20 THINGS TO ALWAYS REMEMBER
1. Faith is the ability to not panic.2. If you worry, you didn't pray.
If you prayed, then don't worry. 3. As a child of God, prayer is kinda
like calling home every day.
4. Blessed are the flexible,for they
shall not be bent out of shape.5. When we get tangled up in our problems,
be still. God wants us to be still
so He can untangle the knot.6. Do the math and Count your blessings.7. God wants spiritual fruit,
not religious nuts.8. Dear God: I have a problem. It's me. 9. Silence is often misinterpreted,
but never misquoted.10. Laugh every day - it's like inner jogging.
11. The most important things in your
home are the people.12. Growing old is inevitable. Growing up
is optional. (Preach it!)13. There is no key to happiness. The door
is always open. Come on in.14. A grudge is a heavy thing to carry. 15. He who dies with the most toys is still dead.16. We do not remember days but moments.
Life moves too fast so enjoy your precious moments.
17. Nothing is real to you until you experience it;
otherwise it's just hearsay.18. It's all right to sit on your pity pot
every now and again. Just be sure to flush when you are done.
19. Surviving and living your life successfully
requires courage. The goals and dreams you're
seeking require courage and risk-taking. Learn from the turtle,
it only makes progress when it sticks out its neck.
20. Be more concerned with your character
than your reputation. Your character is what you really are,
while your reputation is merely what others
think you are. No matter the storm, when you are with God, there's always
a rainbow waiting.
Wednesday, December 24, 2008
Saturday, December 20, 2008
12 Days of Christmas
There is one Christmas Carol that has always baffles us. What in the world do leaping lords, French hens, swimming swans, and especially the partridge who won't come out of the pear tree
have to do with Christmas?From 1558 until 1829, Roman Catholics in England were not permitted to
practice their faith openly. Someone during that era wrote this carol as
a catechism song for young Catholics. It has two levels of meaning: the surface meaning plus a hidden meaning known only to members of their church. Each element in the carol has a code word for a religious reality which the children could remember.-The partridge in a pear tree was Jesus Christ. -Two turtle doves were the Old and New Testaments. -Three French hens stood for faith, hope and love. -The four calling birds were the four gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke & John. -The five golden rings recalled the Torah or Law, the first five books of the Old Testament. -The six geese a-laying stood for the six days of creation. -Seven swans a-swimming represented the sevenfold gifts of the Holy Spirit--Prophesy, Serving, Teaching, Exhortation, Contribution, Leadership and Mercy. -The eight maids a-milking were the eight beatitudes. -Nine ladies dancing were the nine fruits of the Holy Spirit--Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Goodness, Faithfulness, Gentleness and Self-Control. -The ten lords a-leaping were the ten commandments. -The eleven pipers piping stood for the eleven faithful disciples. -The twelve drummers drumming symbolized the twelve points of belief in the Apostles' Creed.So there is your history for today. This knowledge was shared with me and I found it interesting and enlightening and now you know how that strange song became a Christmas Carol...so pass it on if you wish.'Merry (Twelve Days of) Christmas Everyone
have to do with Christmas?From 1558 until 1829, Roman Catholics in England were not permitted to
practice their faith openly. Someone during that era wrote this carol as
a catechism song for young Catholics. It has two levels of meaning: the surface meaning plus a hidden meaning known only to members of their church. Each element in the carol has a code word for a religious reality which the children could remember.-The partridge in a pear tree was Jesus Christ. -Two turtle doves were the Old and New Testaments. -Three French hens stood for faith, hope and love. -The four calling birds were the four gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke & John. -The five golden rings recalled the Torah or Law, the first five books of the Old Testament. -The six geese a-laying stood for the six days of creation. -Seven swans a-swimming represented the sevenfold gifts of the Holy Spirit--Prophesy, Serving, Teaching, Exhortation, Contribution, Leadership and Mercy. -The eight maids a-milking were the eight beatitudes. -Nine ladies dancing were the nine fruits of the Holy Spirit--Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Goodness, Faithfulness, Gentleness and Self-Control. -The ten lords a-leaping were the ten commandments. -The eleven pipers piping stood for the eleven faithful disciples. -The twelve drummers drumming symbolized the twelve points of belief in the Apostles' Creed.So there is your history for today. This knowledge was shared with me and I found it interesting and enlightening and now you know how that strange song became a Christmas Carol...so pass it on if you wish.'Merry (Twelve Days of) Christmas Everyone
Friday, December 12, 2008
A good quote
You can easily judge the character of others by how they treat those who they think can do nothing for them.
People will forget what you said,
People will forget what you did.
But people will never forget how you made them feel'.
People will forget what you said,
People will forget what you did.
But people will never forget how you made them feel'.
Wednesday, December 10, 2008
Reason for Season
*Twas the month before Christmas*
*When all through our land,*
*Not a Christian was praying*
*Nor taking a stand.*
*See the PC Police had taken away,*
*The reason for Christmas - no one could say.*
*The children were told by their schools not to sing,*
*About Shepherds and Wise Men and Angels and things.*
*It might hurt people's feelings, the teachers would say*
* December 25th is just a ' Holiday '.*
*Yet the shoppers were ready with cash, checks and credit*
*Pushing folks down to the floor just to get it!*
*CDs from Madonna, an X BOX, an I-pod*
*Something was changing, something quite odd! *
*Retailers promoted Ramadan and Kwanzaa*
*In hopes to sell books by Franken & Fonda.*
*As Targets were hanging their trees upside down*
* At Lowe's the word Christmas - was no where to be found.*
*At K-Mart and Staples and Penny's and Sears*
*You won't hear the word Christmas; it won't touch your ears.*
*Inclusive, sensitive, Di-ver-si-ty*
*Are words that were used to intimidate me.*
*Now Daschle, Now Darden, Now Sharpton, Wolf Blitzen*
*On Boxer, on Rather, on Kerry, on Clinton !*
*At the top of the Senate, there arose such a clatter*
*To eliminate Jesus, in all public matter.*
*And we spoke not a word, as they took away our faith*
* Forbidden to speak of salvation and grace*
*The true Gift of Christmas was exchanged and discarded*
*The reason for the season, stopped before it started.*
*So as you celebrate 'Winter Break' under your 'Dream Tree'*
*Sipping your Starbucks, listen to me.*
*Choose your words carefully, choose what you say*
*Shout MERRY CHRISTMAS ,
not Happy Holiday !*
Please, all Christians join together and
wish everyone you meet during the
holidays a
MERRY CHRISTMAS
Christ is The Reason for the CHRISTmas Season!
*When all through our land,*
*Not a Christian was praying*
*Nor taking a stand.*
*See the PC Police had taken away,*
*The reason for Christmas - no one could say.*
*The children were told by their schools not to sing,*
*About Shepherds and Wise Men and Angels and things.*
*It might hurt people's feelings, the teachers would say*
* December 25th is just a ' Holiday '.*
*Yet the shoppers were ready with cash, checks and credit*
*Pushing folks down to the floor just to get it!*
*CDs from Madonna, an X BOX, an I-pod*
*Something was changing, something quite odd! *
*Retailers promoted Ramadan and Kwanzaa*
*In hopes to sell books by Franken & Fonda.*
*As Targets were hanging their trees upside down*
* At Lowe's the word Christmas - was no where to be found.*
*At K-Mart and Staples and Penny's and Sears*
*You won't hear the word Christmas; it won't touch your ears.*
*Inclusive, sensitive, Di-ver-si-ty*
*Are words that were used to intimidate me.*
*Now Daschle, Now Darden, Now Sharpton, Wolf Blitzen*
*On Boxer, on Rather, on Kerry, on Clinton !*
*At the top of the Senate, there arose such a clatter*
*To eliminate Jesus, in all public matter.*
*And we spoke not a word, as they took away our faith*
* Forbidden to speak of salvation and grace*
*The true Gift of Christmas was exchanged and discarded*
*The reason for the season, stopped before it started.*
*So as you celebrate 'Winter Break' under your 'Dream Tree'*
*Sipping your Starbucks, listen to me.*
*Choose your words carefully, choose what you say*
*Shout MERRY CHRISTMAS ,
not Happy Holiday !*
Please, all Christians join together and
wish everyone you meet during the
holidays a
MERRY CHRISTMAS
Christ is The Reason for the CHRISTmas Season!
Tuesday, December 9, 2008
Email from God
One day God was looking down at Earth and saw all of the rascally behavior that was going on. So he called one of His angels and sent the angel to Earth for a time.
When he returned, he told God, 'Yes, it is bad on Earth; 95% are misbehaving and only 5% are not.
God thought for a moment and said, 'Maybe I had better send down a second angel to get another opinion.'
So God called another angel and sent him to Earth for a time.
When the angel returned he went to God and said, 'Yes, it's true.The Earth is in decline; 95% are misbehaving, but 5% are being good.'
God was not pleased. So He decided to e-mail the 5% that were good, because he wanted to encourage them, and give them a little something to help them keep going.
Do you know what the e-mail said?
Okay, I was just wondering, because I didn't get one either.
When he returned, he told God, 'Yes, it is bad on Earth; 95% are misbehaving and only 5% are not.
God thought for a moment and said, 'Maybe I had better send down a second angel to get another opinion.'
So God called another angel and sent him to Earth for a time.
When the angel returned he went to God and said, 'Yes, it's true.The Earth is in decline; 95% are misbehaving, but 5% are being good.'
God was not pleased. So He decided to e-mail the 5% that were good, because he wanted to encourage them, and give them a little something to help them keep going.
Do you know what the e-mail said?
Okay, I was just wondering, because I didn't get one either.
Monday, December 8, 2008
Shine through the Darkness
Shine through the darkness
The darker it is around you, the more your light is needed. When you find yourself among others who are angry, hateful, resentful, discouraged, and cynical, that is when you can make the most difference by staying positively focused.
It is not easy. All too often we react to negativity by being negative. That just escalates the despair. Yet you can choose not to react. You can choose to follow your own course. Just because those around you act destructively, does not mean that you must.
When those around you are frustrated and impatient, make an effort to be extra calm and composed. When those around you are angry, strive to be the voice of reason and compassion. When those around you are discouraged, offer hope.
Be a difference, and you will make a difference.
Ralph Marston
The darker it is around you, the more your light is needed. When you find yourself among others who are angry, hateful, resentful, discouraged, and cynical, that is when you can make the most difference by staying positively focused.
It is not easy. All too often we react to negativity by being negative. That just escalates the despair. Yet you can choose not to react. You can choose to follow your own course. Just because those around you act destructively, does not mean that you must.
When those around you are frustrated and impatient, make an effort to be extra calm and composed. When those around you are angry, strive to be the voice of reason and compassion. When those around you are discouraged, offer hope.
Be a difference, and you will make a difference.
Ralph Marston
Thursday, December 4, 2008
The Doctor
Help from a Good Doctor
A worried woman went to her gynecologist and said: "Doctor, I have a seriousproblem and desperately need your help! My baby is not even 1 yr. old andI'm pregnant again. I don't want kids so close together."So the doctor said: "Ok, and what do you want me to do?"She said: "I want you to end my pregnancy, and I'm counting on your helpwith this."The doctor thought for a little, and after some silence he said to the lady:"I think I have a better solution for your problem. It's less dangerous foryou too."She smiled, thinking that the doctor was going to accept her request.Then he continued: "You see, in order for you not to have to take care of twobabies at the same time, let's kill the one in your arms. This way, youcould rest some before the other one is born. If we're going to kill one ofthem, it doesn't matter which one it is. There would be no risk for yourbody if you chose the one in your arms."The lady was horrified and said: "No doctor! How terrible! It's a crime tokill a child!"'" agree", the doctor replied. "But you seemed to be ok with it, so Ithought maybe that was the best solution." He smiled, realizing that he hadmade his point.He convinced the mom that there is no difference in killing a child that'salready been born and one that's still in the womb. The crime is the same!
A worried woman went to her gynecologist and said: "Doctor, I have a seriousproblem and desperately need your help! My baby is not even 1 yr. old andI'm pregnant again. I don't want kids so close together."So the doctor said: "Ok, and what do you want me to do?"She said: "I want you to end my pregnancy, and I'm counting on your helpwith this."The doctor thought for a little, and after some silence he said to the lady:"I think I have a better solution for your problem. It's less dangerous foryou too."She smiled, thinking that the doctor was going to accept her request.Then he continued: "You see, in order for you not to have to take care of twobabies at the same time, let's kill the one in your arms. This way, youcould rest some before the other one is born. If we're going to kill one ofthem, it doesn't matter which one it is. There would be no risk for yourbody if you chose the one in your arms."The lady was horrified and said: "No doctor! How terrible! It's a crime tokill a child!"'" agree", the doctor replied. "But you seemed to be ok with it, so Ithought maybe that was the best solution." He smiled, realizing that he hadmade his point.He convinced the mom that there is no difference in killing a child that'salready been born and one that's still in the womb. The crime is the same!
Thursday, November 20, 2008
Advent Coming Soon
This Sunday is the end of the church year. We are celebrating the feast of Christ the King. It seems like this year has flown by so fast. We have had a presidential election come and go. It is already snowing like crazy here this last week. We are under a Winter Storm Warning right now in my area. However, I do like this time of year with the celebration of Advent and then Christmas. Also, this time of the year brings out the PC crowd to the full extent. We must not say Merry Christmas for fear of "offending" someone. I will never understand how someone can be offended by Merry Christmas? I have had people wish me a Happy Hannukah many times and I am not Jewish. I have never once been offended by that goodwill offering. Someone told me this once and I live by it now. "If no offense was meant, no offense should be taken". When I go to stores now during the Christmas season I make sure to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and not a generic Season's Greetings or Happy Holidays. Next week is Thanksgiving too! Time to give thanks to God and watch football and eat turkey.
Thursday, November 13, 2008
The Lady and the Atheist
There was a little old lady, who every morningstepped onto her front porch, raised her arms to the sky, and shouted:'PRAISE THE LORD!' > > > > One day an atheist moved into the house next door. > > He became irritated at the little old lady. > > Every morning he'd step onto his front porchafter her and yell: 'THERE IS NO LORD!' > > > > Time passed with the two of them carrying on this > > way every day. > > > > One morning, in the middle of winter, the littleold lady stepped onto her front porch and shouted: 'PRAISE THE LORD! PleaseLord, I have no food and I am starving, provide for me, oh Lord! > > > > The next morning she stepped out onto her porch andthere were two huge bags of groceries sitting there. > > > > 'PRAISE THE LORD!' she cried out. 'HEHAS PROVIDED GROCERIES FOR ME!' > > > > The atheist neighbor jumped out of the hedges > > and shouted: > > 'THERE IS NO LORD; I BOUGHT THOSEGROCERIES!!' > > > > The little old lady threw her arms into the air and shouted: 'PRAISE THE LORD! HE HAS PROVIDED ME WITH GROCERIES AND MADE THE DEVIL PAY FOR THEM!'
Friday, November 7, 2008
Cleveland Browns
I have been a Cleveland Browns fan since 1980. I remember watching games with my dad throughout the 1980s. I lived through Red Right 88, The Drive, the Fumble, the 4 Quarterback year of 1988 (Kosar,Danielson,Pagel and Strock) The last AFC Championship appearance in 1989. The cutting of Bernie Kosar. The last time the Browns won a playoff game 1994. In 1995 the year the Browns left Cleveland. I told myself that I was done then. However, the pull in 1999 brought me back to the Cleveland Browns. What have we seen since? 2-14,3-13,7-9,9-7,5-11,6-10,4-12,10-6 and now 3-6. We have had 3 NFL Coaches since we came back. Chris Palmer,Butch Davis and now Romeo Crennel. All 3 never a NFL head coach before. We have not had an NFL coach here in Cleveland that has prior experience as a head coach since Nick Skorich back in the 1970s! Romeo Crennel is not a head coach in the NFL. Look at his record 4-12,6-10,10-6, and now 3-6. After 4 years he is 23-32?! I never would have believed that in 1989 it would be the last time I saw the Browns in an AFC Championship game. This is just getting ridiculous, they are getting progressively worse. We need a coach that has a record of turning teams around. Bill Cowher is just sitting there on CBS waiting for the right opportunity. Cleveland is perfect for him. Make Phil Savage the personnel director and let Cowher have a say in personnel decisions. (Similar to Pioli and Belichick in NE) If we can't get Cowher then bring back Marty Schottenheimer. Yeah I know he can't win the big game but at least we got to the big game! Marty brings discipline to the teams he coaches. If the Browns fire Romeo and then hire yet another defensive coordinator I am through. You can't keep repeating the same mistakes and expect a different result.
