Syte Reitz

The hand that rocks the cradle rules the world…….

Browsing Posts published in March, 2012

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A Society Built on Illusion Cannot Stand…

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Sharing a find…
Quoting from Salvo MagazineThe Illusionist, by Robin Phillips:

The ancient Greeks had a school of philosophers known as the Sophists, who took pride in their ability to prove impossible things. Some sophists even hired themselves out at public events, where audiences could watch spellbound as they proceeded to prove propositions that were obviously false.

The sophist philosopher Gorgias (4th century b.c.) invented an ingenuous argument to prove that: nothing exists; and even if something exists, nothing can be known about it; and even if something exists and something can be known about it, such knowledge cannot be communicated to others; and even if something exists, can be known about, and can be communicated about, no incentive exists to communicate anything about it to others.

It would be nice if such sophistry had been limited to ancient Greeks. However, the 20th century saw a thinker whose nonsense rivaled and even surpassed anything produced by the sophists. His name was Herbert Marcuse (1898–1979), the guru of the 1960s counterculture.

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The article continues, exposing the fallacies underlying the contradictory secular culture of 2012 brilliantly.
Robin Phillips clarifies the connection between the sexual revolution and Marxism, points out the roots  of liberal media bias, and explains the trend of silencing opponents through diagnosis rather than through dialogue.  Phillips has written an analysis of our present societal predicament which amuses, informs, and intrigues.

Finish reading the article here.
Then subscribe here.
Promise, I am not related to them, I don’t own stock, and I am not getting paid!

I was positively delighted to discover this article, to subscribe to Salvo magazine, and to learn of the existence of the Fellowship of St. James, an alliance of authors, professors, clergy members, lay men and women, and writers—from various Christian denominations—who promote orthodox Christianity, the natural law, and traditional Christian morality. Editor: James M. Kushiner.

Salvo magazine’s stated goals:

Blasting holes in scientific naturalism, marveling at the intricate design of the universe, and promoting life in a culture of death;

Critiquing art, music, film, television, and literature, interrupting mass media influence, and questioning the sanity of our consumerist lifestyle;

Countering destructive ideologies, replacing revisionist fictions with undeniable facts, and paring away political correctness;

Debunking the cultural myths that have undercut human dignity, all but destroyed the notions of virtue and morality, and slowly eroded our appetite for transcendence;

Recovering the one worldview that actually works.

What a refreshing new form of journalism!
Guess what everybody’s getting from me for their next birthday?
A subscription.

Santorum Equals Sanity

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The Cap Times Published My Letter

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The Cap Times Published My Letter

The Cap Times Published My Letter, which reads:

Santorum Family

Santorum Equals Sanity

Dear Editor: President Obama is out of control.

He is plagued by spending illness, and now it seems by delusions of grandeur, palling around with Russians in defiance of his electorate.

Mitt Romney is a giant question mark. “A political and cultural enigma,” according to Neil .Swidey.

Rick Santorum represents all the values most Americans have grown up with and admire: responsibility, thriftiness, honesty, truthfulness, faithfulness, and he’s a devoted .family man.

No wonder America is flocking to Santorum against all campaign spending predictions. If . Santorum wins, it will be proof that the Founding Fathers constructed a system that does . allow the people to control their own destiny.

Syte Reitz
Madison

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Why did the Cap Times Publish a Conservative Letter?

When a liberal newspaper like the Cap Times, which is called the Progressive Voice of Madison, WI publishes a conservative letter endorsing Rick Santorum,  something is up.
  • They could be filling a quota of “conservative” items to prove how “balanced” their reporting is.
  • They could be setting up the conservative author for ridicule (a favorite pastime for Madison’s radical liberals).
  • Or, they could actually be reporting in earnest, reflecting the fact that President Obama has really gone too far, and even the progressives of Madison are scratching their heads.
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Unlikely?

