SB 1070: What Do I Think About It?

This has got to be the hot button topic of the day. Virtually everybody has an opinion on it, some informed and some not so informed. And there are some who are completely misinformed and are running on pure emotion or political posturing. I'm asked about this law a lot, so I am going to try and explain my views here.

As you may or may not know, I am a "third generation" American of Mexican extraction. I put that in quotes because my family was settled in California before it was the United States. I love my heritage and am proud to be what I am. My wife is Filipino and, like most of those who come here from foreign shores, her family worked hard and sacrificed to play by all the rules to come to this country. I was born and raised in California, but have lived happily in Arizona for the last fifteen years. I was in the military, so I've seen some of the world, and I'm now a fire code enforcement official, so I see a fairly wide spectrum of the community--the good, bad and the ugly.

Having said that, let me say this: Those who are against this law and do not live in Arizona need to step back and look at reality.

First of all, this law is NOT about racial profiling-- in fact, language within the law prohibits it. It simply is an enforcement of existing law. If I thought it was going to profile people with brown skin (including me) I would be against it.

Secondly, this law does not-- repeat does NOT-- give police the legal right to stop people whenever they feel like it just to ask their legal status. It does give them the right to ask about their legal status if the person is being lawfully detained for the commission of a crime AND does not possess common ID, like a drivers license. So if you don't commit crimes or get arrested and you have ID, no problem.

So let's stop with the mischaracterizing the law. Instead, lets look at some facts.

Fact: Illegal immigration (note the word 'illegal') is draining Arizona. The emergency room system here is collapsing, the state social welfare system that are meant for American citizens in need are over-burdened and are on the verge of being cut. The public school system is hemorrhaging red ink. Cops and regular citizens along the border are being threatened and killed by violent gangs. The law enforcement system is going broke because of both non-violent and violent crime committed by non-citizens.

Answer me this: Who's going to deal with this and pay for all this? People on the liberal coasts? Who is now paying the price in treasure and blood while the rest of the country wrings their hands and the POTUS makes jokes? What would you have Arizona do--allow itself to be drained of resources? Other than open the borders or grant blanket amnesty, what would you do? I have asked this question many times in many venues and have never received an answer-- only silence.

What about all the American kids in Arizona who can't get jobs because the entry-level jobs that traditionally go to young folks are going to cheap illegal immigrants? Who is dealing with this? Arizona and Arizonans, that's who! We are the Gondor of the US taking the brunt while everyone else sits safely in their ivory towers. If the Feds or no one else will help us, we will do it ourselves. If you have a better plan that you're willing to help pay for, let's hear it.

Finally, let's be clear on this: those self-anointed Latino 'leaders,' activists and celebrities that are now screaming "RACISM" over this law do NOT speak for me. They only speak for themselves and for those who are similarly misinformed, paranoid and politically motivated. I can speak for myself.

A Church's Parting Thought "Judas Left Early Too."

Parting thought--or parting shot?

A church's parting thought:
Pastor's sign is for those who leave Mass early

MOUNT CLEMENS [MI] – Some people still take off right after Communion at St. Peter Church, but not as many now that they have to walk under signs that read "Judas left early too."
Fr. Cooney says putting the signs up at each of the three exits was "a bit of Irish diplomacy" aimed at addressing a long-standing source of frustration for many Catholic priests: people who leave Mass early, rather than staying for the dismissal.

(Read entire story here.)

Dr. M.L. King’s neice: “The Dream Includes Us All, Born and Unborn”

The AmericanPapist notes:

Despite the attempts of abortion advocates like Planned Parenthood president Cecile Richards to claim that Dr. King was an abortion activist, those who bear his name and continue his cause have something very different to say:

Dr. Alveda King, Pastoral Associate of Priests for Life and niece of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., released the following comments today on the celebration of her Uncle’s life.

“Martin Luther King, Jr. spoke of a Beloved Community where all are treated with respect and dignity,” said Dr. King. ”He fought against society’s exclusion of people who were treated as less than human because of their appearance. Today, we are compelled to continue Uncle Martin’s fight by standing up for those who are treated as less than human because of their helplessness and inconvenience.

“The unborn are as much a part of the Beloved Community as are newborns, infants, teenagers, adults, and the elderly. Too many of us speak of tolerance and inclusion, yet refuse to tolerate or include the weakest and most innocent among us in the human family. As we celebrate the life of Uncle Martin, let us renew our hearts and commit our lives to treating each other, whatever our race, status, or stage of life, as we would want to be treated. Let us let each other live.”

Abortion remains a scourge of African Americans, who suffer a far-higher abortion rate. Planned Parenthood should strive to promote a culture where all human beings have an equal chance to live. That’s my dream, and Dr. King’s.

I wrote previously about this last point in my blog here. To me, it is THE Great Civil Rights Issue of our time, comparable to the abolition of slavery about 150 years ago. Arizona Congressman Trent Franks also has something to say about this, as well as some proposed legislation. See the story here.