Saturday, November 1, 2008
10 Things you Never hear in Church
TOP TEN THINGS YOU NEVER HEAR IN CHURCH...
==================================================
10. Hey! It's my turn to sit in the front pew.
9. I was so enthralled,
I never noticed your sermon went 25 minutes over time.
8. Personally I find witnessing much more enjoyable than golf.
7. I've decided to give our church the $500 a month
I used to send to TV evangelists.
6. I volunteer to be the permanent teacher
for the Junior High Sunday School class.
5. Forget the denominational minimum salary,
let's pay our pastor
so he can live like we do.
4. I love it when we sing hymns I've never heard before!
3. Since we're all here, let's start the service early.
2. Pastor,
we'd like to send you to this Bible seminar in the Bahamas.
1. Nothing inspires me and strengthens my commitment
like our annual stewardship campaign!
==================================================
10. Hey! It's my turn to sit in the front pew.
9. I was so enthralled,
I never noticed your sermon went 25 minutes over time.
8. Personally I find witnessing much more enjoyable than golf.
7. I've decided to give our church the $500 a month
I used to send to TV evangelists.
6. I volunteer to be the permanent teacher
for the Junior High Sunday School class.
5. Forget the denominational minimum salary,
let's pay our pastor
so he can live like we do.
4. I love it when we sing hymns I've never heard before!
3. Since we're all here, let's start the service early.
2. Pastor,
we'd like to send you to this Bible seminar in the Bahamas.
1. Nothing inspires me and strengthens my commitment
like our annual stewardship campaign!
Saturday, October 25, 2008
Changes
CHANGES IN THE WORKPLACE
You small business owners out there are preparing for life under a Barack Obama presidency. One of our listeners sent us some new rules for small businesses based on Obama's ideals of change and fairness:
As of November 5, 2008, when President Obama officially becomes president-elect, our company will instill a few new policies which are in keeping with his new, inspiring issues of change and fairness:
1. All salespeople will be pooling their sales and bonuses into a common pool that will be divided equally between all of you. This will serve to give those of you who are under-achieving a "fair shake".2. All low level workers will be pooling their wages, including overtime, into a common pool, dividing it equally amongst you. This will help those who are "too busy for overtime" to reap the rewards from those who have more spare time and can work extra hours.3. All top management will now be referred to as "the government." We will not participate in this "pooling" experience because the law doesn't apply to us.4. The "government" will give eloquent speeches to all employees every week, encouraging its workers to continue to work hard "for the good of all".5. The employees will be thrilled with these new policies because it's "good to spread the wealth around". Those of you who have underachieved will finally get an opportunity; those of you who have worked hard and had success will feel more "patriotic".6. The last few people who were hired should clean out their desks. Don't feel bad, though, because President Obama will give you free healthcare, free handouts, free oil for heating your home, free food stamps, and he'll let you stay in your home for as long as you want even if you can't pay your mortgage. If you appeal directly to our democratic congress, you might even get a free flat screen TV and a coupon for free haircuts (shouldn't all Americans be entitled to nice looking hair?)!!!
If for any reason you are not happy with the new policies, you may want to rethink your vote on November 4th.
You small business owners out there are preparing for life under a Barack Obama presidency. One of our listeners sent us some new rules for small businesses based on Obama's ideals of change and fairness:
As of November 5, 2008, when President Obama officially becomes president-elect, our company will instill a few new policies which are in keeping with his new, inspiring issues of change and fairness:
1. All salespeople will be pooling their sales and bonuses into a common pool that will be divided equally between all of you. This will serve to give those of you who are under-achieving a "fair shake".2. All low level workers will be pooling their wages, including overtime, into a common pool, dividing it equally amongst you. This will help those who are "too busy for overtime" to reap the rewards from those who have more spare time and can work extra hours.3. All top management will now be referred to as "the government." We will not participate in this "pooling" experience because the law doesn't apply to us.4. The "government" will give eloquent speeches to all employees every week, encouraging its workers to continue to work hard "for the good of all".5. The employees will be thrilled with these new policies because it's "good to spread the wealth around". Those of you who have underachieved will finally get an opportunity; those of you who have worked hard and had success will feel more "patriotic".6. The last few people who were hired should clean out their desks. Don't feel bad, though, because President Obama will give you free healthcare, free handouts, free oil for heating your home, free food stamps, and he'll let you stay in your home for as long as you want even if you can't pay your mortgage. If you appeal directly to our democratic congress, you might even get a free flat screen TV and a coupon for free haircuts (shouldn't all Americans be entitled to nice looking hair?)!!!
If for any reason you are not happy with the new policies, you may want to rethink your vote on November 4th.
Monday, September 29, 2008
Monday thoughts
For the last few weeks I have been passing along some great emails that I have received from people. Now the time has come to post my own thoughts on something that is important right now. The Election of 2008. I consider myself to be your average guy, I m married I have a college degree and currently going to school for my licensure in secondary education. However, I keep hearing on TV and radio from different liberal commentators how racist I am and people like me are because I am not just throwing away all my morals and qualifications because I do not like Barack Obama. Are the Democrats that desperate right now that they are labeling people that way? I vote for the person that best shares my values. Obama does not share my values on any major issue. I think Barack Obama would just be another Jimmy Carter as President. You can't tax us into prosperity. I remember another democrat president who promised everyone tax cuts(Bill Clinton) As soon as he got into office all the taxes were raised. I think Obama has too many questionable friendships and connections that the media just looks the other way about. I wish the media gave one quarter the scrutiny to Obama that they give to McCain/Palin. I still believe come election day McCain will win because Obama is in over his head. How come the media has been letting Joe Biden say one stupid thing after another without ever mentioning it? Enough of this nonsense already. the party of FDR is dead. Time to send Obama back to Illinois.
Saturday, September 27, 2008
Obama Tax Plan
This was sent to me in email I found it very interesting.
Under the tax plans of Barack Obama and his Democratic friends in Congress, American families will only be left with… the change in their pockets. In 2009, Barack Obama and the Democratic Congress have an idea for a bill. Well, really, it’s a lot of bills that will be paid for by nearly every American in the form of higher taxes and higher costs for food, energy and other products. So if you have a retirement account, work in or shop at a small business, are close or in retirement, or even flip on a light switch, then there are a few things that you should consider.Under that plan:
1.) Small main street businesses would be forced to pay tax rates as high as 62.3% under Senator Obama’s tax proposals.1
2.) Senator Obama’s tax plan would tax small businesses at a higher rate than large corporations!
3.) Taxes on retirement income and savings could increase by at least 33%, hitting millions of seniors when they need these resources the most.
4.) 4 million workers over the age of 50 – those eagerly looking forward to retirement – would be hit with increased tax bills. 4
5.) Millions of Americans would only keep 38 cents of every dollar that they earn.
6.) Senator Obama’s tax plan would reduce the after tax wages of millions of workers by 17.7%.
7.) It will take 227 days per year, nearly 8 months, just to pay your tax bill!
8.) 97,065 carpenters, 110,908 police officers, 254,992 nurses, 208,562 postsecondary teachers and 237,000 dentists would see tax increases, if the earnings cap was successfully eliminated.8 9.) 10.3 million workers would see an average of $5,650 taken from their paycheck and given to government programs.9
10.) Even YOU might be considered “Rich.”
Under the tax plans of Barack Obama and his Democratic friends in Congress, American families will only be left with… the change in their pockets. In 2009, Barack Obama and the Democratic Congress have an idea for a bill. Well, really, it’s a lot of bills that will be paid for by nearly every American in the form of higher taxes and higher costs for food, energy and other products. So if you have a retirement account, work in or shop at a small business, are close or in retirement, or even flip on a light switch, then there are a few things that you should consider.Under that plan:
1.) Small main street businesses would be forced to pay tax rates as high as 62.3% under Senator Obama’s tax proposals.1
2.) Senator Obama’s tax plan would tax small businesses at a higher rate than large corporations!
3.) Taxes on retirement income and savings could increase by at least 33%, hitting millions of seniors when they need these resources the most.
4.) 4 million workers over the age of 50 – those eagerly looking forward to retirement – would be hit with increased tax bills. 4
5.) Millions of Americans would only keep 38 cents of every dollar that they earn.
6.) Senator Obama’s tax plan would reduce the after tax wages of millions of workers by 17.7%.
7.) It will take 227 days per year, nearly 8 months, just to pay your tax bill!
8.) 97,065 carpenters, 110,908 police officers, 254,992 nurses, 208,562 postsecondary teachers and 237,000 dentists would see tax increases, if the earnings cap was successfully eliminated.8 9.) 10.3 million workers would see an average of $5,650 taken from their paycheck and given to government programs.9
10.) Even YOU might be considered “Rich.”
Monday, September 22, 2008
A letter to Joe Biden
This was passed on to me and I hope that you enjoy it. I will never understand why the Democrat party makes abortion the number one issue all the time. It is for this reason that many people are turned off to the Democrat party.
Have a blessed day.
Today, Children of All Races Are Denied Recognition
as 'Persons'"
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
WASHINGTON, D.C., SEPT. 19, 2008 (Zenit.org).-
Here is an open letter
addressed to Senator Joe Biden,
the Democratic candidate for vice president,
from the Supreme Knight of the Knights of Columbus,
Carl Anderson.
It was published today as a full-page ad in various U.S. newspapers.
* * *
Dear Senator Biden:
I write to you today as a fellow Catholic layman,
on a subject that has become a major topic of concern
in this year's presidential campaign.
The bishops who have taken public issue with your remarks
on the Church's historical position on abortion are far from alone.
Senator Obama stressed your Catholic identity repeatedly
when he introduced you as his running mate,
and so your statements carry considerable weight,
whether they are correct or not.
You now have a unique responsibility
when you make public statements about Catholic teaching.
On NBC's Meet the Press,
you appealed to the 13th Century writings of St. Thomas Aquinas
to cast doubt on the consistent teaching of the Catholic Church
on abortion.
There are several problems with this.
First,
Aquinas obviously had only a medieval understanding of biology,
and thus could only speculate about how an unborn child develops in the womb.
I doubt that there is any other area of public policy
where you would appeal to a 13th Century knowledge of biology
as the basis for modern law.
Second,
Aquinas' theological view is in any case entirely consistent
with the long history of Catholic Church teaching in this area,
holding that abortion is a grave sin to be avoided at any time
during pregnancy.
This teaching dates all the way back to the Didache, written in the second century.
It is found in the writings of Tertullian, Jerome, Augustine and Aquinas,
and was reaffirmed by the Second Vatican Council,
which described abortion as "an unspeakable crime"
and held that the right to life must be protected
from the "moment of conception."
This consistent teaching was restated most recently last month
in the response of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops
to remarks by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. Statements
that suggest that our Church
has anything less than a consistent teaching on abortion
are not merely incorrect;
they may lead Catholic women facing crisis pregnancies
to misunderstand the moral gravity of an abortion decision.
Neither should a discussion about a medieval understanding
of the first few days or weeks of life be allowed
to draw attention away from the remaining portion of an unborn child's life.
In those months,
even ancient and medieval doctors agreed that a child is developing in the womb.
And as you are well aware,
Roe v. Wade
allows for abortion at any point during a pregnancy.
While you voted for the ban on partial birth abortions,
your unconditional support for Roe is a de facto endorsement
of permitting all other late term abortions,
and thus calls into question your appeal to Aquinas.
I recognize that you struggle with your conscience on the issue,
and have said that you accept the Church's teaching
that life begins at conception - as a matter of faith.
But modern medical science leaves no doubt about the fact
that each person's life begins at conception.
It is not a matter of personal religious belief, but of science.
Finally,
your unwillingness to bring your Catholic moral views
into the public policy arena on this issue alone
is troubling.
There were several remarkable ironies in your first appearance
as Senator Obama's running mate on the steps of the old state capitol
in Springfield, Illinois.
His selection as the first black American to be the nominee
of a major party for president of the United States
owes an incalculable debt to two movements
that were led by people whose religious convictions motivated them
to confront the moral evils of their day -
the abolitionist movement of the 19th Century,
and the civil rights movement of the 20th Century.
Your rally in Springfield took place just a mile or so
from the tomb of Abraham Lincoln,
who in April 1859
wrote these words in a letter to Henry Pierce:
"This is a world of compensations;
and he who would be no slave, must consent to have no slave.
Those who deny freedom to others,
deserve it not for themselves;
and, under a just God, cannot long retain it."
Lincoln fought slavery in the name of
"a just God"
without embarrassment or apology.
He confronted an America
in which black Americans were not considered "persons"
under the law,
and were thus not entitled to fundamental Constitutional rights.
Today,
children of all races who are fully viable
and only minutes from being born
are also denied recognition
as "persons"
because of the Roe v. Wade regime
that you so strongly support.
Lincoln's reasoning regarding slavery applies with equal force
to children who are minutes, hours or days away from birth.
The American founders began our great national quest for liberty
by declaring that we are all
"created equal."
It took nearly a century to transform that bold statement
into the letter of the law,
and another century still to make it a reality.
The founders believed that we are
"endowed by Creator with certain unalienable rights,"
and that first among these is
"life."
You have a choice:
you can listen to your conscience and work
to secure the rights of the unborn to share in the fruits
of our hard-won liberty,
or
you can choose to turn your back on them.
On behalf of the
1.28 million members of the Knights of Columbus
and their families in the United States,
I appeal to you,
as a Catholic who acknowledges
that life begins at conception,
to resolve to protect this unalienable right.
I would welcome the opportunity to discuss these issues
personally with you
in greater detail during the weeks
between now and November 4.
Respectfully,
Carl A. Anderson Supreme Knight...
Have a blessed day.
Today, Children of All Races Are Denied Recognition
as 'Persons'"
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
WASHINGTON, D.C., SEPT. 19, 2008 (Zenit.org).-
Here is an open letter
addressed to Senator Joe Biden,
the Democratic candidate for vice president,
from the Supreme Knight of the Knights of Columbus,
Carl Anderson.
It was published today as a full-page ad in various U.S. newspapers.
* * *
Dear Senator Biden:
I write to you today as a fellow Catholic layman,
on a subject that has become a major topic of concern
in this year's presidential campaign.
The bishops who have taken public issue with your remarks
on the Church's historical position on abortion are far from alone.
Senator Obama stressed your Catholic identity repeatedly
when he introduced you as his running mate,
and so your statements carry considerable weight,
whether they are correct or not.
You now have a unique responsibility
when you make public statements about Catholic teaching.
On NBC's Meet the Press,
you appealed to the 13th Century writings of St. Thomas Aquinas
to cast doubt on the consistent teaching of the Catholic Church
on abortion.
There are several problems with this.
First,
Aquinas obviously had only a medieval understanding of biology,
and thus could only speculate about how an unborn child develops in the womb.
I doubt that there is any other area of public policy
where you would appeal to a 13th Century knowledge of biology
as the basis for modern law.
Second,
Aquinas' theological view is in any case entirely consistent
with the long history of Catholic Church teaching in this area,
holding that abortion is a grave sin to be avoided at any time
during pregnancy.
This teaching dates all the way back to the Didache, written in the second century.
It is found in the writings of Tertullian, Jerome, Augustine and Aquinas,
and was reaffirmed by the Second Vatican Council,
which described abortion as "an unspeakable crime"
and held that the right to life must be protected
from the "moment of conception."
This consistent teaching was restated most recently last month
in the response of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops
to remarks by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. Statements
that suggest that our Church
has anything less than a consistent teaching on abortion
are not merely incorrect;
they may lead Catholic women facing crisis pregnancies
to misunderstand the moral gravity of an abortion decision.
Neither should a discussion about a medieval understanding
of the first few days or weeks of life be allowed
to draw attention away from the remaining portion of an unborn child's life.
In those months,
even ancient and medieval doctors agreed that a child is developing in the womb.
And as you are well aware,
Roe v. Wade
allows for abortion at any point during a pregnancy.
While you voted for the ban on partial birth abortions,
your unconditional support for Roe is a de facto endorsement
of permitting all other late term abortions,
and thus calls into question your appeal to Aquinas.
I recognize that you struggle with your conscience on the issue,
and have said that you accept the Church's teaching
that life begins at conception - as a matter of faith.
But modern medical science leaves no doubt about the fact
that each person's life begins at conception.
It is not a matter of personal religious belief, but of science.
Finally,
your unwillingness to bring your Catholic moral views
into the public policy arena on this issue alone
is troubling.
There were several remarkable ironies in your first appearance
as Senator Obama's running mate on the steps of the old state capitol
in Springfield, Illinois.