Not according to the Wall Street Journal, in an article entitled Not-So-Smooth Operator, in which Peggy Noonan states that Obama is increasingly coming across as devious and dishonest.  She reports that the “broad, stable, nonradical, non-birther right” is starting to dislike President Obama personally.  A dislike that is arising solely from Obama’s own behavior, that of an “operator who’s not operating in good faith.”
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According to Noonan, this shift toward disliking President Obama started with his devious behavior over the contraception mandate, and continues to be fueled with recent events such as the open-mic conversation with Russian President Medvedev and with his personalization and manipulation of the the tragic death of Trayvon Martin.
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Some of My Best Friends are Liberal

I am surrounded with liberals in Madison, WI, home of the University of Wisconsin, Madison.
I am surrounded with liberals among my relatives, many of whom are products of University propaganda machines.
I myself was a product of a University propaganda machine quite similar to UW Madison; the State University of New York at Stony Brook.   And yes, the propaganda worked at first.
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I am aware of the fact that most liberals are very nice and well-intentioned people.
But I am also aware of the fact that a radical element has taken over leadership among liberals, an element that is extreme and dangerous, and which is leading the Democrat Party, a party which used to be equally good/bad as the Republican Party, to ridiculous and dangerous extremes.
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I have confidence in the good people of this country, the majority, the non-radicals, on both right and left.  We have more in common with each other than we do with our respective far rights or far lefts.
80% of us pray regularly.  80% of us are broad, stable, and non-radical. 80% of us look for logic and for reason.
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Broad, Stable, Non-radical, Right and/or Left

Caught in own snare

My fondness of, and my confidence in my “broad, stable, non-radical, non-Marxist left” friends, has led me to blog on conservative issues, laying out the logic and explaining some of the foundations of  conservative thought which I have unearthed during my recovery from my University brainwashing.  Confident that truth and logic wins over reasonable people, I chip away at the misinformation spread by conniving radical leaders like Pelosi and Obama.

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Now, based on Peggy Noonan’s argument, Obama is actually doing the job of dismantling his agenda himself.  Much faster than we could dismantle the lies the left has been spreading.  Obama is shooting himself in the foot; he is stepping into his own snares.  I do not enjoy watching a man self-destruct, any man.  But it does give me hope for the non-radical, normal and healthy future of America; a future determined by the people, not by a radical dictator.
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Back to Reality

Back to my Cap Times letter.

Democrats Voting in the Republican Primary?

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I know that the editors of the Cap Times are not likely to be broad, stable, non-radical left types like my neighbors, friends and relatives.
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Yes, I know, there’s a fourth possibility, the most likely one: that the Cap Times decided that support of Santorum would be most damaging to the upcoming Wisconsin Primary, and that by publishing my letter they would influence voters, both conservatives and also the liberals who plan to sneak in to manipulate the primary as well, to vote for Santorum.  They think that Santorum will have a lesser chance of defeating Obama in November.
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But they, too, will soon be stepping into their own snares.
That’s what radicals do best.  Set snares for others, but get caught in them themselves.
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An Invisible Player

And, most important, there is a invisible player, God.  And God has a wicked sense of humor.
I am watching political developments with great anticipation, as America continues to pray.
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It would be wickedly satisfying to see the Constitution of the United States, which was based on the Ten Commandments and on Judeo-Christian morality, and which was written by the Founding Fathers centuries ago, still allowing us, the people, to take charge of our own destiny and to defeat the efforts of power-mongers on both sides.
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The broad, stable, non-radicals of both right and left who value Christianity over Marxism, and who value real tolerance over imposition of radical values, could back a man like Rick Santorum, who does not advocate imposing his views on others, but advocates hands-off government.
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Some think that Rick Santorum is too conservative.
But good, broad, stable, non-radical conservatives such as Rick Santorum (and such as me) do not try to legislate their views onto others.
They are tolerant.
Tolerant with limits: the Constitution of the United States defines the limits.
And that’s a very good thing.
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Constitutional Limits

McNaughton: One Nation Under Socialism

The limits of the Constitution are Judeo-Christian limits.
These are the limits that radicals want to test and to reverse.
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Commitment to Truth

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Romney vs. Santorum?

