Monday, August 26, 2013

Monday Joke

Mrs. Donovan was walking down O'Connell Street in Dublin when she met Father Flaherty.

The Father said, "Top o' the mornin' to ye! Aren't ye Mrs. Donovan and didn't I marry ye and yer husband 2 years ago?"

She replied, "Aye, that ye did, Father."

The Father asked, "And be there any wee little ones yet?"

She replied, "No, not yet, Father."

The Father said, "Well, now, I'm goin' to Rome next week and I'll light a candle for ye and yer husband."

She replied, "Oh, thank ye, Father." They then parted ways.

Some years later they met again. The Father asked, "Well now, Mrs. Donovan, how
are ye these days?"

She replied, "Oh, very well, Father!"

The Father asked, "And tell me, have ye any been blessed wit wee ones yet?"

She replied, "Oh yes, Father! Three sets o' twins and 4 singles, 10 in all!"

The Father said, "That's wonderful! How is yer loving husband doing?"

She replied, "E's gone to Rome to blow out yer stinking candle."

Saturday, August 24, 2013

Liars!

Those following prolife news abroad (or those living in Ireland) may be familiar with Ireland's "Protection of Life During Pregnancy Act." And those who are at all familiar with western politics will realize that in doublespeak "Protection of Life" is a code word for "Destruction of Life."

The law was rushed through in response to the case of Savita Halappanavar, an Indian woman in Ireland who died last year of septicemia following a miscarriage, who may not have wanted an abortion, who would not have been saved by an abortion, and who did not die because she did not have an abortion. Fortunately pro-abortion forces were waiting in the wings, and were able to use the media to effectively raise an outcry which was used to pass the new law in record time despite the protests of the majority of Ireland's population. Legislators who didn't go along with the law were sacked.

So what is this new law? It's very similar to the U.S.'s Doe v. Bolton case, which of course is not a law passed by Congress, but a law made by the Supreme Court, which states that a woman has a "right" to kill her baby (well, pay to have him killed - it's still illegal for her to do it herself) up to and including the moment of birth in order to preserve her health. "Health" in the U.S. has been interpreted to mean any kind of health, medical, physical, mental, emotional, financial, you name it. It has lead to the most permissive abortion criteria in the world, except for China.

But I digress. So after decades where no Doctor in Ireland has been able to find a case where abortion actually did save the life of a mother, and after years of having the safest, best medical care in the world for expectant mothers, we're told all of a sudden, only a month after the new law is passed that it was used to save a life! Hallelujah!

Only that's another lie. The story was fabricated to defend the new law, just as the Savita story was fabricated and twisted to promote its passage. What happened was what would have happened if the law had never been passed.

So what exactly is that? In this case, the babies' (it was twins) amniotic sac ruptured when they were only 18 weeks old. The danger is that the tissue may become infected, and the mother and babies will die of sepsis. There is a chance that no infection will occur and babies have been born with a ruptured amniotic sac, but it is rare. So how is this usually treated?

In a pro-life state (like Ireland used to be, and still is, in her people if not in law), labor is induced, and the baby delivered. Labor and delivery are "easy" at that age, since the child is only 5 inches long. If the baby were close to the 21 week mark, he would have a decent chance of survival with medical care, but an 18 week old baby cannot survive outside the womb. So the baby is swaddled and made comfortable, and the parents can see and hold their precious child and comfort him in his last moments. The mother is examined to make sure no parts of the placenta are left inside, where they could cause infection, and is given prophylactic antibiotics. The baby's remains may be cremated or buried.

