the Muslims have a devotion to Mary, our missionaries should be satisfied merely to expand and to develop that devotion, with the full realization that Our Blessed Lady will carry the Muslims the rest of the way to her divine Son. She is forever a “traitor,” in the sense that she will not accept any devotion for herself, but will always bring anyone who is devoted to her to her divine Son. As those who lose devotion to her lose belief in the divinity of Christ, so those who intensify devotion to her gradually acquire that belief.

Many of our great missionaries in Africa have already broken down the bitter hatred and prejudices of the Muslims against the Christians through their acts of charity, their schools and hospitals. It now remains to use another approach, namely, that of taking the 41st chapter of the Qu’ran and showing them that it was taken out of the Gospel of Luke, that Mary could not be, even in their own eyes, the most blessed of all the women of Heaven if she had not also borne One who was the Savior of the world. If Judith and Esther of the Old Testament were pre-figures of Mary, then it may very well be that Fatima herself was a post-figure of Mary! The Muslims should be prepared to acknowledge that, if Fatima must give way in honor to the Blessed Mother, it is because she is different from all the other mothers of the world and that without Christ she would be nothing.

There is still hope. The best way to defeat your enemy is, as it always was, to make him your friend. Yes, we are at war. But if Catholics simply abandon the hope of reconciliation with Muslims through the power of Christ as pollyanna "unrealism", then I submit that the have chosen despair rather than life as the final defining reality of their existence just as much as any pro-abortionist who says death is preferable to life.

Satan Dons His Judicial Robes Again

Comments Box Experts Declare Evangelization of Islamosphere Impossible

They know. They've been sitting at their keyboards reading a lot of other comment box experts on Islam.

Nonetheless, one of my my readers, who actually has some first hand knowledge of the situation on the ground in the Middle East suggests that the knowledge of comments box experts on Islam might not be commensurate with their self-confidence:

I have just heard from friends who live there and know:

Quietly, quietly, in some of the most unlikely places imaginable, Muslims in profoundly Muslim cultures are becoming disciples of Jesus Christ. And they are choosing not to leave but to stay and witness quietly. We cannot imagine their world but we can be joined with them in the communion of saints and pray for them.

One other little vignette:

In one major Arab metropolis, a local cineplex that normally shows 5 movies at a time, devoted one theatre to The Passion. The response was so intense that after two days, all five theatres were dedicated solely to showing the Passion and the place was jammed. My friends saw women in full Muslim dress (black from heard to toe)come out sobbing.

The vast majority of the really inportant things in life, what God is doing in our world don't make CNN. But we should be praying for the continued penetration of God's grace into the hearts and minds of so many millions - including here in the West.

How about all of us here making praying for the Muslim world our intent the next time we go to Mass?

The Invaluable Tom of Disputation Refutes Error and Propounds Thomas' Common Sense

Where else but at CAEI can you jump from the latest StrongBad email to a Thomistic discussion of good and evil?

Just Think of it as a Bold Artistic Statement by God

Schadenfreude? Me?

Tom Clancy: Leftist America-Hater

As I've been told by my readers, when I say, in essence, "Good men make mistakes" what I really mean is "Bush lied." So Clancy must mean the same thing.

More Happy News

Al-Quaeda may not be growing after all.

I certainly hope so.

Raw Atheist Agitprop a Step Closer to Being Spoon Fed to Your Children

And still, Christians obsess over Harry Potter.

Fundies Seek to Create Warsaw Ghetto for Themselves

Great idea. As our Lord said, "Don't go into all the world, preaching the good news to every creature. Those people out there are bad. Instead, concentrate yourselves into small locations with like-minded people, so that when the dominant culture decides it wants to exterminate you, you'll all be easy to find and kill."

I sort of thought the Civil War settled this.

I wonder how much energy is wasted every day by Christians pursuing loony insane objectives.

Soviet Tactics Come to Temple U

Student sues college for its attempt to forcibly commit him for his Christian beliefs.

The guy thought Jesus wasn't gay. Obviously a candidate for the insane asylum. Jesus was the perfect man and homosexuality is the sum of all human perfections, according to my TV.

So the guy was clearly insane. I just don't see why anybody would call the University's action "despicable".

Shea's Infallible Law #6

Whenever anybody begins a commentary on the Catholic Church with words like, "I was baptized a Catholic, confirmed a Catholic, married a Catholic and now raise three daughters as Catholics. In my hearts of hearts, I am a Catholic...."

...you can absolutely guarantee that the next thing out of their mouths will be a farrago of ignorant nonsense.

This ignorant columnist does not fail to confirm my law as an Iron Truth of the Universe.

Memo to all Ignorant Columnists. The bishops are not "playing politics". They are telling their flock what they should do *in Church*. They cannot control what you do in the voting booth, the bedroom, or on the Senate floor. But they have a perfect right, and duty, to try to govern what happens in their sanctuaries and to legislate, as they see fit, about the circumstances under which you should and should not receive communion. Unless you think communion is a civil right, they are not "playing politics".

Church says the Obvious about the Culture of Death

Euro Journos hit macro button on word processors and generate the Usual Article in response.

You hardly have to skim it. You've read it a million times before.

Gay Brownshirt Wins Through Intimidation

The difference between me and this guy's amazingly pliant friends is that I would have said, "If you disrupt *my* wedding, you are not a friend but a narcissistic jerk and I will call the cops on you." But Leftists are easily manipulable about such matters and so put up with his childish, self-centeredness.

The best, most careful thinking through of the abortion/communion issue to date

Bishop Donald Wuerl is a really good guy by all accounts. Used to be my co-adjutor so, of course, this being Seattle, he was driven out by mobs with torches and pitchforks.

Ah, the things that might have been....

If only junior high assistant basketball coaches could marry! If only women could be junior high assistant basketball coaches!

