It Is a Mystery to Me

Why any marginally politically-educated, properly catechized Catholic could ever vote for ANY Democrat, but that's just me.

I found the closing sentence of the following article to be particularly interesting:

Why Obama is in Danger of Losing the Catholic Vote in 2012 | CatholicVote.org

Busy Weekend!

I attended the first of our state GOP's Lincoln-Reagan Galas on Saturday evening. I carpooled with a friend with whom I serve on our county's Republican Executive Committee and two nice young women from the university's College Republicans.

The Honorable Haley Barbour, Governor of Mississippi, gave the keynote speech. We were also treated to brief speeches by each of our state's Republican representatives in Congress - Rep. David McKinley, P.E. (WV-1) and Rep. Shelley Moore Capito (WV-3). AND an address by Mr. Bill Maloney, the GOP nominee for Governor, which special election is coming up October 4.

A great evening, filled with interesting people, good food and conversation, and lots of points to ponder. I was even able to lay the groundwork for some good civics education opportunities for my children over the next few months. And I got to dress up and look nice, which is always fun (because I don't do that often enough for it to be ho-hum).

How was your weekend?

A Collection of Opinions, Which As An American I am Free to Express

The Muslim al-Qaeda terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001 were for all practical purposes an open declaration of war. Unfortunately, this enemy doesn't play by the usual rules. Terrorists don't care to wait until an enemy trespasses on their turf to take retaliatory action.
Terrorists also don't really have to have a logical reason to do what they do. They are motivated by hate and an evil ideology.
So it should be pretty obvious that there really isn't an effective way to reason with or fight terrorists, except to exterminate them wherever they raise their ugly heads.

I guess terrorists are similar to cockroaches. You can't sit in your house and whisper sweet nothings at the baseboards, telling the roaches to go to the next town. You have to spray, put out murderous bait, and mash the little boogers into oblivion - and keep after them, because once you have them they never completely go away, you can just keep them from taking complete control.
In many ways, terrorists are also like octopi and other animals who can regenerate themselves when they have body parts cut off.  Over the past ten years, our military forces have captured and/or killed a lot of terrorists. But by golly, the terrorist attacks haven't stopped! In fact, I would bet that in the ten years since 9/11 there have been MORE terrorist attacks worldwide than in the previous twenty years, maybe even more than that.
Why is this? Muslim terrorists don't give a rat's patootie if we capture and kill their head guy. The second in command just moves up to take his place. They also don't much care if we do take all our soldiers and sailors and come home from Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya and wherever else we have military on duty in the war on terror.
What they DO care about, though, is this: complete and total domination of the entire world, because this is what they believe is their purpose in life. (As a Catholic Christian, MY purpose in life is to develop as close a relationship with Jesus Christ as possible, and to someday enjoy Heaven with Him).
Say what you will about the Muslim belief that Christians and Jews are "people of the Book", it's just a fact that Muslims want the whole world to be Muslim, and it doesn't matter much how that goal is achieved.
What should we do? Good question. It gets harder and harder to be a Christian openly - in the rare instances where public prayer is permitted, the direct mention of God is not. Policies set in place for purely safety reasons are being protested by Muslims as "Islamophobic" - such as the 'no headgear' rule at an amusement park that caused hijab-wearing Muslimas to object loudly and violently. Daily prayer and Scripture study is a part of the lives of many Christians and Jews, but I challenge anyone to show me an employer who provides a chapel/prayer room for his Christian or Jewish employees, the way some employers have been ordered to provide prayer rooms for Muslim employees.

We could make a start at taking America back to being the great "shining beacon on a hill" that she once was, by securing our own borders. Enforce the effective laws that already exist. Stop giving 'civil right' status to earned privileges. This is the United States of America; if you don't like it then fortunately it is just as easy to leave the country as it is to enter.

"Oh, say, does that Star-Spangled Banner yet wave o'er the land of the free and the home of the brave."

Yes, but for how much longer?

Show Them the MONEY

Creative Minority Report: Evil Judges Knee Deep In Baby's Blood:

but......but......no taxpayer money is used to perform abortions! That's what they say, but when the money is cut off, they don't whine about not being able to do pap smears and breast cancer screening, they scream about not being able to kill babies.

Disgusting and unconscionable.

'via Blog this'

Birdman goes to Charleston

I think we have one of the prettiest Capitol buildings anywhere.  Isn't the dome beautiful?  It didn't always look so nice.  Back in the day it was just painted blue and gold and looked a bit cheesy, but not so long ago, as one may reckon the turning of governmental wheels of appropriation, money was allocated to have the dome redone, and the gold is now real gold leaf.