I like to remind people that it was one of my heroes, President Ronald Reagan, who signed into law the holiday honoring Dr. King. Here are his concluding words on that day:

Now our nation has decided to honor Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., by setting aside a day each year to remember him and the just cause he stood for. We've made historic strides since Rosa Parks refused to go to the back of the bus. As a democratic people, we can take pride in the knowledge that we Americans recognized a grave injustice and took action to correct it. And we should remember that in far too many countries, people like Dr. King never have the opportunity to speak out at all.

But traces of bigotry still mar America. So, each year on Martin Luther King Day, let us not only recall Dr. King, but rededicate ourselves to the Commandments he believed in and sought to live every day: Thou shall love thy God with all thy heart, and thou shall love thy neighbor as thyself. And I just have to believe that all of us—if all of us, young and old, Republicans and Democrats, do all we can to live up to those Commandments, then we will see the day when Dr. King's dream comes true, and in his words, “All of God's children will be able to sing with new meaning, ‘... land where my fathers died, land of the pilgrim's pride, from every mountainside, let freedom ring.’”

Thank you, God bless you, and I will sign it.

America's Royal Family Continues It's Downward Slide

Another Kennedy Blasts Bishops over Abortion

Former Maryland Lieutenant Governor Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, the eldest child of Robert F. Kennedy, has blasted the nation’s bishops for opposing the use of federal funds to pay for abortions. Mrs. Townsend is the first cousin of Rep. Patrick Kennedy (D-RI), whom Bishop Thomas Tobin has publicly called to repentance and conversion for supporting abortion.

“There are millions of pro-abortion rights Catholics who understand that women faced with unintended pregnancies or complications in wanted pregnancies have to make difficult, complex decisions for themselves and their families,” Mrs. Townsend writes. “They do not make the decision to have an abortion lightly and without weighing all of their options. They must retain the ability to make this decision and the ability to access the care they need, whatever their choice may be. That means they must have access to health insurance that covers abortion care-- just as millions of Americans must have access to affordable health insurance and health care.”

Straining credulity, Mrs. Townsend’s concluding paragraph leads readers to believe that the Vatican would support health care legislation that would fund abortions. “I want Catholic bishops to heed the Vatican’s call for charity and justice for all, not just for the wealthy and well connected,” she writes.

Straining credulity, indeed. Does Mrs. Townsend honestly believe that when the Vatican talks about "truth and justice" they are using secret code for "we support governments paying for poor womens (or anyone elses) abortions"? This in spite of the fact of crystal clear, unambiguous Vatican teaching that abortion is an intrinsically evil in any and all circumstances?

From the Catechism of the Catholic Church (to quote only one source):

2271 Since the first century the Church has affirmed the moral evil of every procured abortion. This teaching has not changed and remains unchangeable. Direct abortion, that is to say, abortion willed either as an end or a means, is gravely contrary to the moral law:

You shall not kill the embryo by abortion and shall not cause the newborn to perish. ( Didache 2,2:SCh 248,148; cf. Ep. Barnabae 19,5:PG 2 777; Ad Diognetum 5,6:PG 2,1173; Tertullian, Apol. 9:PL 1,319-320.)

God, the Lord of life, has entrusted to men the noble mission of safeguarding life, and men must carry it out in a manner worthy of themselves. Life must be protected with the utmost care from the moment of conception: abortion and infanticide are abominable crimes. ( GS 51 § 3.)

2272 Formal cooperation in an abortion constitutes a grave offense. The Church attaches the canonical penalty of excommunication to this crime against human life. "A person who procures a completed abortion incurs excommunication latae sententiae," by the very commission of the offense," and subject to the conditions provided by Canon Law. The Church does not thereby intend to restrict the scope of mercy. Rather, she makes clear the gravity of the crime committed, the irreparable harm done to the innocent who is put to death, as well as to the parents and the whole of society.

Maybe -- just maybe -- Mrs. Townsend is broadly interpreting the very general term "truth and justice" as what she wants it to mean, i.e., in a manner that is politically expedient to her wrapped in the mantle of compassion. I mean, who could argue with anything in the name of these two great virtues? If Mrs. Townsend were a properly catechicized Catholic with a well formed conscience (i.e., a conscience that is fully formed and guided by the teachings of the Church), she would argue against herself. In that case, it is hoped the better formed and better informed version of her would prevail. A lot of innocent lives could potentially be saved in the process.

A Kennedy [Finally] Gets Put In His Place

EAST PROVIDENCE, R.I. – The Roman Catholic bishop of Rhode Island said Sunday that he asked Rep. Patrick Kennedy in a 2007 letter to stop receiving Communion, the central sacrament of the church, because of the congressman's public stance on moral issues.

Bishop Thomas Tobin divulged details of his confidential exchange with Kennedy after the Democratic lawmaker told The Providence Journal in a story published Sunday that Tobin had instructed him not to receive Communion. The two men have clashed repeatedly in the past few weeks over abortion.

See article here.

Hooray for Bishop Tobin! Rich, powerful fat-cats like the Kennedys have for too long relied on their demigod status among the liberal and the mis-informed to collectively and individually (excepting, perhaps, the late Eunice, may she rest in peace) thumb their noses at the teaching of the Church they profess to follow. Their behavior has been the source of scandal for ordinary Catholics and a scoundrels refuge for other Catholic politicians since Teddy (may he rest in peace) turned pro-abortion at the birth of Roe v. Wade. You may remember a similar post of mine on this topic, found here.