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Fortune Cookie

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Fortune cookie yesterday:

If you tell the truth you don’t have to remember anything.

Good advice for Presidential candidates this election year!

Truth can be, and has been analyzed both by me and by more noteworthy philosophers throughout millennia of history.  Cultures have differing attitudes towards truth and toward its value.

Without embarking on a long philosophical discussion, suffice it to say that the foundations of European and United States governments rest on Christian principles; that Christ is the Word and the Truth; and that our innate common sense indicates the importance of truth during an election year.  A vote is meaningless if it is cast for a lie.

Democracy does not work when candidates lie.

Election year compels us to question the trustworthiness, truthfulness, and dependability of political candidates.

Barak Obama

Our President Barak Obama is not famous for truthfulness.  The issue under consideration by the Supreme Court today, the constitutionality of ObamaCare, is one prime example of Obama’s lack of commitment to truth.  ObamaCare was passed only very narrowly, and only after Obama promised Stupak, who was holding out for the exclusion of abortion from ObamaCare, that abortion would be definitely be excluded from ObamaCare.  70% of Americans oppose federal funding of abortion, yet the Obama administration has included abortion in ObamaCare.  That’s a pretty big lie, going back on a public promise, and railroading federal funding of something that half of America considers equivalent to murder and to the Holocaust, and something for which 70% of America opposes public funding.

Other lies of President Obama’s include :

  • Saying that 80% of Americans support higher taxes (actually 34% support)
  • Claiming his mother was denied health insurance (not true)
  • Pledging not to raise taxes on families making less than $250,000
  • Promising shovel-ready construction jobs with stimulus; later telling the NY Times there’s no such thing as shovel-ready projects.
  • Pledging that Americans would be able to keep their doctors under ObamaCare
  • Claiming he would not reward lobbyist with jobs
  • Making false statements about the involvement of foreign money in U.S. elections
  • Misrepresenting Arizona’s immigration law
  • Pledging transparency, then refusing 1/3 of Freedom of Information Act requests, failing to televise health-care negotiations on C-SPAN, and failing to wait 5 days so people could read the ObamaCare legislation online.
  • Violating his Oath of Office, by failing to protect the Constitution and ignoring the 10th amendment, which states that all powers, which the Constitution does not specifically allocate or prohibit, are reserved to the states (to the people).   President Obama has claimed many powers for the Executive branch; primary example is ObamaCare.
  • Additional lies
  • Obama’s biggest lies

With Obama, when it’s not lies, it’s disregard for and manipulation of the will of the American people, which is just as serious.  In fact, today, President Obama was caught on a hot microphone betraying his electorate, asking Russian President Medvedev to put off discussions of nuclear defense reductions until after the November election, when Obama would have more “flexibility” (to disregard the will of the people). continue reading…

Mitt Romney’s longtime advisor Eric Fehrnstrom blundered by comparing the upcoming general election against Obama to an Etch A Sketch toy and claiming that Romney can “shake it up” and “start over again” in the fall.

This ignited a controversy, appearing to be a public admission of Romney’s willingness to change his positions for political gain. Some conservatives continue to question Romney’s commitment to repealing ObamaCare, as well as to other conservative principles, based on his previous support of “RomneyCare” and of abortion.  Romney has even been called a RINO (Republican In Name Only) by some. One critical example of Romney’s questionable committment to conservative values is his refusal to sign the Susan B. Anthony List’s  Pro-Life Presidential Leadership Pledge, which most other candidates did sign: Rick Santorum, Newt Gingrich, Rick Perry, Michele Bachmann, and Ron Paul.

This can be contrasted with Rick Santorum’s views, which reflect the views of conservative Americans on life, on liberty, and on economy.  Rick Santorum’s views appear to be deep-seated and unshakable.