Happy Birthday to A View from the Core!

Never Let Secular Journalists Cover the Church's Theology

When they do, they invariably write stupid half-informed stuff like this:

The Catholic Church in England and Wales will today soften the harsh moralistic language of the Vatican in setting out its most comprehensive moral guidelines for many years to the faithful on how they should live their lives.

The document, called Cherishing Life, approved by the Church's bishops, refrains from the sort of blunt language in which last year the Vatican described gay partnerships as evil. The English bishops say instead that homosexual orientation must never be considered sinful or evil in itself -just so long as it is not sexually expressed.

Amazing how many ignorant memes one reporter can pack into a piece. To his credit, he does not use the words "Frail Pope" or "crackdown" anywhere, but he does indulge in the "Harsh moralistic blunt (read: evil and draconian) Rome" vs. "kinder, gentler, local bishops" trope.

But the most amazing thing is his portrayal of the view of the Rome's teaching on homosexuality "versus" the local bishops'. He talks as though it's an ameliorating novelty--introduced by the English bishops in order to soften the blow of intolerant Rome--to say that there is a distinction between homosexual orientation and homosexual practice and that only the latter is a sin, while former is merely a temptation of disordered appetite.

"The West No Longer Loves Itself" - Cdl. Joseph Ratzinger

Europe tries to figure out a way to keep God out of its heritage.

In the book of Judges, the pattern is "apostasy/conquest/domination by foreign peoples and foreign gods/cry for deliverance/God sends a deliverer"

That can be stretched over a *very* long timetable. But the basic pattern still holds. Supernature abhors a vacuum. Euros may prefer a secular vacuum. But the Muslims in their midst have very definite ideas about God. Get rid of the Christian heritage and you will not get secularism (at least, not for long). You'll get minarets at St. Paul's and Notre Dame.

Rev. Ralph Drollinger: Jerk for Jesus

Guy definitely needs to learn how to win friends and influence people.

Buchanan: We Should Never Have Gone But we Must Stay

This pretty much where I'm at.

And speaking of Shepherds Who Don't Get it

Okay. I can see that part of the Church's mission is forgiveness and second chances for the penitent. But does the guy *have* to be put into parish work--in lonely isolated rural parishes? Can't you stick him in a chancery or some other place?

I'm with Clohessy: "Why take the risk?"

So sad. So many people bearing the cross for incompetent and criminal shepherds

On the bright side...

A reader writes:

This was sent by a soldier who is home for two weeks from Baghdad. I think it says it all...

As I head off to Baghdad for the final weeks of my stay in Iraq, I wanted to say thanks to all of you who did not believe the media. They have done a very poor job of covering everything that has happened. I am sorry that I have not been able to visit all of you during my two week leave back home. And just so you can rest at night knowing something is happening in Iraq that is noteworthy, I thought I would pass this on to you. This is the list of things that has happened in Iraq recently: (Please share it with your friends and compare it to the version that your paper is producing)
-Over 4.5 million people have clean drinking water for the first time ever in Iraq.
-Over 400,000 kids have up to date immunizations.
-Over 1500 schools have been renovated and ridded of the weapons that were stored there so education can occur.
-The port of Uhm Qasar was renovated so grain can be off loaded from ships faster.
-School attendance is up 80% from levels before the war.
-The country had it's first 2 billion barrel export of oil in August.
-The country now receives 2 times the electrical power it did before the war.
-100% of the hospitals are open and fully staffed compared to 35% before the war.
-Elections are taking place in every major city and city councils are in place.
-Sewer and water lines are installed in every major city.
-Over 60,000 police are patrolling the streets.
-Over 100,000 Iraqi civil defense police are securing the country.
-Over 80,000 Iraqi soldiers are patrolling the streets side by side with US soldiers.
-Over 400,000 people have telephones for the first time ever.
-Students are taught field sanitation and hand washing techniques to prevent the spread of germs.
-An interim constitution has been signed.
-Girls are allowed to attend school for the first time ever in Iraq.
-Text books that don't mention Saddam are in the schools for the first time in 30 years.

Don't believe for one second that these people do not want us there. I have met many many people from Iraq that want us there and in a bad way. They say they will never see the freedoms we talk about but they hope their children will. We are doing a good job in Iraq and I challenge anyone, anywhere to dispute me on these facts. So If you happen to run into John Kerry, be sure to give him my email address and send him to Denison, Iowa. This soldier will set him straight. If you are like me and very disgusted with how this period of rebuilding has been portrayed, email this to a friend and let them know there are good things happening.

Ray Reynolds, SFC
Iowa Army National Guard
234th Signal Battalion

Experience the Fury of the Latest StrongBad email!

It's not over when you think it's over.

The Difference Between Us and the Islamosphere

You never see Al-Jazeera fretting that "Damage to Twin Towers and Pentagon May Ignite Anti-Islamic Passions in America"

Having no heritage of a theology of original sin means never having to say you're sorry.

Rod Dreher Moves to Dallas, Crime Rate Soars

Coincidence? You decide.

CAEI: Not as bad as Saddam Hussein

In fact, I'll go out on a limb and say I'm not as bad as Saddam Hussein *and* Adolf Hitler.

Da Vinci Code spawns entirely new genre of literature!

It's official. Literary experts have recognized the birth of a whole new genre of writing that centers entirely on debunking the Da Vinci Code. In this roundtable discussion, for instance, we find no fewer than eleven authors in the queue, waiting to open up a can of whup-ass on Dan Brown's sorry, ill-researched, windy, badly written, lying piece of dreck-for-morons-who-were-too-stupid-to-pay-attention-in-Sunday-school.

