Shameless Promotion-Great Literature....*Real* Literature!!!

"Just Look" Yeah, Cardinal Egan!!!

The picture on this page is an untouched photograph of a being that has been within its mother for 20 weeks. Please do me the favor of looking at it carefully.

Have you any doubt that it is a human being?

If you do not have any such doubt, have you any doubt that it is an innocent human being?

If you have no doubt about this either, have you any doubt that the authorities in a civilized society are duty-bound to protect this innocent human being if anyone were to wish to kill it?

If your answer to this last query is negative, that is, if you have no doubt that the authorities in a civilized society would be duty-bound to protect this innocent human being if someone were to wish to kill it, I would suggest—even insist—that there is not a lot more to be said about the issue of abortion in our society. It is wrong, and it cannot—must not—be tolerated.

But you might protest that all of this is too easy. Why, you might inquire, have I not delved into the opinion of philosophers and theologians about the matter? And even worse: Why have I not raised the usual questions about what a "human being" is, what a "person" is, what it means to be "living," and such? People who write books and articles about abortion always concern themselves with these kinds of things. Even the justices of the Supreme Court who gave us "Roe v. Wade" address them. Why do I neglect philosophers and theologians? Why do I not get into defining "human being," defining "person," defining "living," and the rest? Because, I respond, I am sound of mind and endowed with a fine set of eyes, into which I do not believe it is well to cast sand. I looked at the photograph, and I have no doubt about what I saw and what are the duties of a civilized society if what I saw is in danger of being killed by someone who wishes to kill it or, if you prefer, someone who "chooses" to kill it. In brief: I looked, and I know what I saw.

But what about the being that has been in its mother for only 15 weeks or only 10? Have you photographs of that too? Yes, I do. However, I hardly think it necessary to show them. For if we agree that the being in the photograph printed on this page is an innocent human being, you have no choice but to admit that it may not be legitimately killed even before 20 weeks unless you can indicate with scientific proof the point in the development of the being before which it was other than an innocent human being and, therefore, available to be legitimately killed. Nor have Aristotle, Aquinas or even the most brilliant embryologists of our era or any other era been able to do so. If there is a time when something less than a human being in a mother morphs into a human being, it is not a time that anyone has ever been able to identify, though many have made guesses. However, guesses are of no help. A man with a shotgun who decides to shoot a being that he believes may be a human being is properly hauled before a judge. And hopefully, the judge in question knows what a "human being" is and what the implications of someone's wishing to kill it are. The word "incarceration" comes to mind.

However, we must not stop here. The matter becomes even clearer and simpler if you obtain from the National Geographic Society two extraordinary DVDs. One is entitled "In the Womb" and illustrates in color and in motion the development of one innocent human being within its mother. The other is entitled "In the Womb—Multiples" and in color and motion shows the development of two innocent human beings—twin boys—within their mother. If you have ever allowed yourself to wonder, for example, what "living" means, these two DVDs will be a great help. The one innocent human being squirms about, waves its arms, sucks its thumb, smiles broadly and even yawns; and the two innocent human beings do all of that and more: They fight each other. One gives his brother a kick, and the other responds with a sock to the jaw. If you can convince yourself that these beings are something other than living and innocent human beings, something, for example, such as "mere clusters of tissues," you have a problem far more basic than merely not appreciating the wrongness of abortion. And that problem is—forgive me—self-deceit in a most extreme form.

Adolf Hitler convinced himself and his subjects that Jews and homosexuals were other than human beings. Joseph Stalin did the same as regards Cossacks and Russian aristocrats. And this despite the fact that Hitler and his subjects had seen both Jews and homosexuals with their own eyes, and Stalin and his subjects had seen both Cossacks and Russian aristocrats with theirs. Happily, there are few today who would hesitate to condemn in the roundest terms the self-deceit of Hitler, Stalin or even their subjects to the extent that the subjects could have done something to end the madness and protect living, innocent human beings.

It is high time to stop pretending that we do not know what this nation of ours is allowing—and approving—with the killing each year of more than 1,600,000 innocent human beings within their mothers. We know full well that to kill what is clearly seen to be an innocent human being or what cannot be proved to be other than an innocent human being is as wrong as wrong gets. Nor can we honorably cover our shame (1) by appealing to the thoughts of Aristotle or Aquinas on the subject, inasmuch as we are all well aware that their understanding of matters embryological was hopelessly mistaken, (2) by suggesting that "killing" and "choosing to kill" are somehow distinct ethically, morally or criminally, (3) by feigning ignorance of the meaning of "human being," "person," "living," and such, (4) by maintaining that among the acts covered by the right to privacy is the act of killing an innocent human being, and (5) by claiming that the being within the mother is "part" of the mother, so as to sustain the oft-repeated slogan that a mother may kill or authorize the killing of the being within her "because she is free to do as she wishes with her own body."

One day, please God, when the stranglehold on public opinion in the United States has been released by the extremists for whom abortion is the center of their political and moral life, our nation will, in my judgment, look back on what we have been doing to innocent human beings within their mothers as a crime no less heinous than what was approved by the Supreme Court in the "Dred Scott Case" in the 19th century, and no less heinous than what was perpetrated by Hitler and Stalin in the 20th. There is nothing at all complicated about the utter wrongness of abortion, and making it all seem complicated mitigates that wrongness not at all. On the contrary, it intensifies it.

Do me a favor. Look at the photograph again. Look and decide with honesty and decency what the Lord expects of you and me as the horror of "legalized" abortion continues to erode the honor of our nation. Look, and do not absolve yourself if you refuse to act.

Edward Cardinal Egan

Archbishop of New York

The most beautiful video I have ever seen.....

You're an Angry Feminist? That's So Cute....

by Matt Barber, director of cultural affairs with Liberty Counsel and associate dean with Liberty University School of Law.

With winds of change rivaling Hurricane Ike, John McCain's historic VP pick of Alaska Governor Sarah Palin has blown away the left's mask of "inclusive tolerance," exposing an ugly and desperate countenance below. Flummoxed and frantic, their shameful attacks on Palin and her family have revealed that liberal Democrats, the mainstream media, and those malicious hacks in the "progressive" blogosphere are willing to navigate the deepest, darkest sludge of slash-and-burn politics to see their man, Barack Obama, elected President.

