toleration is not enough YOU must approve

Adrian Smith, a Christian, was found guilty of gross misconduct by his publicly funded housing association for saying that allowing gay weddings in churches was ‘an equality too far’.

He posted the comment in his own time, on his personal page on the Facebook website, which could not be read by the general public.

OH WHAT A TANGLED WEB WE WEAVE

You may remember this case where the parents decided that the birth of their child was a horrible mistake and somebody had to pay. Well someone did.

Now coming before the supreme court is an interesting case where a woman went through in vitro and conceived a child after the father had died .

She now wants Social Security survivor's benefits. Now if the Court finds in her favor (and there is no reason to think they won’t), what about all those other children that entered the world through artificial means? One strong donor has conceived 100 plus children through this oh so romantic method.

If the court does rule in favor of this women when that donor dies will all those children be receiving SS checks?

I am so glad that redefining marriage and family has no ill effect on society.

NO LONGER AFRAID. NO LONGER SILENT.

AN EXCELLENT HOMILY

Robert R. Reilly presents a well crafted, logical and well reasoned argument with 'A Weimar moment for America'. It is precisely because of that this article will be ignored at best, illicit death threats at worst. Every knows that quoting Aristotle, (“Men start revolutionary changes for reasons connected with their private lives.” ) and Plato in the same essay will be immediately dismissed as hopelessly out of touch.

It is almost as bad as quoting Chesterton.

Screwtape would be proud

From the 'sin makes you stupid' dept. I heard Soraya Chemaly on the radio the other day talking about her article titled "I'm No Longer a Catholic. Why Are You?" It was so utterly inane I started yelling at the radio. The only way anyone could be as wrong as her on so many points would be that she has spent NO time studying and less time thinking.

She honesty believes this:

"At its core, this debate is about control. And not just birth control. Either you are willing to support and participate in a culture in which men, refusing to accept women as fully human, use a perverted claim of divine right to control women and their bodies, or you don't."

And in keeping with the 'Keep your rosaries off my ovaries.' song book they now have "I will start paying more attention to the bishops' position on birth control on the day a Catholic bishop becomes pregnant." not as catchy but they are working on it.

She is making progress towards the rank of journeyman deceiver

And There Goes Maryland

Maryland Gov. signs bill making same sex marriage okaydoky.

"Religious freedom is the very reason for our state's founding, and at the heart of religious freedom is the freedom of individual conscience," said Gov. O'Mally.

The Governor's statement changes everything. He has now equated same sex marriage with the practice of religious freedom. I am not sure if he is referring to Spreadleggyism or Itsallaboutmeism but i am sure that now

Individual conscience is a good thing when choosing evil but a bad thing when choosing good. Oh how gay it all is!

"...In the book Heretics, Chesterton almost makes a prophecy of the misuse of the word “gay”: He writes of “the very powerful and very desolate philosophy of Oscar Wilde. It is the carpe diem religion; but the carpe diem religion is not the religion of happy people, but of very unhappy people.”

In further discussion of Oscar Wilde and the “decadents,” Chesterton says, again prophetically: “Decadents may like living in a dream which they can alter at any moment to suit themselves, in which they can create causes without creating consequences, in which they can pervert the future or unmake the past. But I think a decent working man of any class, whether he is working at cube roots or cabbage roots, ought to be glad that, as he sows, so shall he surely reap.”

Read Dale’s article Chesterton And The Defense Of Marriage here

The Pelvic Left

"A Georgetown co-ed told Rep. Nancy Pelosi’s hearing that the women in her law school program are having so much sex that they’re going broke, so you and I should pay for their birth control."

"Forty percent of the female students at Georgetown Law reported to us that they struggled financially as a result of this policy (Georgetown student insurance not covering contraception), Fluke reported.

It costs a female student $3,000 to have protected sex over the course of her three-year stint in law school, according to her calculations.

I think most of us could easily do 30 minutes of stand-up on this but i have a few questions.

First being, how did Pelosi find this women, what kind of surveys were used to find going broke, sex crazed law students? They probably got the tip from Bill Clinton who graduated from Georgetown.

The second question is what kind of contraception is she using? The pill costs from $15.00 to $50.00 a month so that is at maximum $600.00 a year. If she is using condoms at $1.00 each she would have to have sex 5 times a day (more on weekends) to equal $1000.00 a year.

When does she have time go to class?

When you listen to her you get the feeling that the the lack of coverage for contraception is the new black plague that is sweeping the country.

Sandra Fluke Opening Statement

- Watch more Videos at Vodpod.

A Gilbert Moment

The fifth grader I am tutoring is reading, Jeremy Thatcher, Dragon Hatcher by Bruce Coville.