His selection as the first black American to be the nominee
of a major party for president of the United States
owes an incalculable debt to two movements
that were led by people whose religious convictions motivated them
to confront the moral evils of their day -
the abolitionist movement of the 19th Century,
and the civil rights movement of the 20th Century.
Your rally in Springfield took place just a mile or so
from the tomb of Abraham Lincoln,
who in April 1859
wrote these words in a letter to Henry Pierce:
"This is a world of compensations;
and he who would be no slave, must consent to have no slave.
Those who deny freedom to others,
deserve it not for themselves;
and, under a just God, cannot long retain it."
Lincoln fought slavery in the name of
"a just God"
without embarrassment or apology.
He confronted an America
in which black Americans were not considered "persons"
under the law,
and were thus not entitled to fundamental Constitutional rights.
Today,
children of all races who are fully viable
and only minutes from being born
are also denied recognition
as "persons"
because of the Roe v. Wade regime
that you so strongly support.
Lincoln's reasoning regarding slavery applies with equal force
to children who are minutes, hours or days away from birth.
The American founders began our great national quest for liberty
by declaring that we are all
"created equal."
It took nearly a century to transform that bold statement
into the letter of the law,
and another century still to make it a reality.
The founders believed that we are
"endowed by Creator with certain unalienable rights,"
and that first among these is
"life."
You have a choice:
you can listen to your conscience and work
to secure the rights of the unborn to share in the fruits
of our hard-won liberty,
or
you can choose to turn your back on them.
On behalf of the
1.28 million members of the Knights of Columbus
and their families in the United States,
I appeal to you,
as a Catholic who acknowledges
that life begins at conception,
to resolve to protect this unalienable right.
I would welcome the opportunity to discuss these issues
personally with you
in greater detail during the weeks
between now and November 4.
Respectfully,
Carl A. Anderson Supreme Knight...
Thursday, September 18, 2008
Vote on my poll question
If you have not voted already please vote on my poll question. I am interested to see what are your favorite liturgical colors and what time of year you like best in the church calendar? Thanks for stopping by! Have a blessed day.
Tuesday, September 16, 2008
Welcome Back Dad
This was sent to me by a friend of mine and I hope you enjoy it. It was written as a tribute to Ronald Reagan by Michael Reagan. Michael compares Sarah Palin to his late father.
By Michael Reagan
I've been trying to convince my fellow conservatives that they have been wasting their time in a fruitless quest for a new Ronald Reagan to emerge and lead our party and our Nation. I insisted that we'd never see his like again because he was one of a kind. I was wrong! Wednesday night I watched the Republican National Convention on television and there, before my very eyes, I saw my Dad reborn; only this time he's a she. And what a she!In one blockbuster of a speech, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin resurrected my Dad's indomitable spirit and sent it soaring above the convention center, shooting shock waves through the cynical media's assigned spaces and electrifying the huge audience with the kind of inspiring rhetoric we haven't heard since my Dad left the scene. This was Ronald Reagan at his best -- the same Ronald Reagan who made the address known now solely as 'The Speech,' which during the Goldwater campaign set the tone and the agenda for the rebirth of the traditional conservative movement that later sent him to the White House for eight years and revived the moribund GOP.Last night was an extraordinary event. Widely seen beforehand as a make-or-break effort -- either an opportunity for Sarah Palin to show that she was the happy warrior that John McCain assured us she was, or a disaster that would dash McCain's presidential hopes and send her back to Alaska, sadder but wiser. Obviously un-intimidated by either the savage onslaught to which the left-leaning media had subjected her, or the incredible challenge she faced -- and oozing with confidence -- she strode defiantly to the podium and proved she was everything and even more than John McCain told us.Much has been made of the fact that she is a woman. What we saw last night, however, was something much more than a just a woman accomplishing something no Republican woman has ever achieved. What we saw was a red-blooded American with that rare, God-given ability to rally her dispirited fellow Republicans and take up the daunting task of leading them -- and all her fellow Americans -- on a pilgrimage to that shining city on the hill my father envisioned as our nation's real destination. In a few words she managed to rip the mask from the faces of her Democratic rivals and reveal them for what they are -- a pair of old-fashioned liberals making promises that cannot be kept without bankrupting the nation and reducing most Americans to the status of mendicants begging for their daily bread at the feet of an all-powerful government.Most important, by comparing her own stunning record of achievement with his, she showed Barack Obama for the sham that he is, a man without any solid accomplishments beyond conspicuous self-aggrandizement. Like Ronald Reagan, Sarah Palin is one of us. She knows how most of us live because that's the way she lives. She shares our homespun values and our beliefs, and she glories in her status as a small-town woman who put her shoulder to the wheel and made life better for her neighbors. Her astonishing rise up from the grass-roots, her total lack of self-importance, and her ordinary American values and modest lifestyle reveal her to be the kind of hard-working, optimistic, ordinary American who made this country the greatest, most powerful nation on the face of the earth.As hard as you might try, you won't find that kind of plain-spoken, down-to-earth, self-reliant American in the upper ranks of the liberal-infested, elitist Democratic Party, or in the Obama campaign. Sarah Palin didn't go to Harvard, or fiddle around in urban neighborhood leftist activism while engaging in opportunism within the ranks of one of the nation's most corrupt political machines, never challenging it and going along to get along, like Barack Obama. Instead she took on the corrupt establishment in Alaska and beat it, rising to the governorship while bringing reforms to every level of government she served in on her way up the ladder.Welcome back, Dad, even if you're wearing a dress and bearing children this time around
By Michael Reagan
I've been trying to convince my fellow conservatives that they have been wasting their time in a fruitless quest for a new Ronald Reagan to emerge and lead our party and our Nation. I insisted that we'd never see his like again because he was one of a kind. I was wrong! Wednesday night I watched the Republican National Convention on television and there, before my very eyes, I saw my Dad reborn; only this time he's a she. And what a she!In one blockbuster of a speech, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin resurrected my Dad's indomitable spirit and sent it soaring above the convention center, shooting shock waves through the cynical media's assigned spaces and electrifying the huge audience with the kind of inspiring rhetoric we haven't heard since my Dad left the scene. This was Ronald Reagan at his best -- the same Ronald Reagan who made the address known now solely as 'The Speech,' which during the Goldwater campaign set the tone and the agenda for the rebirth of the traditional conservative movement that later sent him to the White House for eight years and revived the moribund GOP.Last night was an extraordinary event. Widely seen beforehand as a make-or-break effort -- either an opportunity for Sarah Palin to show that she was the happy warrior that John McCain assured us she was, or a disaster that would dash McCain's presidential hopes and send her back to Alaska, sadder but wiser. Obviously un-intimidated by either the savage onslaught to which the left-leaning media had subjected her, or the incredible challenge she faced -- and oozing with confidence -- she strode defiantly to the podium and proved she was everything and even more than John McCain told us.Much has been made of the fact that she is a woman. What we saw last night, however, was something much more than a just a woman accomplishing something no Republican woman has ever achieved. What we saw was a red-blooded American with that rare, God-given ability to rally her dispirited fellow Republicans and take up the daunting task of leading them -- and all her fellow Americans -- on a pilgrimage to that shining city on the hill my father envisioned as our nation's real destination. In a few words she managed to rip the mask from the faces of her Democratic rivals and reveal them for what they are -- a pair of old-fashioned liberals making promises that cannot be kept without bankrupting the nation and reducing most Americans to the status of mendicants begging for their daily bread at the feet of an all-powerful government.Most important, by comparing her own stunning record of achievement with his, she showed Barack Obama for the sham that he is, a man without any solid accomplishments beyond conspicuous self-aggrandizement. Like Ronald Reagan, Sarah Palin is one of us. She knows how most of us live because that's the way she lives. She shares our homespun values and our beliefs, and she glories in her status as a small-town woman who put her shoulder to the wheel and made life better for her neighbors. Her astonishing rise up from the grass-roots, her total lack of self-importance, and her ordinary American values and modest lifestyle reveal her to be the kind of hard-working, optimistic, ordinary American who made this country the greatest, most powerful nation on the face of the earth.As hard as you might try, you won't find that kind of plain-spoken, down-to-earth, self-reliant American in the upper ranks of the liberal-infested, elitist Democratic Party, or in the Obama campaign. Sarah Palin didn't go to Harvard, or fiddle around in urban neighborhood leftist activism while engaging in opportunism within the ranks of one of the nation's most corrupt political machines, never challenging it and going along to get along, like Barack Obama. Instead she took on the corrupt establishment in Alaska and beat it, rising to the governorship while bringing reforms to every level of government she served in on her way up the ladder.Welcome back, Dad, even if you're wearing a dress and bearing children this time around
Monday, September 15, 2008
Still here
I am still here, just been busy trying to keep up with my online courses. The goal is to be a social studies teacher here within the next two years. Hope that everyone else is doing well also. It has not been a good start for the Cleveland Browns though 0-2 to start the year. I think it is time to start thinking about Bill Cowher or Marty Schottenheimer as head coach next year for the Browns. I think Romeo Crennel is in over his head at this point.
Friday, September 5, 2008
A good article
This was sent to me and I hope you like it.
Why They Hate Her
Posted by Jonathan V. Last on September 4, 2008, 4:31 PM
There are reasonable criticisms that can be made of Sarah Palin, both as governor and a vice presidential selection. Yet little of what we have seen in the last six days has been either reasonable or critical (in the traditional sense of the word). Instead, much of the left and many in the media simply lashed out at Palin, particularly at her family.
And not only the fringiest parts of the political fringe: A writer at the Washington Post attacked Palin for the fact that her seventeen-year-old daughter was going to have a baby. A writer for The Atlantic openly questioned whether or not Palin’s four-month-old baby, who has Down’s Syndrome, was actually hers. The utterly unfounded suggestion was that the baby was Palin’s daughter’s and that the governor had faked her pregnancy. Proof of the baby’s birth was demanded.
Again, we are not talking about an anonymous blogger at Daily Kos—this is the commentary from the Washington Post and The Atlantic Monthly. And there was more—much more—where that came from.
So why? What is it about Sarah Palin that convinced so much of the left to objectify and assault her so quickly, and with such manifest maliciousness? There are many reasons, but four of them stick out in particular, each having to do not with Palin’s politics, but with her family.
1) Trig Palin’s Down’s Syndrome is a challenge to their ideas about what represents worthwhile life. The fact that this Down’s baby was carried to term and not aborted is statement that his life has the same value as all life. This is an idea with which the left vehemently disagrees. Here is the Washington Post’s Ruth Marcus discussing her own opinion of Down’s babies in an online chat earlier this week:
I had my children at ages 37 and 39, old enough that the risk of Down syndrome was elevated, as it was for Palin, and my doctor recommended amniocentesis. Had the results indicated any abnormality, I have little doubt that I would have made a different decision than did Palin.
As such, the left sees Baby Trig as a provocation. Note today the commentators complaining that Trig has become a “prop” for Palin’s candidacy simply because the family took turns holding the four-month-old in public last night. (Perhaps these observers simply have no understanding of how infants are handled and cared for.) Instead of being viewed as just another baby, Trig is seen by the left as a little Terri Schiavo—an assertion of the value of all life and an affront to their belief that there are differences in what constitutes meaningful life.
2) Which leads, of course, to abortion. Palin’s family is a double-rebuke to the culture of abortion. First, there’s Palin’s decision not to kill Trig because he has Trisomy 21. Then there is seventeen-year-old Bristol Palin’s decision to not to kill her baby.
Contrast this with Barack Obama’s statement that he would keep abortion legal so that if one of his daughters were to “make a mistake, I don’t want them punished with a baby.” This statement is freighted with meaning: Obama views out-of-wedlock pregnancy as a mistake (which is sensible); he views such a resulting baby as punishment (which is less so); and he has strong feelings that should such a situation occur, he would not want his daughter to carry the baby to term. It is, objectively speaking, a pro-abortion statement.
3) Then there are Palin’s religious views. She is a lifelong Christian who belongs to an evangelical church. No further explanations should be needed about the provocations which emanate there from.
4) Finally, there’s the fertility. The Palin family’s five children would have been unexceptional forty years ago, but today constitute something of a fertility freak show. They’re the type of people for whom the epithet “breeder” was invented. The U.S. fertility rate sits just below the replacement level and is only that high because of the greater fertility of Hispanic immigrants. According to the most recent census data, only 1.1 percent of non-Hispanic white women bear five or six children over the course of their lifetime. By contrast, 22.5 percent of these women never reproduce. The percentage of childlessness among women rises in a straight line with educational attainment.
Why the worry about this? First, there’s the fact that few of Palin’s tormenters can understand the fact of her large, traditional family. That is certainly not the way in which they have structured their lives.
Second, there is the left’s long-standing concern about overpopulation, which has become a staple of modern environmentalism, beginning with Paul Ehrlich’s 1968 best-seller The Population Bomb. Ehrlich preached a Malthusian near-future in which hundreds of millions would perish by famine as the world’s unchecked population growth spiraled to infinity. As it happens, Ehrlich’s predictions were entirely incorrect: Not only has increased food production reduced famine to a weapon of political conflict, but the world’s population growth has slowed to a crawl. Fertility rates around the globe are falling and world population will peak around nine billion by 2050. From there, we will experience population contraction.
But Ehrlich’s prognostications never fell far out of favor, particularly with environmentalists who take it as an article of faith that the planet is already overcrowded. To them, the prodigious Palin family is surely seen as taking more than its fair share.
And finally, there is the concern that the amped up fertility of people such as the Palins will lead to a less progressive future. In an influential 2006 essay in Foreign Policy, demographer Philip Longman warned of the “Return of Patriarchy” as religiously orthodox and fundamentalist populations were reproducing at much higher rates than post-modern and secular populations. The result, Longman worried, will eventually be a return to a less politically and culturally progressive era.
As you can see, each of these facts about Sarah Palin touches upon deep sources of antagonism. Her opponents quickly intuited that the particulars of Palin’s story, on their own, stand as challenges to some of the most integral parts of their worldview, whether or not she ever makes them explicitly.
It isn’t any of Palin’s specific policies or ideological beliefs which have so antagonized the liberals (although they surely dislike her for policy reasons, too). They simply hate her for who she is.
Why They Hate Her
Posted by Jonathan V. Last on September 4, 2008, 4:31 PM
There are reasonable criticisms that can be made of Sarah Palin, both as governor and a vice presidential selection. Yet little of what we have seen in the last six days has been either reasonable or critical (in the traditional sense of the word). Instead, much of the left and many in the media simply lashed out at Palin, particularly at her family.
And not only the fringiest parts of the political fringe: A writer at the Washington Post attacked Palin for the fact that her seventeen-year-old daughter was going to have a baby. A writer for The Atlantic openly questioned whether or not Palin’s four-month-old baby, who has Down’s Syndrome, was actually hers. The utterly unfounded suggestion was that the baby was Palin’s daughter’s and that the governor had faked her pregnancy. Proof of the baby’s birth was demanded.
Again, we are not talking about an anonymous blogger at Daily Kos—this is the commentary from the Washington Post and The Atlantic Monthly. And there was more—much more—where that came from.
So why? What is it about Sarah Palin that convinced so much of the left to objectify and assault her so quickly, and with such manifest maliciousness? There are many reasons, but four of them stick out in particular, each having to do not with Palin’s politics, but with her family.
1) Trig Palin’s Down’s Syndrome is a challenge to their ideas about what represents worthwhile life. The fact that this Down’s baby was carried to term and not aborted is statement that his life has the same value as all life. This is an idea with which the left vehemently disagrees. Here is the Washington Post’s Ruth Marcus discussing her own opinion of Down’s babies in an online chat earlier this week:
I had my children at ages 37 and 39, old enough that the risk of Down syndrome was elevated, as it was for Palin, and my doctor recommended amniocentesis. Had the results indicated any abnormality, I have little doubt that I would have made a different decision than did Palin.
As such, the left sees Baby Trig as a provocation. Note today the commentators complaining that Trig has become a “prop” for Palin’s candidacy simply because the family took turns holding the four-month-old in public last night. (Perhaps these observers simply have no understanding of how infants are handled and cared for.) Instead of being viewed as just another baby, Trig is seen by the left as a little Terri Schiavo—an assertion of the value of all life and an affront to their belief that there are differences in what constitutes meaningful life.
2) Which leads, of course, to abortion. Palin’s family is a double-rebuke to the culture of abortion. First, there’s Palin’s decision not to kill Trig because he has Trisomy 21. Then there is seventeen-year-old Bristol Palin’s decision to not to kill her baby.
