New Years' Resolutions

Ah, the new year - the time when every magazine, journal, blog, news station, etc. does one of three things: The list of the top (or bottom) "X" things (where "X" is usually 10) of the year. An example is Listing the Year end Lists. The list of predictions for next year, such as Five Fearless Predictions for 2011. The resolution(s) for next year,...

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We (won't) take Manhattan

If you recall my earlier post The Manhattan Project, Apple pulled the Manhattan Declaration app from its iTunes app store over Thanksgiving vacation. Appropriately, it is over Christmas vacation that they respond to the inquiries by the authors of the Manhattan Declaration. The response is not promising. From the page: Apple is telling us that the...

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Holy Innocents

Today is the feast of the Holy Innocents; those infants murdered 2000 years ago for the crime of being born close to the time of Jesus' birth. Many of the events surrounding the Nativity are firmly established by history and archeology, but this event is not recorded, leading some to question whether or not it actually happened. Certainly Herod was...

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Apps for Catholics

Despite Apple's pulling of the Manhattan Declaration app from the iTunes app store, there are still some Catholic apps available. Every so often a friend gets a new iPhone or iPod and I wind up telling them what apps I have on my iPhone. So I thought I would immortalize it in these pages bits. Some of these apps have a separate version for the iPad....

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There's no place like home for the holidays

Two stories of coming home for the holidays. First in Canada, St. John the Evangelist to Join the Anglican Ordinariate. From the motion voted on by the parish: "We accept, unreservedly and with humility and gratitude, the invitation of His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI to enter into the full communion of the Catholic Church through the provisions of Anglicanorum...

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What Good is a Chocolate Manhole Cover?

...or  gingerbread man the other 11 months of the year? I pondered this important question as I made gingerbread for our scout troop Christmas party yesterday.  Fortunately for us all Cakewrecks has the answer. Unfortunately the answer is hideous. Go on over and check it out. Extra credit if you know where the title came fr...

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NYC is Anti-choice

Let's pretend I'm thinking about buying a computer but I don't know if I want to buy one or not. That's my choice, but I need information. Now, say there's a group of computer-literate people who have a free computer clinic where I can go to get information to help me decide if I really want to buy one or wait. A few blocks down is a Best Buy* store...

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Pro-Life Video Contest WInners

Action Life of Ottawa has published the winners in their Pro-life video contest. It must have been a tough decision because I think all three are equally good. I especially like the ending of the third place one (and no, it's not gory - the image you see is a preborn baby grabbing the hand of a doctor who is performing surgery on it). Congratulations to the winners! Enjoy all three! First prize: Eric Jette, 17, St. Joseph's High School, Nepean Second prize: Ellis Maveety, 14, St. Francis Xavier High School, Ottawa Third prize: Culture of Life...

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Street Cleaner's Nativity

OK, so I am blogging, but it's light stuff...

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Lighting the Tree

Busy this week and next, so I haven't been posting much (and probably won't until after Christmas day). In the meantime, have a very Merry Christma...

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No Future for Jews

"I see no future for Jews in the Netherlands" says former Dutch EU commissioner Frits Bolkenstein. According to Mr. Bolkenstein "recognizable" Jews are no longer safe in Netherlands due to Muslim anti-Semitism. He said he has no confidence in proposed measures to combat anti-Jewish sentiment and recommends they emigrate to the US or Israel. In other...

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More Christmas Movies

In my cliffhanger post "A few of my favorite things" I began the ongoing task of describing some of my favorite Christmas-y movies. This post continues the list. Most of these movies are pretty popular, and I'm sure you've at least heard of them if you haven't actually seen them. What they have in common is that all of them are movies that my wife...

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If you think I'm a fool...

...it's just another jewel in my crown. This is from a speech by Gianna Jessen at Queen’s Hall, Parliament House, Victoria, Australia. I normally don't repost things I assume my readers have probably seen on other blogs, but this video featured on Jill Stanek's site I found to be moving and wanted to share with you all. So if you've already seen it, my apologies, but if you haven't check it out. Take 10 minutes you would have spent looking at lolcats or the like. It's worth it...

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The Manhattan Project

Over on the right hand side of this blog you should find a button labeled "The Manhattan Declaration" (also in the image in this post). Just what the heck is this and why am I posting this? The Manhattan Declaration is a document that you can sign online. As of this post, almost 500,000 people have signed it. It is ecumenical, and affirms beliefs...