The dedication reads:

"For Jane.

Believing in dragons is easy. Jane believes in people - an act of love that takes considerably more imagination."

I thought that was a very Chestertonian thing to say.

Another sign the Apocalypse is upon us.

I can sometimes understand the campaing for Responsible Drinking from those who do not understand what drinking is about or from those who don't drink in their own neighborhood,- "...It is quite a mistake to suppose that, when a man desires an alcoholic drink, he necessarily desires alcohol." GKC

BUT RESPONSIBLE SNAKING?!?!

This is what Mars is saying and with a straight face no less:

Responsible snacking

To offer consumer more choice we developed Mars RED. Mars RED is a viable great tasting option for consumers looking for a lower fat treat (Mars RED is 50% less fat than the average leading chocolate bar brands).

King Size is made two pieces - one for now and one for later.

We’re developing packaging to encourage chocolate lovers to snack wisely.

This initiative is being strongly opposed by the American Federation of Fourth Graders. “First we get Happy Meals with apple slices and now you’re making our candy smaller?”

Said my daughter, the local AFFG chairperson, “There’s something wrong with you people! There’s something wrong with your whole fascist machine!”

Once again they confuse reasonable with responsible.

For those of you who thought the bishops would be snookered again or that they might back down on their fight with the current occupant:

A letter from Archbishop Schnurr: response to Obama’s mandate ‘accommodation’

February 13, 2012

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

Despite the so-called “accommodation” announced by President Obama on Friday, the mandates from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services regarding insurance coverage for abortion-inducing drugs, sterilization, and contraception still do not adequately and clearly protect the freedom of conscience of employers and their employees.

Although the announcement claims now to exempt religious employers by placing the onus of coverage for these services on insurers, many of the details remain unsettlingly murky. For instance, many religious organizations – including the Archdiocese of Cincinnati and its agencies – are self-insured, which apparently means that they would still have to pay for services they find immoral. (emphasis added) Secondly, it is unclear how insurers can be forced to cover these services for “free” while not passing on the cost to the insured. This could still violate the conscience rights of many employees who do not want to be forced to provide objectionable services for others, such as through their premium payments.

The Catholic Church, along with many other religious leaders, is reiterating its firm position that the freedom to follow one’s conscience and to have access to health care are both fundamental human rights. We will not be forced into a position of choosing between the two. We are open to conversation and dialogue with the Administration to find solutions. However, one course of action which would provide a permanent resolution would be the passage of the Respect for Rights of Conscience Act (HR 1179 and S 1467). We renew our call for people of faith to stand up for religious liberty and urge Congress to pass this comprehensive legislation.

CALL TO ACTION: Contact your U.S. Representative and Senators by e-mail, phone, or FAX letter:

Call the U.S. Capitol Switchboard at (202) 224-3121, or call your Members’ local offices.

Send your email to Congress through www.usccb.org/conscience.

Additional contact information can be found on Members’ web sites at www.house.gov and www.senate.gov.

MESSAGE: “Please co-sponsor the Respect for Rights of Conscience Act (H.R. 1179, S. 1467) and help enact it into law. The Obama Administration’s decision to require even religious institutions to provide coverage of sterilization and contraceptives, including drugs that can cause an abortion, makes passage of this measure especially urgent. Please ensure that the rights of conscience of all participants in our nation’s health care system are respected.”

Sincerely yours in Christ,

Most Reverend Dennis M. Schnurr

Notre Dame finally sees the Long Con

When Obama received his honorary degree at Notre Dame's May 17, 2009, commencement, he vowed to respect the conscience rights of those who believe abortion is wrong.

“Let's honor the conscience of those who disagree with abortion, and draft a sensible conscience clause, and make sure that all of our health care policies are grounded not only in sound science, but also in clear ethics, as well as respect for the equality of women,” said Obama. “Those are things we can do.”

Oh How they loved him then. "See," they said, "he ain't so bad."

In responce to his recent power play the faculty now says: “This is a grave violation of religious freedom and cannot stand. It is an insult to the intelligence of Catholics, Protestants, Eastern Orthodox Christians, Jews, Muslims, and other people of faith and conscience to imagine that they will accept an assault on their religious liberty if only it is covered up by a cheap accounting trick.”

Just keep swimming. Just keep swimming.

Why They Hate Us So.

The Current Resident seems to have backed down on his insistance that Catholic groups provide contraception and abortion service free of charge in their health insurance. He is now saying that the insurance companies will have to pay for it. So if a Church provides insurance to its employees in a policy from X company than X company HAS TO provide this coverage. He still gets what he wants.