Contrast this with Barack Obama’s statement that he would keep abortion legal so that if one of his daughters were to “make a mistake, I don’t want them punished with a baby.” This statement is freighted with meaning: Obama views out-of-wedlock pregnancy as a mistake (which is sensible); he views such a resulting baby as punishment (which is less so); and he has strong feelings that should such a situation occur, he would not want his daughter to carry the baby to term. It is, objectively speaking, a pro-abortion statement.
3) Then there are Palin’s religious views. She is a lifelong Christian who belongs to an evangelical church. No further explanations should be needed about the provocations which emanate there from.
4) Finally, there’s the fertility. The Palin family’s five children would have been unexceptional forty years ago, but today constitute something of a fertility freak show. They’re the type of people for whom the epithet “breeder” was invented. The U.S. fertility rate sits just below the replacement level and is only that high because of the greater fertility of Hispanic immigrants. According to the most recent census data, only 1.1 percent of non-Hispanic white women bear five or six children over the course of their lifetime. By contrast, 22.5 percent of these women never reproduce. The percentage of childlessness among women rises in a straight line with educational attainment.
Why the worry about this? First, there’s the fact that few of Palin’s tormenters can understand the fact of her large, traditional family. That is certainly not the way in which they have structured their lives.
Second, there is the left’s long-standing concern about overpopulation, which has become a staple of modern environmentalism, beginning with Paul Ehrlich’s 1968 best-seller The Population Bomb. Ehrlich preached a Malthusian near-future in which hundreds of millions would perish by famine as the world’s unchecked population growth spiraled to infinity. As it happens, Ehrlich’s predictions were entirely incorrect: Not only has increased food production reduced famine to a weapon of political conflict, but the world’s population growth has slowed to a crawl. Fertility rates around the globe are falling and world population will peak around nine billion by 2050. From there, we will experience population contraction.
But Ehrlich’s prognostications never fell far out of favor, particularly with environmentalists who take it as an article of faith that the planet is already overcrowded. To them, the prodigious Palin family is surely seen as taking more than its fair share.
And finally, there is the concern that the amped up fertility of people such as the Palins will lead to a less progressive future. In an influential 2006 essay in Foreign Policy, demographer Philip Longman warned of the “Return of Patriarchy” as religiously orthodox and fundamentalist populations were reproducing at much higher rates than post-modern and secular populations. The result, Longman worried, will eventually be a return to a less politically and culturally progressive era.
As you can see, each of these facts about Sarah Palin touches upon deep sources of antagonism. Her opponents quickly intuited that the particulars of Palin’s story, on their own, stand as challenges to some of the most integral parts of their worldview, whether or not she ever makes them explicitly.
It isn’t any of Palin’s specific policies or ideological beliefs which have so antagonized the liberals (although they surely dislike her for policy reasons, too). They simply hate her for who she is.
Wednesday, September 3, 2008
I am back!
Well I decided to take a break for awhile from my blogging. I just began online classe at Notre Dame College and I in the midst of getting my licensure in secondary education for Social Studies. Well since the time I have been gone John McCain has named Sarah Palin as his choice for Vice President of the Republican party. I was an earlier advocate of selecting Sarah because I felt like Senator McCain that she is a real reformer and will bring CHANGE and not empty rhetoric like the media choice Barack the anointed Obama.
I ve tried to keep this blog focused on Catholic issues but there are some things that just aggravate me to no end. MSNBC as a news network has become the biggest farce around. I hear all the time how Fox News is always in the tank for the Republican party. However, when Fox discusses issues they always have a Republican and Democrat viewpoint. On MSNBC if you watch Keith Olbermann (Which according to ratings not many people do) you see him spew the far left agenda and then have a guest on that spouts that same far left agenda. I am willing to bet that he has never had a guest on that disagrees with him yet. Almost all the shows on MSNBC are left leaning to far left programming. It is a shame because one of my favorite political hosts was Tim Russert and I think he was appalled at the direction NBC News has taken. I think that this may have been the year that journalism has died in the USA. I have never seen such a media attack like on Sarah Palin. Barack Obama gets a free pass to GO and collect $200. I want the news to be fair to both sides and ask questions. However the mainstream media in this election makes no attempt to hide their bias and their endless cheerleading of Barack Obama. I think this will backfire and we will see John McCain and Sarah Palin win in November.
I ve tried to keep this blog focused on Catholic issues but there are some things that just aggravate me to no end. MSNBC as a news network has become the biggest farce around. I hear all the time how Fox News is always in the tank for the Republican party. However, when Fox discusses issues they always have a Republican and Democrat viewpoint. On MSNBC if you watch Keith Olbermann (Which according to ratings not many people do) you see him spew the far left agenda and then have a guest on that spouts that same far left agenda. I am willing to bet that he has never had a guest on that disagrees with him yet. Almost all the shows on MSNBC are left leaning to far left programming. It is a shame because one of my favorite political hosts was Tim Russert and I think he was appalled at the direction NBC News has taken. I think that this may have been the year that journalism has died in the USA. I have never seen such a media attack like on Sarah Palin. Barack Obama gets a free pass to GO and collect $200. I want the news to be fair to both sides and ask questions. However the mainstream media in this election makes no attempt to hide their bias and their endless cheerleading of Barack Obama. I think this will backfire and we will see John McCain and Sarah Palin win in November.
Saturday, August 23, 2008
Denver
When the leaders of the Democratic Party gather in Denver for their nominating convention, they'll hear from a number of prominent religious leaders. They'll hear from several prominent Catholics, too. But they won't hear from the Archbishop of Denver, points out Julia Duin of theWashington Times.
Archbishop Charles Chaput would be a very, very interesting convention speaker. He's intelligent, witty, modest, and thoughtful. He has taken a special interest in the relationship between religion and politics, as demonstrated by his new book, Render Unto Caesar.
But if you were a Democratic leader… if you were a supporter of Senator Obama… would you want to hand Archbishop Chaput the microphone? Nope. His message would not be congenial to the "pro-choice" crowd.
Ray Flynn, former Boston mayor and later US ambassador to the Vatican, tells the Washington Times that the failure to include Archbishop Chaput is "a serious oversight" on the part of Democratic Party leaders. Serious, yes. Oversight, no.
Archbishop Charles Chaput would be a very, very interesting convention speaker. He's intelligent, witty, modest, and thoughtful. He has taken a special interest in the relationship between religion and politics, as demonstrated by his new book, Render Unto Caesar.
But if you were a Democratic leader… if you were a supporter of Senator Obama… would you want to hand Archbishop Chaput the microphone? Nope. His message would not be congenial to the "pro-choice" crowd.
Ray Flynn, former Boston mayor and later US ambassador to the Vatican, tells the Washington Times that the failure to include Archbishop Chaput is "a serious oversight" on the part of Democratic Party leaders. Serious, yes. Oversight, no.
Tuesday, August 19, 2008
Catholic Nun to Address DNC
I find this to be very disturbing. We have a nun who will be endorsing Barack Obama at the DNC. I can't understand how a nun can endorse a candidate who is so radical about abortion. Obama is for it anytime and all the time. His position is even too extreme for NARAL and Planned Parenthood. Here is the article:
Cleveland nun to offer prayer at Democratic National Convention
Posted by Sabrina Eaton August 18, 2008 17:59PM
This story is also posted at cleveland.com/religion.
WASHINGTON -- An 86-year-old nun from Cleveland who works for a Catholic anti-poverty lobbying group has been selected to deliver the closing prayers one night during the Democratic National Convention.
"I think you have a different perspective when you've lived some history," says Catherine Pinkerton, a member of the Cleveland-based religious order Congregation of St. Joseph who once served as principal of the West Side secondary school it founded, St. Joseph Academy.
Pinkerton says that she has never been an activist for either political party but that she admires Barack Obama's "vision of where we stand as a nation and where we stand among nations" and agreed to deliver the benediction at the request of his campaign.
For the past 24 years, Pinkerton has worked for Network, a national Catholic social-justice lobby in Washington, D.C., where she works to establish international trade and investment policies that benefit the United States as well as the developing world.
"We are standing at one of the critical moments of our history," says Pinkerton, who is still drafting the remarks she'll deliver in Denver on Wednesday, Aug. 27.
Obama's campaign invited a diverse group of religious leaders to offer prayers at the convention and asked Pinkerton to be among them because she's "an icon among Catholics who has really been an inspiration to women everywhere," said spokesman Tom Reynolds.
"For decades, she has been a national leader and a champion for working families," Reynolds said. "Catholics across Ohio should be proud to have one of their own taking center stage at this historic event."
Sabrina Eaton is a reporter in The Plain Dealer's Washington Bureau.
Cleveland nun to offer prayer at Democratic National Convention
Posted by Sabrina Eaton August 18, 2008 17:59PM
This story is also posted at cleveland.com/religion.
WASHINGTON -- An 86-year-old nun from Cleveland who works for a Catholic anti-poverty lobbying group has been selected to deliver the closing prayers one night during the Democratic National Convention.
"I think you have a different perspective when you've lived some history," says Catherine Pinkerton, a member of the Cleveland-based religious order Congregation of St. Joseph who once served as principal of the West Side secondary school it founded, St. Joseph Academy.
Pinkerton says that she has never been an activist for either political party but that she admires Barack Obama's "vision of where we stand as a nation and where we stand among nations" and agreed to deliver the benediction at the request of his campaign.
For the past 24 years, Pinkerton has worked for Network, a national Catholic social-justice lobby in Washington, D.C., where she works to establish international trade and investment policies that benefit the United States as well as the developing world.
"We are standing at one of the critical moments of our history," says Pinkerton, who is still drafting the remarks she'll deliver in Denver on Wednesday, Aug. 27.
Obama's campaign invited a diverse group of religious leaders to offer prayers at the convention and asked Pinkerton to be among them because she's "an icon among Catholics who has really been an inspiration to women everywhere," said spokesman Tom Reynolds.
"For decades, she has been a national leader and a champion for working families," Reynolds said. "Catholics across Ohio should be proud to have one of their own taking center stage at this historic event."
Sabrina Eaton is a reporter in The Plain Dealer's Washington Bureau.
Friday, August 15, 2008
545 People
This was sent to me in email and I thought I would share it with everyone... Makes you think and makes you angry also.
545 PEOPLE By Charlie Reese
Politicians are the only people in the world who create problems and then campaign against them.Have you ever wondered why, if both the Democrats and the Republicans are against deficits, WHY do we have deficits?Have you ever wondered why, if all the politicians are against inflation and high taxes, WHY do we have inflation and high taxes?You and I don't propose a federal budget. The president does.You and I don't have the Constitutional authority to vote on appropriations. The House of Representatives does.You and I don't write the tax code, Congress does.You and I don't set fiscal policy, Congress does.You and I don't control monetary policy, the Federal Reserve Bank does.One hundred senators, 435 congressmen, one president, and nine Supreme Court justices 545 human beings out of the 300 million are directly, legally, morally, and individually responsible for the domestic problems that plague this country.I excluded the members of the Federal Reserve Board because that problem was created by the Congress. In 1913, Congress delegated its Constitutional duty to provide a sound currency to a federally chartered, but private, central bank.I excluded all the special interests and lobbyists for a sound reason. They have no legal authority. They have no ability to coerce a senator, a congressman, or a president to do one cotton-picking thing. I don't care if they offer a politician $1 million dollars in cash. The politician has the power to accept or reject it. No matter what the lobbyist promises, it is the legislator's responsibility to determine how he votes.Those 545 human beings spend much of their energy convincing you that what they did is not their fault. They cooperate in this common con regardless of party.What separates a politician from a normal human being is an excessive amount of gall. No normal human being would have the gall of a Speaker, who stood up and criticized the President for creating deficits. The president can only propose a budget. He cannot force the Congress to accept it.The Constitution, which is the supreme law of the land, gives sole responsibility to the House of Representatives for originating and approving appropriations and taxes.. Who is the speaker of the House? She is the leader of the majority party. She and fellow House members, not the president, can approve any budget they want. If the president vetoes it, they can pass it over his veto if they agree to.It seems inconceivable to me that a nation of 300 million can not replace 545 people who stand convicted -- by present facts -- of incompetence and irresponsibility. I can't think of a single domestic problem that is not traceable directly to those 545 people. When you fully grasp the plain truth that 545 people exercise the power of the federal government, then it must follow that what exists is what they want to exist.If the tax code is unfair, it's because they want it unfair.If the budget is in the red, it's because they want it in the red.If the Army & Marines are in IRAQ , it's because they want them in IRAQ.If they do not receive social security but are on an elite retirement plan not available to the people, it's because they want it that way.
There are no insoluble government problems.Do not let these 545 people shift the blame to bureaucrats, whom they hire and whose jobs they can abolish; to lobbyists, whose gifts and advice they can reject; to regulators, to whom they give the power to regulate and from whom they can take this power. Above all, do not let them con you into the belief that there exists disembodied mystical forces like 'the economy,' 'inflation,' or 'politics' that prevent them from doing what they take an oath to do.Those 545 people, and they alone, are responsible.They, and they alone, have the power.They, and they alone, should be held accountable by the people who are their bosses provided the voters have the gumption to manage their own employees.We should vote all of them out of office and clean up their mess!
Charlie Reese is a former columnist of the Orlando Sentinel Newspaper.
545 PEOPLE By Charlie Reese
Politicians are the only people in the world who create problems and then campaign against them.Have you ever wondered why, if both the Democrats and the Republicans are against deficits, WHY do we have deficits?Have you ever wondered why, if all the politicians are against inflation and high taxes, WHY do we have inflation and high taxes?You and I don't propose a federal budget. The president does.You and I don't have the Constitutional authority to vote on appropriations. The House of Representatives does.You and I don't write the tax code, Congress does.You and I don't set fiscal policy, Congress does.You and I don't control monetary policy, the Federal Reserve Bank does.One hundred senators, 435 congressmen, one president, and nine Supreme Court justices 545 human beings out of the 300 million are directly, legally, morally, and individually responsible for the domestic problems that plague this country.I excluded the members of the Federal Reserve Board because that problem was created by the Congress. In 1913, Congress delegated its Constitutional duty to provide a sound currency to a federally chartered, but private, central bank.I excluded all the special interests and lobbyists for a sound reason. They have no legal authority. They have no ability to coerce a senator, a congressman, or a president to do one cotton-picking thing. I don't care if they offer a politician $1 million dollars in cash. The politician has the power to accept or reject it. No matter what the lobbyist promises, it is the legislator's responsibility to determine how he votes.Those 545 human beings spend much of their energy convincing you that what they did is not their fault. They cooperate in this common con regardless of party.What separates a politician from a normal human being is an excessive amount of gall. No normal human being would have the gall of a Speaker, who stood up and criticized the President for creating deficits. The president can only propose a budget. He cannot force the Congress to accept it.The Constitution, which is the supreme law of the land, gives sole responsibility to the House of Representatives for originating and approving appropriations and taxes.. Who is the speaker of the House? She is the leader of the majority party. She and fellow House members, not the president, can approve any budget they want. If the president vetoes it, they can pass it over his veto if they agree to.It seems inconceivable to me that a nation of 300 million can not replace 545 people who stand convicted -- by present facts -- of incompetence and irresponsibility. I can't think of a single domestic problem that is not traceable directly to those 545 people. When you fully grasp the plain truth that 545 people exercise the power of the federal government, then it must follow that what exists is what they want to exist.If the tax code is unfair, it's because they want it unfair.If the budget is in the red, it's because they want it in the red.If the Army & Marines are in IRAQ , it's because they want them in IRAQ.If they do not receive social security but are on an elite retirement plan not available to the people, it's because they want it that way.
There are no insoluble government problems.Do not let these 545 people shift the blame to bureaucrats, whom they hire and whose jobs they can abolish; to lobbyists, whose gifts and advice they can reject; to regulators, to whom they give the power to regulate and from whom they can take this power. Above all, do not let them con you into the belief that there exists disembodied mystical forces like 'the economy,' 'inflation,' or 'politics' that prevent them from doing what they take an oath to do.Those 545 people, and they alone, are responsible.They, and they alone, have the power.They, and they alone, should be held accountable by the people who are their bosses provided the voters have the gumption to manage their own employees.We should vote all of them out of office and clean up their mess!
Charlie Reese is a former columnist of the Orlando Sentinel Newspaper.
Thursday, August 14, 2008
Catholics for Obama?
