You are our representatives, not our masters. You work for us, not for yourselves. We are mad as heck and we’re not going to take any more of your arrogance.

I firmly believe Scott Brown was elected, not because he was a Republican, but because he was not a Democrat.

After years of slamming the Bush administration hard for being a “culture of corruption” the Democrats in just one short year have proven they only offer the same or worse!

We are a Democratic Republic with a representative government. When the government stops representing us it’s time to get rid of the government. Scott Brown may well be only the tip of the iceberg.

American Thinker via The Lonely Conservative

These days when one hears terms like “Terrible Triangle” thoughts immediately jump to latter day terrorism especially the Greater Middle East, southeast Asian island nations such as Malayasia, the Philippines etc. where such “triangles of terror” have probably been defined over time. The particular triangle I’m referring to though is one that Pope Pius XI tried to bring to the attention of the world but which, especially the West, seemed to remain silent on.

 "Execution" of the Sacred Heart by leftist militiamen at Cerro de los Ángeles near Madrid, on 7 August 1936, was the most famous of the widespread desecration of images and Churches.[1] King Alfonso XII had consecrated the nation to the Sacred Heart of Jesus at the spot on May 30, 1919.[2] The photograph was taken by a Paramount newsreel representative and originally published in the London Daily Mail with a caption calling it part of the "Spanish Reds' war on religion."[3]

"I am a practicing Catholic, although they're probably not too happy about that. But it is my faith," said the Speaker, referring to the Catholic Church hierarchy.  "I practically mourn this difference of opinion because I feel what I was raised to believe is consistent with what I profess, and that is that we are all endowed with, a free will and a responsibility to answer for our actions. And that women should have that opportunity to exercise their free will."

Responding, Archbishop Neiderauer said

"embodied in that statement are some fundamental misconceptions about Catholic teaching on human freedom" - misconceptions he noted "are widespread both within the Catholic community and beyond."

"Human freedom does not legitimate bad moral choices, nor does it justify a stance that all moral choices are good if they are free: 'The exercise of freedom does not imply a right to say or do everything,'" wrote the archbishop, citing the Catechism of the Catholic Church.

"It is entirely incompatible with Catholic teaching to conclude that our freedom of will justifies choices that are radically contrary to the Gospel — racism, infidelity, abortion, theft," he continued. 

"Freedom of will is the capacity to act with moral responsibility; it is not the ability to determine arbitrarily what constitutes moral right."

"While we deeply respect the freedom of our fellow citizens," Niederauer concluded, "we nevertheless are profoundly convinced that free will cannot be cited as justification for society to allow moral choices that strike at the most fundamental rights of others. Such a choice is abortion, which constitutes the taking of innocent human life, and cannot be justified by any Catholic notion of freedom."

(via Lifesitenews.com )

Indeed, the good Archbishop knows whereof he speaks while Ms. Pelosi apparently knows little of what her Church truly teaches. It isn’t hard to find out what the teachings are – they are plainly described in the Catechism of the Catholic Church and in thousands upon thousands of other writings on the Church teachings done throughout the centuries. What you will find is the consistency the Church has shown in those teachings, thus, the root of Ms. Pelosi’s argument is that “the ends justify the means” while the Church teaches, as it has taught for centuries, “the ends do not justify the means” (CCC #1753).

Even more basic to Pelosi’s argument is the concept of “free will”. Madam Speaker seems to subsribe to a dissenting view of how one’s conscience works in determining the choices you make. If Pelosi is correct then no choice is made from ones “free will” but from ones own will. You decide what is right or wrong and you act upon that decision. In a technical sense I guess you could call that free will but in the truest sense I believe this is an abberant definition of “free will”! If each determines for himself the right or wrong of a choice and takes action on that choice based on their own determination of the morality without consideration for any norms we simply have anarchy and chaos. We do not have anarchy and chaos because we have moral truths upon which our laws are based, which we recognize, and which we obey. These laws, natural and man-made keep society functioning in social and productive ways. The Catholic Church teaches that in every heart the law of God is written – otherwise how do you explain the certainty with which even a toddler will experience knowing what is right or wrong without having had benefit of any teaching?