Now if only the bishops of Nancy Pelosi, John Kerry, Kathleen Sibelius, etc, etc, would quickly follow suit, what a wonderful world this would be.

American Thinker Blog: San Francisco booksellers would rather lose money than go 'Rogue'

LOL. What hypocrites. Add Sarah Palin's book to the list of "Banned Books." Might be too late, however, as it sold out of its first printing and had sales of 300,000 its first day.

Despite San Francisco Bay Area bookseller claims that Sarah Palin's new book "Going Rogue" is "not for thinking people", the Amazon numbers say otherwise.

On a mission to show that Palin's book is selling much worse than, say, the idea of reading Osama Bin Laden his Miranda rights, the San Francisco Chronicle interviewed several local booksellers to find out how well sales of "Going Rogue" were not going:

"Our customers are thinking people," said Nathan Embretson, a bookseller at Pendragon Books in Oakland. "They're not into reading drivel."

"Anything like that we wouldn't carry," said clerk Emily Stackhouse at Cover to Cover Books in San Francisco. "We're a small store and it would probably gross us all out. Some things you carry because of freedom of speech, but a book like that is just gross."

Just gross? Have you ever seen some of the inane, hateful and downright disgusting titles they typically carry at independent bookstores? I always feel I need to take a shower after I wander into one of those places. It is also highly ironic that the website of the bookstore where Ms. Stackhouse works, Cover To Cover Booksellers, is currently highlighting this quote by writer Max Lerner "The crime of book purging is that it involves a rejection of the word. For the word is never absolute truth, but only man's frail and human effort to approach the truth. To reject the word is to reject the human search."

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Besides, “thinking people” prefer making their own decision to read, or not read, the book. Real “thinking people” would be perfectly capable of reading the book for themselves and forming an opinion of it, not having it decided for them by wanna-be cultural elites.

I'm confident these highly knowledgable and open-minded booksellers read Palin's book before making such an impartial decision to not carry such an obviously popular and arguably politically relevant book.

"Apparently the job of a "bookseller" in and around San Francisco is not so much to sell product, but rather to give comfort to like-minded ...individuals and convert the remaining unwashed masses to lockstep ideology."

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The entire blog can be viewed here.

Modesty: Leave Something to the Imagination, Girls

Doris Roberts to Young Women: Provocative Dressing Leads to Trouble, Invites Violence Against Women

The "Everybody Loves Raymond" star has a message she wants to give to young women

Nicole Kidman recently hit headlines when she came out with her opinion that Hollywood probably contributes to violence by portraying women as sex objects, and “Everybody Loves Raymond” star Doris Roberts couldn't agree more. According to Doris, ladies need to leave a little more to the imagination.

“You've got to start with the dolls that are out. We are more than breasts and rear ends, and if you're a child and that's what we're trying to emanate you think that's all we are,” Roberts told Tarts at the recent “Peace Over Violence” event in Los Angeles which was aimed at building support for female victims of domestic and sexual abuse.

Roberts even went on to say that young girls who flash a little too much flesh are perhaps sending an open invitation to danger.

“I'm not a prude. I really am not. But if you're going to dress provocatively, you're going to get into trouble,” she added. “Kids, right now, 12 year olds, 11 year olds, they're dressing and trying to emanate what they see on television or in movies. When you do that, you're judged, and even if you're not selling that, it appears like you are. That is not very good.”

Meanwhile fellow film starlet Rene Russo believes there are many more outlets to blame asides from Tinseltown for the abuse so many women suffer.

“I don't know if I would go as far to say that it's just Hollywood, it's advertising, it's everywhere, it's everything. It's sort of in the fabric, unfortunately, of our society,” Russo said. “I think about it a lot and I'm not really sure what the answers are. Little by little we all need to try to make a difference and get out and support organizations like this because it is a problem. I don't think it's just Hollywood.” (Source)

Surprising talk, especially coming out of Hollywood. Ms. Russo is right on: the influences and forces converging on the innocence of girls in our day are simply oppressive: everything from advertisements, movies, television, pop novels and manga, music -- even the schools and the ever-present peer pressure. Now you have everything from toddler glamour shows to little girls with "Pink" flashed across their rears. Which of course means parents are complicit in this over-sexualization of their little girls, when they should instead be perserving their innocence as long as possible. Are we talking about going Amish or wearing burkas? Of course not, and that quick and cheap comment that always comes up in discussions of this sort is the knee-jerk refuge of the unthinking and those with a guilty conscience.

Let's raise our girls to be wise and to make good choices, certainly, but what's the hurry to expose them to the coarseness of our fallen culture?

Mayhem spreads throughout Chicago overnight after meetings to end violence

You can't make this stuff up, folks:

After community activists pleaded Saturday for a day without killing, violence erupted throughout the city after the stroke of midnight on Sunday, leaving at least two people dead and several injured.

