In the combox, below, Phyllis alludes to an email I shared with several folks from Chorale. I sent an email to composer David Conte, whose "A Stable-Lamp is Lighted" was one of our Joy of the Season selections. The piece is a setting to a poem by Richard Wilbur (b. 1921). I think you'll see why I had trouble getting through this one without tears and choking-up.

And some of the Pharisees from among the multitude said unto him, Master rebuke thy disciples.
And he answered and said unto them, I tell you that, if these should hold their peace, the stones would immediately cry out. - Lk 9:39-40


A stable-lamp is lighted
Whose glow shall wake the sky;
The stars shall bend their voices,
And every stone shall cry.
And every stone shall cry,
And straw like gold shall shine;
A barn shall harbour heaven,
A stall become a shrine.

This child through David's city
Shall ride in triumph by;
The palm shall strew its branches,
And every stone shall cry.
And every stone shall cry,
Though heavy, dull and dumb,
And lie within the roadway
To pave his kingdom come.

Yet he shall be foresaken,
And yielded up to die;
The sky shall groan and darken,
And every stone shall cry.
And every stone shall cry,
For stony hearts of men:
God's blood upon the spearhead,
God's love refused again.

But now, as at the ending,
The low is lifted high:
The stars shall bend their voices,
And every stone shall cry.
And every stone shall cry,
In praises of the child
By whose descent among us
The worlds are reconciled.

How come...

I can't find any blogs about Catholic womanhood. I mean homekeeping, arts and crafts, being feminine, etc.

Must feminine womanhood in all its diverse manifestations be the property of the Protestant evangelicals and fundamentalists?

In Joyful celebration

Coming to the end of the one-year anniversary of the Declaration of Nullity from my first husband, which has been an amazing year of self-discovery, and I feel as if I'm still just beginning.

For a long time I described myself as a mule - a strange hybrid animal, steady and heardworking, but nevertheless a mule - a cross between a donkey and a horse, a sterile hybrid, unable to reproduce and given to rather eccentric temperament - and completely inelegant!

Then I decided, maybe I'm not a mule, but the best I can hope for is some broken-down scrub of a plow horse... still inelegant, a bit rough around the edges, lacking breeding and social graces...

In short, I was re-entering "polite society" after a very unpleasant and unwilling detour, and I felt unworthy of the companionship of the extraordinary people I was meeting and, surprisingly, making friends with. I felt backwards and ignorant and clumsy and wholly out of place with these educated, cultured, intelligent men and women.

Since the granting of the Declaration of Nullity, however, the way I see myself has been changing at lightening speed. For years, I had felt I deserved the derision, the scorn, the ridicule, the dismissals - after all, I'm hardly a Domestic Goddess! - and then I'd put on all this weight - and I was not just fat, I was clumsy and graceless and just downright awful.

During this year - to make a very complex story very short - I have discovered that I am neither mule nor broken-down plow horse, but a far more graceful breed. More to the point, I am not some androgynous thing of a beast, but - not merely physiologically, but emotionally, spiritually, ontologically - a woman. A woman, with all the grace and beauty and dignity and strength of character, and purity of vision and heart, and capacity for love and self-donation...

I am more wholly myself, my real self! - and more capable of love and devotion than I was at the age of 18, when I married DH.

The immediate difference is that I no longer feel embarrassed about being a woman - about inconveniencing someone who is holding a door for me, or asking the boys at school to remove their hats in my presence, or being embarrassed when a man slips with a bit of profanity in my presence...

I'm still working on the domestic stuff. I still doubt myself in this sphere, but it is getting easier as I've been working to declutter the house, and to rid myself of items that have unhappy or unpleasant associations (like the love seat with R's cigarette burns) - and of course, the very discipline of homekeeping is getting easier as I have less to fight against...

The past eleven months have been absolutely full of wonderful discovery. I've come to feel that - while I'm not THE "pearl of great price," I certainly am more valuable than I ever knew myself to be, before - certainly "priced far above rubies."

I am eagerly looking forward to more discovery and growth. I look forward to all that the future holds.