I make no claim to know what is in someone else’s heart much less what motivates Nancy Pelosi, but generally speaking when one decries the teaching of the Church the reason is simple – you want something you shouldn’t have.

One image truly broke my heart – – what appeared to be a young girl, lying face down where she’d been caught by a collapsing wall. Her head appeared to be resting  on one arm as though perhaps she’d been alive for a time but had perished before help could arrive.

Haiti is such an impoverished country as it is. They’ve endured centuries of oppression and punishment from conquerers and then from their own leaders. How can they stand more suffering?

I pray that many, many of Haiti’s brothers and sisters will help in whatever way possible: donating to aid organizations, joining missions to assist, our prayers – do whatever you are able but at the least pray for them that they will receive all the aid and comfort they need. So many will need comforting because they will have suffered the double trauma of the fright of the earthquake (perhaps barely surviving themselves) and the loss of family and friends.

Haiti, poor Haiti

• First, it's just the case that the holy season of Christmas is busy and blogging tends to have a much lower priority during Christmas and Easter.


• Just before the U.S. Thanksgiving a friend and collegue took his life. As if that in itself weren't stressful enough I took over his job responsibilites. He had been training me as his backup for some time but I still didn't have a thorough knowledge and extensive enough experience to feel comfortable. God is good and so are the people with whom I work - they've all been understanding and haven't been too rough on me when I make mistakes.


• Thirdly I have been discerning a vocation to the Diaconate for several years and had finally screwed up the courage to make the application. It was that same week that my workmate died and I had to take over his job. Needless to say work overwhelmed everything and I found myself realizing that my application paperwork was overdue. To make a long story short everything worked out and last week I was notified that I had been selected to enter the application process. There are several steps that take place over a period of months before the final selection of candidates is made. I ask for your prayers that God's will for me will be made known and that I will have the faith, courage, and perseverance to carry it out joyfully whether that be as a Deacon in His Church or not!

Please view a Christmas greeting here (h/t Holy Cards for Your Inspiration)

Only the most hardened of hearts could possibly resist the Truth this woman saw.

The Ship of State is Being Steered Toward a Maelstrom of Anti-Christianity

The author of this article serves on an advisory committee to the White House on issues of importance to Catholics.

We are not alone – the majority of Americans (more than 70%) do not support federally funded abortions, do not want the homosexual agenda advanced in schools and forced upon our young children. Despite this our Congress intends to try and pass a health care reform bill which will do precisely what we Americans do not want done. Write, call, email or fax your Congressional representatives and Senators. In late October, knowing full well that the proposed hate crimes legislation would not garner enough votes to pass the bill was quickly attached to the “must pass” defense appropriations bill. Shame.

Susan B. Anthony

In her publication The Revolution, wrote:

"Guilty? Yes. No matter what the motive, love of ease, or a desire to save from suffering the unborn innocent, the woman is awfully guilty who commits the deed. It will burden her conscience in life, it will burden her soul in death; But oh, thrice guilty is he who drove her to the desperation which impelled her to the crime!"

Elizabeth Cady Stanton

classified abortion as a form of "infanticide." The Revolution, 1(5):1, February 5, 1868

"When we consider that women are treated as property, it is degrading to women that we should treat our children as property to be disposed of as we see fit."
Letter to Julia Ward Howe, October 16, 1873, recorded in Howe's diary at Harvard University Library

(These and other quotes from famous feminists at Feminsts for Life)

I confess to being fairly oblivious to all things related to women’s skin care, makeup, clothing etc. especially when my wife is glued to the long-armed shopper that is the computer but within half an hour of starting her search she managed to get my attention.