At about 12:06 a.m., Frederick Evans, 20, of the 6800 block of South Ada Street was found shot to death in an alley in the 500 block of West 58th Street. He was shot in his back and chest.

Witnesses told police Evans was involved in a dice game shortly before midnight, according to Chicago Police News Affairs Officer JoAnn Taylor. Evans was seen being chased by a unknown person who opened fire, Taylor said. He ran to an alley to take cover before collapsing.

A handgun was recovered from the scene, Taylor said.

Minutes later, a 32-year-old man was shot at about 12:13 a.m. on Chicago's West Side in the Lawndale neighborhood. Police said he was shot after he watched a fight in the 3900 block of West Ogden Avenue. He suffered wounds to his leg and thigh, police said.

At about 2 a.m., Howard Hodges, of Park Forest, was shot and struck by a car near a lounge in the Chatham neighborhood. Hodges, 34, was pronounced dead on the scene.

Another man also was shot in front of the lounge located in the 8300 block of South Vincennes Avenue, but he was taken to St. Bernard Hospital with non-life-threatening injuries. Police said he suffered a wound to his shoulder.

Later, two other people were stabbed in the Englewood neighborhood at about 3:15 a.m. in the 6600 block of South Carpenter Street, and three people were shot in the Brighton Park neighborhood at about 5 a.m. near 47th Street and Homan Avenue, police said.

Several community activists and teens met throughout the city Saturday to discuss ways to end the violence in Chicago neighborhoods.

Source

Wait a minute--I thought President Obama community activist-ed the heck out of this place before he moved into the White House? And isn't this the place where an honor student was recently beaten to death with railroad ties by a gang of young thugs while others cheered them on? Oh yeah, here's the story right here. Maybe it's the 11% unemployment in Chicago (compared to 6.9% last year). Maybe it's the city ban on handguns. How's that Change workin' for ya?

No slam on the doubtless many decent and law-abiding people who live there, but I can't imagine why, despite Mr. Obama's best efforts, this town FAIL!ed to get the bid for the Olympics.

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hmmm...Somehow, some way, this must be George Bush's fault.

"We Will Never Remove Our Crosses!"

As Europe as a whole continues to descend into a post-Christian, secular morass, two countries --first Italy and now Poland --are at least trying to kick against the goad:

Poland Defends Right to Keep Crucifixes in Schools

WARSAW, Poland — Heavily Catholic Poland has joined the Vatican in criticizing a European court ruling against the display of crucifixes in Italian schools.

Polish President Lech Kaczynski said his country will never agree to remove crosses from its schools.

The Nov. 3 ruling by the European Court of Human Rights does not require that Poland remove the crosses that hang in most public schools. It could, however, eventually force a review of the use of religious symbols in government-run school across Europe.

The decision touched a nerve in Poland, where religious symbols were banned from public buildings under communist rule but embraced with the return to democracy 20 years ago as an expression of national sovereignty.

During Independence Day celebrations on Wednesday in Warsaw, Kaczynski said that "nobody in Poland will accept the message that you can't hang crosses in schools."

"One shouldn't count on that. Perhaps elsewhere, but never in Poland," said Kaczynski.

Lech Walesa, the pro-democracy dissident and former president — himself a believer who often wears a pin of St. Mary on his lapel — also defended his country's right to display a symbol central to the nation's Christian heritage.

I love Walesa's line here, a common sense blow to political correctness gone amok:

"Minorities must know their place," Walesa said on Thursday during an interview with a TVN24 television station. "We must respect minorities but also protect the rights of the majority."

******************************************

November 16 UPDATE on this story can be found here.

Report Details Harassment and Anti-religious Bigotry Since Prop. 8

Sacramento, Calif., Nov 3, 2009 (CNA).- A think tank has compiled and analyzed reports of the harassment, intimidation, and “gross expressions of anti-religious bigotry” shown in reaction to the successful passage of Proposition 8. If partisans of marriage redefinition continue to increase in power, the analysis warns, those who seek the preservation of marriage as a union of man and wife may risk paying a price legally, socially and economically. The Heritage Foundation’s Oct. 22 report “The Price of Prop 8,” authored by researcher Thomas M. Messner, said that many individuals and institutions who defend the nature of marriage as a union between a man and a woman have paid a “heavy price.”

Militant opponents of Prop. 8 targeted supporters with a range of hostility, including “harassment, intimidation, vandalism, racial scapegoating, blacklisting, loss of employment, economic hardships, angry protests, violence, at least one death threat, and gross expressions of anti-religious bigotry,” the report stated.

Vandalism included a brick thrown through the window of an elderly couple who put a “Yes on 8” sign in their lawn. Another senior citizen with a pro-Prop. 8 bumper sticker had her car’s rear window smashed.

A statue of the Virgin Mary outside one church was vandalized with orange paint. Swastikas and other graffiti were scrawled on the walls of Most Holy Redeemer Catholic Church in San Francisco. At Our Lady of Perpetual Help Catholic Church in Riverside, signs were twisted into the shape of a swastika.

A heavy object wrapped with a “Yes on 8” sign was used to smash the window of a pastor’s office at Messiah Lutheran Church in Downey.

