August 2008 Archives

This might be my favorite statement from a bishop ever:

STATEMENT OF HIS EMINENCE, EDWARD CARDINAL EGAN CONCERNING REMARKS MADE BY THE SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

Like many other citizens of this nation, I was shocked to learn that the Speaker of the House of Representatives of the United States of America would make the kind of statements that were made to Mr. Tom Brokaw of NBC-TV on Sunday, August 24, 2008. What the Speaker had to say about theologians and their positions regarding abortion was not only misinformed; it was also, and especially, utterly incredible in this day and age.

We are blessed in the 21st century with crystal-clear photographs and action films of the living realities within their pregnant mothers. No one with the slightest measure of integrity or honor could fail to know what these marvelous beings manifestly, clearly, and obviously are, as they smile and wave into the world outside the womb. In simplest terms, they are human beings with an inalienable right to live, a right that the Speaker of the House of Representatives is bound to defend at all costs for the most basic of ethical reasons. They are not parts of their mothers, and what they are depends not at all upon the opinions of theologians of any faith. Anyone who dares to defend that they may be legitimately killed because another human being "chooses" to do so or for any other equally ridiculous reason should not be providing leadership in a civilized democracy worthy of the name.

Edward Cardinal Egan

Archbishop of New York

What gets me about this is that faced with an issue about which we have, as Cardinal Egan says, cutting edge technology that shows us that the child in the womb is, in fact, a child, people like Pelosi makes appeals to 5th century theology based on pre-modern embryology to wish away that reality. But, you see, it's the Catholic Church that can't keep with the times.

Any ideas on the morality of voting for a McCain-Palin ticket and praying that McCain dies before he gets us into a war with Russia and/or China and/or Iran and/or Venezuela and/or North Korea and/or Syria?

For between £200 and £2,000, people can buy a cow that stands no taller than a large German shepherd dog, gives 16 pints of milk a day that can be drunk unpasteurised, keeps the grass "mown" and will be a family pet for years before ending up in the freezer.

China arrests Catholic bishop

Please, if you have a moment, say a prayer for the repose of the soul of my deceased aunt, Filomena Lugo, who passed away yesterday evening.

Charles Murray, in today's WSJ

Imagine that America had no system of post-secondary education, and you were a member of a task force assigned to create one from scratch. One of your colleagues submits this proposal:

First, we will set up a single goal to represent educational success, which will take four years to achieve no matter what is being taught. We will attach an economic reward to it that seldom has anything to do with what has been learned. We will urge large numbers of people who do not possess adequate ability to try to achieve the goal, wait until they have spent a lot of time and money, and then deny it to them. We will stigmatize everyone who doesn't meet the goal. We will call the goal a "BA."

You would conclude that your colleague was cruel, not to say insane. But that's the system we have in place.

He goes on to advocate CPA-style certification tests for most professions. As a firm-believer that college-for-everybody is insane and counter-productive, this is music to my er, eyes.

It's a special kind of terror that strikes ones heart when one hears one's 4 year old and 2 year old scream excitedly, "I peed standing up!"

Without getting into too much detail, I'll just say the words "arc," and "vector," and let your imagination fill in the rest.

This slideshow is worth your time. Personally, I want to eat like an Egyptian.