Catholics for Obama?Life matters.By Michael Novak
Not long before he was elected pope (overwhelmingly), Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger sent a public rebuke to the U.S. bishops. He reminded them that the question of abortion must be judged in a far different category from war and capital punishment. War is a question of practical wisdom, he observed, about which prudent Catholics may form opposing practical judgments. Same with capital punishment, which for centuries was rated by the church as just and sometimes necessary. By contrast abortion, Ratzinger wrote, is “intrinsically evil” and “always and everywhere” to be opposed.Many Catholics on the left wing of the Democratic party have never accepted this rebuke. The most some of them will concede is that abortion is a “profound moral question.” Cardinal Ratzinger’s point is that that question was long ago answered: Abortion is intrinsically evil. Never to be cooperated with.There are other Catholic leftists who are quite anti-abortion. Too often, these wiggle mightily to avoid so strong a condemnation of abortion that they must leave the Democratic party, or, at least, refuse to vote for a politician who cooperates with the evil of abortion. They want, for instance, to vote for Barack Obama, even to campaign vigorously for him.Well, the Catholic ethic is an ethic of prudence, not an ethic of doctrinaire consistency. It is not an ethic whose rules are those of arithmetic or geometry. Rather, it takes into account all the important matters that bear upon such a decision as which political candidate to support or to vote for. It pays careful attention to each person and each peculiar angle of each rare situation. Catholic ethics is more like a many-seamed garment, with intelligently designed curves and angles, than like a seamless garment, constructed geometrically. It is meant to fit the whole range of human realities.But it also recognizes that prudence can never be used as a cover for committing an intrinsic evil, such as the killing that occurs in abortion. Typically, one candidate takes a secular stance on abortion: “personally opposed, but not willing to legislate my morality on this issue.” On other issues important to Catholic leftists, however, this candidate may be perfectly willing to legislate his morality, and theirs. Americans are the most moralistic people in the world. Everything we touch tends to be discussed as a moral issue. Except abortion — many want to turn abortion into anything but a moral issue.Despite the fact that Cardinal Ratzinger, not to mention John Paul II, forcefully reminded Catholics of their duty not to cooperate with the evil of abortion, many Catholic leftists continue to cite the same American bishops who were rebuked by the cardinal and the pope. Why, moreover, do these leftists argue from “the consistent ethic of life”? Under the flag of “consistency” they are able to put virtually every issue dear to them on the scales. The result is to downgrade the real, distinctive, sui generis evil of abortions, which are now performed at a rate of about 1.1 million a year. They put equal emphasis on capital punishment and the “unjust war in Iraq” — the very thing Cardinal Ratzinger said they cannot in good conscience do.Thus, Catholic leftists need the “consistent ethic” argument to make any case at all in their support of a pro-abortion candidate. Conversely, they must also argue from an “ethic of prudence” in order to justify their peculiar calculation that abortion is not as important as war, capital punishment, and their (highly debatable) claims about the “common good.” Even in its logical form, their reasoning is a tangled mess: “Yes” to a consistent ethic of life when they need it, “No” when they don’t.In the particular case of Barack Obama, their case is an even greater mess. Bill Clinton, the last Democratic president, frustrated the will of the U.S. Congress by refusing to sign legislation outlawing partial-birth abortion. Even though this procedure means — just before a full delivery — puncturing the head of the infant so that the brains may be suctioned out, Obama, as an assemblyman in Illinois, took the same position here as the Clintons did: in favor of this grim procedure.Worse still, Obama strongly spoke out in opposition to legislation to disallow abortionists from putting to death infants who survived a first attempt at abortion. At the federal level, this legislation was called the Born Alive Infant Protection Act, protecting the human infant born alive despite a vigorous attempt to kill her in the womb.There are many pretty words that politicians, some Republicans and some Democrats, use to mask their actual practice in regard to abortion. They call it “a profound moral issue,” and they say they seek to make abortions “safe, legal, and rare” — a particularly adroit example of rhetorically pleasing everybody. In actual practice, though, they manage to keep abortions going just as before.Senators would never allow themselves such disgraceful compromise if they were speaking about slavery. In the case of slavery, being “pro-choice” is not moral, as Sen. Douglas learned to his sorrow from candidate Lincoln. An irreducible natural right is at stake.Of course, the Republican party was the anti-slavery party. And, alas, the Democrats of recent times have allowed the Republican party to become the anti-abortion party. For the Democrats, that is a disgrace. As a result, many Catholics have reluctantly had to change parties — or at least to change their voting habits. As a violation of natural right, abortion is even more extreme than slavery.****Of course, the abortion question does not affect all Catholics equally. Catholics go on calling themselves “Catholic” long after they have ceased receiving the sacraments or darkening a church door. But abortion does affect some large minority of Catholics to the core of their being.No matter if the propaganda in the press and the cinema mostly favors the pro-abortion side, many Catholics are so close to births and birthing, and so highly value each newborn child, that they will never be led to believe that abortion is anything but intrinsically evil. It’s just plain wrong. There is never any excuse for it (well, virtually never).Whenever Catholics hear the phrase “consistent ethic of life,” they look for the coercion and self-deception implied in it. It is a made-for-all-purposes excuse. It does not describe the ethics of prudence taught by Thomas Aquinas and favored for many centuries by the Church, and by the Lord Jesus himself.In addition, those who call the Iraq war “unjust” are entitled to their opinion, but they have no serious Catholic authority. Neither the pope nor the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith nor the U.S. Council of Catholic Bishops, even when some of them opposed it as imprudent, have ever called the Iraq war unjust.The other reason for supporting Obama that some Catholic leftists put forward is that very little in reducing abortions has been accomplished by the Republican party in the years since President Reagan. Is that claim true?Well, President Bush did sign the two acts of legislation that Obama opposed in their state forms, the ban on partial-birth abortion and the Born Alive Infant Protection Act. These acts do not seriously alter the number of annual abortions. But they do establish in law the fundamental principle of the natural rights of infants in the womb. They treat these human individuals as worthy of respect and they defend their rights to live and breathe and continue growing into adults.Two formidable obstacles have prevented Republican presidents from going farther. The first is heavy resistance from most Democrats (who until recently were driving pro-life Democrats out of party leadership) and some Republicans (country-club Republicans, mostly). The second is furious resistance from the liberal judiciary (mostly country-club liberals) at almost every higher level.It is mind-twisting for reasonable people to discern how leftist Democrats think Obama will change his abortion stripes, and then go farther than President George W. Bush (boo! hiss!) in promoting a culture of life. Most of those who will vote for Obama do not think Obama is pro-life. Why should a few leftist Catholics?During the legislative debate in the House, Democrats decided overwhelmingly to just go ahead and vote for the “Born Alive” act. They wanted to repress all debate, lest that issue educate the public dramatically on what real abortions are like. Abortion is best approved of in the dark, not in the light of day, where full and open debate might turn the public against it.On more and more refrigerators across America, photos of brothers and sisters in mommy’s womb from just a few weeks after conception are already encouraging children more and more to find abortion abhorrent. The young easily identify with their siblings with tiny fingers and toes in the womb, and perceive with dark dread what it would be like if they had been aborted. Children after 1973 are prevented from feeling that they are gifts of God by the large figure blocking that sun — their mother, with the power to have turned thumbs down on their very existence. Children do not feel that they depend on the will of God but on the will of their mother.I wish Democrats had not ceded the anti-abortion position to Republicans. I hope that those Catholics among them look again at Abraham Lincoln’s Peoria Speech of 1854, brought to our attention in Lewis E. Lehrman’s brilliant new book, Lincoln at Peoria
Not long before he was elected pope (overwhelmingly), Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger sent a public rebuke to the U.S. bishops. He reminded them that the question of abortion must be judged in a far different category from war and capital punishment. War is a question of practical wisdom, he observed, about which prudent Catholics may form opposing practical judgments. Same with capital punishment, which for centuries was rated by the church as just and sometimes necessary. By contrast abortion, Ratzinger wrote, is “intrinsically evil” and “always and everywhere” to be opposed.Many Catholics on the left wing of the Democratic party have never accepted this rebuke. The most some of them will concede is that abortion is a “profound moral question.” Cardinal Ratzinger’s point is that that question was long ago answered: Abortion is intrinsically evil. Never to be cooperated with.There are other Catholic leftists who are quite anti-abortion. Too often, these wiggle mightily to avoid so strong a condemnation of abortion that they must leave the Democratic party, or, at least, refuse to vote for a politician who cooperates with the evil of abortion. They want, for instance, to vote for Barack Obama, even to campaign vigorously for him.Well, the Catholic ethic is an ethic of prudence, not an ethic of doctrinaire consistency. It is not an ethic whose rules are those of arithmetic or geometry. Rather, it takes into account all the important matters that bear upon such a decision as which political candidate to support or to vote for. It pays careful attention to each person and each peculiar angle of each rare situation. Catholic ethics is more like a many-seamed garment, with intelligently designed curves and angles, than like a seamless garment, constructed geometrically. It is meant to fit the whole range of human realities.But it also recognizes that prudence can never be used as a cover for committing an intrinsic evil, such as the killing that occurs in abortion. Typically, one candidate takes a secular stance on abortion: “personally opposed, but not willing to legislate my morality on this issue.” On other issues important to Catholic leftists, however, this candidate may be perfectly willing to legislate his morality, and theirs. Americans are the most moralistic people in the world. Everything we touch tends to be discussed as a moral issue. Except abortion — many want to turn abortion into anything but a moral issue.Despite the fact that Cardinal Ratzinger, not to mention John Paul II, forcefully reminded Catholics of their duty not to cooperate with the evil of abortion, many Catholic leftists continue to cite the same American bishops who were rebuked by the cardinal and the pope. Why, moreover, do these leftists argue from “the consistent ethic of life”? Under the flag of “consistency” they are able to put virtually every issue dear to them on the scales. The result is to downgrade the real, distinctive, sui generis evil of abortions, which are now performed at a rate of about 1.1 million a year. They put equal emphasis on capital punishment and the “unjust war in Iraq” — the very thing Cardinal Ratzinger said they cannot in good conscience do.Thus, Catholic leftists need the “consistent ethic” argument to make any case at all in their support of a pro-abortion candidate. Conversely, they must also argue from an “ethic of prudence” in order to justify their peculiar calculation that abortion is not as important as war, capital punishment, and their (highly debatable) claims about the “common good.” Even in its logical form, their reasoning is a tangled mess: “Yes” to a consistent ethic of life when they need it, “No” when they don’t.In the particular case of Barack Obama, their case is an even greater mess. Bill Clinton, the last Democratic president, frustrated the will of the U.S. Congress by refusing to sign legislation outlawing partial-birth abortion. Even though this procedure means — just before a full delivery — puncturing the head of the infant so that the brains may be suctioned out, Obama, as an assemblyman in Illinois, took the same position here as the Clintons did: in favor of this grim procedure.Worse still, Obama strongly spoke out in opposition to legislation to disallow abortionists from putting to death infants who survived a first attempt at abortion. At the federal level, this legislation was called the Born Alive Infant Protection Act, protecting the human infant born alive despite a vigorous attempt to kill her in the womb.There are many pretty words that politicians, some Republicans and some Democrats, use to mask their actual practice in regard to abortion. They call it “a profound moral issue,” and they say they seek to make abortions “safe, legal, and rare” — a particularly adroit example of rhetorically pleasing everybody. In actual practice, though, they manage to keep abortions going just as before.Senators would never allow themselves such disgraceful compromise if they were speaking about slavery. In the case of slavery, being “pro-choice” is not moral, as Sen. Douglas learned to his sorrow from candidate Lincoln. An irreducible natural right is at stake.Of course, the Republican party was the anti-slavery party. And, alas, the Democrats of recent times have allowed the Republican party to become the anti-abortion party. For the Democrats, that is a disgrace. As a result, many Catholics have reluctantly had to change parties — or at least to change their voting habits. As a violation of natural right, abortion is even more extreme than slavery.****Of course, the abortion question does not affect all Catholics equally. Catholics go on calling themselves “Catholic” long after they have ceased receiving the sacraments or darkening a church door. But abortion does affect some large minority of Catholics to the core of their being.No matter if the propaganda in the press and the cinema mostly favors the pro-abortion side, many Catholics are so close to births and birthing, and so highly value each newborn child, that they will never be led to believe that abortion is anything but intrinsically evil. It’s just plain wrong. There is never any excuse for it (well, virtually never).Whenever Catholics hear the phrase “consistent ethic of life,” they look for the coercion and self-deception implied in it. It is a made-for-all-purposes excuse. It does not describe the ethics of prudence taught by Thomas Aquinas and favored for many centuries by the Church, and by the Lord Jesus himself.In addition, those who call the Iraq war “unjust” are entitled to their opinion, but they have no serious Catholic authority. Neither the pope nor the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith nor the U.S. Council of Catholic Bishops, even when some of them opposed it as imprudent, have ever called the Iraq war unjust.The other reason for supporting Obama that some Catholic leftists put forward is that very little in reducing abortions has been accomplished by the Republican party in the years since President Reagan. Is that claim true?Well, President Bush did sign the two acts of legislation that Obama opposed in their state forms, the ban on partial-birth abortion and the Born Alive Infant Protection Act. These acts do not seriously alter the number of annual abortions. But they do establish in law the fundamental principle of the natural rights of infants in the womb. They treat these human individuals as worthy of respect and they defend their rights to live and breathe and continue growing into adults.Two formidable obstacles have prevented Republican presidents from going farther. The first is heavy resistance from most Democrats (who until recently were driving pro-life Democrats out of party leadership) and some Republicans (country-club Republicans, mostly). The second is furious resistance from the liberal judiciary (mostly country-club liberals) at almost every higher level.It is mind-twisting for reasonable people to discern how leftist Democrats think Obama will change his abortion stripes, and then go farther than President George W. Bush (boo! hiss!) in promoting a culture of life. Most of those who will vote for Obama do not think Obama is pro-life. Why should a few leftist Catholics?During the legislative debate in the House, Democrats decided overwhelmingly to just go ahead and vote for the “Born Alive” act. They wanted to repress all debate, lest that issue educate the public dramatically on what real abortions are like. Abortion is best approved of in the dark, not in the light of day, where full and open debate might turn the public against it.On more and more refrigerators across America, photos of brothers and sisters in mommy’s womb from just a few weeks after conception are already encouraging children more and more to find abortion abhorrent. The young easily identify with their siblings with tiny fingers and toes in the womb, and perceive with dark dread what it would be like if they had been aborted. Children after 1973 are prevented from feeling that they are gifts of God by the large figure blocking that sun — their mother, with the power to have turned thumbs down on their very existence. Children do not feel that they depend on the will of God but on the will of their mother.I wish Democrats had not ceded the anti-abortion position to Republicans. I hope that those Catholics among them look again at Abraham Lincoln’s Peoria Speech of 1854, brought to our attention in Lewis E. Lehrman’s brilliant new book, Lincoln at Peoria
Saturday, August 9, 2008
Try this sometime
Dear Boss,I have enjoyed working here these past several years. You have paid me very well, given me benefits beyond belief. I have 3-4 months off per year and a pension plan that will pay my salary till the day I die and a health plan that most people can only dream about.Despite this I plan to take the next 12-18 months to find a new position.During this time I will show up for work when it is convenient. Inaddition I fully expect to draw my full salary and all the other perksassociated with my current job.Oh yeah, if my search for this new job proves fruitless, I will be back with no loss in pay or status. Before you say anything, remember that you have no choice in the matter. I can and will do this.Sincerely,Every Senator or Congressman running for President.
Saturday, August 2, 2008
Something I wrote on a message board
For any of you that know me, you know my fondness of the old Geauga Lake amusement park. Well the park was closed last year and I wrote this mini story based off Star Wars to remember A long time ago in a galaxy far far away Cedar Fair used to take care of their parks but Chancellor Kinzel came in and the same high standards of the previous Chancellor Robert Munger were thrown out. Chancellor Kinzel would not stand for the way things were run so he made sure to decimate the high standards that Cedar Fair had and appointed himself emperor of Cedar Fair and would make sure everyone in Ohio knew it and in 2004 he appointed a new apprentice for himself in Darth Spehn. Together they destroyed our beloved Geauga Lake.
Friday, August 1, 2008
A request
Usually on Friday I try to do something that is not related to the faith and just whatever happens to be on my mind. I m interested today in hearing about some more good spiritual books that people are reading. If you are reading something or have read something that is easy to read and is enjoyable please recommend it. I m not really into heavy theological readings right now at this point. Dr. Scott Hahn is excellent at writing for us average people and he really makes sure we understand it. When you get to the Summa Theologica then you have lost me haha. But, if you have something to recommend please let me know. Have a blessed day.
Thursday, July 31, 2008
War of Words
Do you ever get a negative email and then want to respond to it? Of course there are other times you get mad and you want to tell someone where to go or what to do. I know I have been guilty of that. The only problem is if you tell that person that then you encounter even more anger and more angst. I find myself if angry writing a response and then I delete it or burn it. You don't want to incur any anger from someone. But it does make you feel better in the long run. Usually what happens is then I forget about what happened and I move on. I know it has worked in the past and it will continue to work in the future. Have a blessed day everyone.