The way the media have dispensed with the hold-harmless tradition of "hands-off the kids" and gone after the Palin children is both deplorable and unprecedented. It tells Republicans, Independents, and moderate Democrats alike everything they need to know about the extremist nature of "Obama-mania."

Examples are plentiful. NBC joked that Todd Palin – Gov. Palin's husband and father to her five beautiful kids – was having incestuous sexual relations with his own minor daughters, in a disgusting and decidedly unfunny hit-skit on Saturday Night Live. And Lefty pro-bama blogs, such as the Daily Kos, have targeted teenage daughter, Bristol, cruelly attacking her over and again on a personal level. (I imagine Todd's itchin' to drag those patchouli-bathed pansies out to the woodshed for a not-so-tender lesson in how to properly treat his little girl.)

"How dare McCain pick her?" they bellow. "How cynical." To them, she's not a real woman and they've said as much. Just as Clarence Thomas is really a rich white guy in blackface, she's just a misogynistic female impersonator.

Not surprisingly, the ultraliberal and presumptuously self-styled "National Organization for Women" has been beating the warpath drums, claiming that Palin is "...more a conservative man than she is a woman." And Wendy Doniger – a feminist Kool-Aid guzzler with the University of Chicago – wrote in Newsweek that "[Palin's] greatest hypocrisy is in her pretense that she is a woman." (Sorry, gals; Sarah Palin's most definitely a woman. Suppose some of that hate boils down to the fact that the governor is so easy on the eyes?)

Still, it was uber-fem, Gloria Steinem, who placed her finger directly on liberal feminists' true bone of contention with Palin, writing, "She opposes just about every issue that women support....[She] opposes everything most other women want and need." Of course, Madam Steinem's "everything most other women want and need" can be summed up in a single word: abortion.

Palin blew it, you see. She made an unforgivable "choice." She publicly expressed, through both word and selfless deed, that she values all people during every stage of development, from conception to natural death. Most egregiously, she refused the sacrificial rite of passage into authentic womandom. She declined to slaughter her own unborn child, Trig, to goddess feminism – even after doctors told her he was one of those Down syndrome throwaways. Steinem called her own abortion a "pivotal and constructive experience." I guess, according to these nasty ninnies, we simply can't have a vice president who "lacks experience" in "pivoting" and "constructing."

Think about it. Sarah Palin is poised to undo much of what the left has accomplished. Imagine her as a role model for millions upon millions of young girls around the world. Imagine those young girls embracing life over death on the abortion issue – embracing true feminism over angry, abortion-centric feminism. They absolutely can't have that and will stop at nothing to destroy her. We expect liberal bias from the media and other leftist elites. But this time around, the bias is off the charts. It's finally exposed liberals for who they truly are, and we have Sarah Palin to thank for it.

The reality is that – except for those who, like Gloria Steinem, think the preamble to the Declaration of Independence should have read: "All women are endowed by mother earth with the inalienable right to eat their own young" – Sarah Palin has connected with average Americans. Especially with women. Most notably (oh glory day) with Hillary Clinton supporters.

The Catholic Fellowship of Ex-Jehovah's Witnesses is now a 501c3--And We Need Your Help....

Jeff and Kathy Schwehm, co-founders of The Fellowship of Catholic Ex-Jehovah's Witnesses, have finally attained non-profit staus with the U.S. Federal Government. As such, they will be broadening the scope of their apostolate to reach Jehovah's Witnesses in transition to the Catholic Church, their families, friends and other concerned people.

Beginning August 1st, The Fellowship of Catholic Ex-JWs will be hosting their first annual "Welcome Home" Conference for former Jehovah's Witnesses, their families and anyone interested in attending. Please go here if you'd like to attend (...Mark Shea will be speaking....that alone should get you there):

Conference Registration

Also, whilst money is tight for everyone right now, please consider making a tax-deductable donation to The Fellowship of Catholic Ex-JW's to help them with much-needed expenses. Jeff and Kathy run the Catholic Ex-JW's website and message board at their own personal expense, and regularly receive requests for help from all over the world, but have very little support or assistance from others. Please consider making a donation today.

You can reach Jeff and Kathy at:

Jeffery and Kathy Schwehm
4802 B S. Amanda Lane
Sheboygan, WI 53081

Telephone: (920) 783-0376

Email

And their website is:

The Fellowship of Catholic Ex-JWs

Don't forget to check out the message board!!!

The Fraud Which is the Book of Mormon, Part I, the Introduction

This is the book that once and forever changed my life--but not in the way that one might suppose. You see, this is the 1830 Palmyra edition of the Book of Mormon--the very book that had Joseph Smith, Jr., standing up in council with the Quorum of the Twelve one fine Sunday [28 November 1841--just months before the second revision of said book would be published...] to declare that,

"the Book of Mormon [is] the most correct of any book on earth, and the keystone of our religion, and a man would get nearer to God by abiding by its precepts, than by any other book."

These days, Mormons will stretch reality to great lengths to define what 'ol Joe Junior actually meant by "most correct" but having been beat over the head with this assertion for most of my life (I grew up in Mormonland), I know what I believed these words meant--and I also know that I was not alone.

Martin Harris, who actually lost his whole freakin' farm because Joseph Smith Jr. convinced him (by means of an alleged revelation from GOD, no less) to mortgage it to finance the first printing under the pretense of making a big profit, related the following to Mormon missionary Edward Stevenson just a couple of years before he died:

"Martin Harris related an incident that occured during the time that he wrote that portion of the translation of the Book of Mormon which he was favored to write direct from the mouth of the Prophet Joseph Smith. He said that the Prophet possessed a seer stone, by which he was enabled to translate as well as from the Urim and Thummim, and for convenience he then used the seer stone, Martin explained the translation as follows: By aid of the seer stone [not the Urim and Thummin, mind you], sentences would appear and were read by the Prophet and written by Martin and when finished he would say "Written," and if correctly written that sentence would disappear and another appear in its place, but if not written correctly it remained until corrected, so that the translation was just as it was engraven on the plates, precisely in the language then used." ~Deseret News, "One of the Three Witnesses," 30 November 1881; reprinted in the Millennial Star 44/6 (6 February 1882), pages 86–87 under "Incidents in the Life of Martin Harris". [note: The latter can be viewed as a scanned original in PDF form on the net....]