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A few of my favorite things

One of the traditions we have in our home around Christmas time is that my wife and I share a "new" holiday movie. By "new" I mean a good Christmas-y movie that we've never seen before, which generally means "old" rather than "new". Over the years it gets harder and harder to find ones we haven't seen before. I'd like to share with you some of the...

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Remember

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What to buy

Looking for last minute gifts for people? Know a person who "has everything"? Tired of giving the kids' teachers the same old stuff every year? Here are some great ideas for holiday gifts. Food for the Poor has gifts starting from a fruit tree for a poor family ($10) all the way up to building a school. You get a printable card that you can give...

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Not that there's anything wrong with that...

Remember Seinfeld? That was his mantra when discussing homosexuality. There was a whole episode, "The Outing" that featured the line over and over. Today I came across this article in the Washington Times on a new pill which can help lower the risk of a gay man contracting HIV from an HIV-positive partner. The numbers are interesting. the article states Research...

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New Life

I just couldn't not blog about NASA's announcement today. NASA has discovered a new life form, a bacteria called GFAJ-1 that is unlike anything currently living in planet Earth. It's capable of using arsenic to build its DNA, RNA, proteins, and cell membranes. This changes everything.I agree that this is a big deal. We have up to now assumed that...

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Habemus Episcopus!

As you may or may not know, I reside in the Diocese of Trenton, NJ. On Dec. 1, 2010, Pope Benedict XVI accepted the resignation of Bishop John M. Smith as head of the Diocese of Trenton. Bishop David M. O'Connell, C.M., has succeeded to the diocesan see, becoming the 10th Bishop of Trenton. A Mass marking the transition in pastoral governance will...

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Black Genocide

Please watch the above trailer for Maafa 21. The word Maafa comes from the Swahili word for "great disaster" and refers to the "African Holocaust" or the enslavement and suffering of blacks taken from Africa over the last 500 years. The point of the movie is that the black holocaust continues into the 21st century. Don't believe it? Both Atlanta...

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Catholic Intellectual Property Rights

With the recent flap about the Feds seizing domains I've been thinking about intellectual property rights (IPR). As one acquaintance put it "when the Feds make a law that turns 90% of the world into criminals there is something wrong with the law." Now, I doubt that 90% of the population shares files illegally, but I do agree the law in this matter...

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Hate Speech

We got a rare (for my parish) "moralizing" homily this week, about the atheist billboard in northern NJ calling Christmas a myth. Although the billboard encourages celebrating "reason", the atheists who put it up are ignoring reason. Christ's existence is a historical fact, documented by historians of the time, such as Josephus. Unless the atheists...

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Making a list, checking it twice...

If you're coming to town this Christmas (or whenever), you'd better be nice to the TSA, because president Obama's taking names. According to an article in Canada Free Press (of course the American media wouldn't carry this). [italics are from the article, bold emphasis mine] I was contacted by a source within the DHS who is troubled by the terminology...

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Turkeys and Pilgrims and Pie, oh my!

I confess I've never liked Thanksgiving much. My childhood memories are for the most part neutral to very bad, with long drives in traffic and family tragedies thrown in for good measure. As an adult my love for the holiday has not increased. For one thing, it is billed as a celebration of religious freedom, when in fact, the puritans were about the...

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Same sex marriage - why not?

I recently heard a story from a friend about a NJ man who was wearing a "wedding" ring on his right hand. When asked why, he said that only when the state recognized his marriage would he feel entitled to wear it on his left hand. Now, in case you don't know, the state of New Jersey accords all of the rights of spouses to same sex partners, just not...

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Is the Pope a Leftie?

There were two stories about Pope Benedict XVI in the "news" this week that had my more liberal friends crowing over. Hey, the Pope finally got "with it" and admitted that we are right about condoms to fight AIDS and socialize medicine! The bigger story, of course, was Pope approves of condom use. As usual, all the mainstream media attempts to spin...

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Unity, Diversity, Charity

OK, most of the Catholic blogosphere is pondering Archbishop Dolan's election (I think h is a good man) or Domini Verbum (which I haven't finished reading yet). So I thought I'd write about...Mark Shea. Disclaimer: I don't agree with many of the things Mark says, and I think he is naive about his world view on some issues. Mark trends to demonize...

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