For trading card collectors, we have, representing the Catholic Squad


Steve "Killer" Kellmeyer


Sandra "Amazon" Miesel


Carl "Crusher" Olson


Amy "Stiletto" Welborn

A crack squad of Evangelicals is also represented and, together with the Catholic contingent they form a rock-em-sock-em battalion of theological acumen that plays a rousing game of soccer with Brown's twaddle.

And please note, the Catholics are all laity, not "worried prelates" as your TV would have you believe.

Kiwis, Being Non-Combatants, Have No Rights Under the Geneva Convention

So you can arrest them and keep them on ice for months.

At least, I'm pretty sure you can.

The Case of the Demon-Possessed Coke Can

Everybody Agrees That it's Nobody's Fault

It's.... uhhhhh..... panic. Yeah! That's it! That's the ticket! Panic!

Does this remind American Catholics of anything?

The Fly-Breeder Strategy Appears to Be Working

This, little children, is why the "hearts and minds" portion of the War is so important.

Scholarly Conference on Buffy the Vampire Slayer

This is just for Victor Lams. All the rest of you: move along. Nothing to see here.

Frail Pope Cracks Down!

Sadly, not everybody can see the limitless kaleidoscope of wonders that is gay sex. Here, for example, we see an aging cleric who is not (yet) subject to hate crime legislation wantonly committing the Crime Against Humanity of calling marriage a "sacrament"--twice!

Who would *not* call that an "assault"?

I just hope one day we will all live to see him get the full Stachowicz/Derkhising treatment he deserves for such cruel assaults on all that is brightest and best in our civilization.

InJewCon: For All Your International Jewish Conspiracy Needs

Could there be anything more worthy of celebration in cinema than the awesome greatness of gay sex?

NO! I say! NO!!!! Let us all gather our families, our children, our old ones, our sons, our daughters, our transgendered, our lesbigay, our transvestites, our Exploring Their Sexuality, our Whatevers, and come together to worship and celebrate the Triumph of the Gay Spirit around the Altar of our Television. Let us weep together as we recite once again the Sacred Narrative of Liberation. Let us vow *never* to back to the Dark Ages when Family was what Tradition and Revelation declared it to be! Let us press forward until consent between creatures with a pulse is the only criterion by which any act is judged to be be good. (And let us search and try our ways and turn again to the Zeitgeist lest, in limiting the gratification of our appetites to "creatures with a pulse" we impose our religiously intolerant dogmas on those who feel a need for fulfilling relationships with inanimate objects, creatures without a cardiovascular system, or ontologically challenged persons who, failing to find love in this life, now have someone to love them in death).

Oh, and let us not think too much as we juxtapose the Glories of Teen Gay Sex with the Sui Generis Awfulness of Teen Gay Sex with Priests. The latter has absolutely nothing to do with our culture's enthusiastic and tearful affirmations of the former.

By the way: Gotta love this:

The film ends with a kiss and the banner line: "And they lived happily ever after."

But in real life, in the glare of the public spotlight, Hall and his boyfriend J.P. ended their relationship 10 days after the big prom.

Not that this is agitprop or anything.

Gearhead Nun Profiled by Delightfully Naive Reporter

"You can exclaim 'Damn!' around Harney and she doesn't flinch." (Actual quote)

Maybe it's just my Noo Yawk Catholic mother-in-law and her refreshing combination of piety and earthiness which has gotten me used to such things, but the peculiar amazement of journo types when a nun is discovered to be human is always funny to me.

Too. Much. Stupidity.

Space curving. Reality bending. It's sucking all time, matter, and energy into a black hole of cretinism:

"Madonna and director Jamie King offer dazzling video images as Madonna performs - beautiful, disturbing, over-the-top, political, mystical, mysterious, religious. During 'Mother/Father' the Catholic images presented will wow even Mel Gibson - unless he objects to the lack of violence."

A Spine Grows in Worcester

Another Prominent Catholic Theologian Spouts Anti-American Agitprop and Fails to See All the Good That a Great Civilization Has Done

The Day After Tomorrow Garners Big Raves...

from Al Gore, Prince of Dorkness. Meanwhile an actual scientist is less than impressed:

How do I know so much about a movie that isn't out yet? I've seen the promos, and I've read and reviewed the book upon which it is based, The Coming Global Superstorm by Art Bell and Whitley Strieber. In Strieber's previous work, Communion, he explained that he was told of the Earth's upcoming apocalypse by aliens. And how this knowledge was communicated is much more the purview of an adult Web site than a family newspaper.

Apparently the Left has, in its ongoing folly, decided to seize on this film as being Something More than the Let's Destroy New York Again disaster flick it so obviously is. And (as happens in Hollywood) the makers of the film have seized on the apostate puritanical evangelistic fervor of the Left (which now proselytizes for Gaia as Puritans once proselytized for God) and used it as a free advertising bandwagon just as the Left has used the film as a free piece of agitprop for various Doomsday prophecies.

Whatever.

I have as much faith in the reality of this film as I had in Independence Day. I will not come away from it fretting about the Fate of the Earth. Instead, I will enjoy the sight of the destruction of New York (what's not to enjoy?) and cheer for the hero and smile when the geek solves the problem and gets the girl. It's just a movie. Moreover, it just a movie that takes Art Bell--ART BELL--seriously. That's all you need to know. It's the Da Vinci Code of meteorology. And since there's no blasphemy involved, just quack science, I can afford to laugh.

Westerners with an Irrational Prejudice Against the Supernatural Will Read This and Laugh

...which is why some editor stuck this story on the "Oddly Enough" page.

But, of course, a Catholic believes in the possibility of such phenomena as much as an animist or a Muslim. You don't call a sorcerer to deal with it, if it's real. But you also don't laugh it off. There are more things in heaven and earth than are dreamt of in J School, Horatio.

Whatzizface for President



We can't give you many specifics on him at this time. However, we *do* hear repeated reports that he served in Vietnam. Beyond that, he's a mystery.