So here’s my endorsement and my campaign slogan:

Rick Santorum: UNSHAKABLE on Life, Liberty and Economy

Madison’s Stand Up for Religious Freedom Rally

March 23, 2011

U.S. District Courthouse,
120N. Henry St.
Madison, WI

A Nationwide Stand Up for Religious Freedom Rally was held on Friday, March 23rd, 2012, from noon to 1 PM.
Nationwide list of participating cities (click).
The Madison, Wisconsin rally was held at the U.S. District Courthouse in downtown Madison, at 120 N. Henry Street.
500 people were in attendance, including the Catholic Bishop of Madison and numerous priests and sisters.

Photos:

(Tom Reitz, ReitzInternet, Syte Reitz)

  • U.S. District Courthouse, Madison, WI
  • Stand Up for Religious Freedom
  • Rally at U.S. District Courthouse
  • The U.S. District Courthouse
  • Fr. John Sasse
  • Love One Another
  • Fr. John Sasse leads prayer.
  • Steve Karlen introduces the Bishop
  • Crowds hear Bishop Robert C. Morlino
  • Steve Karlen introducing the Bishop
  • 500 attended
  • Steve Karlen of Pro-Life Wisconsin
  • 500 Crowd in with Bishop
  • The U.S. District Courthouse
  • Bishop Robert C. Morlino
  • Stand Up for Religious Freedom Rally
  • Stand Up for Religious Freedom
  • LIFE!
  • Bishop Robert C. Morlino
  • Bishop of Madison, WI
  • Love children!
  • Crowds
  • Madison, WI
  • Sisters attending the Rally
  • Applause for the Bishop
  • Patriotism
  • Catholic Sisters
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  • Laura Karlen
  • Fr. Rick Heilman
  • Fr. Rick Heilman
  • Divine Mercy Chaplet
  • Thanking the Bishop
  • Battle Hymn of the Republic
  • Jeanne Breunig
  • Rally Over
  • Stand Up for Religious Freedom!

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Bishop Morlino’s remarks audio (click)

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Bishop Morlino on facebook (click)

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Madison Cap Times coverage:

Pro-life activists react to Obama’s ‘war on women’

Elsewhere:

Washington, D.C. Stand Up for Religious Freedom Rally:  Star Parker speaks:

Stand Up for Religious Freedom:  http://standupforreligiousfreedom.com/

Locations near you :   http://standupforreligiousfreedom.com/locations/

Obama SO Wrong on Contraception Numbers; Could Obama’s 99% in Reality be as Low as 31%?

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[pro-player width=’530′ height=’253′ type=’video’]http://cnsnews-test.s3.amazonaws.com/sites/default/files/videos/converted/percent.mp4[/pro-player]

President Obama telling us that 99% of all women use contraception.

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“Facts” recently claimed by the Obama administration during the Contraception Mandate debate:

  • Obama: Nearly 99 percent of all women have relied on contraception at some point in their lives – 99 percent.
  • Sebelius: Made the same claim twice on national television programs.
  • Obama Campaign Manager Cutter: Made the same claim twice on CNN.
  • Pelosi: 98% of Catholic women use birth control

Yet CNS news reports: 13.9% of women have never had sex, so the above claims cannot be true. This puts the maximum possible number of women using contraception as 86.1%.

The Original Center for Disease Control Study

O.K., so CNS News went to the original government study where they found two qualifying statements:

  • Researchers only studied women who had had sex and excluded those who had not
  • Researchers listed all women who had ever, even just once in a lifetime, used any form of contraception.

By accounting for these groups, CNS news concluded that 38.2 percent of sexually active women were not using contraception at the time the study was conducted. 38.2% of 86.1% subtracted means that we are now down to 53.2 % of women using contraception.   So Obama and Co. were misquoting the study they referred to.

But it gets worse:
Here’s a graph from the study:

Center for Disease Control, Dept of Health and Human Services Contraception Use Report, page 18

Look at the figures highlighted in yellow.
Included in Obama’s 99% of sexually active women “using contraception” are 23% of all participants in the survey who are using a form of periodic abstinence; either calendar rythm or natural family planning.