I took this picture when I took Birdman to serve as a junior Page in the House of Delegates a couple of weeks ago.

Here we have Birdman on the Capitol plaza, next to our very own replica of the Liberty Bell (only ours isn't cracked). Did you know that there are 55 replicas of the Liberty Bell, one in each state and territory?  You can go here to see where your state's replica resides, and perhaps go visit it.  It is said that they have the same tone as the original and all sound alike, which of course isn't so hard to believe considering they used the original mold.

Here's Birdman with his certificate!  He had a very good time.  I'm so glad that when I was in high school I served as a junior page, because otherwise I don't think I'd have known about this great opportunity for young people to see and experience their state government at work. Some things have really changed since I was a page; the pages now stand in two groups near the Speaker's desk - we had a wee tiny cloakroom and folding chairs, with a board and lights on it.  When a light went on, one of us had to go to that Delegate's desk and see what they wanted - coffee, newspaper, go make copies of something, etc.  Now the pages are in the line of sight of the Delegates, so they just wave; sometimes the Clerk will ask a page to distribute copies of a bill or resolution.  All the Delegates have laptops at their desks now too - personal computers didn't even exist when I paged!  And the roll call board? That's all LED lights that change color according to how a Delegate votes, instead of a red or green bulb (for Nay or Aye respectively) next to the Delegate's name (in those pinned-on letters like a bulletin board).

Next year I hope to take him back to page in the State Senate - I remember the Senators being very bad to pass notes to each other, but I'd bet that's not a problem now, what with text messaging and IM capability.

Besides being a junior legislative Page, Birdman is also preparing for a trip to Washington, DC with his Civil Air Patrol squadron, and a Color Guard competition.  I'm going to the Color Guard practice tomorrow to teach them how to do a proper spit-shine; I'll try to remember the camera and then you will know how, too!

Assorted Things

First, if you read this please say a prayer for me, for a special intention.  I can't say what it is right now, but perhaps someday.  Hopefully sooner rather than later.

Last Friday we went with the other local Catholic homeschoolers to see the Vatican Splendors exhibit at the Heinz History Center in Pittsburgh.  I would love to share pictures with you, but sadly they did not permit photography inside the exhibit space.  It was very interesting, and we all enjoyed it very much.  One of the most fascinating things was a small gallery that was fixed up to be like it would have been when Michelangelo was painting the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel.  Ladders and board scaffolding, lanterns, buckets of faux plaster, paintbrushes, and on the ceiling a partially-completed mockup of the ceiling, with outline drawings of parts of the paintings.
Also, there was a gallery with vestments and liturgical vessels used by various Popes.  Pope Pius IX' chalice and paten were breathtakingly beautiful - not that the others weren't, but his was my favorite.  One one side of the chalice cup was engraved a Christ Pantocrator, and the other side had the symbolic pelican piercing her own breast to feed her young.
At the end of the exhibit there was a bit of 'extra' - a gallery with items from various parishes in and around Pittsburgh, showing the history of Catholicism in SW Pennsylvania.  There was a beautiful enamel-and-jeweled chalice from my Archeparchy, as well as several reliquaries from St. Anthony's Chapel which we have visited a couple of times (it houses the largest collection of relics outside the Vatican).

Session #3 on Cantor School is this Saturday; I need to get my tote bag packed up with necessary things.

Lightning McQueen has decided that he would like to "go Eastern" with his hair - many Eastern Christian seminarians, deacons and priests have long hair that they wear in a ponytail, and he wants to grow out his hair.  So we're going to try it.  Hey, it's HAIR.  If he gets tired of it and it's long enough, he can donate it! (Mine should be long enough to donate by the time the Great Fast begins, by the way).

Birdman is off this evening at his first Spiffy Event - this year's Pro-Life Rose Dinner.  In a tie. And a real dress shirt.  And a cashmere sweater.

We had this month's Culture Club today, and our country was Kenya. Velvet and Lightning McQueen did a PowerPoint with various facts about Kenya - flag, location, animals, food, etc.  I made Kuchumbari, a salad with tomato, onion, cilantro, carrots and lime juice.  It was delicious!  There were two other families there, and we had lamb stew, a vegetarian bean and rice stew, chappatis, ugali (Kenyan equivalent of polenta, only much stiffer) and three flavors of chai tea.  We'll skip December and start up again in January with Italy.

I've put away the current personal pair of socks to do a commissioned pair for an online friend who doesn't knit, for her to give to a special family member.  I'm halfway down the foot of the first sock in the commissioned pair, and got to the gusset stitches on my socks (sock #2) before I put them aside to do the commission.