Thanks, All, for your prayers for me. I know they are helping.

The damage done to a woman's soul when she is bound to a homosexual man is severe. I'm going to be doing a lot more writing about this topic on future - there aren't enough resources for this need, and most of the ones I've seen are decidedly secular, and one or two are downright liberal and almost anti-Christian in their orientation (No! I do NOT want my ex- to have a happy and fulfilling gay "marriage!" I want him to be CONVERTED!!!)

Blessings to you all -

My Blog's Readability

TV Reviews

If this thing is accurate, some parents need to do some serious protesting of public school education!

A parent has complained that her child's primary school Christmas - pardon me, Winter concert contained a reference to Christmas.

"Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer"???

Gimme a flippin' BREAK, here.

There are so many things wrong with this issue that I don't even know where to begin.

For one thing, "Rudolph" is a secular song from start to finish. Evidently this mother is some sort of literalist extremist to want to suppress a word in her child's school.

For another, this is a public school. It's culture is ostensibly supposed to represent the culture of the community it represents. Okay, this doesn't happen so very much since schools became objects of centralized, rather than community, governance, but the basic premise remains:

This is a predominately Christian part of the world - even if sometimes it feels as if that Christianity is only nominal. WHY are we letting minorities of one, or three, demand that we abandon our identity as Christians because it offends them.

After all, Christianity is the root and foundation of the culture they are so richly enjoying benefits of, from the safety of their homes to the abundance in our stores.

Give credit where it is due. Acknowledge that other people have rights, too.

Contrast this woman to the Muslim I met a few weeks ago. He is from East Africa, a nation now identified as nearly 100% Muslim. When he was a child, however, that was not the case, and he was educated in a Catholic school. Although he was exempted from catechism class, he was not spared the saturation of the Catholic identity which shaped every facet of school life. He was taught by nuns!

And he told me, grinning broadly, that it was a wonderful education, a wonderful experience. He's still a Muslim, and a devout one (if a "moderate" one by current standards) - but he knows a lot about Catholicism, and he has great respect and affection for Catholic Christianity, because he absorbed it in that microcosm of Catholic life: the Catholic School.

If minority parents want their children to be spared the influence of the predominate cultural identity, they should either send their children to their own schools, or homeschool.

I wish Christian parents would rise up in protest of this hijacking, this sabotage of our culture. I'm pretty sure it will not happen, however.

The feminists have demanded that women be treated as if they were men, and in so many ways the idea has been detrimental to women.

Take the case of the man dismissed from his job in an area community college. He was caught performing lewd acts in a staff member's office (masturbating, touching food to his penis then placing it in the faculty member's desk for her to eat, etc.).

It is not only distressing that the college did so little to protect the woman employee, it is even more distressing that the general consensus of opinion in the website's comments page thinks the man did nothing inherently wrong.

Powerful insights from A. Guy Maligned -

From "Guy" at What Women Never Hear. If you haven't visited this blog, you should. Frequently. Attentively.

401. Dark Side of Feminism — Part 21

December 6, 2008 by A.GuyMaligned

Feminism produced political, legal, and economic gains for women. No dispute from me. But women have not heard it all.

The warring and do-battle feminist mindset infiltrated elsewhere. The social and domestic arenas ‘evolved’ over fifty years through the following steps:

The earliest women libbers and then radical feminists sought to reduce male dominance and compensate for past injustices. Men had to be ‘brought down’. The radicals dreamed that matriarchy would someday overpower patriarchy.

· Plus, they pushed their agenda without consulting men. It was women only, and they set out to beat men into submission.

· The movement caught on. Ardent feminists belittled and demeaned masculinity, manliness, and men. As it became popular among females, it polarized the genders.

· Females identified and spotlighted every imperfection and eccentricity of male gender. They looked for the same in their man.

· Women were at fault for nothing. Men objected but not too strongly, because unmarried sex became common and commoner, cheaper and cheaper.

· TV and movies mocked men, made dummies of fathers and husbands. Emails flooded cyberspace and popularized male bashing. Teasing at first, but sincerity inevitably soaked in as Feminism flooded the culture.