...What's interesting is that poor old Martin was widely known as a chaser of mists and devils to those in his own community, and whilst Mormons are very fond of noting that though he did leave the Church for decades, only being re-baptized four years prior to his death, everyone knows (like it was ever a State secret....) that he never retracted his "testimony" regarding the alleged truthfulness of the Book of Mormon. But they just as often neglect to mention Martin's adamant, unrepentant support of LDS con-artist James J. Strang--another Mormon "prophet" with his own set of allegedly-inspired golden plates. Nor do Mormon apologists tend to mention that Martin also never abandoned his firm, life-long "testimony" that, for no particular reason whatsoever, Jesus Christ appeared to him in the form of a deer one fine day and walked with him for several miles whilst they aimlessly shot the breeze...or that it was Martin's own first wife, Lucy, who wisely took the first 116 pages of the original Book of Mormon manuscript and stuffed them in the kitchen fire, never to be seen again (Joe Junior later declared that "the Lord forbid" him from "retranslating" the missing pages....). Funny how things tend to go unsaid when we're trying to make the best of a happy lunatic and his trustworthy statements....

At any rate, back around 1990, I was trying to be a good 'lil Molly Mormon and getting thoroughly thrashed to death by my so-called "brothers and sisters in the 'True Church'" for the extraordinary effort of it all.

You see, the previous autumn, Neal, the returned missionary I had been dating over the summer, had come to my home, asked me to marry him, gave me a beautiful ring and the receipt to get it sized (I still have both, but never did make it to the jeweler) and asked me to make plans to follow him to Oklahoma....and, then, two days later he died in a nasty automobile accident whilst driving cross-country to start at the aviation school he'd enrolled in. Unfortunately for me, not many people were aware we'd been anything more than friends and my reaction to his death wasn't at all well-received by people in my stake, including his family. Regardless, I slept with his scriptures and one of his shirts for more than two years (they smelled like him for the longest time) and slowly, steadily sank into a deep, black, isolated depression. Making matters worse was the fact that LDS converts aren't generally well-treated, especially by many dyed-in-the-wool Mormons, and I was no exception. During the first two years after Neal's death, I found myself on the receiving end of some pretty vile treatment from people whom I'd naively believed, up until that point, were my friends and spiritual family. One particular woman in my ward began telling viscious, nonsensical tales of alleged crimes and sins that I was supposedly guilty of, and even claimed that I was trying to murder her. In the course of it all I became down-right suicidal and checked myself into a hospital (from where, incidentally, as I was later told by our new bishop, I evidentally stalked this same woman every night at her apartment....go figure).

I had one particularly good friend in my ward, however, who knew of the things that were going on and why, and, during a trip to Salt Lake to attend General Conference, he bought me this fascimile copy of the first printing of the Book of Mormon in an effort to cheer me up. In the beginning I was deeply touched by this gift. It wasn't really meant to be studied, but I decided that it might lift my spirits to "read the Book of Mormon the way the Saints had first read it." What I saw on those pages, however, opened my eyes and led me down a sickening road I was not exactly prepared to travel.

I first went to my bishop, and then to the stake president, looking for answers, and expecting fatherly counsel. I asked how it could be that this Book of Mormon, given the "Prophet's" oft-repeated declaration, was so vastly different from the current edition in use (1986). I was summarily dismissed and told that all the changes I was seeing were merely "typographical," but I knew this just wasn't true. In the years since I had joined the LDS sect, I had read the Book of Mormon eight times, to date--and this didn't include the reading I did in high school with my LDS friends, or the reading during my two weeks of discussions with the sister missionaries prior to my baptism; nor did it include the several readings I did in studying for various Institute of Religion classes. The reality of it was that I knew the Book of Mormon inside out, upside down and backwards, and what I was flumoxed by was hardly a matter of typographical errors.

The stake president quickly forbid me to speak of the matter further--he and the bishop both told me to "go pray about it"--and so, instead of having a forthright, intelligent discussion regarding my concerns, I was hastily dismissed and sternly told to keep my "issues" to myself. But instead of just praying, I did what any sane, thinking person would do--I prayed for direction and help whilst I researched my discoveries using the local Institute of Religion's own historical Church Library. In the course of it all, over the next year-and-a-half, I found that I was not the only one who had had problems. Best of all, Brigham H. Roberts, an early member of the Quorum of the Seventy and one of Mormonism's best-loved, best-quoted historians and theologians, put the "typographical error" claim down to rest pretty firmly:

"That errors of grammar and faults in dictation do exist in the Book of Mormon (and more especially and abundantly in the first edition) must be conceded and what is more, while some of the errors may be referred to inefficient proof-reading, such as is to be expected in a country printing establishment, yet such is not the nature of the errors in question, and so interwoven are they throughout the diction of the Book, that they may not be disposed of by saying they result from inefficient proof-reading or referring them to the mischievous disposition of the 'typos' or the unfriendliness of the publishing house. >>>The errors are constitutional in their character; they are of the web and woof of the style, and not such errors as may be classed as typographical. INDEED, THE FIRST EDITION OF THE BOOK OF MORMON IS SINGULARLY FREE FROM TYPOGRAPHICAL ERRORS.<<<" ~Defense of the Faith, by B. H. Roberts, pp. 280-281 (still found in one form or another in many Institute Libraries--look it up!)

So, either the bishop and the stake president were lying to me, or they just didn't know any better, but there was definitely no waffling on this one. Either way, I was consumed with worry and consternation. As my studies deepened and inevitably broadened in scope, so did my already-overwhelming depression and the dark sense of doom that accompanied it. Visiting teachers (thoroughly catty Relief Society women) and home teachers (Priesthood elders, almost all of whom were my own age) from my ward came to my apartment again and again only to leave frustrated and angry when I showed them the things that I was finding that could not be ignored or brushed under the carpet. One young Stripling elder even tried to take the book from me to destroy it, yelling at me for being such "a stupid, faithless cow" (yep, that helped....). Other people in my ward just started avoiding me altogether.