My senators are pathetic excuses for elected representatives.  And considering one of them was just sworn in earlier this week, that's really sad.  No problem though; they weren't elected for life.  Bwahahahaha.

Thanks for praying for my intention.

My Catholic Vote, or, The Wonky Plank in the Democrats' Platform

Came across this interesting article a few days ago; evidently the poll referenced found that Jews and Catholics, both of whom have been pretty much reliable as far as the Democratic party being able to count on their votes, are now slowly but perceptibly shifting towards the GOP.  This reminds me:

Back when the 2008 Presidential election campaign was at its high point, I got into a lengthy and rather heated conversation on a private internet forum regarding the candidates, their respective political parties, and all sorts of other things.  One of those other things involved the difference in the official position on the sanctity of life between the platforms of the Democratic Party and the Republican Party.  I left the Constitution Party, the Libertarians, the Green Party and other "third party" platforms out of the discussion because I was conversing with someone on the other side of the country, and the two major party candidates were the focus of our discussion - third party candidates not consistently making the state ballots across all 50 states.

The other party to this discussion held the view that Obama's social policies and campaign positions were closer to Catholic social teaching than were McCain's.  Also, my counterpart opined that it was fruitless to either be vocally pro-life, participate in activities to further a culture of life (such as protesting at abortuaries, etc.) or to bother to vote for a candidate who professed to be pro-life because, as he put it, 'there will always be abortion, and it might as well be legal so women won't have to resort to quacks in back alleys with coat hangers.' (I disagree with both statements, by the way.  Obama advocated socialist positions while campaigning, and has attempted to impose a socialist rule on America since taking office - and the Church roundly condemns socialism.)

First of all, I'm Catholic, as I mentioned in my very first post on this blog.  I would hope that I am a faithful Catholic, and as far as I am aware I adhere to all the teachings of the Church that are necessary to remain in good standing with the Church.

Secondly, I've read the Catechism of the Catholic Church.  The sanctity of life takes precedence over every single other social justice issue extant, simply because without a respect for the most vulnerable lives in society - the unborn and the elderly - how can we as Christians hope to bring about any other meaningful social change?

"Human life must be respected and protected absolutely from the moment of conception.  From the first moment of his existence, a human being must be recognized as having the rights of a person - among which is the inviolable right of every innocent being to life.

...

The inalienable right to life of every innocent human individual is a constitutive element of a civil society and its legislation.  (CCC, 2nd edition, paragraphs 2270 and 2273, emphasis in the original) 

Third, I took the time to download and read the official platforms of both the Democratic and the Republican Parties.  What I read was rather shocking, and after thinking about it for a while, I came to the conclusion that I cannot ever, in good conscience, as long as I profess the Catholic faith, vote for any candidate who officially identifies his or her political party affiliation as Democrat, due to that party's position on life issues and the resulting possibility of my being a source of scandal through my support of a Democrat candidate for any elected office.


You may download the 2008 Democratic Party platform here.  The relevant section is at the bottom of page 50 and the first line of page 51of the pdf document, in the section titled "Choice."  Money quote:

The Democratic Party strongly and unequivocally supports Roe v. Wade and a woman’s right to choose a safe and legal abortion, regardless of ability to pay, and we oppose any and all efforts to weaken or undermine that right.

The Democratic Party also strongly supports access to comprehensive affordable family planning services and age-appropriate sex education which empower people to make informed choices and live healthy lives. We also recognize that such health care and education help reduce the number of unintended pregnancies and thereby also reduce the need for abortions.

The Democratic Party also strongly supports a woman’s decision to have a child by ensuring access to and availability of programs for pre- and post-natal health care, parenting skills, income support, and caring adoption programs.

Not only are the Democrats in favor of abortion and contraception, but they have placed their positions on these two issues before they even mention, almost as an afterthought, the fact that they also support women who choose to have their babies.

You may also notice, if you read the entire document, that the Democratic Party solution to what ails the nation is nothing but huge, bloated government entitlement programs.  That in and of itself violates the Catholic principle of subsidiarity, which means that social issues are taken care of at the simplest level possible.  For instance, you notice that your neighbor down the street has lost his job and though he goes out job hunting every day, it's been a while and you think he might be getting low on groceries.  Instead of sticking a note on his door with the address of the nearest Food Stamps office, you drop off some bread, peanut butter and jelly, and maybe offer to give him a ride to a food pantry if he's really strapped.