Men in Clean White Lab Coats With a Sterling Dedication to the Selfless Pursuit of Scientific Truth...

...are actually quite rare. Most Big Science tends to be thoroughly leavened with ego and obsession with power. Science, you see, is done by humans and humans are fallen, even when you stick them in a lab coat.

What are they putting in the bishops' water these days?

There seems to be an unprecedented number of vertebrae growing all of a sudden.

Nice to see.

Bronson Havard Just Continues to Impress His Readers

Not as slippery as the Chancery Rat from LA, but still quite slick.

It turns out not all Palestinians are Islamists

Some (a dwindling number) are Christians who are acceptable collateral damage.

My URL

For some reason, Blogger is wigging out if you try to log on to my site at www.markshea.blogspot.com. Instead, you have to log on at markshea.blogspot.com. Why? Who knows?

Pass it on.

(Of course, if you are reading this, you've already logged on at the correct URL. It's sort of like dictionaries. You have to know how to spell the word in order to look up the word you want to spell.)

The President's Speech

Didn't see it or hear it due to crushing workload. A very cursory scan of the blogosphere reveals mild happiness over at NRO and a "B+" from Sullivan. So I'm wondering how Peoria and Wenatchee and Dubuque and the great mushy middle that is not committed body and soul to the War received it.

I've got more crushing work tomorrow, so use this box to report on what Everybody Else is saying about the speech and, of course, to register your reaction if you heard or saw it.

(By the way, how did the makeup guys do covering up the major case of Road Rash on W's chin? Old Theater Major here. My first thought when I saw the pictures was, "Yikes! He's gotta give a speech tonight! Can they cover that nasty scrape on his face enough so it doesn't distract everybody?") Okay, it's not a deep thought, but it did cross my mind. Remember my blog motto.

Much discussion here and following on St. Thomas' notions concerning happiness

The commenters are remarking on this thread. I never cease to be amazed at the swiftness with which folk on the Internet can glance at something St. Thomas has said, declare it gibberish or "ledgerdemain" and feel confident that they have exploded the Schoolman's silly notions. It just amazes me. It's like those letters I get from people informing me that, if I just *thought* for a second or two, I'd realize that I was worshipping statues and that's all wrong and so the Catholic faith is obviously bunk.

Here's the proposition being disputed:

Thomas argues that, believe it or not, everybody without any exception whatsoever, desires happiness. This includes the most evil people you can think of. Now, given a statement that startling, you'd think that somebody would bother to ask, "Why does Thomas say such a seemingly counter-intuitive thing, given all the suicides and people who seem to hate life, the universe, and everything?" But no. Nobody critical of St. Thomas does that in this thread. They just cite a couple of bits of anecdotal evidence that, by golly, sure make Thomas look stoopid to them. There. *That's* settled.

Nonetheless, for those who *are* interested, here is St. Thomas' actual argument.

Whether all men have the same last end?
Objection 1. It would seem that all men have not the same last end. For before all else the unchangeable good seems to be the last end of man. But some turn away from the unchangeable good, by sinning. Therefore all men have not the same last end.

Objection 2. Further, man's entire life is ruled according to his last end. If, therefore, all men had the same last end, they would not have various pursuits in life. Which is evidently false.

Objection 3. Further, the end is the term of action. But actions are of individuals. Now although men agree in their specific nature, yet they differ in things pertaining to individuals. Therefore all men have not the same last end.

On the contrary, Augustine says (De Trin. xiii, 3) that all men agree in desiring the last end, which is happiness.

I answer that, We can speak of the last end in two ways: first, considering only the aspect of last end; secondly, considering the thing in which the aspect of last end is realized. So, then, as to the aspect of last end, all agree in desiring the last end: since all desire the fulfilment of their perfection, and it is precisely this fulfilment in which the last end consists, as stated above (05). But as to the thing in which this aspect is realized, all men are not agreed as to their last end: since some desire riches as their consummate good; some, pleasure; others, something else. Thus to every taste the sweet is pleasant but to some, the sweetness of wine is most pleasant, to others, the sweetness of honey, or of something similar. Yet that sweet is absolutely the best of all pleasant things, in which he who has the best taste takes most pleasure. In like manner that good is most complete which the man with well disposed affections desires for his last end.

Reply to Objection 1. Those who sin turn from that in which their last end really consists: but they do not turn away from the intention of the last end, which intention they mistakenly seek in other things.

Reply to Objection 2. Various pursuits in life are found among men by reason of the various things in which men seek to find their last end.

Reply to Objection 3. Although actions are of individuals, yet their first principle of action is nature, which tends to one thing, as stated above

This seems to be me to be common sense. However, when you are busily engaged in a thread where the majority of contributors are confidently declaring that the silly Magisterium's teaching documents are the over-optimistic prattle of a few 60's "churchmen" singing "I'd like to Teach the World to Sing" then you aren't going to be very interested in the theology they draw on in formulating their thoughts. Instead of paying attention to the theology and thinking you might be able to learn something, you will instead engage in a political analysis that tends to view council documents, not as teaching instruments given to us with the protection of the Holy Spirit, but as dizzy political theorizing by clerics out of touch with reality who have nothing of significance to say.

The reason you will do this is that your *current* political necessities demand it. If the Church is right that all humans desire happiness that makes it... problematic... if you wish to cast your side as the Good Guys in a Manichaean struggle against Wholly Alien Creatures who mysteriously desire pure evil for its own sake. You will be resistant to the notion that the people you are fighting are humans, like us, who, like us, desire happiness, but in profoundly disordered ways which lead them to do evil. You will tend to dislike the Church's view as a "bleeding heart", "optimistic", "blind to original sin" view which does not go far enough in making the Evil Ones out to be as Fully Evil as they are. It "humanizes" them, makes them "sympathetic". It's "soft".