Somewhere along the line I made the mistake of asking another ward member if she was related to a couple in Utah named Jerald and Sandra Tanner and, when she asked me why I was interested, I told her that much of what I was reading from them (their newsletters were in the public library) actually agreed with my own deepening concerns as to whether the Book of Mormon was, or even could be, truly the inspired word of GOD....And that's when all hell broke loose....literally. Turned out that Geri was, indeed, a cousin of the Tanners, as well as a blood relative to a couple of other well-known LDS "turncoats"....and I was in big, big trouble for giving any credence to the poisoned words of evil apostates.

Instead of going through a disciplinary hearing, I willingly resigned from the LDS Church in 1992, stating in my letter to the First Presidency that I did not have a testimony that Joseph Smith, Jr. was a prophet of GOD, or that the Book of Mormon was true, or that the LDS Church was the "restored" Church that Christ had established in the first century. Not even two weeks had passed before all three members of my ward's bishopric stood on my doorstep and silently handed me the official letter of membership termination from Salt Lake. And then, after they walked away, feeling utterly alone, confused and damned, I tried unsuccessfully to kill myself.

In the months that followed, starting in the emergency room when I was still unconscious, a very strange thing happened: all those people in my ward and stake who had previously treated me like so much garbage--even those who'd started out that way, before my "revelation"--began to visit me and treat me with all the seemingly-genuine concern of a wounded sister. And truth be told I was, and still am, deeply grateful for their fleeting kindness. But their affections only lasted long enough to talk me back into the LDS sect and, after I was re-baptized in 1994, the terrorizing began anew with fresh vigor.

The woman who had once accused me of stalking her became one of the women who helped convince me to return to "the true Church" and, not long after my re-baptism, she came to my apartment one evening just to ask me if I still had doubts about the Book of Mormon; I truthfully, unfortunately (or was it?), said yes. Shortly thereafter she began publicly humiliating me, harrassing me and spreading hateful rumours behind my back again and, finally, she and a friend of hers took me to court, claiming falsely that I had threated to kill her over the phone--all in an effort to get a restraining order so that I wouldn't be able to attend Sabbath meetings in my own stake. It didn't take much convincing after that day for me to stop attending meetings altogether.

It was at this time that I began to realise just how threatened Mormons are by ascertainable facts--especially those that don't bode well for their theological construct--and how far they will go to destroy the messenger if they can't subvert reality. In my own quest for substantive facts, I found myself the unwitting victim of a viscious, lawless witch-hunt that was actually encouraged and applauded by many local Church authorities (and some of them attorneys who knew better....). What I would later learn from an acquaintance of mine, who happens to be an historian for the Re-organized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (now the Worldwide Church of Christ) is that the late 1980's and early 90's were particularly dangerous times for "intellectually astute" members of the Church, and that I was not even close to being alone in my sad experience. Nevertheless, what I went through during those years still had a personally deep and lasting impact on my psyche, thoroughly destroyed my trust in the "goodness" of any people and gave me every reason to become habitually stand-offish and aloof in most personal relationships.

It took several years for me to even discuss my experiences with other people without bursting into tears, but here I am, eager nontheless to fight for what's actually right and good and true. You think Mormonism can offer you the key to salvation? I've got news for you: you think wrong. And I've got proof.

As you can see from the photo above, this is actually my book--and any Mormon on the face of GOD's Blue Jewel will recognise that engraved script. Yep, that's right, it came from an LDS Bookstore--the likes of which inscribed my name on it, just like they did to every single Quad or Triple I've ever owned, too. I had wanted them to put the name I received at my Endowment on it (it's "Sariah", by the way), but the store manager wouldn't allow it, so my own Catholic baptismal name had to suffice....

Regardless, it turns out that there are quite a number of people out in the world today making quite a pretty penny selling books that talk about the changes and impossibilities of the Book of Mormon. I think that's just wrong. So, I'm going to give you a gift.

Over the next few weeks and months, as I find time, starting with the back pages and moving to the front (about twenty pages at a time), I am going to scan my own annotated copy of the 1830 Palmyra edition of the Book of Mormon here for all the world to see. The notes and legend are all my own, in my own hand and, therefore, my own intellectual property and organization. You may make photocopies, you may give these copies to whomever you choose; they are yours to share. But you may not sell them, nor publish them for profit, nor may you post them on your own websites (but feel free to link to them here).

Are you a Mormon with serious unsettling doubts? I dare you to take a close look without pre-conceived judgments. Read, compare with your own Scriptures--and then you come back and tell me, honestly, that Joseph Smith, Jr. was a prophet of GOD and not just a typical, run-of-the-mill, anti-Catholic hack looking to fleece anyone willing to buy his book and give him money.

Are you an investigator meeting with the missionaries? Read this first--and don't tell them, for crying out loud. Then make your own decision.

Are you just someone who knows that Mormonism ain't all it's cracked up to be, but lacking evidence? Here it is. Have at it.

This is how I originally lost my testimony in Mormonism's claims--not any falsely-imagined immorality or grievous sin on my part, as is the common charge against those who voluntarily leave the Mormon sect (and as has often enough been the accusation against me). This is the "truth" in black and white. This was the germ of "why" I eventually ended up returning to the only Church Jesus Christ ever actually did establish, and why I do the work I do, as I am able.

...And this is why I can tell you with absolute certainty and confidence that the Book of Mormon is the most arrogant, errant and implausible of any book on the planet that pretends to be the word of GOD, and the keystone of one of the biggest money-making cults that America, or the world, for that matter, has ever seen, and that it's how I know that a man will grow further away from GOD by believing its contents without any critical discernment than by reading any of the unholy tripe that that other godless blowhard, Richard Dawkins, can dream up on his best twisted day....