Sign theft targeting Prop. 8 supporters was significant, with one source estimating about one-third of the 25,000 signs distributed were stolen or vandalized before the end of the campaign.
Phone calls, e-mails and mailings also targeted supporters of Prop. 8. The messages made accusation of bigotry and used vulgar language. One e-mail threatened to contact the parents of students at a school where a particular Prop. 8 supporter worked.

One individual supporter was the subject of a flier distributed in his town. The flier included his photo and name and the amount of his donation to the pro-Prop. 8 campaign. It labeled him as a “bigot” and reported his association with a particular Catholic church.

Increased support for Prop. 8 among African Americans and members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, known as Mormons, also resulted in their communities being targeted.

Racial epithets were used at anti-Prop. 8 protests, while Joe Solmonese, head of the Human Rights Campaign, targeted the Mormons.

On the Dr. Phil show, responding to a Mormon questioner, he replied: “We are going to go after your church every day for the next two years unless and until Prop 8 is overturned.”

An anti-Prop. 8 advertisement depicted two Mormon missionaries invading the home of a lesbian couple, ransacking their belongings and tearing up their marriage license.

“Anti-Mormon malice reached a new level when someone mailed packages containing suspicious white powder to Mormon temples in California and Utah,” Messner said.

Jose Nunez, a new U.S. citizen, was waiting to distribute signs outside his Catholic church when a man grabbed several signs and fled. He pursued the thief, who reportedly yelled “What do you have against gays?” and punched him in the face.

Nunez suffered a bloody eye and wounds to his face and required 16 stitches under his eye.

Employees of businesses were targeted by some protesters. Some employees resigned, while others took leaves of absence. Some business owners lost business because they had donated to support Prop. 8.

While deeming boycotts a “time-honored form of activism,” the Heritage Foundation’s report commented: “No individual should be compelled to choose between making a living and participating in democratic processes affecting fundamental matters of public concern, such as marriage.”

California law requiring the disclosure of personal information of individuals who donate $100 or more to a ballot measure campaign have made such displays of hostility easier, the report said.

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Several websites were designed to use the information to identify and target Prop. 8 supporters.

While acknowledging that many Prop. 8 opponents have rejected such abuses, Messner argues that the ideology underlying the outrage is a cause of hostility.

“Arguments for same-sex marriage, although often couched in terms of tolerance and inclusion, are based fundamentally on the idea that limiting marriage to the union of husband and wife is a form of bigotry, irrational prejudice, and even hatred against homosexual persons who want the state to license their relationships. As this ideology seeps into the culture, belief in marriage as the union of husband and wife will likely come to be viewed as an unacceptable form of discrimination that should be purged from society through legal, cultural, and economic pressure.”

“Individuals or institutions that publicly defend marriage as the union of husband and wife risk harassment, reprisal, and intimidation—at least some of it targeted and coordinated,” Messner continued.

Source.

Does An Old Bloggers Heart Good

Vatican City, Oct 29, 2009 / 11:30 am (CNA).- Addressing the full Pontifical Council for Social Communications today, Benedict XVI urged its members to help communicate the teachings of the Church on the “digital continent” of the ever-changing technological landscape.

Reflecting on the role of social networking and increasingly real-time electronic communication, Pope Benedict XVI said on Thursday that "modern culture is established, even before its content, in the very fact of the existence of new forms of communication that use new languages; they use new technologies and create new psychological attitudes.”

See entire article here.

Sounds to me like a clarion call for evangelists and ordinary faithful Christians (hopefully one and the same) to get with the program and start reaching out to the Facebook and Twitter crowd. This also includes websites, texting and bloggers and whatever else new "social networking" or "real-time electronic communication" gizmo comes sailing down the pike. Of course, there are already a lot of on fire folks putting out some good efforts (see my sidebar for some of my favorites), but theres still lots of elbow room in cyberspace.

Our gadgets can certainly be real time wasters, but why not follow the Holy Father's call and channel some of that downtime to someone who needs to hear it about The Good News? If an old dog like me can get into it, anyone can.

Anti-Catholicism Is the Nation's Other Pastime

By Archbishop Timothy M. Dolan, Archbishop of New York
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October is the month we relish the high-point of our national pastime, especially when one of our own New York teams is in the World Series!

Sadly, America has another national pastime, this one not pleasant at all: anti-Catholicism.

It is not hyperbole to call prejudice against the Catholic Church a national pastime. Scholars such as Arthur Schlesinger Sr. referred to it as "the deepest bias in the history of the American people," while John Higham described it as "the most luxuriant, tenacious tradition of paranoiac agitation in American history." "The anti-Semitism of the left," is how Paul Viereck reads it, and Professor Philip Jenkins sub-titles his book on the topic "the last acceptable prejudice."

(Read more here.)

Why Boys Are Turning Into Girls

This helps to 'splain a lot.

Here's something rather rotten from the State of Denmark. Its government yesterday unveiled official research showing that two-year-old children are at risk from a bewildering array of gender-bending chemicals in such everyday items as waterproof clothes, rubber boots, bed linen, food, nappies, sunscreen lotion and moisturising cream.