In a pro-abortion state (like the U.S.) the preferred "treatment" is abortion. By far the most common procedure for an 18 week abortion is a D&E. The cervix is dilated. A pair of forceps is inserted into the womb to grasp part of the fetus. The teeth of the forceps dig into the flesh tightly and the doctor twists and pulls to dismember and tear apart the body of the still living baby. Once the limbs are out, the spine is snapped to make it easier to extract the torso. Finally the skull is crushed, again to make it easier to extract. The pieces of the baby are reassembled and examined to make sure the entire corpse has been removed. Then the uterus is scraped with a knife to remove the placenta and any other tissue remaining. The mother is examined to make sure no parts of the placenta are left inside, where they could cause infection, and is given prophylactic antibiotics. The baby's remains are put in the garbage as "medical waste" or may be sold for us in cosmetics or other product by companies like Nestle and Neocutis.

For more detailed and graphic descriptions of the procedure, here is a description by a doctor, and here is a diagram of the procedure. For images of babies around this age or older who have been aborted, click here. I try to keep this blog relatively family friendly, so I'm not including this material in the post.

Wednesday, August 21, 2013

Hate Speech

Yet another one for the Opposites files...




Just for clarification, the part of the first letter ruled "hate speech" is the following:
Sodomites are 430 times more likely to acquire Aids and 3 times more likely to sexually abuse children!;
Born Gay? No Way! Homosexual sex is about risky and addictive behaviour!;
If Saskatchewan’s sodomites have their way, your school board will be celebrating buggery too!;
Don’t kid your selves; homosexuality is going to be taught to your children and it won’t be the media stereotypes of two monogamous men holding hands;
The Bible is clear that homosexuality is an abomination;
Sodom and Gomorrah was given over completely to homosexual perversion and as a result destroyed by God’s wrath;
Our acceptance of homosexuality and our toleration of its promotion in our school system will lead to the early death and morbidity of many children.
Parts of the second letter that are not considered hate speech include the following (emphasis mine):
Personally, they should take whatever non retarded body parts he possesses and donate it to science. What the hell else good is he to anyone!!!
I HATE people like you
Do the right thing and move or euthanize him!!! Either way, we are ALL better off!!!

Tuesday, August 20, 2013

Only the good die young

Source: Wikipedia
If you haven't been living in a cave you've probably heard the Billy Joel song "Only the Good Die Young." It's a very catchy tune, and when it's on the radio or somewhere I can't help but hum along. But did you ever stop to listen to the words? It's pretty horrible. A man is trying to get a young girl (not sure how young, if you get my drift) to have sex with him. The girl is a virgin and he blames the Catholic Church for keeping her from having the fun that she should be having.

Aside from the anti-Catholic lines, there is one verse that catches my attention:
They say there's a heaven for those who will wait
Some say it's better but I say it ain't
I'd rather laugh with the sinners than cry with the saints
Sinners are much more fun

It catches my attention because many people think it's true. And even if you read the Butler's Lives of the Saints you get the same impression - that the saints live horrible lives in misery. But getting a martyr's death isn't the point of sainthood, or even a requirement.

Take a moment to watch this video about St. Maximilian Kolbe.


St.Kolbe died what to us would seem a horrible death, but he wasn't crying, he was smiling. I haven't been around too many saints, but I have been around lots of sinners, and although they have their moments of laughter, there's a lot of crying going on. It seems to me that Billy Joel's words are spoken out of ignorance, or maybe wishful thinking. You don't laugh with sinner and cry with saints, but more like the other way around.

The saints are the joyful, peaceful happy ones. This becomes evident if you read the writings of the saints, or see videos of them. There is a quality about real saints that makes you admire and want to be like them, which is quite opposed to the way they are portrayed in secular descriptions.

So I was thinking of a way to explain this to people by way of analogy. Let's say all you knew about exercise was watching a weight lifting competition. You might think "I don't ever want to exercise and become strong because strong people are just crushed with weights." Quite the opposite is true. The weak person struggles lifting weights, while the strong person is not bothered by them.

St. Maximilian Kolbe didn't die a hard death. He simply saw a weight too heavy for someone else, that he could lift with ease.