This is my testimony, and I leave it with you in the unmatchable Name of Jesus Christ, Eternal GOD made flesh, and Him crucified. Amen.+++

In His Grace, miki

Sally Quinn is a Self-Serving, Arrogant Moron

Three days ago, Sally Quinn, the so-called "religion journalist" for the Washington Post and Newsweek, wrote a memorial piece on her On Faith blog entitled, "The Faith and Joy of [Tim] Russert." She wrote in part (I'm not even going to waste my time [or yours] with the rest of it):

"Last Wednesday at Tim's funeral mass at Trinity Church in Georgetown (Jack Kennedy's church), communion was offered. I had only taken communion once in my life, at an evangelical church. It was soon after I had started 'On Faith' and I wanted to see what it was like. Oddly I had a slightly nauseated sensation after I took it, knowing that in some way it represented the body and blood of Jesus Christ. Last Wednesday I was determined to take it for Tim, transubstantiation notwithstanding. I'm so glad I did. It made me feel closer to him. And it was worth it just to imagine how he would have loved it. After I began 'On Faith,' Tim started calling me 'Sister Sal' instead of 'Miss Sal.'"

Ms. Quinn's article began with the acknowledgement that she had spoken with Russert in the past regarding the Catholic doctrine of "communion" [sic], so this woman is not without comprehension. She claims to know what transubstantiation is and, she declares regularly, to be cognizant of the sensibilities of other peoples' faiths, yet she approaches the Altar of Jesus Christ Himself and dares to desecrate the very central Mystery of Catholicism because she "wanted to"???

Pardon my vernacular, but what a bitch.

I want to wring this woman's neck! So, instead of driving to Washington and spending the rest of my subsequent life in prison, I posted the following comment on ol' "Sister" Sally's article, instead:

VIOLATING SACRED CATHOLIC RITES???

Now this just truly, viscerally pisses me off.

Lady, what kind of twisted, insensitive, unthinking, arrogant twit from the Pit of Hades are you??? How freaking disrespectful can you possibly be???

The Blessed Sacrament is NOT about Tim Russert--it is the very Body and Blood of Jesus Christ (not "representative", you fool)--and you have absolutely NO right to cross that line!!!

Nauseated doesn't even begin to cover what I feel, knowing that you--not a Catholic, not in any unity of Faith with us, and not even close to discerning the reality of what you have done (see 1 Corinthians 11:27, etc)--dare to be filled with such pride and arrogance as to approach GOD's throne and take what is not yours to take! My blood boils at the thought....

"Communion", contrary to what that Marxist bimbo Nancy Pelosi so wrongly believes, is not a free for all, but (to quote our Holy Father), "The Eucharist is our most precious treasure.... It is the Sacrament par excellence ... It contains all the mystery of our salvation, it is the source and the summit of the activity and the life of the Church."

He also stated recently that, "The Eucharist is not a meal among friends. It is a mystery of alliance....We are called to enter this mystery of alliance, conforming our everyday lives to the gift received in the Eucharist."

You, Sally Quinn, have done great scandalous violence to the Blessed Sacrament, Lady. You have done violence to our Faith. And you have done violence to Catholics everywhere.

...Sadly, I think that the feeling you had afterwards was not one of uplift towards GOD (or Tim Russert), but that demonic glee that comes from violating the very foundations of the Salvic mysteries of Faith.

I'm not just nauseated, I'm enraged. Only the most truly egocentric, self-serving, callous morons walk into GOD's House and do such things without any thought to the consequences.

HOW DARE YOU!!!

May GOD have mercy on your blackened, shrivelled little soul--because I certainly don't. You, "Sister", are no better than Judas....

...I am thinking that Tim Russert must have been mocking this woman when he called her "sister", but then again, he was a Democrat (I'm quite certain that Purgatory is taking good care of that protracted lapse in judgment)....Just before I left my comment, some pasty-mouthed Kumbaya-singing, hand-grabbing Loon chastized all of us mean, uncharitable Catholics for condemning poor, sweet-as-death-in-a-ditch Sally. My response to that one went as follows:

Kimberly wrote: "If you know love, you know God."

What a load of wishy-washy, pansy-handed, lukewarm, lackwitted crap.

REALITY: What one does out of personal interest is *NOT* love. *True* charity seeks the very best good of others, FIRST and foremost--like GOD Himself, like Christ on the Cross.

1. Did it benefit Tim Russert's soul for Sally Quinn to violate the source and summit of the Catholic Faith??? NO.

2. Did it show charity and respect for Catholics who *DO* know, believe and cherish the sacred mystery of Faith for Sally Quinn to violate the source and summit of the Catholic Faith??? NO.

3. Did it show respect, love or discernment for Christ Himself, truly present, Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity, for Sally Quinn to violate the source and summit of the Catholic Faith??? NO.

ERGO, Kimberly, what Sally Quinn did was NOT out of love--not even close--but out of selfish, self-serving, caustic ARROGANCE.

....and, as long as we're on the subject, what was Satan's sin, pray tell??? That's right--the pride of arrogance.

If Sally Quinn *had* been motivated by "love", she would have had enough common sense, respect and forethought to keep her place in our Father's House!!!....

___________

...There are times when I seriously wonder why idiots are allowed to roam free....

If you have a heart, please add to the long list of outraged Catholics who have taken the time to show their displeasure at Ms. Quinn's desecration, and comment here:

What Happens When Dumbass Heretics Go To Mass

The Catholic League's Reaction to Sally Quinn's Stupidity

Update, 27 June 2008:

Satan's Sister Sally Quinn was quoted in the New Republic two days ago: "There's no sign out there that says you're not allowed to take Communion. [The Catholic Church is] like, 'Everyone is welcome. This is God's house.' God doesn't turn people away, supposedly."

So now we need to post a sign on the door of every Catholic church to ensure that people are respectful??? What a dense R'tard this one is turning into....

Actually, there is a "sign" (its called "common sense"), but Satan's Sister is just doing her best now to, once again, rationalize her behaviour instead of having the brass to take some personal responsibility, swallow her over-blown self-importance and muster up the sincerity (which appears to be lacking in *all* quarters, for her) to apologize for committing a grave sacrilege in GOD's House and scandalizing faithful, practising Catholics as well as unthinking, Kumbaya-loving nimwits everywhere--in doing so, she proves that she is a true COWARD devoid of any sense of propiety or common decency and undeserving of respect.

What's absolutely wonderful about all of this is that Satan's Sister Sally has at once proved herself to be both a lying hypocrite and flamingly anti-Catholic. There is absolutely nothing pluralistic about the Catholic Church, nor does acting like a Doberman bitch, peeing on the walls of someone's house, imply any "championship" of "inclusiveness." And she has proven by her own obsfucation that public anti-Catholicism really is the last acceptable prejudice allowed in America.