Better, then, to shout down the teaching of Holy Church as "idiotic nonsense" and "the worst, most banal, self-congratulatory tripe I have read outside UN declarations in my life". And if St. Thomas basically supports the Council's teaching that a) nothing God makes is intrinsically evil and b) human beings are incapable of not desiring happiness (which is the basis for the Church's *hope* (not "optimism") that there is a good, though badly fallen, human being there upon which grace may still build), well then, let's shout down Thomas too. All that medieval twaddle is "useless technicalism" and "ledgerdemain". These people for whom the Church hold out the hope of redemption are Bad Guys in whom the imago Dei has been completely and utterly destroyed, all the goodness of nature has completely vanished, and no toehold of goodnes of *any kind* remains for grace to build on. Never mind that this would imply that Christ did not and could not have died for them. The Church's "idiotic" expressions of redemptive hope get in the way of demonizing our enemies and so the Church must be ridiculed, not learned from.

When will the Magisterium learn that it is there to confirm us in our prejudices and a priori assumptions, not to make us think?

Now the Wedding Party Story is in the He said, She Said Phase

I dunno what's going on. One reader tells me I need more TV in my life. Oooookay.

A reader writes:

I wrote this letter to my family after they insisted I read The DaVinci Code. The book changed my life totally, as you can see.

Dear Family,

I have now finally read The DaVinci Code, and I gave it to Mike, and he read it, too. We both liked it a lot, and it made us think, and we both like to think, just like all of you. This book has changed how we think about everything.

Due to the consistent way we like to live our lives, Mike and I are pleased to tell all of you (who have read and enjoyed this book, we are aware, too) that we can no longer remain under the yolk of a false and wrong church. The fact that all of the information in DaVinci Code was hidden from us all these years helps to make up our minds. We could not possibly remain in such a church.

We are currently searching for a new church. Have any of you found a church which worships the Sacred Feminine, such as described in DaVinci? Or are we supposed to just kind of make up our own form of worship? We aren’t sure how to proceed, and hoped, since you all read this book way before we did, that you might have some answers for us.

We’re so glad we can now join in on the family conversations about this book, and all of the truths it so stunningly reveals. Thanks to all of you for introducing us to this new life in the Sacred Feminine.

Love,

Nancy & Mike (BTW, our new names are Magdalene and Dan, after the goddess Mary Magdalene, and the fact-revealing author of our new sacred text, The DaVinci Code, Dan Brown)

Not sure if I'll really send it to the family, might shock them too much!

I wouldn't send it as it currently stands because you haven't made it outrageous enough. People who are suckers enough to believe the DVC will be suckers enough to swallow your letter hook, line, and sinker and take you seriously.

Did he really do this?

I'm afraid so.

Agent 99, Hand Me the Surveillance Bagel

I always thought spies were supposed to be disguised as tennis bums.

Please help one of my readers...

...by taking this brief survey he is doing. Don't worry, he's not selling anything.

A reader writes:

Thought you (and your readers, possibly) might appreciate this story about an 11-year old boy (who died in 1998) in the life of an 18 year old from Michigan.

I work with the father who took this kid in with his own family. The whole thing still amazes me. I knew the boy who died back in 1998 as well. I hope to be half as courageous and full of faith as he was when faced with the end.

One final odd note of synchronicity: My birthday is August 5, FWIW.

When Kennedys Attack

Just what we need: Kennedys doing theology.

The problem with Abu Ghraib?

The torture wasn't wrong. It just wasn't done professionally. Actually, we need *more* torture!

Alan Dershowitz, having done so much for American culture defending Clinton, now continues to make his contribution to the coarsening of our civilization by advocating for torture.

To any Catholic readers tempted to say, "Gee, he's got a point! Torture's not so bad!" Please be sure to exempt yourself from communion, since torture is as gravely contrary to the moral law as abortion. And if you've been preaching to Kerry in your heart about his need to stop receiving communion because of his contempt for Church teaching on abortion while you yourself have been toying with the the Dershowitzification of American culture and holding the Church's teaching on torture in similar contemt, please contemplate this passage of Scripture:

Therefore you have no excuse, O man, whoever you are, when you judge another; for in passing judgment upon him you condemn yourself, because you, the judge, are doing the very same things. 2 We know that the judgment of God rightly falls upon those who do such things. 3 Do you suppose, O man, that when you judge those who do such things and yet do them yourself, you will escape the judgment of God? (Rom 2:1-4)

Then get yourself to confession. Jesus has stern words for hypocrites, but mercy for the contrite.

Stimulus

Response (courtesy of a reader):

To the Editor:

So artist Andrea Fraser is going to make a video showing a customer, er, collector having sex with her for $20,000 (Rush and Molloy, May 24). It sounds like she's making herself a high-priced hooker. If she gets away with that, every streetwalker in New York will call herself a "sidewalk artist".

Sincerely,

Zoot Alors! Come away wiz me, mon cher, to France!

Zis Septembre, Fathair Rub Johansen and ah weel be leading a peelgreemaj to France! You can be a pairt of eet bah cleecking here for ze details!

American Voters Spot Dislikable Snob

Why can't Kerry get traction? Because he's just flat somebody it's hard to like. Barring a major catastrophe, I predict he's toast.

Bishop Olmstead Does the Right Thing

A reader sends this along:

Media Update

The headline in the Arizona Republic (5/21/04), "Bishops won't link politics, Communion" misrepresents my position. Abortion is the killing of a completely innocent life and thus bad news for both unborn children and their mothers. It is a horrible wrong. It is intrinsically evil. We have a serious obligation to protect human life, and especially the most innocent and vulnerable. Whoever fails to do this, especially when they are able to do so, commit serious sins of omission. They jeopardize their own spiritual wellbeing and they are a source of scandal for others. Should they be Catholics, they should not receive Holy Communion.