Obama is Counting Women Who Use Abstinence as Contraceptive Users

THE OBAMA ADMINISTRATION IS COUNTING WOMEN WHO ARE USING ABSTINENCE (23% of sexually active women) AS CONTRACEPTIVE USERS!

So now the number of women using contraception shrinks further. We were previously down to 53.2%.  Don’t ask me to calculate where we are now– I am not sure my math is that good! Do we lose another 23% of 53% when we don’t count those using abstinence, and are we now down to 41%?

34% of Women Have No Problem With Abstinence

Incidentally, if you count the periodic abstinence women (23% of 86.1%)  and the women who abstain totally from sex (13.9%), we find that 34% of all women are fine with abstinence.  Something that Judeo-Christian principles have advised for millennia.

25% of Women Refused to Participate in the Intrusive Study

We ALSO have not yet accounted for the 25% of women who refused to participate in the 80-minute study. The original survey, the Center for Disease Control, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services report entitled Use of Contraception in the United States: 1982-2008 actually stated that 25% of women selected did not participate in the study and that the in-home interview took 80 minutes to complete.

Theorectical Lower Limit for Contraceptive Use

That would bring us down to 31% of women using contraception, not the Obama administration’s 99%.
It also skews the population; any woman who has a moderate degree of modesty/privacy about her sex life, as well as any woman who does not have 80 minutes to spare for a survey, were not included in this study.

What is the Actual Number?

Of course, I am not claiming that only 31% of women use contraceptives in the U.S.  The above graph also shows us that many women use numerous forms of birth control which overlap.  So some of the women using abstinence techniques may have in their lifetime used another technique as well.  However, this analysis does show that Obama’s 99% number is ridiculously misleading, and that it is theoretically possible, based on the data, that the number of women using abstinence techniques could actually outnumber the number of women using contraceptive techniques; 34% vs. 31%.

We will probably never know the exact numbers, since sexuality is a usually a very private matter, and there is a large segment of the population which will never participate in such studies.

Bottom Line

The Obama administration  can choose between two explanations for this gaffe which was repeated by the administration dozens of times:

  • They are scientifically impaired and unable to read the CDC report table above.
  • They are purposely distorting the truth to their own political advantage.

Doesn’t look good either way.

Is a regime which cannot correctly read data off simple scientific charts trying to mandate dictate our national sexual mores?
Or is the regime lying to us blatantly whenever it suits their agenda of the moment?

Time for a regime change!
Vote in November!

“President” Cyrus;  No Leader In the World is Powerful Enough to Thwart God’s Purposes

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Bishop Morlino: Difficult Week?  Rejoice!

This Week’s Bad News (not reported by mainstream media, of course!):

To start with, this week’s news was less than cheerful for the 80% of us who are Christians:

  • mandate=dictate

    President Obama and his administration continue to mandate (or dictate, as in dictatorship) the ObamaCare Contraception provision by Catholic employers.  Many fail to realize that this issue is not about contraception, but about whether a President can mandate ANYTHING, particularly against the religious beliefs of people, like making Jews serve pork.  Obama has given Obamacare exemptions to the Amish, and eagle-hunting permits to an Indian tribe in Wyoming based on religious exemptions, but Catholics get an exemption for religious beliefs? No way.  They’re just the largest religion in the United States, and 24% of Americans belong.