If Satan's Sister Sally had any true "religious" comprehension or sensibility whatsoever, she would realize that whilst Christ did, in fact, welcome all, the Gospels are replete with examples where He took the Twelve aside, ALONE AND APART FROM THE WORLD, and gave to them what He did not give to all--the Last Supper is *the* perfect example of this: "When *YOU* do this, *YOU* do it in memory of Me...." Not everyone was invited, and there was good reason for that, and still is....

That said, Sally Quinn, your argument is a strawman and has no validity--and rhetorical fallacies don't fly with those of us who actually know our Faith.

The only thing Satan's Sister Sally Quinn is championing is her own warped, hateful ego. But that's okay--my family have canceled their subscriptions to the Washington Post and my friends, Marla and Dennis, have both canceled their subscriptions to Newsweek. I've also received quite a few emails from people who read my blog, yesterday, who said that they are doing the same. Looks like Satan's Sister isn't as much of a "champion" as she insists, otherwise the readership of these rags would be exploding.

What I say is that we hit the Washington Post and Newsweek where it really hurts and begin boycotting their advertisers if this crap continues. That'll leave a mark.

In His Grace, miki

Another Abortuary Bites the Dust....

For years, anti-life contacts of mine have told me that Catholic Pro-Lifers are menacing, threatening, violent, illogical people lacking in compassion or sense. How's this for sense? (And thank GOD for the widening of the LBJ....):

Late-Term Abortion Facility in Dallas To Close - Eighth Closure Since Bishop Began Prayer at Clinics

24 hours a day, 7 days a week ecumenical effort was organized, with more than 800 people from 89 churches and several denominations....

By Thaddeus M. Baklinski

DALLAS, Texas, June 24, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) - The Catholic Pro-Life Committee, the Respect Life Ministry of the Catholic Diocese of Dallas, has reported that Aaron Women's Health Center, a late-term abortion facility in Dallas will be closing its doors on June 28. Aaron's was one of three abortion clinics in Texas authorized to perform late-term abortions on unborn babies older than 16 weeks gestation.

When Bishop Charles Grahmann began leading a monthly "Second Saturday Rosary" outside Dallas abortion clinics in 1990, there were 13 abortion clinics in the city. Seven clinics closed between 1990 and 2001, and after Aaron's closes there will remain only five freestanding abortion clinics in Dallas. The Catholic Pro-Life Committee and others have vowed to continue to pray and offer alternatives to abortion outside those remaining five clinics.

The Catholic Pro-Life Committee has maintained a constant presence of peaceful prayer and sidewalk counseling in front of Aaron's for over a decade and participated in a "40 Days for Life Prayer Vigil" there in 2004.

During the 40 Days Vigil, a 24 hours a day, 7 days a week ecumenical effort was organized, with more than 800 people from 89 churches and several denominations praying and fasting for an end to the killing of babies inside the clinic.

"We are overjoyed to hear that this notorious place of death is finally closing," said Karen Garnett, executive director of the Catholic Pro-Life Committee.

"Not only is this a victory for the pro-life movement, for mothers and for babies, but it is a victory for Dallas as well, as the horrific practice of the killing of unborn children will take place at one less location in our city: Dallas will no longer be the home of a late-term abortion facility.

"We thank God for the many lives that will be saved and mothers spared the agony and regret of abortion with the closing of Aaron's. We stand ready to offer help and healing to those who have made the abortion decision at Aaron's or any other abortion facilities. We mourn the tremendous loss of so many thousands of innocent human lives, and we'll continue to pray and work towards the day when Dallas is an abortion-free city and the blood of innocent unborn children is no longer shed here."

Bishop Kevin Farrell of the Diocese of Dallas welcomed news of the closure of the clinic, saying, "This is the best news I've heard all week." He expressed his personal gratitude to everyone who has offered prayers and sacrifices for an end to the killing. A Mass of Thanksgiving for the closing of Aaron's will be celebrated Saturday, June 28.

...Beautiful! Just absolutely brilliant, especially considering that Aaron's own (current) website states the following:

"Abortion procedures are done at Aaron Women's Health Center through the 23rd week LMP of pregnancy. Aaron Women's Health Center is licensed by the Texas State Department of Health. Our physicians are Texas State licensed Obstetrician-Gynecologists specially trained in early and late 2nd trimester abortions.

"All medical personnel are licensed by the State of Texas. To insure a fully informed decision, all counseling in the clinic is done on an individual basis. Experienced counselors discuss the procedure, aftercare, birth control and consent at length."

Notice that they omit any discussion of alternative options? O, how I despise murderers....good riddance.

And just as an FYI:

There were 13 abortion clinics in Dallas in 1990 when Bishop Charles Grahmann arrived and began leading a monthly "Second Saturday Rosary" outside Dallas abortion clinics. Seven clinics closed between 1990-2001, the last being A Choice for Women in May of 2001. After Aaron's closes, there will remain five freestanding abortion clinics in Dallas, where the Catholic Pro-Life Committee and others will continue to pray and offer alternatives to abortion.

A Mass of Thanksgiving for the closing of Aaron's will be celebrated by Rev. Msgr. Mark Seitz at 8:00 am on Saturday, June 28, at St. Rita Catholic Church, located at 12521 Inwood Road, Dallas. St. Rita was the location of the opening Mass and kickoff rally for the 40 Days Vigil held in 2004-05. Following Mass we will take buses to Aaron's for a closing prayer service and then return to St. Rita Sweeney Hall for a reception. As they did for the opening of the 40 Days Vigil in December 2004, special guests Shawn and Marilisa Carney from the National 40 Days for Life office in Bryan will be joining us for this Saturday's prayer and thanksgiving services. All are invited to attend.

Decalogues everywhere, with thanks to the ACLU!

This is such awseome news!