No one who is conscious of having committed a serious sin should receive Holy Communion. For the Eucharist is the very Body and Blood of Jesus Christ, our most precious gift in the Church. And St. Paul warns us (I Cor 11:27-29): "Whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord unworthily will have to answer for the body and blood of the Lord. A person should examine himself, and so eat the bread and drink the cup. For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body, eats and drinks judgment on himself."

I call upon all Catholics, especially those in public life, to examine their consciences, and to refrain from receiving Holy Communion if they are unambiguously pro-abortion. As a bishop, I shall continue to pray for an end to abortion and other sins against life; I shall stand up for the life and dignity of every human person and I urge all people of good will to do the same. Should some Catholic politicians who are presently pro-abortion obstinately persist in this contradiction to our faith, this becomes a source of scandal and measures beyond those of moral persuasion would be needed. As God tells us in the Book of Leviticus (19:16), "You shall not stand by idly when your neighbor's life is at stake."

Bishop Thomas J. Olmsted
Diocese of Phoenix

And with that, I'm outta here

See you Tuesday!

You are the head of a great people who have done much good in the world

Some of your troops have committed grotesque abuses. Now the press seems to only want to talk, 24/7, about the grotesque sodomistic abuses committed by the relatively small number of troops while completely ignoring a) the far greater evil which your people are still struggling to oppose, and b) the many great good things your people still do for the world. Every discussion of any other topic is carefully minimized. Every old wound has its scab picked. If you try to form alliances to get something done, you are faulted for forming alliances with the wrong people. If you form no alliances, you are faulted for being too idealistic and trying to run the show yourself. Every failure by members of your army is emphasized as "typical". Every success is downplayed. When your generals do nothing, they are faulted for doing nothing. When they act, they are faulted for not doing enough. When you enunciate your principles, you are condemned as a hypocrite because your people have failed to live by them. When you try to act on your principles, you are condemned for not working miracles on finite resources. And over and over again, the abuse of those in the charge of your troops is flung in your face as the sole thing that defines you and your people, over and over and over again.

What should you, the Pope, do?

Ideologue Hijacks Graduation Ceremony

Look. There's a time and a place for airing your views on politics. Somebody else's Big Day is not that time and place. I'm with the students in the stands, booing Doctorow.

This is not one of those fake spamograms

This is a letter from the sister of a guy I know. I won't give his name, but he's a father in our Cub Scout group, and has a sister who is expecting an ancephalic baby. Attached is an email from her describing why they are not aborting. I think it's a remarkably lovely pro-life writing. It was sent to a long list of people, so I thought I'd forward it further.

From: Teresa
Subject: Update on Charlotte Date: Thu, 20 May 2004 17:05:15 +1000 (EST)

Thankyou for your prayers! Charlotte will be delivered by cesarean section on the 21st of June. She is doing well, although I have placenta previa and have been having some bleeding. I pray that I won't be kept in hospital until June - I have just spent one night in hospital, but thankfully they let me go home when the bleeding had stopped for 24 hours. The following is a little essay I wrote which I thought you might be interested in. God bless, Teresa Streckfuss (carrying Charlotte, 33 weeks)

Why carry a dying child? A mother's perspective.

Many of you may have wondered, "What's the point?"... or perhaps pitied us for 'having' to continue carrying a child who is not going to live for long... I understand these thoughts, because when my sister was carrying Thomas Walter (who had been diagnosed with anencephaly at 18 weeks and lived for 17 ½ hours after birth) I really didn't properly comprehend the whole situation. I knew it was the 'right' thing to do. I didn't question that I would have no other option if the same thing ever happened to me (although I knew it never would!) But I thought how awful it was to know for over four months that the child you are carrying is unable to live outside your womb.

Once he was born, I was able to hold my nephew and see him finally as a real person - a precious unique creation - I began to realise that there was a lot more to it than mere 'ethics'. When, much to my disbelief, my own baby, Benedict, was diagnosed with this same condition four years later - I was finally able to grasp it, although it has taken me a long time to be able to put my thoughts into words. It is only since Charlotte's diagnosis that I have found words that almost convey my feelings.

Some people think we carried Benedict and Charlotte to term because we don't agree with abortion, because we are Catholic, or perhaps because our nephew was carried to term after a fatal diagnosis. While these factors probably all played a part in our immediate refusal of the option to 'terminate', this is not what it's all about! It's about love! It's about my baby! It's not about some tragic, fatal medical condition - it's about my child. We do not possess more strength than other people. It's not because we can cope where others wouldn't. There is no way to avoid the sad fact that she cannot live long after birth with this condition, but causing Charlotte to die earlier will not stop this happening. Causing her to die earlier will only take from us the beautiful experience of knowing and loving her.

The tragedy is not the fact that we know our baby will die. The tragedy is that our baby will die. It is not nice to know for months beforehand, but it gives us a chance to appreciate a life so brief, and not to miss a moment.

The value of Thomas Walter, Benedict and Charlotte cannot be measured by the length of their lives - we don't apply this yardstick to adults, so why should we to babies? A baby is not a possession, an accessory to acquire. A baby is a gift, a new entity, a precious, individual soul loved by God. We are created for a purpose, there is a reason for our being here. Even if that reason is unclear to us most of the time, we are constantly affecting other people in our families, communities etc. Who knows what purpose can be fulfilled in 9 months and one day? I don't know, but God does. I do know that Benedict left a lasting impression on our family, he made us slow down, savour life, and treasure our other children even more. He made us realise that we cannot control or predict what will happen in the future, he made us rely on God. And how often are we given the opportunity to really give another person true unconditional love? Love that truly expects no return? It is a blessing to experience that kind of pure love!