Monday, August 19, 2013

Chris Christie has lost my vote

Source: Wikipedia
Well, for the most part Christie has been doing the right things, but he has taken a turn for the worse. In today's news:
New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie signed into law on Monday legislation that bars licensed therapists from trying to turn gay teenagers straight, though the Republican said in a statement he did so "reluctantly."
and
Christie found middle ground on medical marijuana for children when he agreed Friday to allow growers to cultivate additional strains, and for marijuana to be made in an edible form for chronically ill children. But he would not lift an oversight provision that could require as many as three doctors to sign off on a prescription.
On the first issue, I think most people, even those who feel that one is "born gay" acknowledge that sometimes a person who has been "straight" for some time feels unhappy where they are and "discovers" they have homosexual tendencies. So why is it so hard to imagine that someone who is "gay" could be unhappy and discover they are straight? Why can a therapist help an unhappy straight person to be gay, but be forbidden by law to help an unhappy gay person to be straight? Why is the "discovery" a one way street?

As for parents making this decision for their children, why not? A child does not have any idea of right or wrong, or sexual identity except as it gets it from parents and peers. And in today's society, how many children are "faking" being gay to get the attention they crave? If a particular method of behavior modification is harmful, then ban that method of behavior modification for all behavior, but banning the end, not the means, strikes me as particularly biased against a given outcome.

As for the second, exactly why do we need state laws to put marijuana into the hands of children? There is a procedure in place to get drugs to patients, that's designed to make sure the drugs are effective safe and used properly. If there were a medical benefit to be had, don't you think drug companies would have jumped on it, gotten FDA approval, and be dispensing it already, at great profit? They've had years and years to study it. Now the typical argument is that the drug companies can't experiment with it because it is an illegal substance. Poppycock! So are all the controlled substances out there. They make morphine, opiates, barbiturates, all sorts of things, without having governors sign special laws.

The other argument I've heard is that drug companies know how wonderful marijuana is but are hiding it because there's no profit to be made since people can grow it themselves. Well, that can be said of most plant-derived drugs. What drug companies do is find the active ingredients and put them in an easier to use form, like a pill or inhaler, and work on eliminating side effects, etc. If marijuana was safe, effective, and useful, I'm sure someone would put it in pill form and charge an arm and a leg, and since it is illegal to grow it yourself, they could charge a ton of money for it.

The fact that nobody has gotten the marijuana inhaler or patch or pill or what have you through FDA approval is indication to me that such a drug would not pass muster in terms of safety or effectiveness. The real end game of this bill is to make money by selling tones of marijuana to people who want to use it for recreational purposes and will use medicine as an excuse.

Monday Joke

An atheist was taking a walk through the woods, admiring all that evolution had created.

"What majestic trees! What powerful rivers! What beautiful animals!", he said to himself. As he was walking along the river, he heard a rustling in the bushes behind him. When he turned to see what the cause was, he saw a 7-foot grizzly charging right towards him. He ran as fast as he could. He looked over his shoulder and saw that the bear was closing, He ran even faster, crying in fear. He looked over his shoulder again, and the bear was even closer. His heart was pounding and he tried to run even faster. He tripped and fell on the ground. He rolled over to pick himself up, but saw the bear right on top of him, reaching for him with his left paw and raising his right paw to strike him.

At that moment, the Atheist cried out "Oh my God!...." Time stopped. The bear froze. The forest was silent. Even the river stopped moving.

As a bright light shone upon the man, a voice came out of the sky, "You deny my existence for all of these years; teach others I don't exist; and even credit my creation to a cosmic accident. Do you expect me to help you out of this predicament? Am I to count you as a believer?"

The atheist looked directly into the light "It would be hypocritical of me to suddenly ask You to treat me as Christian now, but perhaps could you make the bear a Christian?" "Very well," said the voice.

The light went out. The river ran again. And the sounds of the forest resumed.

The bear stopped in mid swipe, put its paws together, looked up and said "Bless us O Lord, and these thy gifts, which we are about to receive..."