  • Catholic Bishops have had to issue another protest, explaining the civil rights violations involved, and requesting dialogue with the Obama administration.  
  • Now Obama’s administration (Department of Health and Human Services, HHS) has added another mandate to ObamaCare, mandate #2 is abortion! Not only will Catholic employers have to pay for abortifacients and contraception, but all Americans will have to pay for abortion.  This, despite the fact that 70% of Americans oppose federal funding of abortion, and the fact that we were repeatedly promised by the Obama administration (remember Stupak?)  that abortion would not be included in ObamaCare.
  • It’s also turning out that the cost of Obamacare will be more than double the previously promised cost
  • Contraception and Abortion added to Obamacare not enough to get you down?  HHS has just added mandatory provision of sterilizations for all female college students to ObamaCare, free of charge.  Yes, between the ages of 17 and 21, when young women are not yet decided on what they wish to do with their lives, while they are experimenting with decisions and with belief systems at college, let them make the irreversible decision never to have children, so that they could never have the joys of family life or pass on their education to future citizens.  Let’s hurry up and sterilize them before they know any better!
  • Not enough bad news yet?  HHS has approved the use of aborted babies’ brains for experimentation in humans.  Aborted babies’ brain cells are being injected into people’s eyeballs in an attempt to reverse macular degeneration.  Yes, those same elders whom ObamaCare wants to euthanize will now be the beneficiaries of the deaths of pre-born infants. That is, if there is any benefit, and if no monstrous result comes from the experiments.
  • Global Rule by Mandate Next?

    Wait, there’s more!  Agenda 21, a United Nations action plan started 20 years ago towards global control of “sustainable development,” a global, national and local plan, is making tremendous strides towards establishing a world government based on environmentalism.   To be truthful, this was not this week’s news, but I found out about it from an email this week.  Did you know that more thatn 600  American cities are participating in this plan through ICLEI, though most residents of those cities are unaware that their local governments are agreeing to rules and regulations dictated by a UN-based organization regarding property rights?  This organization is funded by George Soros, and opposes private property and energy usage, and supports depopulation of the earth.  Tenessee has just passed a bill in opposition to implementation of Agenda 21.    Bill Gates supports the depopulation plans of Agenda 21, pretending to support it with flimsy “science.”   Meanwhile, increasing numbers of scientists are calling the population/pollution/CO2 alarmists just plain wrong.

And, just for good measure, let’s add a local Madison scandal into the news cocktail:  Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice Prosser has just been accused, yet again, of misconduct.  All my previous investigations into this issue 9 months ago, including reading the Dane County Sheriff’s report on this incident, indicate to me that this man is an innocent victim of Alinsky tactics, in which Madison liberals are trying to accomplish with false accusations and lies what they could not accomplish in the ballot box last year- to change the majority of the Wisconsin Supreme Court from conservative to liberal.

Is it just me, or are Obama and liberals on all levels, global, national and local, issuing mandates that trample human rights faster than anybody can keep up with them, doing it before the election, and doing it unilaterally?  And isn’t Obama forcing America to do to small human beings all that Hitler did to larger human beings, only in far, far larger numbers?  See Abortion: a Much Bigger Deal Than You Think.

So What Do We Do?
Rejoice!

So Bishop Morlino’s has a message for all of us: Rejoice!

Rejoice!

He also sends a message to all our families and friends.
As usual, Bishop Morlino is inspiring and he is right.

Bishop Morlino’s Remarkable Laetare Sunday Homily

Audio: click here

Transcript : click here

Summarizing the Bishop’s three major points, which he drew from the Mass readings today:

  • We should not forget God is in charge and does not discard us.  We need to acknowledge our sins; Catholics ought to use the Sacrament of confession.
  • No earthly leader is powerful enough to thwart God’s purposes. King Cyrus, a pagan who cared nothing for God, was inspired by God to become God’s instrument and to save God’s people.
  • We , the children of the Light, are attracted to the Light, to the Truth, and we must seek and speak the truth.  We must vote, and we must not allow campaign advertising to influence us. Why are we being attacked?  Those who want to work evil in darkness need to put out the lights.

These points really do not do justice to the Bishop’s very inspiring homily; nor do I claim to have paraphrased it correctly; you should really read it or listen to it yourself at the above links.

Audio: click here

Transcript : click here

Conclusion:

Bishop Morlino has wisely reminded us is that all will work out as it must. We should fret less, trust more, pray more, confess more, sacrifice more this Lent, and rejoice!