The 326-page report, published by the environment protection agency, is the latest piece in an increasingly alarming jigsaw. A picture is emerging of ubiquitous chemical contamination driving down sperm counts and feminising male children all over the developed world. And anti-pollution measures and regulations are falling far short of getting to grips with it.

See entire article here.

Of course, there's more than this going on (presuming the science used in the above report is legit). There are lot more factors that contribute to the current plague of effeminate and sissified boys.

Dadless Homes.

The overall feminization of schools and ubiquitous daycare. I work in a job where I occassionally have to visit these places. The kids seem so shocked and fascinated to see an adult male, you'd think they'd never seen one. The little boys, especially, flock around me and want to show me their "swords" and "guns" made out of legos. "Look, mister fireman! Look, look..."

Namby-pamby children' programming (All programs for really small kids all necessarily gentle--I'm talking severe cases, ala "Tele-Tubbies.")

Lowering of physical education standards and elimination in schools of any activity that involves the inherent aggressiveness and competitiveness of boys (do you know some schools have even outlawed playing tag?). Many educators, I'm convinced, do not understand boys.

Effeminate media role models. Why do all the male leads in movies these days look like they should be applying for college? Is it really believable when you see the main character of a TV show or movie--who looks like he started shaving last month --identified as someone who has a Phd, served a tour in the Army Special Forces, worked for the CIA, vagabonded around the world, and knows how to operate any vehicle, aircraft or program any advanced computer?

Discouragement of real competition among school-kids (no tryouts for the school play, no incentive to excel in classrooms through special honors for achievement. Everyone's included, everyone wins.

I could go on ad infinitum. How many young guys do you know (late teens, early twenties) that actually talk and walk in a manly manner? (and to be fair, this goes for a lot of older guys --perhaps thinking imitating this style makes them appear younger rather than, well, pathetic. That's another topic.) Have you ever listened to a radio call-in show and found yourself surprised that the caller was a male, and not a teenage girl?

And what do girls think about all this? I guess the upside is that boys like this are easier for them to identify with--more girls to talk to I guess. But don't they ever ask themselves: Where are the men?

Abortion Kills More Black Americans Than the Seven Leading Causes of Death Combined, Says CDC Data

Abortion Kills More Black Americans Than the Seven Leading Causes of Death Combined, Says CDC Data

(CNSNews.com) – Abortion kills more black Americans than the seven leading causes of death combined, according to data collected by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for 2005, the latest year for which the abortion numbers are available. Abortion killed at least 203,991 blacks in the 36 states and two cities (New York City and the District of Columbia) that reported abortions by race in 2005, according to the CDC. During that same year, according to the CDC, a total of 198,385 blacks nationwide died from heart disease, cancer, strokes, accidents, diabetes, homicide, and chronic lower respiratory diseases combined. These were the seven leading causes of death for black Americans that year...

This is really depressing. Correct me if I am wrong on this, but don't most Blacks vote Democrat--and isn't "abortion rights" (i.e., the unlimited legal right to kill a child in what should be the safest place in the world, the mothers womb) an important agenda item for the Democratic Party? What is wrong with this picture? What can this be termed: self-genocide? Mass hypnosis? Brainwashing? What would make an entire segment of the population become a willing party to the slaughter of the innocents and it's own self-anihilation? Add this to the fact that, proportionally, abortion kills more females than males, and the voting pattern becomes completely incomprehensible. It's like the flies voting for more fly-swatters.

It is worth noting that Planned Parenthood, the country's leading abortion provider was founded by Margaret Sanger a personal hero of Hillary Clinton and infamous eugenicist (i.e., one who believes that "inferior" peoples -- like Catholics, gypsys and those with dark skin and handicaps-- should be killed off so that the "superior" race can breed more purely). Planned Parenthood clinics are built in dispropotionate numbers in poor, especially Black, communities. Sanger was also an early influence of Adolf Hitler, who racial views are quite well know. Click here for more info.

Some interesting numbers:

Deaths in America per year

1,400,000 people die from abortion

650,000 people die of heart disease

560,000 people die of cancer143,000 people die of stroke

75,000 people die of diabetes

Another perspective:

18,000 - Deaths by death penalty in American history (all the way back to the 1600s).

1,315,000 - Deaths in all American wars combined.

50,000,000 - Deaths by abortion since Roe v Wade

Mom Arrested for Washing Kid's Mouth With Soap

I'm afraid, in these politically correct and insanely permissive days, my Mom would be Public Enemy #1:

A Florida couple is behind bars for some old school discipline

A Palm Bay woman and her boyfriend were arrested Monday for child abuse after the couple went old school to punish their 8-year-old daughter for swearing.

They washed her mouth out with soap.

We don't know about you, but we would petition President Obama and Congress to make it mandatory for every parent to carry a bar of Irish Spring in their back pockets with all the profanity kids use today.

Police claim Adriyanna Herdener and Wilfredo Rivera went too far by placing a bar of soap in the girl's mouth and letting it stay for 10 minutes. Herdener did not intervene in the discipline.

