Dear Gun Control Advocate

Dear Gun Control Advocate, You are a hypocrite. I'm tired of listening to your whining about how the "safety of children" trumps the rights guaranteed us by the US Constitution. Your agenda has nothing to do with protecting children, and everything to do with your misguided belief that human beings are inherently flawed, and only the guidance of...

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In the Christmas mood

If, like me, you are spending this weekend preparing for Christmas, here's some music to help get you in the mood. Yes, I know it's still Advent, but it's only one more day. ...

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Monday Joke

For those who, like me, still need to get shopping done and decorations put up, I offer you a short joke this week, so you can get on with it and have time to spend with your friends and families. What's the difference between America and England...

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Despair and hope

I don't have any profound words in the wake of the tragedy which struck the school children of Connecticut yesterday, or the children of Henan Province. I have no political agenda to push in the minds of people who are grieving. I have no explanation, other than to say Satan is alive and well, but remember, so is Jesus...

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Free Speech

Removed by Lamar Outdoor advertising as offensive. Kept up by Lamar Outdoor advertising as "free speech"...

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Leaders

Protector of human rights. From my opposites series. For more information see Meeting the empress.  [I could not find credits for the photo...

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Tweeting

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Monday Joke

A traffic cop pulled alongside a speeding car on the motorway. Glancing into the car, he was astounded to see that the young lady, who was driving, was knittin...

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Monday Joke

With the feast of the Immaculate Conception just around the corner, I give you this joke to share. Jesus went to the Mount of Olives.  But early in the morning he arrived again in the temple area, and all the people started coming to him, and he sat down and taught them. Then the scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught...

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The Bible

Not OK to quote Bible to public school class. OK to quote Bible to public school cla...

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Survivors

I just read a chilling story. No, not a horror novel, but a news story that happened in Italy: Baby Boy Survives for Nearly Two Days After Abortio...

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Monday Joke

A man goes to his doctor and says "Doctor, I have been experiencing terrible memory loss. I can't remember things from one day to the next. I think it's getting worse...

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Children's Rights

I'm starting a new category, "opposites" for posts like this. I think my first was actually "The Uniform", which I posted back in July. Violating Children's rights Not violating Children's rig...

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Monday Joke

Mary and Joe are going out for the evening. The last thing they do is put their cat out. The taxi arrives, and as the couple walk out of the house, the cat scoots back in. Joe returns inside to chase it out. Mary, not wanting it known that the house would be empty, explains to the taxi driver, "My husband is just going upstairs to say goodbye...

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HHS analogies part 2

This is a continuation of my earlier post, HHS analogies part 1. In this series I am refuting arguments supporting the HHS mandate via a set of analogies (hence the name). A common argument in support of the HHS mandate is "the mandate helps poor women who need health care." There are numerous fallacies here. First off, abortion, sterilization...

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Monday Joke

While cleaning the attic of his new house, Joe found an old stub for some shoes the previous owner had left at the repair shop 20 years ago. He looked in the phone book and found, remarkably, that the shop was still in business, He decided it would be interesting to go to the shop and see if the shoes were still there. Joe went down town, located...

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HHS analogies, Part 1

I had a recent "discussion" with a friend about the HHS mandate, and in formulating my case I came up with some analogies that I feel might be helpful in explaining some aspect to people. So here goes. Comments welcome. One objection I keep hearing is "your tax dollars already pay for abortion, this is no different." It is. First off, according...

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What this election means

I'm hoping someone will look back on this post in a few years and say "boy, what a pessimist!" That said, I have a few thoughts and reflections on the election. Several people have posted things along the line of "God is punishing the US" or "His will was done." I can't agree with either sentiment. First off, I don't think God needs to punish us....

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Monday Joke

It's election day tomorrow - get out and vote! To put you in the mood here's a joke. Thinking that the President needed to show a more human side of himself before the election, his campaign chief advised him to visit an old age home. Walking into the room of an old man, with the cameras whirring, the President was surprised when the old man offered...