We also need to pursue the Truth, share the truth, and vote for the truth.
President Obama does not seem to see the Truth at present.

President Obama is very swiftly mandating dictating what opposes all that America stands for .  America was founded on Judeo-Christian values.  80% of us are still Christians, and we still vote Christian values.  No number of billions in advertising can sway us. Our future and our souls are not for sale.

Why is he going after Catholics with such determination?  He needs to knock out the lights and the video cameras, the conscience of America.  Catholics are the Christians with the largest numbers and the biggest organization.  If he can knock out Catholics, others will soon follow.

Cyrus Restoring the Vessels in the Temple

Barring a Cyrus-like conversion in President Obama, (which is not completely outside the realm of possibility; remember the Soviet Union?), it is incumbent on us to fix the problem by voting him out of office.

God has actually already achieved through Obama what all us us Christians have not been able to achieve in decades of ecumenical effort:  he has galvanized a massive reunion of Judeo-Christian faiths.  It warmed my heart to hear a Rabbi defending the freedom of Catholics to exercise their religion before the Senate! Who would have thought that President Obama would do more for ecumenism than we could accomplish ourselves?!

That is the mystery of God, Who works in mysterious ways.
Take heart, and pray, pray, pray.
Fast.
Speak out.
Vote.

My Lithuanian IRISH son is preparing for St. Patrick’s Day:

Kilt for St. Patricks Day!

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Happy St. Patrick’s Day, everyone!

Who was St. Patrick?

Saint Patrick

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6 interesting facts about St. Patrick

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St. Patrick’s Prayer

May the Strength of God pilot us.
May the Power of God preserve us.
May the Wisdom of God instruct us.
May the Hand of God protect us.
May the Way of God direct us.
May the Shield of God defend us.
May the Host of God guard us.
Against the snares of the evil ones.
Against temptations of the world

May Christ be with us!
May Christ be before us!
May Christ be in us,
Christ be over all!
May Thy Salvation, Lord,
Always be ours,
This day, O Lord, and evermore. Amen.

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Translation of FFRF ‘Quit the Catholic Church” NY Times Ad

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It’s Not Easy Being Free From Religion

The Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF) published a full-page ad in the New York Times on Friday, March 9, 2012.  The ad mocks and demonizes the leadership of the Catholic Church, while inviting “liberal” and “nominal” Catholics to join FFRF.

It begins:

FFRFs New York Times ad, March 9, 2012

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The logic behind spending $52,000 in an attempt to recruit from a group (the Catholic Church) whose beliefs are diametrically opposed to one’s own group’s (radical atheists) is questionable at best.  The ad comes across either as an excuse to spew bigoted hate speech and ridicule towards the Catholic Church, or as a sign of desperation and instability in FFRF.

TRANSLATION of the FFRF New York Times ad:

We at FFRF have been laboring for decades (for two generations), trying to wipe out all mention of religion in the United States.
Ours has been a difficult road fraught with obstacles, and progress has been slow.
After all these years, our membership only represents 0.003 of 1% of America’s population.

Even fellow atheists keep their distance from us; only 1 out of 1,000 U.S. atheists have joined us.
Imagine, the other 999 out of 1,000 atheists tolerate Christian America (80% of America), and even join them in the more secular aspects of celebrating their holidays!  It makes us sick to our stomachs to watch people buying Christmas trees and buying toys for their children each Christmas.

We valiantly try to spread our creed in any way we can imagine.
We have tried to appeal to people’s intellects, asking them to be “free” thinkers, to question what they are taught and to conclude that we are right; that there is no God.
We have tried to put up golden plaques in State Capitol buildings at Christmas, calling on people to reject gods and to join us in celebrating the pagan Winter Solstice.  Unfortunately, no takers. Our Christmas plaques have informed people that their hearts are hardened by religion and that their minds are enslaved by religion.  Yet people do not flock to us.  They still put up a Christmas tree in the Capitol rotunda that dwarfs our signs by orders of magnitude, and they dare to call it a CHRISTmas tree, as generations of their ancestors have done.