Obama's new plan is analogous to having a father take $50 out of his wallet and put it in his wife's purse to pay for their son to attend a rap concert he doesn't want junior to attend.

NOW HERE THIS: The current resident has no Constitutional authority to mandate that Churches do anything! So now he looks like he is respectful of the Churches concerns with this compromise BUT he has no constitutional authority to mandate that insurance companies provide a service at a price he dictates.

As many hail this compromise we lose sight of the fact that he is acting outside the powers of the president and that day by day we lose bits of our freedoms. Which is what he wants any way. As my football coach used to say. "By the yard its hard. By the inch its a cinch."

Please understand if he gets away with overstepping in this there is no reason he can't over step where ever he wants when ever he wants.

It looks like he is retreating from his attack on the Catholic Church but he will be back because as Father Barron stated the great enemy to liberal totalitarians is the Catholic Church.

Happy Birthday Chuck

We are celebrating this today in no small part of what Uncle Gilbert did with his book Charles Dickens: A Critical Study (1906).

A very awkward sentence indeed.

Wrong Again White Boy

What was I thinking?!?

The Susan G. Komen for the Cure Foundation apologized for cutting off funding from Planned Parenthood.

Yes that's right APOLOGIZED.

"Screw the facts, the statistics, and screw the body count. We are sorry. Please continue to send your money don't worry about how we spend it. And we really need to be loved by Mayor Bloomberg and his friends. Really we won't make the mistake of being right again."

and the walls begin to crumble

And so it begins: The Komen Foundation no longer is sending money to Planned Parenthood. Of course they are not doing this because of the documented connection between breast cancer and abortion or that PP does not provide mammograms, which Komen admits, but because PP is under investagation for financial misconduct. (Shocked I say Shocked!)

A spokeswoman for the the Komen Foundation, Leslie Aun, explained that the cutoff was a result of the charity's newly-adopted criteria barring grants to organizations that are under investigation by local, state, or federal authorities.

They need that rule because common sense is too diiiiiiifficult to understand.

the March

Those in the red caps is our group

It’s been said that the reason the Government Media Complex does not cover the March for Life is that, “Since it happens each year it is not news.” I would like purpose that since it does happen every year makes it news.” and here is another good reason why they stay away. Also the numbers that go is growing. Last year it was estimated that 400,000 people were there this year they are saying it is close to a half million. I don't know if that is true but I do know that we filled our bus this year and when we tried to take a break at a truck stop outside of DC we were told that there was no room for our bus. None of that has happened before.

I took my youth group to The March for Life in DC again this year. Yes it rained, it was cold, and we were tired from the red eye bus trip, but they knew why they were there why they had to be there. A couple of my kids smiled when one of the politicians said, "If only we had a republican president and control over both houses we could end this!" These kids knew the history. We had that and still nothing was done. Most of the Marchers know that the ruling class has no intention of seriously battling Planned Parenthood, NARAL and the like, they are learning what Chesterton meant when he said “....Hope means hoping when everything seems hopeless.” It is easy to feel discouraged and that the situation won't change. However many of us are encouraged. We can't expect someone else to do the heavy lifting for us anymore. Maybe this is an inadvertent positive change the current occupant gave us.

When he says stuff like this, “I remain committed to protecting a woman’s right to choose and this fundamental constitutional right.” we know he is full of crap.

New Year's

by Dana Gioia

Let other mornings honor the miraculous.

Eternity has festivals enough.

This is the feast of our mortality,

The most mundane and human holiday.

On other days we misinterpret time,

Pretending that we live the present moment.

But can this blur, this smudgy in-between,

This tiny fissure where the future drips

Into the past, this flyspeck we call now

Be our true habitat? The present is

The leaky palm of water that we skim

From the swift, silent river slipping by.

The new year always brings us what we want

Simply by bringing us along—to see

A calendar with every day uncrossed,

A field of snow without a single footprint.

A Chesterton Buffet

I was reading a recently published collection of the best Chesterton essays when I thought of a local Chinese restaurant.

I wasn't thinking of Chesterton's dining habits. Indeed, I have doubts that Chesterton ever ate what we think of as Chinese food - though I don't know that for certain. Maybe he did enjoy an egg roll or some chow mein at some point.

The restaurant in question serves meals, but the bulk of its business is its buffet. It has four rows of various Chinese and non-Chinese foods - pizza?? - with heated pans and heat lights. Most diners just grab plates and wander up and down the rows taking a little bit of this and a little bit of that, though there are always some individuals who grab a lot of this and a lot of that until their plates are piled so high one wonders how much of the food will actually make it to their tables.