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Monday Joke

A tourist in Vienna, passing Vienna's Zentralfriedhof graveyard at night on October 31st, heard strange music softly playing.  Looking around, he saw nobody. Listening carefully, he discovered the sound coming from a grave with a headstone that reads: Ludwig van Beethoven, 1770-1827. Then he realized that the music is Beethoven's Ninth...

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Bedding Big Business

Since we're dealing with hypothetical situations, I have another one (with apologies to Exxon). Let's say that a particular state was given a federal grant to provide relief on energy costs, and that money went to Exxon every year. One year, the state discovered Exxon wasn't really doing anything for the money, and decided to give the money to promote...

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Monday Joke

A man is stranded in the remote countryside when his car breaks down. After discovering his cell phone doesn't work, the man begins walking down the road. After several hours' walk the man sees a monastery, and rings the bell. A monk comes out and invites the man inside use the phone. It turns out it will take hours for a tow truck to come, and...

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Reducing Theft

Let's say we look at employee theft in department stores. Now, every department store will have some degree of employee theft, but all stores would like to minimize it. It hurts the bottom line, and makes people want to shop elsewhere. Let's say there is one department store in particular, that institutes strict policies to discourage employee theft....

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Scott Adams makes sense

If you're a geek like me you enjoy reading Scott Adams' popular Dilbert cartoon. And if you've been following the news you've probably read about what Scott Adams said about the upcoming election. Here's a piece of it (actually most of it - I wanted to give enough context to make my point - I encourage you to read the whole thing). Let's say a CEO...

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It's that simple

Found this short 16 second video on the HHS mandate....

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Recording the end of an era

A friend showed me this cool time lapse video of the space shuttle moving across LA. The only thing that would have been cooler is if it included the trip across the country as well. The moment is bittersweet, however, as it reminds me of how far we have fallen in our nation's goals. When I was a lad, the space age had begun and we were a nation...

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Monday Joke

This one's courtesy Melanie on Plurk. Thank you. And hey, readers. If either of you knows any good ones please drop me a line. Without further ado... An old, blind cowboy wanders into an all-girl biker bar by mistake. He finds his way to a bar stool and orders a shot of Jack Daniels. After sitting there for a while, he yells to the bartender, "Hey,...

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Voting and sin Part 3

This is part 3, of my series on voting and sin. In part 1 I spoke about whether it is a sin to vote for Governor Romney (as some Obama supporters have told me). In part 2 I covered whether voting third party is a sin, as many many people on both sides have told me. In this part I wanted to cover whether voting for President Obama is a sin. I've been...

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Are the unborn human?

Jimmy Akin, in his usual cogent and accessible style, addresses the issue at the core of the pro-life movement, whether unborn human beings are human beings. If you read this blog, or know me in real life, you know this is a biggie for me. Too often in politics and in casual conversation people make the unsubstantiated claim that abortion is a "personal...

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Monday Joke

Two friends, Joe and Mike, go on a hunting trip. They start walking from their car into the woods. After about an hour of walking, they sit down and take a rest.  Joe says "I'm not feeling so good". Mike suggests they walk back to the truck.  So they start walking. About 15 minutes into the trip, Joe gasps, clutches his chest, and falls...

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Raise your hand...

...if you are as angry as I am. This came to my attention in an email form the Cardinal Newman Society. Apparently, a Missouri federal court dismissed in its entirety a suit against the HHS mandate brought by a Catholic businessman. Here is the reasoning, directly from the court order (emphasis mine). Plaintiffs allege that the preventive services...

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Monday Joke

Thanks to Joni on Plurk for sending me this joke. The local news station was interviewing an 80-year-old lady because she had just gotten married for the fourth time. The interviewer asked her questions about her life, about what it felt like to be marrying again at 80, and then about her new husband's occupation. "He's a funeral director," she...