We are working hard to sue Christians who profess their faith publicly, but most of our lawsuits are defeated.  People claim that the Constitution guarantees them the freedom to express their religion publicly, not what we claim, the right not to see any religious beliefs expressed anywhere by anybody except us (atheists are classified on most US campuses as religious organizations).
Even the Constitution makes it hard for us; the Founding Fathers used the term freedom OF religion instead of freedom FROM religion.  You can’t imagine how hard that makes our battle.

We are a modest outfit, with only 4 employees and a $500,000 per year budget.  There is just so much a tiny group can do with that.  We are really doing our best.  Our staff and budget is smaller than the average Christian Church’s staff and budget in Madison, and we are only one group, contrasted with almost 300 Churches in Madison.

So it’s not easy.  We can’t sue everybody.  We try to single out small communities with small budgets (like Marshfield, a small WI town that hardly has any cell phone coverage),  and we sue them whenever their teenagers try to pray on a sports field or their teachers hang the ten commandments in a hallway.  We hope that they will stop expressing their beliefs out of fear of our lawsuit which they cannot afford.  That way, we do not have to go to court and risk losing the case, or use up our meager budget. But people have no sympathy for us.  They don’t understand our pain.  They accuse us of jousting at windmills.

It’s been getting harder and harder.  Now more people have noticed what we are up to.  Organizations have turned up which help small communities when we try intimidation by litigation.  Outfits like the American Center for Law and Justice help the small outfits we try to sue.

Oh, we’ve valiantly tried many things, including suing against the National Day of Prayer.  We fought for 3 years, but lost that one.  People just seem to insist on praying and praying.

In our desperation, we have turned to ridicule.  Last Christmas, we ridiculed the birth of Christ.  We put up a fake “Nativity Scene” at the

FFRF's mockery of the Nativity

Wisconsin State Capitol.  It was a modest effort, reminiscent of the shoebox dioramas we make in grammar school.  But, heck, we don’t have the budget that some of those Christian groups have.  Little attention was paid to our ridicule efforts, and nobody flocked to  join our creed, which is based on the negation and the ridicule of the beliefs of others. Quite a few Madison bloggers laughed off our efforts — life is so hard when nobody takes you seriously!

Now, we are at our wits’ end over our lack of success in recruiting more than 0.003 of 1% of America to our membership in all these years.  Golly, we can’t even expand our ranks biologically; so many of our members do not have children at all, have children who reject our beliefs, or are members who promote and practice abortion. You have no idea how hard it is for an organization to expand amongst radical abortionists!

The last straw came when the world’s most famous atheist admitted last month that he is not sure whether God exists!  What’s an atheist to do? It’s just too depressing.

S0 we had a brainstorm.
We looked for an organization that has it all.
An organization whose creed is followed by the largest number of Americans.
An organization whose membership embraces half the population of Madison.
An organization whose national membership is growing.
An organization which has the best schools in the United States.  And the best hospitals.  And the best charities.
(Unfortunately, we have no schools or hospitals ourselves. We can’t do everything!)
An organization which encourages having children and is successful in passing on beliefs.
Yes, the Catholic Church!
We will recruit from the Catholic Church!
We will steal members from the Catholic Church!

And what is the best way to do that?
With an ad in the New York Times, of course!

So here’s the ad.

Low budget, of course; remember, we don’t have a big budget.
Like the “Nativity” mocking Christ’s birth, we threw it together ourselves.
Never mind that it’s not very professional.That doesn’t matter.
Never mind that it ridicules a quarter of America.
Never mind that 80% of America is Christian and may not like our tactics.
If we lie enough and ridicule enough, maybe we can steal just 0.025 of 1 % of their membership.
That would double our membership overnight!

Heh, heh, heh, wink, wink, wink, drool, drool, drool, what a great plan!
This will really work!

Our next group to target for ridicule and recruitment will be Islam…
let’s see how that works out…

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