Tuesday, July 29, 2008
Tuesday Thoughts
I have been busy the last few days and I made a promise to write today. All last week I have been seeing this crazy Obamamania going around the world. I consider myself pretty moderate in most of my views and conservative on fiscal matters. I ve blogged about him before but I just don't get the appeal? So many people want change so bad and they will settle for this empty suit? Obama strikes me as the career politician. Since he began in politics he has always been campaigning for another job. He gets into one job and begins campaigning for another. I am not all that thrilled with John McCain either but I think he is the safer choice. We know what he stands for. Lets hope that he makes it clear to everyone that Obama does not stand for anything, which is becoming more and more evident as time goes on.
Tuesday, July 22, 2008
Some thoughts
Hi everyone! I was thinking of a few things today and one of them is my poll question. If you could visit any Catholic apparition site of the 3 I listed where would you want to go? I have been to Medjugorje twice when I was a teen and a child. My mom is originally from Croatia so when we visited family we made it a point to go see Medjugorje. Having seen that I would want to see Lourdes, France. I know many people make pilgrimmages there every year and as far as I know it is approved by the church while Medjugorje is not. (If I am wrong on that please let me know)
Another thing I was thinking about was how we treat people. Every day when I go for walks I find it more and more unlikely that someone will say hi to you. I remember as a child going for bike rides and people would always greet each other with a warm hello and how are you. Now many people just walk right past you as if you were thin air. What is with many kids these days? Since when is it ok now to refer to adults we do not know or who are family members (not cousins/siblings by their first name?) I would not even dream to call any of my uncles or aunts by their first name? I am in my mid 30s and still refer to many adults by Mr or Mrs. I blame my generation for allowing this to happen. We were brought up better by our parents. If an adult gives you permission to call them by their first name that is one thing but to refer to them on your own reflects bad not only on the child but on the parents as well. Thats my thoughts for today hope you all have a blessed day.
Another thing I was thinking about was how we treat people. Every day when I go for walks I find it more and more unlikely that someone will say hi to you. I remember as a child going for bike rides and people would always greet each other with a warm hello and how are you. Now many people just walk right past you as if you were thin air. What is with many kids these days? Since when is it ok now to refer to adults we do not know or who are family members (not cousins/siblings by their first name?) I would not even dream to call any of my uncles or aunts by their first name? I am in my mid 30s and still refer to many adults by Mr or Mrs. I blame my generation for allowing this to happen. We were brought up better by our parents. If an adult gives you permission to call them by their first name that is one thing but to refer to them on your own reflects bad not only on the child but on the parents as well. Thats my thoughts for today hope you all have a blessed day.
Friday, July 18, 2008
A leisurely Friday
After two days working outside cutting up trees and burning them I took today off as a rest. Wow was it hot the last 3 days. I hear people on the radio today talking about cooler weather. Remember this weather when it is snowing 2 feet in February again. I don't mind the heat because I can at least go swimming and cool off. In the winter it takes forever to warm up. It seems like no matter how warm I put the furnace in the winter it is never warm enough. The only enjoyable thing about winter is Christmas and then on December 26th I am ready to get summer going again till next year. Lets enjoy this hot weather and go swimming and have BBQs. Before we know it most people are going to be complaining about snow. Long summers and short winters that is my motto! Have a blessed day.
Wednesday, July 16, 2008
Middle of Week
Ok so this will be a quick blog tonight. I spent most of the day studying for my certification for drivers ed and also helping my parents clear some trees in their yard. Right now I am quite sore for having done that haha. Nothing like cutting trees down in 90 degree heat. I think I drank about 4 glasses of water and wound up sweating it all out. I still don't believe it when people tell me that there is a difference between dry and humid heat. I live in humid heat and I have been in dry heat in Las Vegas. Heat is heat haha. Tomorrow its back to cutting trees. Hope that you all have a blessed day.
Tuesday, July 15, 2008
Prayer
This was sent to me in email and I think it describes the year 2008 perfectly. I hope you enjoy it.
PAUL HARVEY'S ON- AIR PRAYER 'Heavenly Father, we come before you today to ask your forgiveness and to seek your direction and guidance. We know Your Word says, 'Woe to those who call evil good,' but that is exactly what we have done. We have lost our spiritual equilibrium and reversed our values. We have exploited the poor and called it the lottery. We have rewarded laziness and called it welfare. We have killed our unborn and called it choice. We have shot abortionists and called it justifiable. We have neglected to discipline our children and called it building self esteem. We have abused power and called it politics. We have coveted our neighbor's possessions and called it ambition We have polluted the air with profanity and pornography and called it freedom of expression. We have ridiculed the time-honored values of our forefathers and called it enlightenment. Search us, Oh God, and know our hearts today; cleanse us from every sin and Set us free. Amen!' Commentator Paul Harvey aired this prayer on his radio program, 'The Rest of the Story,' and received a larger response to this program than any other he has ever aired. With the Lord's help, may this prayer sweep over our nation and wholeheartedly become our desire so that we again can be called 'One nation under God..' If possible, please pass this prayer on to your friends. 'If you don't stand for something, you will fall for everything.' Think about this: If you forward this prayer to everyone on your e-mail list, in less than 30 days it would be heard by the world. (It's worth a try!) One Nation Under God
PAUL HARVEY'S ON- AIR PRAYER 'Heavenly Father, we come before you today to ask your forgiveness and to seek your direction and guidance. We know Your Word says, 'Woe to those who call evil good,' but that is exactly what we have done. We have lost our spiritual equilibrium and reversed our values. We have exploited the poor and called it the lottery. We have rewarded laziness and called it welfare. We have killed our unborn and called it choice. We have shot abortionists and called it justifiable. We have neglected to discipline our children and called it building self esteem. We have abused power and called it politics. We have coveted our neighbor's possessions and called it ambition We have polluted the air with profanity and pornography and called it freedom of expression. We have ridiculed the time-honored values of our forefathers and called it enlightenment. Search us, Oh God, and know our hearts today; cleanse us from every sin and Set us free. Amen!' Commentator Paul Harvey aired this prayer on his radio program, 'The Rest of the Story,' and received a larger response to this program than any other he has ever aired. With the Lord's help, may this prayer sweep over our nation and wholeheartedly become our desire so that we again can be called 'One nation under God..' If possible, please pass this prayer on to your friends. 'If you don't stand for something, you will fall for everything.' Think about this: If you forward this prayer to everyone on your e-mail list, in less than 30 days it would be heard by the world. (It's worth a try!) One Nation Under God
Saturday, July 12, 2008
Tony Snow passes away
Today we lost another popular news commentator. Just a few weeks back Tim Russert passed away and today Tony Snow passed away. I always enjoyed listening to Tony Snow on his radio show and when he filled in for Rush Limbaugh. I always made it a point to watch him on Fox News Sunday when he was hosting the show until he became white house press secretary. Many people sent me this email about Tony Snow and I found it very inspirational and I hope you do too.
Cancer's Unexpected Blessings
When you enter the Valley of the Shadow of Death, things change.
Tony Snow posted 7/20/2007 02:30PM
Commentator and broadcaster Tony Snow announced that he had colon cancer in 2005. Following surgery and chemo-therapy, Snow joined the Bush administration in April 2006 as press secretary. Unfortunately, on March 23 Snow, 51, a husband and father of three, announced that the cancer had recurred, with tumors found in his abdomen—leading to surgery in April, followed by more chemotherapy. Snow went back to work in the White House Briefing Room on May 30, but resigned August 31. CT asked Snow what spiritual lessons he has been learning through the ordeal.
Blessings arrive in unexpected packages—in my case, cancer.
Those of us with potentially fatal diseases—and there are millions in America today—find ourselves in the odd position of coping with our mortality while trying to fathom God's will. Although it would be the height of presumption to declare with confidence What It All Means, Scripture provides powerful hints and consolations.
The first is that we shouldn't spend too much time trying to answer the why questions: Why me? Why must people suffer? Why can't someone else get sick? We can't answer such things, and the questions themselves often are designed more to express our anguish than to solicit an answer.
I don't know why I have cancer, and I don't much care. It is what it is—a plain and indisputable fact. Yet even while staring into a mirror darkly, great and stunning truths begin to take shape. Our maladies define a central feature of our existence: We are fallen. We are imperfect. Our bodies give out.
But despite this—because of it—God offers the possibility of salvation and grace. We don't know how the narrative of our lives will end, but we get to choose how to use the interval between now and the moment we meet our Creator face-to-face.
Second, we need to get past the anxiety. The mere thought of dying can send adrenaline flooding through your system. A dizzy, unfocused panic seizes you. Your heart thumps; your head swims. You think of nothingness and swoon. You fear partings; you worry about the impact on family and friends. You fidget and get nowhere.
To regain footing, remember that we were born not into death, but into life—and that the journey continues after we have finished our days on this earth. We accept this on faith, but that faith is nourished by a conviction that stirs even within many nonbelieving hearts—an intuition that the gift of life, once given, cannot be taken away. Those who have been stricken enjoy the special privilege of being able to fight with their might, main, and faith to live—fully, richly, exuberantly—no matter how their days may be numbered.
Third, we can open our eyes and hearts. God relishes surprise. We want lives of simple, predictable ease—smooth, even trails as far as the eye can see—but God likes to go off-road. He provokes us with twists and turns. He places us in predicaments that seem to defy our endurance and comprehension—and yet don't. By his love and grace, we persevere. The challenges that make our hearts leap and stomachs churn invariably strengthen our faith and grant measures of wisdom and joy we would not experience otherwise.'You Have Been Called'
Picture yourself in a hospital bed. The fog of anesthesia has begun to wear away. A doctor stands at your feet; a loved one holds your hand at the side. "It's cancer," the healer announces.
The natural reaction is to turn to God and ask him to serve as a cosmic Santa. "Dear God, make it all go away. Make everything simpler." But another voice whispers: "You have been called." Your quandary has drawn you closer to God, closer to those you love, closer to the issues that matter—and has dragged into insignificance the banal concerns that occupy our "normal time."
There's another kind of response, although usually short-lived—an inexplicable shudder of excitement, as if a clarifying moment of calamity has swept away everything trivial and tinny, and placed before us the challenge of important questions.
The moment you enter the Valley of the Shadow of Death, things change. You discover that Christianity is not something doughy, passive, pious, and soft. Faith may be the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. But it also draws you into a world shorn of fearful caution. The life of belief teems with thrills, boldness, danger, shocks, reversals, triumphs, and epiphanies. Think of Paul, traipsing though the known world and contemplating trips to what must have seemed the antipodes (Spain), shaking the dust from his sandals, worrying not about the morrow, but only about the moment.
There's nothing wilder than a life of humble virtue—for it is through selflessness and service that God wrings from our bodies and spirits the most we ever could give, the most we ever could offer, and the most we ever could do.
Finally, we can let love change everything. When Jesus was faced with the prospect of crucifixion, he grieved not for himself, but for us. He cried for Jerusalem before entering the holy city. From the Cross, he took on the cumulative burden of human sin and weakness, and begged for forgiveness on our behalf.
We get repeated chances to learn that life is not about us—that we acquire purpose and satisfaction by sharing in God's love for others. Sickness gets us partway there. It reminds us of our limitations and dependence. But it also gives us a chance to serve the healthy. A minister friend of mine observes that people suffering grave afflictions often acquire the faith of two people, while loved ones accept the burden of two people's worries and fears.Learning How to Live
Most of us have watched friends as they drifted toward God's arms not with resignation, but with peace and hope. In so doing, they have taught us not how to die, but how to live. They have emulated Christ by transmitting the power and authority of love.
I sat by my best friend's bedside a few years ago as a wasting cancer took him away. He kept at his table a worn Bible and a 1928 edition of the Book of Common Prayer. A shattering grief disabled his family, many of his old friends, and at least one priest. Here was a humble and very good guy, someone who apologized when he winced with pain because he thought it made his guest uncomfortable. He retained his equanimity and good humor literally until his last conscious moment. "I'm going to try to beat [this cancer]," he told me several months before he died. "But if I don't, I'll see you on the other side."
His gift was to remind everyone around him that even though God doesn't promise us tomorrow, he does promise us eternity—filled with life and love we cannot comprehend—and that one can in the throes of sickness point the rest of us toward timeless truths that will help us weather future storms.
Through such trials, God bids us to choose: Do we believe, or do we not? Will we be bold enough to love, daring enough to serve, humble enough to submit, and strong enough to acknowledge our limitations? Can we surrender our concern in things that don't matter so that we might devote our remaining days to things that do?
When our faith flags, he throws reminders in our way. Think of the prayer warriors in our midst. They change things, and those of us who have been on the receiving end of their petitions and intercessions know it.
It is hard to describe, but there are times when suddenly the hairs on the back of your neck stand up, and you feel a surge of the Spirit. Somehow you just know: Others have chosen, when talking to the Author of all creation, to lift us up—to speak of us!
This is love of a very special order. But so is the ability to sit back and appreciate the wonder of every created thing. The mere thought of death somehow makes every blessing vivid, every happiness more luminous and intense. We may not know how our contest with sickness will end, but we have felt the ineluctable touch of God.
What is man that Thou art mindful of him? We don't know much, but we know this: No matter where we are, no matter what we do, no matter how bleak or frightening our prospects, each and every one of us, each and every day, lies in the same safe and impregnable place—in the hollow of God's hand
Hope you have a blessed weekend and I will be back on Monday.
Cancer's Unexpected Blessings
When you enter the Valley of the Shadow of Death, things change.
Tony Snow posted 7/20/2007 02:30PM
Commentator and broadcaster Tony Snow announced that he had colon cancer in 2005. Following surgery and chemo-therapy, Snow joined the Bush administration in April 2006 as press secretary. Unfortunately, on March 23 Snow, 51, a husband and father of three, announced that the cancer had recurred, with tumors found in his abdomen—leading to surgery in April, followed by more chemotherapy. Snow went back to work in the White House Briefing Room on May 30, but resigned August 31. CT asked Snow what spiritual lessons he has been learning through the ordeal.
Blessings arrive in unexpected packages—in my case, cancer.
Those of us with potentially fatal diseases—and there are millions in America today—find ourselves in the odd position of coping with our mortality while trying to fathom God's will. Although it would be the height of presumption to declare with confidence What It All Means, Scripture provides powerful hints and consolations.
The first is that we shouldn't spend too much time trying to answer the why questions: Why me? Why must people suffer? Why can't someone else get sick? We can't answer such things, and the questions themselves often are designed more to express our anguish than to solicit an answer.
I don't know why I have cancer, and I don't much care. It is what it is—a plain and indisputable fact. Yet even while staring into a mirror darkly, great and stunning truths begin to take shape. Our maladies define a central feature of our existence: We are fallen. We are imperfect. Our bodies give out.
But despite this—because of it—God offers the possibility of salvation and grace. We don't know how the narrative of our lives will end, but we get to choose how to use the interval between now and the moment we meet our Creator face-to-face.
Second, we need to get past the anxiety. The mere thought of dying can send adrenaline flooding through your system. A dizzy, unfocused panic seizes you. Your heart thumps; your head swims. You think of nothingness and swoon. You fear partings; you worry about the impact on family and friends. You fidget and get nowhere.
To regain footing, remember that we were born not into death, but into life—and that the journey continues after we have finished our days on this earth. We accept this on faith, but that faith is nourished by a conviction that stirs even within many nonbelieving hearts—an intuition that the gift of life, once given, cannot be taken away. Those who have been stricken enjoy the special privilege of being able to fight with their might, main, and faith to live—fully, richly, exuberantly—no matter how their days may be numbered.
Third, we can open our eyes and hearts. God relishes surprise. We want lives of simple, predictable ease—smooth, even trails as far as the eye can see—but God likes to go off-road. He provokes us with twists and turns. He places us in predicaments that seem to defy our endurance and comprehension—and yet don't. By his love and grace, we persevere. The challenges that make our hearts leap and stomachs churn invariably strengthen our faith and grant measures of wisdom and joy we would not experience otherwise.'You Have Been Called'
Picture yourself in a hospital bed. The fog of anesthesia has begun to wear away. A doctor stands at your feet; a loved one holds your hand at the side. "It's cancer," the healer announces.
The natural reaction is to turn to God and ask him to serve as a cosmic Santa. "Dear God, make it all go away. Make everything simpler." But another voice whispers: "You have been called." Your quandary has drawn you closer to God, closer to those you love, closer to the issues that matter—and has dragged into insignificance the banal concerns that occupy our "normal time."