The girl eventually vomited and Rivera took her to the local hospital, where hospital staff called police.

No one wants a child to be hurt or inhumanely punished, but parents' discipline choices in this country have come down to calling Dr. Phil or hiding the joysticks to the Wii.

Next time your kid has a potty mouth, just give them some gum.

That is, if you don't want to be turned in and arrested for child abuse. Seems to me the "boyfriend" (who's identified as the father though not married to the mother) had the right idea, but had bad technique. There's a right way and a wrong way to wash away vulgar language. Just ask my Mom.

"Rectum? Dang near killed him!"

This week's Darwin Award goes to the German journalism student who, in attempting to put a moon on The Man, gets taken for a ride, escaping only by the seat of his pants:

Mooning German gets trousers caught in moving train

A German man mooning at railway staff in a departing train got his trousers caught in a carriage door and ended up being dragged half naked along the platform, out of the station and onto the tracks.

The 22-year-old journalism student shoved his backside against the window of a low-slung double-decker train when staff forced him off in Lauenbrueck for travelling without a ticket, a spokesman for police in the northern city of Bremen said."It's a miracle he wasn't badly hurt," the spokesman said on Monday. "This sort of thing can end up killing you."Instead, dangling by his trousers, the man got pulled along for about 200 metres, all the while managing to keep his legs away from the wheels of the train.

The ordeal ended when a passenger pulled the emergency brake. Rescue services were called in, causing rail services between Bremen and Hamburg to be suspended for over an hour, delaying 23 trains.The man – unharmed except for cuts and bruises – now faces charges of dangerous interference in rail transport, insulting the train staff, and may face sizeable a compensation claim for the delays he caused, police said.

"He was full of remorse when I talked to him," the spokesman said. "And he advised others not to try the same thing."

This last, quite the understatement, I would say.

Is There A Doctor In The (White) House?

This would be funny, if it wasn't such a sad commentary on both how some shameless politicos believe dishonest means justify the means, and on how far people will let themselves be led around by the nose by their idols:

WASHINGTON -- President Obama yesterday rolled out the red carpet -- and handed out doctors' white coats as well, just so nobody missed his hard-sell health-care message. In a heavy-handed attempt at reviving support for health-care reform, the White House orchestrated a massive photo op to buttress its claim that front-line physicians support Obama.

A sea of 150 white-coated doctors, all enthusiastically supportive of the president and representing all 50 states, looked as if they were at a costume party as they posed in the Rose Garden before hearing Obama's pitch for the Democratic overhaul bills moving through Congress.

The physicians, all invited guests, were told to bring their white lab coats to make sure that TV cameras captured the image. But some docs apparently forgot, failing to meet the White House dress code by showing up in business suits or dresses. So the White House rustled up white coats for them and handed them to the suited physicians who had taken seats in the sun-splashed lawn area. All this to provide a visual counter to complaints from other doctors that pending legislation is bad news for the medical profession.

(Source: New York Post)

I'm sorry, but who is so clueless or purposely blind as to not see the phoniness and blatant manipulation going on here? Surely the doctors present must have chuckled to each other or at least rolled their eyes. But maybe not, as they were all hand-picked supporters of the President and must have been clinically giddy just to be in his presence. Certainly the American people at large aren't that naive? It reminds me of the amateurish propaganda Saddam Hussien would put out during the Gulf War.

"Nobody has more credibility with the American people on this issue than you do," Obama told his guests.

Well, these particular M.D.'s just lost a lot of their credibility by playing along with this charade. Mr. Obama? Between his obsession with the failing healthcare bill, his failed and expensive junket to Europe in support of bringing the Olympics to Chicago, and his limp-wristed indecisiveness about the war in Afganistan while more of our brave men and women die everyday, I'm not sure he has much left at this point in the old credibility resevoir.

Persecution of Catholics in Viet Nam Continues Unabated

Vietnamese Blogger Arrested after Challenging Media Distortions of Pope's Speech

Hanoi, Vietnam, Sep 1, 2009 (CNA).- A blogger who was defending the Church against the state media’s distortions of Pope Benedict XVI’s June speech to Vietnamese bishops was arrested on Thursday in what some fear is the first of many arrests. Bui Tanh Hieu is a catechumen who writes under the pen name Nguoi Buon Gio, which means “Wind Trader.” Reuters reported that he was arrested by police in Hanoi on August 27 and has not been heard from since.

Redemptorist Father Peter Nguyen Van Khai of Hanoi monastery confirmed to Asia News that the blogger was detained on Thursday. The priest described him as a catechumen of the Archdiocese of Hanoi who is studying the catechism in preparation for baptism.

Sr. Emily Nguyen from the Diocese of Vinh warned that his arrest “certainly is not the last one.”

See entire news article here.

The Legacy of Ted Kennedy

Fr. Robert Barron has an insightful commentary on the passing of Senator Edward Kennedy--his legacy in particular and that of the Kennedy clan in general.

You can find the brief video here, and here is the text of his commentary, entitled "Sen. Kennedy, Abortion, and the Party of the Little Guy.