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Voting and sin, Part 2

A long time ago a friend told me this story, which I will paraphrase, since it's been a while. A man intends to vote for a third party candidate. One day there's a knock on his door. It is the democratic candidate campaigning. He asks "Will you vote for me?" "No" the man replies. I intend to vote third party. The candidate then makes a good case,...

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Voting and sin part 1

I was in the middle of writing a blog post on voting and sin, when a friend sent me a message on Facebook: I've been discussing,the USCCB guidelines for voting, and their synchronicity/consistency with a few of the papal encyclicals (Evangelium Vitae, for one), with a few priests and several people staunch Catholics... So, since your FB post says...

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to add a little beauty

To add a little beauty to your week... Seyit UYGUR { Ebru Artist } from Oguz Uygur on Vimeo. Thank y'all so much for the likes, comments and the follows. I am really humbled. My parents perform this art (Ebru in Turkish, Paper Marbling in English) and the footage was shot for a promo piece I was working on back then and my dad asked me to put a video together for him. This is what came out of that. For those who is wondering how it's done I'd recommend googling "Paper Marbling" there is plenty of info out there. The song is "Charlotte...

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Getting it all wrong

It was with some amusement that I read "Will Science Someday Rule Out the Possibility of God?" My amusement turned to dismay. Not because the article is right, but because it has it all wrong, and some people will actually believe what it says. Let's start with the opening premise. Over the past few centuries, science can be said to have gradually...

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Monday Joke

The recent screeds by Bill Nye, Gary Trudeau and others about how belief in the Biblical creation narratives is harmful to children reminded me of a joke. Many years from now, when scientist discover how to create life, they decide science has disproved God, so they select a scientist to go up to the top of a mountain to break the news to him. The...

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Sitting in the sun

My wife and my youngest son are terribly allergic to incense. Too much and they spend the rest of the day in bed with nausea and headache. And so it was with dismay rather than delight that we entered the church last Sunday to the strong smell of incense. Thinking there was going to be more at this mass (for whatever reason, there wasn't - it was...

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The next time

The next time someone argues that "God made people gay" so we should just accept it, ask them how they feel about contraception and sterilization. Odds are they have no problem with those things. "But God made people fertile." So why should homosexuality (or pedophilia or incest or beastiality or whatever sexual act is being touted) be accepted as...

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What matters

Under Obamacare, penalty per employee per year for employers who offer NO healthcare coverage whatsoever: $2,000 Under Obamacare, penalty per employee per year for religious employers who offer excellent healthcare coverage, but omit abortion, sterilization and contraception: $36,...

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Monday Joke

A panda walks into a diner, sits down and orders a sandwich. The waitress is quite surprised, but decides to try to treat it like any other customer. It orders a sandwich and begins to eat. After it is done, it takes out a pistol, fires a shot into the ceiling, and starts to walk out without paying. The waitress says "Hey, what do you think you're...

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Anti-Choice

"Celebrity chef" Jamie Oliver said, according to Yahoo News: "We hear a lot about how we shouldn't be 'nannying' people with laws about how they live their lives, but with such a massive problem as the obesity epidemic to deal with, we are way past the point where [we] can trust people to make better choices. We have to help them make better...

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Cynical

I'm feeling cynical today, and so I'm posting a story I've tried to stay away from for a while. As you may remember, last year American Atheists, Inc. sued the 9-11 Museum to remove some wreckage of the WTC towers from it's display. The reason? The beams formed a cross. From "Are You Kidding?" The cross is made of two beams found in the wreckage...

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Person

Person Not a Pers...

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Monday Joke

Two avid fishermen go on a fishing trip. They rent all the equipment: the reels, the rods, the wading suits, the rowboat, the car, and even a cabin in the woods. They spend a fortune. The first day they go fishing, but they don't catch anything. The same thing happens on the second day, and on the third day. It goes on like this until finally, on...

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