There's another kind of response, although usually short-lived—an inexplicable shudder of excitement, as if a clarifying moment of calamity has swept away everything trivial and tinny, and placed before us the challenge of important questions.
The moment you enter the Valley of the Shadow of Death, things change. You discover that Christianity is not something doughy, passive, pious, and soft. Faith may be the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. But it also draws you into a world shorn of fearful caution. The life of belief teems with thrills, boldness, danger, shocks, reversals, triumphs, and epiphanies. Think of Paul, traipsing though the known world and contemplating trips to what must have seemed the antipodes (Spain), shaking the dust from his sandals, worrying not about the morrow, but only about the moment.
There's nothing wilder than a life of humble virtue—for it is through selflessness and service that God wrings from our bodies and spirits the most we ever could give, the most we ever could offer, and the most we ever could do.
Finally, we can let love change everything. When Jesus was faced with the prospect of crucifixion, he grieved not for himself, but for us. He cried for Jerusalem before entering the holy city. From the Cross, he took on the cumulative burden of human sin and weakness, and begged for forgiveness on our behalf.
We get repeated chances to learn that life is not about us—that we acquire purpose and satisfaction by sharing in God's love for others. Sickness gets us partway there. It reminds us of our limitations and dependence. But it also gives us a chance to serve the healthy. A minister friend of mine observes that people suffering grave afflictions often acquire the faith of two people, while loved ones accept the burden of two people's worries and fears.Learning How to Live
Most of us have watched friends as they drifted toward God's arms not with resignation, but with peace and hope. In so doing, they have taught us not how to die, but how to live. They have emulated Christ by transmitting the power and authority of love.
I sat by my best friend's bedside a few years ago as a wasting cancer took him away. He kept at his table a worn Bible and a 1928 edition of the Book of Common Prayer. A shattering grief disabled his family, many of his old friends, and at least one priest. Here was a humble and very good guy, someone who apologized when he winced with pain because he thought it made his guest uncomfortable. He retained his equanimity and good humor literally until his last conscious moment. "I'm going to try to beat [this cancer]," he told me several months before he died. "But if I don't, I'll see you on the other side."
His gift was to remind everyone around him that even though God doesn't promise us tomorrow, he does promise us eternity—filled with life and love we cannot comprehend—and that one can in the throes of sickness point the rest of us toward timeless truths that will help us weather future storms.
Through such trials, God bids us to choose: Do we believe, or do we not? Will we be bold enough to love, daring enough to serve, humble enough to submit, and strong enough to acknowledge our limitations? Can we surrender our concern in things that don't matter so that we might devote our remaining days to things that do?
When our faith flags, he throws reminders in our way. Think of the prayer warriors in our midst. They change things, and those of us who have been on the receiving end of their petitions and intercessions know it.
It is hard to describe, but there are times when suddenly the hairs on the back of your neck stand up, and you feel a surge of the Spirit. Somehow you just know: Others have chosen, when talking to the Author of all creation, to lift us up—to speak of us!
This is love of a very special order. But so is the ability to sit back and appreciate the wonder of every created thing. The mere thought of death somehow makes every blessing vivid, every happiness more luminous and intense. We may not know how our contest with sickness will end, but we have felt the ineluctable touch of God.
What is man that Thou art mindful of him? We don't know much, but we know this: No matter where we are, no matter what we do, no matter how bleak or frightening our prospects, each and every one of us, each and every day, lies in the same safe and impregnable place—in the hollow of God's hand
Hope you have a blessed weekend and I will be back on Monday.
Friday, July 11, 2008
Another Good Thought
Marie sent me this:
Please Read all the way to the bottom: If you will take the time to read these. I promise you'll come away with an enlightened perspective. The subjects covered affect us all on a daily basis: They're written by Andy Rooney , a man who has the gift of saying so much with so few words. Enjoy....... I've learned.... That the best classroom in the world is at the feet of an elderly person. I've learned.... That when you're in love, it shows. I've le arned.... That just one person saying to me, 'You've made my day!' makes my day. I've learned.... That having a child fall asleep in your arms is one of the most peaceful feelings in the world. I've learned.... That being kind is more important than being right. I've learned. .. That you should never say no to a gift from a child. I've learned.... That I can always pray for someone when I don't have the strength to help him in some other way. I've learned.... That no matter how serious your life requires you to be, everyone needs a friend to act goofy with. I've learned.... That sometimes all a person needs is a hand to hold and a heart to understand. I've learned.... That simple walks with my father around the block on summer nights when I was a child did wonders for me as an adult. I've learned.... That life is like a roll of toilet paper. The closer it gets to the end, the faster it goes. I've l e arned.... That we should be glad God doesn't give us everything we ask for. I've learned.... That money doesn't buy class. I've learned.... That it's those small daily happenings that make life so spectacular. I've learned... That under everyone's hard shell is someone who wants to be appreciated and loved. I've learned.... That to ignore the facts does not change the facts. I've learned.... That when you plan to get even with someone, you are only letting that person continue to hurt you. I've learned.... That love, not time, heals all wounds. I've learned.... That the easiest way for me to grow as a person is to surround myself with people smarter than I am. I've learned.... That everyone you meet deserves to be greeted with a smile. I've learned.... That no one is perfect until you fall in love with them. I've learned... That life is tough, but I'm tougher. I've learned.... That opportunities are never lost; someone will take the ones you miss. I've learned.... That when you harbor bitterness, happiness will dock elsewhere. I've learned.... That I wish I could have told my Mom that I love her one more time before she passed away. I've learned.... That one should keep his words both soft and tender, because tomo rrow he may have to eat them. I've learned.... That a smile is an inexpensive way to improve your looks. I've learned.... That when your newly born grandchild holds your little finger in his little fist, that you're hooked for life. I've learned.... That everyone wants to live on top of the mountain, but all the happiness and growth occurs while you're climbing it. I've learned .... That the less time I have to work with, the more things I get done.
have a great weekend
Please Read all the way to the bottom: If you will take the time to read these. I promise you'll come away with an enlightened perspective. The subjects covered affect us all on a daily basis: They're written by Andy Rooney , a man who has the gift of saying so much with so few words. Enjoy....... I've learned.... That the best classroom in the world is at the feet of an elderly person. I've learned.... That when you're in love, it shows. I've le arned.... That just one person saying to me, 'You've made my day!' makes my day. I've learned.... That having a child fall asleep in your arms is one of the most peaceful feelings in the world. I've learned.... That being kind is more important than being right. I've learned. .. That you should never say no to a gift from a child. I've learned.... That I can always pray for someone when I don't have the strength to help him in some other way. I've learned.... That no matter how serious your life requires you to be, everyone needs a friend to act goofy with. I've learned.... That sometimes all a person needs is a hand to hold and a heart to understand. I've learned.... That simple walks with my father around the block on summer nights when I was a child did wonders for me as an adult. I've learned.... That life is like a roll of toilet paper. The closer it gets to the end, the faster it goes. I've l e arned.... That we should be glad God doesn't give us everything we ask for. I've learned.... That money doesn't buy class. I've learned.... That it's those small daily happenings that make life so spectacular. I've learned... That under everyone's hard shell is someone who wants to be appreciated and loved. I've learned.... That to ignore the facts does not change the facts. I've learned.... That when you plan to get even with someone, you are only letting that person continue to hurt you. I've learned.... That love, not time, heals all wounds. I've learned.... That the easiest way for me to grow as a person is to surround myself with people smarter than I am. I've learned.... That everyone you meet deserves to be greeted with a smile. I've learned.... That no one is perfect until you fall in love with them. I've learned... That life is tough, but I'm tougher. I've learned.... That opportunities are never lost; someone will take the ones you miss. I've learned.... That when you harbor bitterness, happiness will dock elsewhere. I've learned.... That I wish I could have told my Mom that I love her one more time before she passed away. I've learned.... That one should keep his words both soft and tender, because tomo rrow he may have to eat them. I've learned.... That a smile is an inexpensive way to improve your looks. I've learned.... That when your newly born grandchild holds your little finger in his little fist, that you're hooked for life. I've learned.... That everyone wants to live on top of the mountain, but all the happiness and growth occurs while you're climbing it. I've learned .... That the less time I have to work with, the more things I get done.
have a great weekend
Thursday, July 10, 2008
Great Ideas
I received this email from a friend of mine and it was written by a columnist who happens to be from my area. I thought I would share it with everyone else.
Lessons in Life, By Regina BrettTo celebrate growing older, I once wrote the 45 lessons life taught me. It is the most requested column I've ever written. My odometer rolls over to 50 this week, so here's an update: 1. Life isn't fair, but it's still good. 2. When in doubt, just take the next small step. 3. Life is too short to waste time hating anyone. 4. Don't take yourself so seriously. No one else does. 5. Pay off your credit cards every month. 6. You don't have to win every argument. Agree to disagree. 7. Cry with someone. It's more healing than crying alone. 8. It's OK to get angry with God. He can take it. 9. Save for retirement starting with your first paycheck.10. When it comes to chocolate, resistance is futile.11. Make peace with your past so it won't screw up the present.12. It's OK to let your children see you cry.13. Don't compare your life to others - You have no idea what their journey is all about.14. If a relationship has to be a secret, you shouldn't be in it.15. Everything can change in the blink of an eye. But don't worry; God never blinks.16. Life is too short for long pity parties. Get busy living, or get busy dying.17. You can get through anything if you stay put in today.18. A writer writes. If you want to be a writer, write.19. It's never too late to have a happy childhood - but the second one is up to you and no one else.20. When it comes to going after what you love in life, don't take no for an answer.21. Burn the candles, use the nice sheets, wear the fancy lingerie, don't save it for a special occasion -Today is special!22. Over prepare, then go with the flow.23. Be eccentric now. Don't wait for old age to wear purple.24. The most important sex organ is the brain.25. No one is in charge of your happiness except you.26. Frame every so-called disaster with these words: 'In five years, will this matter?'27. Always choose life.28. Forgive everyone, everything.29. What other people think of you is none of your business.30. Time heals almost everything. Give time, time.31. However good or bad a situation is, it will change.32. Your job won't take care of you when you are sick. Your friends will. Stay in touch.33. Believe in miracles.34. God loves you because of who God is, not because of anything you did or didn't do.35. Whatever doesn't kill you really does make you stronger.36. Growing old beats the alternative.37. Your children get only one childhood. Make it memorable.38. Read the Psalms. They cover every human emotion.39. Get outside every day. Miracles are waiting everywhere.40. If we all threw our problems in a pile and saw everyone else's, we'd grab ours back.41. Don't audit life. Show up and make the most of it now.42. Get rid of anything that isn't useful, beautiful or joyful.43. All that truly matters in the end is that you loved.44. Envy is a waste of time. You already have all you need.45. The best is yet to come.46. No matter how you feel, get up, dress up and show up.47. Take a deep breath. It calms the mind.48. If you don't ask, you don't get.49. Yield.50. Life isn't tied with a bow, but it's still a gift.
'May the Lord's face radiate with joy because of you' Numbers 6:24 Live life to the fullest because tomorrow is not promised! 'People will forget what you said. They will forget what you did, but they will never forget how you made them feel'
If you would like a copy of this sent to you in email just let me know It really made me sit back and think of all the things I could be doing that I am not doing. A lot of things that I am doing that I should not be doing. Hope you have a blessed day
Lessons in Life, By Regina BrettTo celebrate growing older, I once wrote the 45 lessons life taught me. It is the most requested column I've ever written. My odometer rolls over to 50 this week, so here's an update: 1. Life isn't fair, but it's still good. 2. When in doubt, just take the next small step. 3. Life is too short to waste time hating anyone. 4. Don't take yourself so seriously. No one else does. 5. Pay off your credit cards every month. 6. You don't have to win every argument. Agree to disagree. 7. Cry with someone. It's more healing than crying alone. 8. It's OK to get angry with God. He can take it. 9. Save for retirement starting with your first paycheck.10. When it comes to chocolate, resistance is futile.11. Make peace with your past so it won't screw up the present.12. It's OK to let your children see you cry.13. Don't compare your life to others - You have no idea what their journey is all about.14. If a relationship has to be a secret, you shouldn't be in it.15. Everything can change in the blink of an eye. But don't worry; God never blinks.16. Life is too short for long pity parties. Get busy living, or get busy dying.17. You can get through anything if you stay put in today.18. A writer writes. If you want to be a writer, write.19. It's never too late to have a happy childhood - but the second one is up to you and no one else.20. When it comes to going after what you love in life, don't take no for an answer.21. Burn the candles, use the nice sheets, wear the fancy lingerie, don't save it for a special occasion -Today is special!22. Over prepare, then go with the flow.23. Be eccentric now. Don't wait for old age to wear purple.24. The most important sex organ is the brain.25. No one is in charge of your happiness except you.26. Frame every so-called disaster with these words: 'In five years, will this matter?'27. Always choose life.28. Forgive everyone, everything.29. What other people think of you is none of your business.30. Time heals almost everything. Give time, time.31. However good or bad a situation is, it will change.32. Your job won't take care of you when you are sick. Your friends will. Stay in touch.33. Believe in miracles.34. God loves you because of who God is, not because of anything you did or didn't do.35. Whatever doesn't kill you really does make you stronger.36. Growing old beats the alternative.37. Your children get only one childhood. Make it memorable.38. Read the Psalms. They cover every human emotion.39. Get outside every day. Miracles are waiting everywhere.40. If we all threw our problems in a pile and saw everyone else's, we'd grab ours back.41. Don't audit life. Show up and make the most of it now.42. Get rid of anything that isn't useful, beautiful or joyful.43. All that truly matters in the end is that you loved.44. Envy is a waste of time. You already have all you need.45. The best is yet to come.46. No matter how you feel, get up, dress up and show up.47. Take a deep breath. It calms the mind.48. If you don't ask, you don't get.49. Yield.50. Life isn't tied with a bow, but it's still a gift.
'May the Lord's face radiate with joy because of you' Numbers 6:24 Live life to the fullest because tomorrow is not promised! 'People will forget what you said. They will forget what you did, but they will never forget how you made them feel'
If you would like a copy of this sent to you in email just let me know It really made me sit back and think of all the things I could be doing that I am not doing. A lot of things that I am doing that I should not be doing. Hope you have a blessed day
Wednesday, July 9, 2008
Frustrated
I think like everybody else I get frustrated once in awhile. Nothing frustrates me now more than this presidential election and how congress does absolutely nothing to help the american people. For years I have heard how the Democrats are the party of the "people" My grandparents both voted Democrat and my parents for a good portion of their life voted Democrat also. When I was about 10 years old there was a president in this country who I really admired. Perhaps you might remember him? He was our 40th president Ronald Reagan. He made me feel like the United States of America was the greatest country on the earth. President Reagan always was optimistic about our country and said its "Morning again in America". As a kid all I heard from Democrats was how lousy our country is and what lousy shape we are in and this is lousy and we should be ashamed of ourselves etc etc. Fast forward to 2008 and while there is no Ronald Reagan running for president we have the same old tired line from the Democrats. We need change and this is bad blah blah blah. Now I can write a whole blog on how lousy the Republicans have been too so before I get the I only bash Democrats comments know that I also hold Republicans up to scrutiny too. I miss the old Democrats of JFK and FDR who praised our country. Remember Ronald Reagen was originally a liberal democrat too! This fascination we have in our country right now for Barack Obama astounds me. What has he done? If you ask some of his supporters you would think he is going to walk on water, cure all illnesses and bring peace to the world with just his smile. At some of his campaign events people were fainting from the sheer joy of being near Obama. How silly can we get already? Some have said that Obama has the charisma and likeness of Ronald Reagan. All I can say to that is I knew Ronald Reagan, Ronald Reagan was a great leader that inspired us, Barack Obama you are no Ronald Reagan. God Bless All.
Monday, July 7, 2008
Some thoughts
Ok so I have not written for awhile, I was on vacation in Toronto visiting family for a week and then my computer broke down and then things around the house kept me busy. Then my cat Chelsie got sick this weekend. Amazing how much time goes by and you never realize it till I sat down and seen that I have not blogged in almost a month. I made the decision that I was going to get something on my blog now. If I did not write something I would keep putting things off and looking for excuses not to write anything. I thought I would tell you more about my trip in Canada, I enjoyed the time visiting with family and some family friends, but the weather was downright cold from Monday till about Thursday. The Sunday before we left it hailed so hard that it looked like it snowed an inch or two outside. I always enjoy visiting Toronto but I think next time I am going to wait till July to do that. (Who would have thought that summer would start in Toronto till July) haha. I think both my parents played cards so much they mastered every card game there is. My favorite card game is 31. If you know how to play it then I ll challenge you to a game. haha. Well seeing that I am pretty tired and I am writing this at 12:05am on a early tuesday morning I am going to be heading to bed now. I hope that everyone has a great and blessed day today.