Saturday, August 17, 2013

Superstition

Fr. Dowling (image via CNA)
Stevie Wonder defines superstition as "when you believe in things that you don't understand." Although I enjoy the song, let's face it, we all believe in things that we don't understand. I don't understand nuclear physics or why my wife loves me, but I believe both to be true, and I don't consider either belief to be superstition.

Merriam-Webster has a better definition:
Superstition: a belief or practice resulting from ignorance, fear of the unknown, trust in magic or chance, or a false conception of causation
 Recently the news was all abuzz about the "mystery priest." From USA Today:
Emergency workers and community members in eastern Missouri are not sure what to make of a mystery priest who showed up at a critical accident scene Sunday morning and whose prayer seemed to change life-threatening events for the positive.
Even odder, the black-garbed priest does not appear in any of the nearly 70 photos of the scene of the accident in which a 19-year-old girl almost died. No one knows the priest and he vanished without a word, said Raymond Reed, fire chief of New London, Mo.
"I think it's a miracle," Reed said. "I would say whether it was an angel that was sent to us in the form of a priest or a priest that became our angel, I don't know. Either way, I'm good with it."
Now, immediately, several people began to speculate whether this was a supernatural event. Take Joel and Lisa Schmidt, for instance, who hypothesized that the priest might be Fr. Lukas Etlin.

I became aware of the story from a friend who is a non-believer, who brought it to my attention as the kind of thing I would be interested in. And they were right, I was very interested in the story. My non-believing friends chuckled kindly at my superstitious belief in the supernatural. They dismissed the story as likely a hallucination of people under stress. Clearly the photographic evidence shows it was just wishful thinking, and so they pooh poohed all the hoopla and investigation.

As it turns out, it wasn't a supernatural event at all but an actual living priest with the  (somewhat ironic) name Fr. Dowling, who happened to pass by and prayed with the young girl and anointed her. Mystery solved.

Now although my non-believing friends may point to this incident and say "look at those superstitious Catholics" let's look at the definition of the word and see who fits it better. On the one hand we have Catholics and Christians who said "we don't know what this is, but we'll keep and open mind and investigate." For instance, in the article above Chief Raymond Reed said it could be an angel or a priest, or as the Schmidts said, we should investigate from both a supernatural and natural perspective.

On the other hand we have non-believers who would not bother to investigate because it is clear wat the answer is - it must be a mistake.

Which group is rejecting the unknown, acting in ignorance and trusting in chance?

Now, what do you think of this?




[Update, Michael Fanelli on Facebook pointed me to the following clip o the mystery priest - World Over - 2013-08-15 -- the "Mystery Priest" - not embedding it so I can give the offset where the story startes.]

Tuesday, August 13, 2013

Belated Monday Joke

With all my "back from camp" work I forgot to post this one on time! Sorry folks, but here it is - better late than never.

A man walks into a monastery and says “I want to be monk.”

The abbot replies “Great! But you realize monks in our order are only allowed to talk once every ten years.”

The man replies “Fine.”

Ten years go by and the man goes into the abbot’s office and says “Bed’s hard.”

Another ten years go by and the man goes into the abbot’s office and says, “Food stinks!”

Another ten years goes by and the man goes into the abbot’s office and says “Water’s cold. I quit!”

The abbot replies, “Figures! You’ve been complaining ever since you got here!"

Monday, August 5, 2013

Monday Joke

An Irish priest is driving down to New York and gets stopped for speeding in Connecticut.
 
The state trooper smells alcohol on the priest's breath and then sees an empty wine bottle on the floor of the car.
 
He says, "Sir, have you been drinking?"
 
"Just water," says the priest, fingers crossed.
 
The trooper says, "Then why do I smell wine?"
 
The priest looks at the bottle and says, "Good Lord! He's done it again!"

source: http://www.jokes4us.com/religiousjokes/catholicjokes.html