It was her first “This is just horrible!” that got my attention. Thinking to myself, “Makeup? How horrible can it be unless what she likes has turned out to be more than 6 months take home pay”, then I thought “Maybe she’s digressed from searching for makeup and started looking through the local obits and found a lost acquaintance listed there”.

Nope. Nothing that simple, nosiree. What she’d stumbled across was a website dedicated to documenting hazardous materials used in producing women’s products. Huh? Yup. You got it. All sorts of dangerous, harmful, carcinogenic, cell and gene altering junk is used to make women’s beauty products. Much to my extreme surprise what was one item that figured high on the lipstick line? Lead. Can you believe it? In this day and age lead is being used in women’s lipstick. Un-be-lievable! What ticked her off mightily was finding out that to limit the use of lead in lipstick was proposed in California but the industry lobbyists swarmed all over ‘em and nipped that baby in the bud before it could eat into any of their profits.

She was scrolling through an endless line of well-known (even I knew some the names) companies and products and exclaimed repeatedly at the list of harmful ingredients and frightened because she had used many of these products most of her adult life.

She got my attention.

You can read what she found:

Cosmetics Database

Chris Wallace is right – The White House crew is nothing but a bunch of whining, crybabies.

"What I think is fair to say about Fox -- and certainly it's the way we view it -- is that it really is more a wing of the Republican Party," said Anita Dunn, White House communications director, on CNN. "They take their talking points, put them on the air; take their opposition research, put them on the air. And that's fine. But let's not pretend they're a news network the way CNN is." 

Fox News senior vice president Michael Clemente, who likens the channel to a newspaper with separate sections on straight news and commentary, suggested White House officials were intentionally conflating opinion show hosts like Glenn Beck with news reporters like Major Garrett. 

"It's astounding the White House cannot distinguish between news and opinion programming," Clemente said. "It seems self-serving on their part." 

(Foxnews.com)

 The White House, including President Obama himself, just can’t seem to stop blubbering about how “unfair” and “biased” Fox News is towards them. If that is the case why are so many abandoning the so-called “news networks”, like CNN for instance, and heading over to Fox? It’s simple – any human being with a desire to hear what’s going on (the news) without a generous slathering of opinion (commentary) to cover it over only has one place left to go – Fox News. If you don’t want any opinion at all and just want the news it isn’t difficult to separate the two on the Fox network. Fox maintains a clear division between their “news” and the “commentary”. I, for one, just can’t listen to Glenn Beck a whole lot. Sean Hannity, well, he isn’t bad, but he’s a tad monotonous, and Bill O’Reilly – well, he’s getting a little soft I think. But the really nice thing is that on Fox I know when I can hear the news and when I can hear commentary and opinion. There’s no mistaking one for the other on Fox.

Finally – the ratings tell it all. Fox News simply dominates the ratings – whether you’re talking about news or commentary – a broader range of our population watch Fox than any other TV outlet. Conservative, Liberal, Republican, Democrat – you name it they watch Fox. Why? Because any human being (whether you’re in the tank or not) with a mind that can still function knows the difference between bias and fair-minded reporting. It’s simple.

Mr. President your administration is treading on thin ice – not to mention doing a little tap dance on our Constitution!

Take a good look at the face in the photo – that look speaks volumes about the White House attitude toward me and you. (Photo Fox News)

October 7^th on the Roman calendar is the Feast of Our Lady of the Rosary and might well have been named “The Day Western Civilization was Saved”.

From the missal’s introduction for that day’s Mass:

The feast of Our Lady of the Rosary was instituted in 1573 as a special commemoration of the victory gained at Lepanto on Sunday, October 7, 1571, when the forces of Islam that were threatening to invade Europe were hurled back and broken – a favor attributed to the recitation of the Rosary. Prescribed by Gregory XIII for certain churches, it was introduced into the Roman Calendar by Clement XI in 1716 and assigned to the first Sunday of October in thanksgiving for another triumph over the same enemy in Hungary that year by the Emperor Charles VI. Leo XIII increased its rank to obtain our Lady’s help amid the present trials of the church, and in 1913 it was assigned to October 7^th.