Wednesday, July 2, 2008
Friday, June 27, 2008
Computer problems
Sorry about the lack of posts here last few days. My computer is on the fritz right now and I am using my wife's right now. I will try to post some blogs while I use her computer. But just wanted to get everyone updated as to why I have not posted last few days
Wednesday, June 25, 2008
Back from Canada
Hello your favorite Catholic blogger is back! My wife and I arrived back from Toronto on Monday evening after 10 days in Toronto visiting family. I had a good time visiting family and friends. The weather was really cold for about 3 days. It was in the high 50s low 60s. My wife and I visited the Jewish Holocaust Museum in Toronto and the Gibson House. The Gibson House was about the Gibson family who lived during colonial times. I highly recommend both if you are looking for places to visit in Toronto area. We also went to the Kortright Centre in Toronto which was a wildlife/hiking area. I never been attacked by so many bugs in my life haha. Of course we forgot the bug spray too! I think if I decide to go there next time I will either go in December or bring bug spray! We also went to a real exciting church. St Peter's in Woodbridge, Ontario. It was led by a Franciscan Friar: Father Mike. He says mass at noon every Sunday. His homilies were outstanding and even involved people in the pews. He really relates the gospel to todays life. Well I should be back to normal with my blogging now. By the way make sure when you get to the Canadian side of the Border to stop at Betty's restaurant in Niagara Falls, ON. The food is outstanding!
Friday, June 13, 2008
Sad Blog
Hello all, it was with great sadness today that I write this blog. My favorite news anchor passed away suddenly this afternoon, Tim Russert. Tim was a devoted husband, father, and son to Big Russ. He was also devoted to his catholic faith.
It was just a few days ago that I mentioned that you should go out and get his books if you are looking for a great book for Fathers Day. I remember reading Big Russ and Me for the first time a few years back and thinking you know Big Russ sounds just like my dad. When I was a kid my dad was Big Jim to everyone. While Tim's dad had to work two jobs I was the fortunate one my dad retired at age 51 after 25 years on the police department. I was about 8 years old at this time and was blessed to have my dad around all the time growing up. Both our fathers served their country at wartime. Big Russ served during WWII and my dad served during the Korean War. They both did what was required of them when their country called. Tim Russert mentioned in many interviews that many people said this book sounds just like their dad. Big Russ and Tim were both die hard Buffalo Bills fans. My dad and I are both Cleveland Browns fans. Once again neither one of our teams have ever won a Super Bowl. That has not stopped me from being the biggest Browns fan though nor did it stop Tim from rooting for the Bills each and every week.
One thing that I learned to do from Tim Russert is read up on everything and be prepared. I read books from both sides of the political spectrum to see where each stands on the issues. Tim always grilled Democrats and Republicans alike and would try to be as neutral as possible, and hold both sides accountable. Tim Russert will be missed in the broadcast world but I wanted to thank him for reminding me and I am sure many others the importance of what a good father can do in our lives. So I want to say Happy Fathers Day to my dad and thank you for all you have done and for always being there for me. If I can be half the dad to my children someday that my dad was to me I can say that I succeeded. Happy Fathers Day to all the Dads out there!
It was just a few days ago that I mentioned that you should go out and get his books if you are looking for a great book for Fathers Day. I remember reading Big Russ and Me for the first time a few years back and thinking you know Big Russ sounds just like my dad. When I was a kid my dad was Big Jim to everyone. While Tim's dad had to work two jobs I was the fortunate one my dad retired at age 51 after 25 years on the police department. I was about 8 years old at this time and was blessed to have my dad around all the time growing up. Both our fathers served their country at wartime. Big Russ served during WWII and my dad served during the Korean War. They both did what was required of them when their country called. Tim Russert mentioned in many interviews that many people said this book sounds just like their dad. Big Russ and Tim were both die hard Buffalo Bills fans. My dad and I are both Cleveland Browns fans. Once again neither one of our teams have ever won a Super Bowl. That has not stopped me from being the biggest Browns fan though nor did it stop Tim from rooting for the Bills each and every week.
One thing that I learned to do from Tim Russert is read up on everything and be prepared. I read books from both sides of the political spectrum to see where each stands on the issues. Tim always grilled Democrats and Republicans alike and would try to be as neutral as possible, and hold both sides accountable. Tim Russert will be missed in the broadcast world but I wanted to thank him for reminding me and I am sure many others the importance of what a good father can do in our lives. So I want to say Happy Fathers Day to my dad and thank you for all you have done and for always being there for me. If I can be half the dad to my children someday that my dad was to me I can say that I succeeded. Happy Fathers Day to all the Dads out there!
Wednesday, June 11, 2008
Powerful Thought
This was sent to me in an email and I thought it was too good to not share it with the readers of my blog. I hope that you enjoy it. I do not have the pictures that were included with the email but the presidents that were asked started with our current president and went all the way back to George Washington.
Truly one of the best e-mails I've seen.A mother asked this President...?'Why did my son have to die in Iraq?A mother asked this President...?'Why did my son have to die in Saudi Arabia?
A mother asked this President...?'Why did my son have to die in Kuwait?Another mother asked this President...?'Why did my son have to die inVietnam?Another mother asked this President...?'Why did my son have to die in Korea?Another mother asked this President...?'Why did my son have to die onIwo Jima?Another mother asked President...?'Why did my son have to die on a battlefield in France?Yet another mother asked President...?'Why did my son have to die at Gettysburg?And yet another mother asked President...?Why did my son have to die on a frozen field
near Valley Forge??'†††Then long, long ago, a mother asked...'Heavenly Father...
why did my Son have to die on a cross
outside of Jerusalem?†††The answer is always the same...
'So that others may live and dwell
in peace, happiness, and freedom.'AMEN
†††
This was emailed to me with no author.
I thought the magnitude
and the simplicity were awesome.If you are not willing
to stand BEHIND our troops,Please,
please feel free
to stand in front of them....
Truly one of the best e-mails I've seen.A mother asked this President...?'Why did my son have to die in Iraq?A mother asked this President...?'Why did my son have to die in Saudi Arabia?
A mother asked this President...?'Why did my son have to die in Kuwait?Another mother asked this President...?'Why did my son have to die inVietnam?Another mother asked this President...?'Why did my son have to die in Korea?Another mother asked this President...?'Why did my son have to die onIwo Jima?Another mother asked President...?'Why did my son have to die on a battlefield in France?Yet another mother asked President...?'Why did my son have to die at Gettysburg?And yet another mother asked President...?Why did my son have to die on a frozen field
near Valley Forge??'†††Then long, long ago, a mother asked...'Heavenly Father...
why did my Son have to die on a cross
outside of Jerusalem?†††The answer is always the same...
'So that others may live and dwell
in peace, happiness, and freedom.'AMEN
†††
This was emailed to me with no author.
I thought the magnitude
and the simplicity were awesome.If you are not willing
to stand BEHIND our troops,Please,
please feel free
to stand in front of them....
Tuesday, June 10, 2008
Some Fathers Day Ideas
I thought I would take a break today from talking about Governor Huckabee's book today to recommend some good books for Fathers for Fathers Day. That is of course if your dad likes to read books! First on my list for books for Fathers Day would be Tim Russert Big Russ and Me. This book talks about Tim Russert about growing up and all the different lessons his father taught him, he also wrote another book called Wisdom of our Fathers which is a compilation of letters written into Tim Russert talking about the wisdom that their fathers shared with them through the years. A recent book that I finished reading about a month ago was by CBS Sportscaster Jim Nantz, Always by my side. It is very similar to Tim Russerts book. I definetly recommend this for Fathers. Quiet Strength by Tony Dungy (Coach of the Colts) is a great book by a very spiritual coach. Under the Golden Dome by Coach Gerry Faust is another good one by a very devout Catholic. You can pick up most any book written by Lou Holtz and it will be an excellent read. Terry Pluto who is a sportswriter here in my town has many great sports books and also he has two books on Christian faith. If there any books that the readers of the blog might recommend for our fathers out there feel free to post them here. They can be sports related or spiritual. Maybe your dad likes to fix motorcycles and you want to recommend Zen and the art of motorcycle maintenance that is ok too!
Monday, June 9, 2008
Monday
It has been quite the heat wave here for the last few days. My wife and I made sure to go swimming the last few days to cool off. If you were in a heat wave I hope that you had a chance to cool down by swimming too! If not stay indoors and enjoy the A/C. I left off sometime last week with Governor Mike Huckabee's book From Hope to Higher Ground and I decided to continue on with his wisdom in today's blog. This chapter that I finished reading was about thinking horizontally. I think we all do this. We get into a comfort zone and just keep doing the same things over and over. Well here are Governor Huckabee's 12 Action Steps to stop thinking horizontally.
1. Open doors for others
2. Tip waiters and waitresses generously.
3. Attend worship services every week.
4. Compliment a co-worker.
5. Always say "Thank you"
6. Know the name of the person who cleans your office building. (If you work in one of course)
7. Never ask for anything without saying "please".
8. Don't use profanity.
9. Just for the fun of it, allow someone behind you in the checkout line to go first
10. If you see a parent or child together at a ball game, shopping, or a park, say, "It just does my heart good to see a parent spend time with his/her child".
11. Always pull over to the side of the road when a funeral processionb approaches, and once a year visit a cemtery and read the headstones.
12. Purchase some inexpensive umbrellas and give them to total strangers on a rainy day.
The thing I like about all of Governor Huckabee's 12 step ideas are that they are all very easy to do and follow. It all is up to you to do it and it does not depend on anyone else. Over the next few days I will continue to feature his 12 steps from every chapter. I hope that you are enjoying these because they give me new things to try every single day. God Bless
1. Open doors for others
2. Tip waiters and waitresses generously.
3. Attend worship services every week.
4. Compliment a co-worker.
5. Always say "Thank you"
6. Know the name of the person who cleans your office building. (If you work in one of course)
7. Never ask for anything without saying "please".
8. Don't use profanity.
9. Just for the fun of it, allow someone behind you in the checkout line to go first
10. If you see a parent or child together at a ball game, shopping, or a park, say, "It just does my heart good to see a parent spend time with his/her child".
11. Always pull over to the side of the road when a funeral processionb approaches, and once a year visit a cemtery and read the headstones.
12. Purchase some inexpensive umbrellas and give them to total strangers on a rainy day.
The thing I like about all of Governor Huckabee's 12 step ideas are that they are all very easy to do and follow. It all is up to you to do it and it does not depend on anyone else. Over the next few days I will continue to feature his 12 steps from every chapter. I hope that you are enjoying these because they give me new things to try every single day. God Bless
Friday, June 6, 2008
Summer Traditions
Hey Everyone its Friday. Hope that everyone is having a great week so far. The weather got really hot really quick here. Today we topped out at over 90 degrees by mid afternoon. I think we have two seasons here, Extremely Hot and Extremely Cold. Although I have to say I prefer the Hot Weather. At least I can sit by the pool and work on my tan. I can go swimming too. This sunday we are heading out to a waterpark by our house. Geauga Lake Wildwater Kingdom. I enjoy going into the wave pool and getting a huge bucket of water dumped on me along with floating along a lazy river ride. Going down water slides are fun too. Its a nice way to pass the day by and cool down too. Those are the fun things in summer. Also grilling hot dogs, burgers and chicken. I have a rule when it comes to hot dogs and burgers. Burgers must always get ketchup and hot dogs must always have mustard. I am sure there is someone out there that does the opposite. The one summer tradition I have never understood is having vinegar or mayonnaise on french fries. Someone please explain that to me because it does not sound good at all? I ve actually seen an old tradition return around here in the last few years, and that is the ice cream man coming around in a truck. I remember seeing that in the 80s and then in the last few years. Maybe they have been around but I must have missed them. Summer is my favorite season and I am ready to get it started! I hope we have a nice long summer because here we had a really long cold snowy winter! Hope everyone has a chance to swim or go walking and enjoy a beautiful summer. Be Blessed.
Thursday, June 5, 2008
Been Busy
Sorry things have been kinda busy around here last few days so I did not post anything on Tuesday or Wednesday. I wanted to drop a quick blog now to let everyone who reads this I am going to get back into the swing of things. Hope that everyone is having a blessed week.
Monday, June 2, 2008
Monday!
Hello its Monday again hope that everyone had a great weekend! I am still reading Governor Huckabee book "From Hope to Higher Ground" and I thought I would give you another one of his 12 step programs. This one has to do with stopping the robbing of taxpayers. If only we could do that!
1. Write your congressman and senator for a simpler,fairer, flatter tax system (We are all overtaxed)
2. Donate a tithe or more to your church
3. Become familiar with the federal budget and how your money is being spent (Not wisely that is for sure)
4. Attend meetings of your city council and local county government.
5. Add up all the money you pay to government in various taxes- federal, state, local, sales, utility, property, social security, fees and so on.
6. Run for office
7. Volunteer in a campaign
8. Take all deductions possible on tax returns.
9. Write a letter to the editor.
10. Read publications like Wall Street Journal.
11. Keep receipts for tax deductible items.
12. Avoid taxes you legally can, but NEVER evade taxes.
We all can agree that we pay way too much taxes. The thing is that the taxes we do pay the money seems to never be used properly. The answer always seems to be to raise taxes to fix any problem, build a sports facility. Its high time we start holding politicians responsible and they are thrown out of office if they do not take care of our money. This is for republicans, democrats or independents.
Have a great day God Bless.
1. Write your congressman and senator for a simpler,fairer, flatter tax system (We are all overtaxed)
2. Donate a tithe or more to your church
3. Become familiar with the federal budget and how your money is being spent (Not wisely that is for sure)
4. Attend meetings of your city council and local county government.
5. Add up all the money you pay to government in various taxes- federal, state, local, sales, utility, property, social security, fees and so on.
6. Run for office
7. Volunteer in a campaign
8. Take all deductions possible on tax returns.
9. Write a letter to the editor.
10. Read publications like Wall Street Journal.
11. Keep receipts for tax deductible items.
12. Avoid taxes you legally can, but NEVER evade taxes.
We all can agree that we pay way too much taxes. The thing is that the taxes we do pay the money seems to never be used properly. The answer always seems to be to raise taxes to fix any problem, build a sports facility. Its high time we start holding politicians responsible and they are thrown out of office if they do not take care of our money. This is for republicans, democrats or independents.
Have a great day God Bless.
Friday, May 30, 2008
Birthday Weekend
The big free for all blog for this weekend is that this weekend is my wife's birthday so I am going to be spending time with her and our family. I will return on Monday with the usual blog. Same time same station along the Catholic Layman network
Thursday, May 29, 2008
More thoughts
Hello all I m back for a Thursday on my blog. I am continuing to read Governor Huckabee book "From Hope to Higher Ground" I really am enjoying reading about his ideas for the presidency when he was still running. At the end of each chapter he gives a 12 step program for his chapter idea. This 12 step program that I finished reading today are the 12 step program to stop abusing our planet. I really like his ideas here.
1. Never litter
2. Report littering if your state has a littering hotline
3. Conserve gas by combining trips to do errands.
4. Carpool to work or school
5. Walk or bike wherever you can
6. Turn off lights and appliances when not in use.
7. Have an energy audit of your home
8. Spend time outdoors; hiking, bird-watching, hunting, or fishing.
9. Keep your car maintained and serviced for better fuel efficiency.
10. Take your family camping.
11. Recycle
12. Learn more about renewable fuel sources and consider energy efficient appliances and construction processes. (for example geothermal)
I think these are all workable solutions. I like the term conservationist that Governor Huckabee mentions in his book. I am going to work harder at becoming one because we should take of the planet we live on. Hope that you like these suggestions too. God Bless
1. Never litter
2. Report littering if your state has a littering hotline
3. Conserve gas by combining trips to do errands.
4. Carpool to work or school
5. Walk or bike wherever you can
6. Turn off lights and appliances when not in use.
7. Have an energy audit of your home
8. Spend time outdoors; hiking, bird-watching, hunting, or fishing.
9. Keep your car maintained and serviced for better fuel efficiency.
10. Take your family camping.
11. Recycle
12. Learn more about renewable fuel sources and consider energy efficient appliances and construction processes. (for example geothermal)
I think these are all workable solutions. I like the term conservationist that Governor Huckabee mentions in his book. I am going to work harder at becoming one because we should take of the planet we live on. Hope that you like these suggestions too. God Bless
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