So don't pity us for carrying a child we know will die. Carrying this beautiful person is an honour. Grieve for the fact that our baby will die. We wouldn't wish away the time we had with Benedict, and also this time we are now experiencing with Charlotte, just to save us the pain of losing them. I've always thought of it like this; if your 3 year old was diagnosed with untreatable, fatal cancer and had only 4 months to live; would you prefer the doctor kill your child straight away so that you didn't have to >wait for his/her impending death? Or would you prefer to spend as much time as you could with your child and love him/her for as long as you had left?

Someone asked us after Benedict died, "Was it worth it?" Oh, YES! For the chance to hold him, and see him, and love him before letting him go... For the chance for our children to see that we would never stop loving them, regardless of their imperfections? For the chance to give him everything we could? Oh, YES! Love your children, and remember that they each have their own unique mission. Children are always and only a blessing from God - even if they don't stay very long...

"I have my mission"

by Cardinal Newman

God has created me to do him some definite service. He has committed some work to me which He has not committed to another. I have my mission - I may never know it in this life, but I shall be told it in the next.

I am a link in a chain, a bond of connection between persons. He has not created me for naught. I shall do good. I shall do His work. I shall be an angel of peace, a preacher of truth in my own place while not intending it - if I do but keep His commandments.

Therefore I will trust in Him. Whatever, wherever I am. I can never be thrown away. If I am in sickness, my sickness may serve Him; in perplexity, my perplexity may serve Him; if I am in sorrow, my sorrow may serve Him. He does nothing in vain. He knows what He is about. He may take away my friends. He may throw me among strangers. He may make me feel desolate, make my spirits sink, hide my future from me - still He knows what he is about.

God bless her--and her *entire* family.

Grateful Iraq to America: Thanks. Get lost.

"Al-Sistani believes in getting rid of the Americans using peaceful methods. Moqtada al-Sadr believes in violence. The methods are different but the goals are the same. We are all united in this aim."

One wonders who he means when he says "we are all".

Episcopalian Episcopal Spine Alert

Warning: Amy Welborn May be Harmful or Fatal to Illiterate Boobs. If you are an Illiterate Boob, Please Exercise Extreme Caution Before Writing a Stupid Note to Her in a Superior Tone of Voice

Looks like it really was a wedding party

What a tragic mistake.

"Communism rapes...

Capitalism seduces." - Fulton Sheen

I'm sure there will be readers eager to defend this system, as there are readers eager to defend Wal-Mart grotesque depredations on the poor of the Third World. I think this is every bit as obscene and exploitive as a kiddie porn film.

Juli Loesch Wiley writes:

THE FABLE OF THE CATS

Once upon a time, in a land quite different from our own, there were those who followed an ancient "spiritual way." Among other things, they considered cats to be sacred. The "Cattadocians," convinced that cats have a spirit nature transcending mere physical existence, sincerely held that every feline has a right to care and nurture. The believers were very kind to all of them: manx, calico, siamese. They brought strays in and gave them an honored position in their households. They taught their children to treat them in an affectionate and cherishing way. And they truly grieved whenever a cat, in the course of things, died a natural death.

One day a person arrived on the scene who had no "sacred" regard for felines at all. Even worse, he supported a scheme to snuff out cats-- and not just a few: he wanted to authorize the crushing of huge numbers of kittens, effective immediately.

Yet this cat-disdainer wanted to join the devout Cattadocians! Why? In order to gain --- he imagined--- some sort of religious benefit. With no real devotion to the tenets of their faith, he demanded to participate in the most sacred rites of the believers. Some of them, sincerely shocked, began to object, seeing his participation as "sacrilegious."

But he acted affronted. He loudly insisted that he had a right to insert himself into the deepest rituals of the temple. And when the believers begged him, with tears, to renounce cat-killing, he called them a bunch of stuck-up meanies.

The infamy of his cat-killing spread. Soon everyone knew that he
considered it OK slice off their fur, dismember them, cut off their heads. At the same time, he frequented the ceremonies of the Cattadocian faith, blowing a trumpet before him, helping himself to their sacred meals, ignoring the suffering of the cats and the pain and anguish of the devoted Cattadocians.

A fable. A tale for children, nothing more.

But even so, ask your children, for even they would know: who's the stuck-up meanie here?

The Great Enema: Now Morphing into the Great Disembowelment

Hats off to the Spokane episcopacy! Memorable work! You may be the first diocese to go bankrupt.

You won't be the last.

If only teachers could marry! If only women could be teachers! None of this would have happened!

Fr. Bryce Sibley Unleashes the Power of the Pulpit!

Way to go!

Teen Writes to Corporate Exploiters

She's *tried* to get interested in becoming a slave of a few rich men who want to turn her into an acquisitive empty-headed tart running blindly after Britney Spears, but she's just not able to shake the common sense and intelligence her parents gave her.

Five'll get you ten she's home-schooled.

In Vitro Fertilization: What Could it Possibly Hurt?

Besides, people have a *right* to have children, no matter what!

"Social Progress" takes One Step Forward, Two Steps Back

The "What's so bad about sex with children?" Cabal for Social Advancement tries it on.

However, it doesn't fly in Rotorua among the hoi polloi (yet) so after wavering, they back off.

For now.

Interesting Interview with Cardinal Stafford

I'd be interested in seeing a response from George Weigel.

Episcopal Spine Alert

A few months ago I talked about what it means when the Chattering Classes Invoke the word "Taboo"

And now, as if to oblige me, a pointy-headed academic asks "What's so bad about incest?", and an empty-headed journalist describes this as Higher Thought seeking to liberate us from a "taboo".

The Gay Marriage Battle being won, the culture of perversity naturally continues to expand the demand for greater and greater sexual license. And each demand will insist that to limit *this* expression of perversity will be to endanger all previous (and now culturally enshrined) expressions of perversity.

Thus does sin continue to corrode our souls.