Once while eating in this restaurant I began to reflect on differing styles of enjoying a buffet of this sort. I observed some people who would go to one row, fill their plates from that row only, and then head back to their seats to eat. When they finished their first plate they would then go back and load up from the second row, and so on, in order until they had visited each row. Did some of them methodically take a little bit of everything? Perhaps.

Then there are those who circulated among the rows, taking this from this row and that from that row. When they went back, they continued the pattern. Perhaps they had favorites and only ate those foods. Perhaps they were afraid to try new things. Or perhaps they were like me, vegetarians who avoid meat dishes.

Recalling this restaurant got me to musing about reading styles when approaching collections of any sort.

There are some people who seem to enjoy by sampling pieces in various sections of the book. Perhaps they seek out particular topics or writers, or maybe they just trust to luck and read whatever they come to that captures their interest.

There are some collections that lend themselves to this sort of sampling.

Then there are those people who methodically work their way through the collection from preface to index.

There are some collections that lend themselves to this approach.

Both methods have their pluses and minuses.

The sampling method ensures that one will enjoy what one reads for such readers tend to gravitate toward those things for which they already have an interest.

But in doing so, such readers might miss out on gems that just didn't happen to catch their attention.

The methodical readers take in everything the collection contains, good and bad, and thus might have a complete understanding of the organizing principle behind the collection, and along the way perhaps discover unknown treasures and nuggets of information they might otherwise never have encountered.

On the other hand, they might also run into a patch of less interesting pieces that might lead them to stop reading.

When it comes to Chesterton, either approach is acceptable. You can just plunge in and sample as the spirit moves you. Or you can work your way through from beginning to end, knowing that because it is Chesterton there won't be any less interesting pieces to get you questioning whether or not to go on.

When it comes to the restaurant - and many collections - I tend to be a sampler.

With this collection of Chesterton, I'm going the cover-to-cover route.

Either way works well when accompanied by a nice cup of tea.

Two books to enjoy

I've been busy with school work - and the sickness that now has me on antibiotics. But I did manage to squeeze in some good reading.

First up was Exiles, by Ron Hansen, and interesting account of Fr. Gerard Manley Hopkins and the five nuns that became the inspiration for his poem, "The Wreck of the Deutschland." I've always enjoyed historical "fiction," and this gave me some insights into his life. Good read.

I also just finished (while sitting in the doctor's waiting room) The Man Who Invented Christmas, by Les Standiford. It's an account of Dickens' writing A Christmas Carol, and the effects it had on his career and how the book helped to revive the celebration of Christmas. Also a good read - especially for fans of Dickens and Christmas (like me).

Two thumbs up.

Now, back to those Chesterton essays.

Christmas Books

Every Christmas, relatives and friends gift me with books.

Some of the books are ones I've indicated in not always subtle ways that I want. This year, for example there was one particular book (involving Chesterton, I might add) that I really wanted. When a catalog from a well-known Catholic publisher arrived, I searched through it until I found the title, folded the catalog open to the right page, circled the book several times, and sang some Christmas carols with an earnest smile.

I got that book.

Other times people give me books based upon my particular interests. Chesterton, St. Francis of Assisi, poetry, and Dickens are among the interests addressed this year.

Some people knowing my quirky sense of humor give me books they think I will find amusing. This year, a relative who moved to Utah, a state that, to be honest, has never been of the slightest interest to me, although I do like Marie Osmond's version of a Dada poem, sent me a book about Utah curiosities. I've already discovered one story in it about a woman who uses cow pies - yes, those "pies" - to make clocks, and picture and mirror frames.

A keeper.

The books end up either next to my bed in the pile of books to be read, or outside the "reading room."

This year's additions:

In Defense of Sanity: The Best Essays of G.K. Chesterton. Circles and Christmas Carols do work.

The Road to Assisi: The Essential Biography of St. Francis by Paul Sabatier. Chesterton's biography is the essential one, in my opinion, but this modern examination of his life looks like it has much to offer.

Surpassing Pleasure by John Slater. A contemporary Cistercian poet: I can't wait to test those verbal waters.

Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats by T. S. Eliot. I'd actually read many of these poems long ago and enjoyed them, so it's wonderful to have them before me again. Plus, it's nice to be reminded that Eliot didn't always write as if he had spiritual heartburn.

How to Do Everything (From the Man Who Should Know) by Red Green. Red Green is a Canadian comedian who is an acquired taste, and a taste that I acquired long ago.

The Man Who Invented Christmas by Les Standiford. A book that examines how Dickens helped to save Christmas from those who would downplay the celebration of it, and, in the process, apparently saved his own career. I've always loved Dickens and his Christmas tales, so this should be an intriguing read.

Utah Curiosities by Brandon Griggs. Cow pies. Need I say more?

Much reading to do.

Oh joy.