Fr. Barron's experience growing up as a Catholic and what the Kennedys meant to Catholic Americans are highly reflective of my own formative years (I believe Father is slightly younger than me). Even though the home I was raised in was Catholic only in the most extremely nominal sense, it was a Mexican American home. As such, there was the obligatory picture of President John F. Kennedy displayed in an honored place--right there next to the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Immaculate Heart of Mary. JFK was matter-of-factly acknowledged as a martyr -- as a martyr to what, it wasn't exactly clear to us; to civil rights or some other such thing. All we knew was that Kennedy (and by extension all the Kennedys and the whole Democratic Party) were for the little guy (ourselves included) and their opponents the Republicans were, by default, evil incarnate. If pressed for a rational defense for this position, we would have been at a loss. That's what everyone we knew believed so that was good enough for us, thank you.

I was too young to remember the JFK assassination, but I remember very clearly when Bobby Kennedy was shot. Life (school, work, everything) was put on hold to mourn this young man who's legacy, especially in retrospect, was not one of actual accomplishment, but rather one of unrealized promise and of further building the Kennedy legend.

The first time I voted for President, I was 18 years old and I voted for Jimmy Carter. I voted for him because he seemed like a nice guy and he was Democrat, both of which meant he wasn't a Republican. That was my whole line of reasoning, as I imagine it is for many people who voted then and now vote, not on the issues, but out of ignorance of the issues and on pure emotion and social conditioning.
Four years later, after being exposed to the realities of life, serving a stint in the military, and watching President Carter drag this country down into quivering mass of economic, political and miltary jelly, I voted for Ronald Reagan, and have voted Republican ever since then. Not that the GOP is perfect (far from it), but I can at least say now that when I vote (whether I am right or wrong) I attempt to vote based on an informed decision, rather than the emotionalism of my uninformed youth. Socrates taught that "The unexamined life is not worth living." One could also say, "The unexamined vote is not worth casting."

Which brings me back to Senator Kennedy. There is a telling passage from Fr. Barron's commentary:

I think it is safe to say that, over the past thirty years, there has been no stronger and more consistent advocate of abortion rights than this late “lion of the Senate.” But it was not always so. In 1971, just two years before Roe v. Wade, Sen Kennedy responded to a man named Tom Dennelly of Great Neck, N.Y. who had written to the senator expressing his views on the matter of abortion. Here is how Kennedy responded: “While the deep concern of a woman bearing an unwanted child merits consideration and sympathy, it is my personal feeling that the legalization of abortion on demand is not in accordance with the value which our civilization places on human life. Wanted or unwanted, I believe that human life, even at its earliest stages, has certain rights which must be recognized — the right to be born, the right to love, the right to grow old.” And he went on: “when history looks back at this era it should recognize this generation as the one which cared for human beings enough to halt the practice of war, to provide a decent living for every family, and to fulfill its responsibility to its children from the very moment of conception.”
For my money, that’s one of the best and most theoretically consistent defenses of the pro-life position ever articulated. And it came quite appropriately from the leader of the party of the little guy. In 1971 anyway, opposition to abortion was a naturally Democratic position, whereas today a pro-life Democrat is practically an oxymoron, and almost every major Democratic politician, locally or nationally, feels obligated to parrot pro-choice ideology if he wants his party’s nomination.

Ted Kennedy, for all the good he may have done in social issues and "protecting the little" guy, out of political expediency changed moral course and, as a result, came up short on the issue of protecting the weakest humans of all. When he stood before God, what could he have said to Him about the millions killed by abortion out of political expediency? As Robert Kennedy famously said:

There are those who look at things the way they are, and ask why... I dream of things that never were, and ask why not?

To me, the tragedy of Senator Kennedy's life is the tragedy of all the Kennedy brothers: what could have been. May God have mercy on his soul.

Brad Pitt: Spokesman for Hollywood Intolerance

As one of the posters to the linked blog says, "My list of people I will never again give my money via movie tickets is getting quite long indeed."

To start with, Brad Pitt said that he was thinking of running for mayor of New Orleans, on an “Anti-religion, pro-legalization of marijuana and pro-gay marriage” platform. I know, I know… What a risky position to take in Tinseltown, right?

After Brads continued “anti-religion” commentary, Bill Maher decided to step up the game with his uniquely hateful brand of bigotry that’s made him oh so popular with 13-year-old atheists everywhere. In a display of “compassion,” Pitt went on to say, “Well I don’t think any Christians watch this show anyway.”

See what happened there…? Without even realizing it, Brad Pitt’s showed us that his use of the word “religion” is really inter-changeable with “Christianity,” as is the case with most of Hollywood. The entertainment industry is never anti-Religion; it’s simply anti-Christian. This goes both hand-in-hand with Hollywood’s obsession with immorality, as well as their compulsion to take shots at society’s whipping boy while praising themselves for their “risky performances.”

That goes for Megan "No Talent" Fox, as well:

Much like the time Megan Fox tipped Tinseltown’s hand when she said that if given the chance, she’d urge Megatron to only murder the “white trash, hillbilly, anti-gay, super bible-beating people in Middle America...”
Nice people. Not.