Now see what the Republicans have to say about life issues in their platform; the relevant section can be found by clicking on "Values" and then the title of the following quote, at this link:

Maintaining The Sanctity and Dignity of Human Life

Faithful to the first guarantee of the Declaration of Independence, we assert the inherent dignity and sanctity of all human life and affirm that the unborn child has a fundamental individual right to life which cannot be infringed. We support a human life amendment to the Constitution, and we endorse legislation to make clear that the Fourteenth Amendment’s protections apply to unborn children. We oppose using public revenues to promote or perform abortion and will not fund organizations which advocate it. We support the appointment of judges who respect traditional family values and the sanctity and dignity of innocent human life.

We have made progress. The Supreme Court has upheld prohibitions against the barbaric practice of partial-birth abortion. States are now permitted to extend health-care coverage to children before birth. And the Born Alive Infants Protection Act has become law; this law ensures that infants who are born alive during an abortion receive all treatment and care that is provided to all newborn infants and are not neglected and left to die. We must protect girls from exploitation and statutory rape through a parental notification requirement. We all have a moral obligation to assist, not to penalize, women struggling with the challenges of an unplanned pregnancy. At its core, abortion is a fundamental assault on the sanctity of innocent human life. Women deserve better than abortion. Every effort should be made to work with women considering abortion to enable and empower them to choose life. We salute those who provide them alternatives, including pregnancy care centers, and we take pride in the tremendous increase in adoptions that has followed Republican legislative initiatives.

Respect for life requires efforts to include persons with disabilities in education, employment, the justice system, and civic participation. In keeping with that commitment, we oppose the non-consensual withholding of care or treatment from people with disabilities, as well as the elderly and infirm, just as we oppose euthanasia and assisted suicide, which endanger especially those on the margins of society. Because government should set a positive standard in hiring and contracting for the services of persons with disabilities, we need to update the statutory authority for the AbilityOne program, the main avenue by which those productive members of our society can offer high quality services at the best possible value.  

I think that a true conservative, Constitutional limited-government candidate is going to take positions on the issues, and favor policies, that more than 9 times out of 10 are more closely aligned with subsidiarity and other facets of Catholic social doctrine.  In my opinion, a smaller government takes less from its citizens in the form of taxes, leaving them more of their hard-earned income to distribute to charitable causes as they see fit.  A smaller government limits its citizens' choices of livelihood less, so that it is easier for that person to discern and follow God's calling in his or her life.

So my vote will be cast for the BEST candidate for the elected position to be filled, taking into consideration both the individual candidate's positions AND his party's official platform position.  Because of the Democratic Party's official pro-abortion and pro-contraception position as stated in its party platform, I do not consider myself, as a Catholic, able to cast a vote for a candidate who is running as a Democrat.  Most of the time this means I'll vote Republican, although I will vote for a third-party candidate when that candidate's position on life issues and policies which affect those issues, as well as the third-party platform's official position, is more closely aligned with Church teaching than the Republican candidate's.

Special Primary Election coming up!

Here is the certified list of candidates running in the special primary election to be held on August 28, 2010, in order to determine the nominees to run in the general election in November for the US Senate seat vacated by the death of Robert C. Byrd.

I took a look at the Mountain Party platform, which you can see here.  In four words:  Big Government in Birkenstocks.  'Nuff said.

Mr. Mac Warner is my pick.  I know him personally, have questioned him closely on issues that affect me as a Catholic, a parent, a business owner, and an American, and believe that if he is elected he will do what he says he will do.  You can learn more about him here.  The kids and I worked in his campaign office during the regular primary campaign; he was on the ballot to be the GOP nominee for the US House. (You should see us putting together yard signs and lit-packs! We're speedy!)

If you don't like the direction in which this country is headed, be sure you get out to the polls and VOTE on August 28th.  Your vote does count.

American Thinker: The Deadly Pact: How ObamaCare will 'Save' Money

American Thinker: The Deadly Pact: How ObamaCare will 'Save' Money

There's an election in November. It would be foolish, to say the least, to cast a vote for any person on the ballot who has expressed any opinion other than outright disapproval for the monstrosity of government intrusion and State-sanctioned murder that is "Obamacare".

One of the really scary things about the way some of this law is worded is that it doesn't necessarily have to apply only to the elderly. The restrictions on hospital admissions and subsequent denial of medical treatment could very easily also be extended to anyone, of any age, with a chronic health condition (juvenile diabetes, anyone? childhood cancers? cystic fibrosis? any condition requiring multiple surgeries to correct?)

Margaret Sanger advocated eugenics by forced sterilization and abortion. Obamacare tries to achieve a similar result.