FAITH UNDER FIRE
Decalogues everywhere, with thanks to the ACLU!
Project Moses promoting God's Laws with Ten Commandments monuments
Posted: June 07, 2008
12:15 am Eastern

By Bob Unruh

© 2008 WorldNetDaily

Thousands of stone Ten Commandments monuments on highly visible properties in communities across the nation, millions of smaller plaques in Christian and Jewish homes, and a massive bronze showing the biblical image of Moses holding the stones on which God wrote… The target of the ACLU? Nope. Thanks to the ACLU!

The dimensions of the Ten Commandments monument suggested for thousands of churches and synagoges nationwide

Joe Worthing, the executive director for Project Moses, says his organization, only a few years old, is well on its way to reaching many of its goals of placing Ten Commandments monuments all over the nation, and it's because of a complaint from the ACLU.

The ministry was launched by John Menghini, an Overland Park, Kan., businessman, who was disturbed by a news story about the ACLU demanding and getting the removal of a Ten Commandments monument from a Kansas City courthouse.

The Kansas City story also noted the fate of the monument to which the ACLU objected: It was moved about 100 feet across the street to St. Anthony's Catholic Church, so that it would be on private property and no longer subject to the whims of lawyers and judges, and a light clicked on for Menghini.

"The beauty of this move is that now, far more visitors to the courthouse actually view the Ten Commandments because it is more visible than it ever was on the courthouse grounds," he said. "I thought, if every church and synagogue in America would proudly display God's law, as this one church did, maybe our culture could turn a corner and come back to its Judeo-Christian roots."

The result was Project Moses, which works to install 900-pound stone monuments to God's Laws on church and other private properties in prominent civic locations across the country. Hundreds already are installed, as well as thousands of smaller stone plaques that are offered to families for their homes.

"The ACLU is not the problem [with removing the Ten Commandments from America]," Worthing told WND. "We need to send them a thank you. They awakened a sleeping giant.

"The problem has been the apathy of good citizens sitting on their hands and saying, 'That's happening in California or Boston, not in Omaha,'" he said.

One Nebraska city's situation is a perfect example of what the organization wants to do: A citizen brought a complaint against the city government for a Ten Commandments monument hidden in a remote corner of a public park.

A Ten Commandments display at First Baptist Church in Downey, Calif.

It was removed, but one of the Project Moses monuments was placed instead on a street front property. It happens to be only a few blocks from where the complainant lives, and he now has to drive within 15 feet of God's Laws whenever he passes that location, Worthing said.

"Listen, they [the ACLU] may have won a few skirmishes, but God's going to win the war," Worthing said.

He said his organization in just a few years has installed nearly 400 of the monuments, far more than have been removed from public locations because of litigation and intimidation over the past 30 years.

"Project Moses' stated mission is the restoration of respect for the Ten Commandments so all may live out Christ's call for true social justice in the home, communities and political policies," the organization says. It cites the instructions from the Torah, Deut. 6:4-9. "Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today to be upon your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. … Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates…"

Worthing says the primary goal is to place the stone monuments, 5 feet, 4 inches tall, "on every private religious property, Catholic, Protestant and Jewish, in America."

These monuments are intended to be on "'Main Street,' right in front for the whole community to see."

The cost of the monuments, including those made from marble imported from the Sinai Peninsula, run about $4,500 to $5,000 including delivery and the organization has various methods of raising funds for churches that want to participate.

Proposed bronze of Moses and the Ten Commandments planned for Wasgington, D.C.

The goal is to install a total of 5,000 monuments over the next five years and distribute 1.5 million eight-inch square stone plaques in homes and offices at the same time. More than 15,000 already have been handed out, officials said.

The last part of the goal is a bronze of Moses holding the Decalogue over his head. It is expected to be about 24 feet tall and be placed on private property in Washington, although no details about the land can be released until its purchase is completed, officials said.

Because the numbering traditions among Catholics, Protestants and Jews vary, the monuments are available in the St. Augustine, King James or Jewish number traditions.

The project's goal "is not to argue whose tradition is better but to get all who view these monuments to dive into Scripture and move beyond the simple 10 sentences we learned as children."

The project supports the efforts of many Christian individuals and organizations to maintain historic Ten Commandments monuments in public locations.

But, Worthing said, "If the first place someone sees the Commandments is at the courthouse, that's probably why he is there!

"Political battles need to be fought but conversion and changing how people live needs to be the goal. America is where it is at today, morally, not because of groups like the ACLU but because of the APATHY of the faithful.

"Sir Edmund Burke said it best when he said, 'The only thing necessary for evil to succeed is for good men to do nothing.' Project Moses gives the average believer the opportunity they have not had in the courtrooms over the past 30 years, a tangible way to show support for God's laws," he said.

He said a teaching curriculum also is available to churches, since the goal is more than to plop a piece of rock on a sidewalk. Also available are plans for "Ten Commandments weekends" where churches raise their own funds for the monuments.

"More than 90 percent of the churches who hold a weekend raise more money than they need to buy the monument," he said.

Christians schools, too, should consider the impact, he said.

"Instead of having a cardboard cutout, how about a 900-pound stone monument in an entryway," he said. "It's something like 3,500 times a child will have to walk by that over the course of their grade school years. They just may be able to remember them then."

Only five states have not yet had such a monument installed, and plans are under way at this time for the first installation in Vermont. The other states remaining are North and South Carolina, Alaska and Hawaii.

WND has reported extensively of battles over the existence of Ten Commandments monuments in America, as well as on the existing historical references to the Ten Commandments in Washington, as well as politically correct effects to minimize, change or alter those references.

For more information, or to order your own monument (Dude, these are sooo cool!) go to www.projectmoses.com

It's Official: The American Chesterton Society Conference is Forever Changed

"...this will be the last time we hold the conference at St. Thomas. It's very unfortunate...." ~Dale Ahlquist, President, American Chesterton Society

Since June of 1997, the American Chesterton Society has held their annual Conference--which celebrates British journalist and Catholic convert Gilbert Keith Chesterton, his writings (covering just about everything under the sun and more), and a wide variety of other authors, artists, thinkers, ideals and ideas regarding every conceivable facet of Christian cult, cultivation, and culture, past, present and future--at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, Minnesota. No more. This next week will see the end of this tradition with the intolerable imposition of new restrictions on the Chestertonians by St. Thomas' Campus Security's event coordinator, Bill Carter, et al.