Nationally Broadcast Cruelty

It would be one thing if these people were not unsuspecting. As it is, every SOB involved in the production of this vicious, ugly practical joke should be forced to sit naked before a camera while childhood acquaintances regale a laughing audience with stories of their worst childhood humiliations and make fun of any anatomical defects or inadequacies they suffer. Maybe then they would learn how they are going to make these poor saps feel.

Next up: Torturing Helpless Animals for Laffs

The Pay Per View Gladiatorial Arena gets closer each day.

Kill your damn television!

Get a Cup of Coffee and Go Read Secret Agent Man

The Porterhouse Steak of the Blogosphere

Can't decide

Should I file this under "I hate being right all the time" or "Show me a culture that despises virginity and I'll show you a culture that despises children"?

Why the Nazis Continue to Fascinate

I think the answers here are very complex and Elshtain does a good survey of why the Nazis grip our imaginations more than Stalin and his murdering hordes do.

Broadly speaking, I think several factors are at work.

1) The Nazis lost. Stalin was our "gallant ally". His crimes never got the press.

2) The Nazis produced a compelling (and profoundly perverted) aesthetic. Or, in other words, there is no Soviet "Triumph of the Will". When we think of Nazis, there are all sorts of visuals to go with the thought. When we think of Soviets, we think of statistics about crop failures and gulag populations and a few May Days in Red Square with tired fat old bureaucrats saluting drably dressed troops and big hunks of artillery. The Soviet badly needed a Queer Eye for the Totalitarian Guy makeover.

3) Race matters to us Americans more than class. Murder millions for an economic or class theory and we feel bad, but it does not tug at our sense of racial guilt (a hangover from the Civil War, I suspect) as much as murdering millions for race. So I suspect there's a "There but for the grace of God go I" component that makes us look at Hitler the same way some people can't resist looking over the edge of a cliff.

There are lots of other factors too (ably discussed by Elshtain), but I think those are important ones too.

I keep hearing about the "Day After Tomorrow" flick

...made by the same guys that gave us "Godzilla", "Stargate" and "Independence Day".

It will have

a) the gigantic overwhelming threat (big lizard, evil aliens, bad weather)
b) the all-American paramilitary guy (Kurt Russell, Will Smith)
c) the geeky science guy who no girl would date in college (Jeff Goldblum, Matthew Broderick)
d) the beautiful Babe (forget the names)

Combining their resources they will struggle against the threat until the geeky science guy has the epiphany by which some simple method is found to solve the problem. A big speech will be given by the paramilitary guy. Lots of things will blow up. All will be well. The Geek will improbably get the Babe.

People are now talking about this film as though its Socially Significant Cinema?

What's the *matter* with people?

One of the Last Respectable Democrats Speaks out Against House Dem Extortion Note to Cardinal

Terry McAuliffe responds: "Flynn crawsses me and he sleeps wid da fishes!"

The Left Get in Touch with its Core Constituency

The Party of Clinton: Capable of Magically Transforming Larry Flynt into a "Journalist"

As we all know, the Constitution Guarantees that Nobody who Has Ever Worked in a Christian Ministry has a Right to Open their Mouth about Any Subject Whatsoever in a School Setting

The Left's noble struggle for the separation of Christianity and Life continues.

Chilean Mayor Defies Health Ministry over Distribution of Morning-After Pill

Canadian Soft Fascism on the March!

What's the synonym for "thesaurus"?

US to Islamic Mushy Middle

We are the Way, the Truth, and the Life. The enormous wealth and popularity of this woman is not a reflection of our culture at all. Trust us.

That, in essence, is the bill of goods we are trying to sell to pious Muslims. I am skeptical it will fly, Orville.

Front Page Continues Publishing Public and Unrepentant Advocate of Nuclear Annihilation of Tehran, Tripoli, Mecca, Medina, and Damascus

What does it matter so long as he furthers the agenda?

I wonder if they'd publish David Duke so long as he sounded the right ideological notes?

What in blazes is the bishop of Fatima thinking?

I gotta get outta here

I've got work to do and I'm meeting my boss, Tom Allen, for lunch in a while. (We had dinner--he, his wife Sue, and I--last night here in Seattle. It was a jolly time at the faboo Metropolitan Grill, where we munched on Porterhouse steak and toasted each other on the fact that... ahem...

A Guide to Passion has sold ONE MILLION FREAKIN' COPIES AS OF YESTERDAY WITH NO LETUP IN SIGHT YET!!!!Translations in seven languages (including Arabic) going strong!!! We're taking over the WORLD!!!!!! High fives!!!!!! Thank you Jesus!!!!! WOOOOOOOO HOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!! [Insert Howard Dean scream here]

erm. Well. Anyway, as I was saying... I'm getting together with Tom for lunch today too and so have to be off.

However, before I go I thought y'all might be able to help a reader out. He writes:

We have 4 children, the oldest one a sophomore in high school. Important decisions are on their way down the tracks toward us. I have several questions:
1. What are a number of quality private Catholic colleges?
2. What public universities have a good Catholic environment, subculture or student organization?
3. What are some of the diagnostics we should use in assessing these schools, particularly the public universities?
4. I'm aware of the Cardinal Newman Society as a resource for identifying Catholic orthodoxy on campus. Are there other similar groups that can be consulted for their input on this question?
5. Is the presence of a Newman Center on campus a reliable indicator of orthodoxy?

Yoo hoo! Tom Harmon! Where *are* you?

Hastert Campaigns As Chief Moron of Stupid Party

Rod Dreher has his number.

Very Good News from Fallujah

I'm very happy to hear it!

St. Blog's Receives the Blessing of a Higher Power

Greeley Calls for Steel Cage Death Match Between Review Board and Cardinals

"You must obey men rather than God" - Acts 5:29, Revised American Media Version