As the Preface of every Mass begins – “Father, all-powerful and ever-living God, we do well always and everywhere to give you thanks through Jesus Christ our Lord.”

In our parish (Our Lady of Peace) on this date we offered a “Living Rosary” where the people who have come together to pray the rosary become the rosary beads themselves – we literally stand together and form a living chain of rosary beads before the altar. Afterwards, we celebrated Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament. Together the Rosary and Benediction are perhaps, for me, the most beautiful acts of adoration, contrition, thanksgiving, and supplication possible. My intentions during this Rosary included very many family and friends and also included a general intention for a conversion of Western civilization to God, rejection of the sins we have made a part of normal living, and true repentance.

Holy Mary, Mother of God, Pray for us!

So much is happening so quickly in the United States but lately 3 things stand out for me:

• Roman Polanski, accused of drugging and then raping a 13 year old girl in 1977 fled this country when he believed he was going to put in prison for years, perhaps life. In Switzerland this week Polanski was arrested when he showed up to receive an award. Many have come to his defense but Whoopi Goldberg has taken the cake with what I can only call the most absurd thing I’ve ever heard come out of her mouth. Defending Polanski on “The View” Goldberg said "I know it wasn't rape-rape. It was something else but I don't believe it was rape-rape." Huh?  Rape-rape? God help us, now theres rape, and rape-rape – what’s next – consensual rape? What in heaven’s name is the woman talking about?
• In Chicago this week 16 year old high school student Derrion Albert was beaten to death after he happened upon a gang fight. He was hit over the head by an animal wielding, of all things, what appears to be a 4 x 4 or 4 x 8 piece of wood. Derrion, knocked senseless and lying helpless on the ground was then stomped on, kicked, and punched – he died. All of this was caught on video which has enabled police to arrest some of his attackers. Still, the shock of the video was too much to bear. Like mindless savages the gang members attacked whoever was nearby. Knocking Derrion down with what would probably have been a mortal blow in and of itself, others simply piled on and stomped on his head and kicked and punched him while he lay helpless. It made me sick to my stomach and sick at heart. How can we be this way? How can human beings be so cold-blooded and blood-thirsty?
• Finally, in a connect-the-dots scenario, yet another scandal is being raised in the Obama administration. We’ve seen clearly that the President is not surrounding himself with good people but with people who evidently have a “Chicago” style mentality. In the wake of the news that he and Mrs. Obama have travelled to Denmark to lobby for selection of Chicago as the site of the 2016 Olympic Games we find Valerie Jarrett, another highly-placed White House staffer has some not-so-sparkling clean ties to Chicago, the Obamas, and others who’ve already been shown to be less than ethical. The Democrats sure raised enough stink about the so-called “Culture of Corruption” in the Bush administration – it seems though that they’re turning a blind eye to Obama’s connections – some of which are pretty smelly.

Michael A. Parkes, 27, had an MBA and a good job as a senior accountant, but his passion was working with young people. He volunteered as a scoutmaster, camp counselor and leader of a church youth group, somehow finding enough time to sleep.

He hoped to eventually return to his native Jamaica and build a school. He wanted to help young black men achieve success through education -- and not by majoring in basketball. "Don't dream about the NBA," he would have told them. "Dream about an MBA."

While I was not able to find lots of information about Michael Parkes I must say that what I found tells me the world lost a wonderful human being. I would imagine that the face you see in the photo above in the face a genuinely good man.

CNN.com 9–11 Memorial

Legacy.com Memorial (If you read through these memorials you will get the picture of the man I believe touched many lives).

There remain dozens of online photo memorials. Here a just a few:

The Black Day, 911 Photo Archive, Days of Terror, Shattered, Profiles of 9/11

An extensive collection of photos of 9/11 memorials in the NYC area.

This post is part of Project 2,996