The question has been asked, "Aren't the new restrictions being imposed for the good of all parties?"

We think not.

At issue are the the following longstanding Chesterton Society Conference traditions and the problems that have developed only during the past week:

1. Frank Petta, one of the American Chesterton Society's founding members and long-time leading force in bringing GKC to popular American consciousness, began the tradition of serving home-crafted Merlot wine at Society events during the past thirty years. Several years ago Frank, and his beloved wife Ann, passed this legacy of making the wine on to another member who continues the task, primarily at their own expense, out of love for the Conference and its attendees.

The home-crafted Merlot, as well as homecrafted beer made by another long-time Society member, have been served as a "tasting" (which we have always obtained legal permits from the city for at Conference expense) without any complaint or restrictions from Campus Public Safety...until now. As a result, there will be no spirits of any kind served during the Conference this year outside of the Banquet, Saturday night, at the close of the Conference.

2. Refreshments of any kind, including and most especially the obligatory Stilton cheese wheel that has been specially ordered from England each and every year by Society members at their own expense, may not be served unless they are ordered through, prepared, and handled by St. Thomas Food Service personnel only. As the fees for such services will be exhorbitant and beyond the scope of current resources, and our traditional fare may not be offered, refreshments will not be served outside of standard refectory meals during this year's Conference.

3. Each night following the day's Conference events, an "afterglow" is normally held in which old friends get together for a cigar and a nightcap whilst they get re-acquainted and discuss anything and everything that comes to mind before retiring for the night, if they actually retire at all. Now, St. Thomas Public Safety wishes the afterglow to be fenced off (with a rented fence) and supervised by Security personnel--all at the expense of the American Chesterton Society. They also require that this activity close just after midnight and that any alchoholic beverages be served no later that 11:45 p.m. by Food Service personnel--again, at the Society's expense.

4. St. Thomas Security officers must be present at all Conference events to make certain that none of the Chestertonians get any brilliant ideas about insurrections or revolutionary conniving....at the expense of the Society, of course.

Now, there have been some who have opined that this is just normal administrative stuff, but no. The American Chesterton Society has a long, established history of well-mannered, responsible, peaceful gatherings at the University of St Thomas and these restrictions have never been even so much as suggested until this past week. The real issue here is one of revenge--and who gets to mete it out against whom.

This past year, the Department of Catholic Studies at St Thomas came on board to sponsor the American Chesterton Society Conference and provide financial grants that would, finally, make the Conference a profitable venture and allow the Society the funding it needs to offer G.K Chesterton's message of sanity and common sense to an even wider audience of readers and thinkers, young and old. As many people are sadly aware, the University of St. Thomas has recently changed tack and taken a course far afield from traditional Catholic academics and culture, even going so far as changing its bylaws this past winter so as to avoid having to be obedient to the current Archbishop of this archdiocese. Evidentally, the choice of the Department of Catholic Studies to sponsor ACS does not square with the novel direction the University is headed, and the faculty of this department has weathered substantial grief as a result.

The current tenor of the University is one which is openly hostile to common morals and even common sense (and most commonly by its own Social-Fascist leaning faculty members and leadership). And this writer was recently told by one such tenured academic that the American Chesterton Society is "a bunch of extereme Fundamentalists" and that such mindsets are not welcome in the hallowed halls of the University.

Fine.

If by "extreme Fundamentalism" you mean observance of and obedience to all that which is right and good and true, then we are most definitely as you accuse us.

If by "not welcome" you mean that sanity and reason have no place in the first American Catholic University ever established by a sitting bishop then, by all means, we will gladly take our leave and let you alone to pad your walls so that objective truth may not resonate, to paint over the tall, wide windows with soot so that the light of reason dare not penetrate, and to lock all the doors against reality so that even GOD Himself may not enter into your strictured little prison populated by myopic humanist philosophers of doom.

We think it unfair, of course--not for ourselves, but for all of those who will be forever deprived of experiencing the beautiful, idyllic grounds where John Ireland planted his historic vision for the nurturing of Catholic intellect and ideals as we have. But greener, more fertile pastures abound for us, to be certain.

We think it sad--not for our own loss, but for those who will never know the same joy that we have had, coming together under the trees by the great River and spending the weekend worshipping together before historic altars which have witnessed so many priests sent out into service all over GOD's Blue Jewel. Yet there are other altars where Christ awaits our company, let there be no doubt.

We think it a poverty--not because the Conference will cease to exist....because it won't. We think it a poverty because the fresh Catholic minds which you have been dutifully charged with molding and nurturing into full flower for the service of our Majesty's Kingdom Church and Society will be deprived of our great company and influence and they will have to come and find us in some other distant field or simply go without. But they will find us, sooner or later, when they tire of your rants and realise that you can offer nothing more.

You think you have broken us? Think not. This is just a small hiccup. We have an international membership. We have national recognition and respect. We have Mother Angelica and a holy cloud of persistent nuns continuously storming the gates of Heaven on our behalf. We are possessed of more importance to this world, to this society at large, than you give us credit for or can even imagine. And long after your sniveling little theories have whithered away, and the petty campaigns you have championed have dried to dust and nothingness with you in your sad, collapsed little anonymous graves, obliterated by countless centuries of muck and untended briars, the message of Gilbert Keith Chesterton will reverberate through the earth like a mighty thunder, and shimmer on every horizon like the stars at dawn. Why? Because unlike you, G.K. taught us how to be like the angels--take yourself lightly, be obedient and follow the Master, and you will fly straight up to GOD Himself, and He will let you glorify Him before all men, in all times.

Unlike you, we do take ourselves lightly, we Chestertonians, and we find joy where ever it may be found. And where we find it, that's where the party is...singing and poetry and clarihews and beer and wine and sweet cherry smoke curling up into the tree canopies, all in copious supply...and laughter. Lots of laughter. Like Heaven.

...Too bad you're going to miss it. So be it.

"To the orthodox there must always be a case for revolution; for in the hearts of men God has been put under the feet of Satan. In the upper world hell once rebelled against heaven. But in this world heaven is rebelling against hell. For the orthodox there can always be a revolution; for a revolution is a restoration. " ~G.K. Chesterton, Orthodoxy "The Eternal Revolution"