· Women accepted feminist propaganda, entertainment mockery, and male bashing as ‘truthful’. They learned to doubt the worth of men to women.

· Women convinced themselves that ‘Men are just not worth their troublesome nature. Women must put their man in his place. Moreover, she’s perfectly capable of doing without him’.

· But something else seeped into that poorly concocted mixture: Wives competed directly with husband; they spent a lot of time ‘in his face’. Couples split. Marriages broke up. Unmarried sex normalized. Men became worse instead of better. Cheap sex kept men satisfied if not happy.

· Men learned not to commit and also to cheat in spite of commitment. It all flows directly, however, from so much cheap sex made easily available by females.

· Today, men just follow their urge to merge. One woman can’t capture and keep a man’s devotion separated from his conquering spirit. Too many opportunities with all those oh-so-willing females hunting boyfriends and husbands.

· Women lost the ability or interest or both for holding their own with a man. Female spirits declined. Men went on a cheap sex binge. Wifely hopes and dreams changed to accommodate husbands that turn undependable, irresponsible, and irresolute with their vows. The females’ macro self-fulfilling prophecy against the male gender reshaped the domestic scene to its present female-unfriendly status.

Thus, social ‘evolution’ turned the female gender inferior and made male dominance more dominant. Witness pop culture music and values.

Social and domestic results are contrary to that originally expected. But—as women go, so goes society.

Thoughts on Mortifications (all Sinead's fault)

Because Sinead wrote in the combox:

Ok Laura, I'll bite. I loved the post but I want you to write a post for me on mortifications, voluntary that is, not what you feel when you trip up in the street and everyone laughs. :-D
How do they work?

How can I resist?

Actually, I've been thinking of this, along with Purgatory, this week. The two seem to go together.

Mortification, root word "Mors" or "mortis," Latin for death, die, etc. To mortify is, literally, to put to death -

In this particular application, the ego, or self-will: the very same source of those attachments we have to be purged of before we can fully enter into God's presence.

I was about to say that some mortifications just come to us - like sickness, disappointments, etc., but that's not quite true; how we handle life difficulties matters. When we fight, complain, rail against, whine, and make a general stink about our sufferings, then we aren't putting self-will to death at all, are we? Seems to me we're demanding self-satisfaction, our own way, treating our personal happiness as some sort of indisputable birthright and how dare God interfere by denying us that right!

When we are tested in ordinary ways (like the mom at the school this afternoon, who was put out with me because I wouldn't release the girl from school on the strength of a telephone call), we have a choice. I prefer to be treated with a little more courtesy, and believe me - I was sorely tempted to inform this mother that lack of planning on her part did not constitute an emergency on my part. I wish with all my heart (six hours later) that I had been more gracious than I was, that I had let the woman's annoyance bounce off me; I did apologize and explain my position nicely, I think, but I seethed about the situation for too long afterward.

If I'd been meeker, if I'd been more patient, more gracious - not annoyed (or at least reminded myself that I had a choice not to be so put out) - then this incident could have served as a very useful mortification for my ego, my pride.

Being cheerful when I'm tired and cross and can't breathe because of a stuffy nose (I think I licked the threatened sinus infection) - that's a mortification.

Not fighting back when I'm treated like an incompetent when in fact I was misinformed about a procedure (set up?) - a mortification.

Accepting criticism graciously - when it is not deserved, or more difficult, when it is - a mortification.

Acceptance - of disappointments, of sorrows, of sufferings of body and emotions - not fighting to force our own way, nor demanding sympathy and attention from others - a valuable mortification.

We can also undertake voluntary mortifications to discipline our pride and self-centeredness.

I love chocolate, and during stressful days at the high school, a candy bar and a Coke feel like an entitled reward. This week - I've done without. It's a small mortification, one I've not even really felt.

There are pleasures the world tells us are natural, normal, harmless... but they distract us from full discipleship. Some novels, television programs, movies, music appeal to a more base and carnal element in our characters. Avoiding them even though we enjoy them is a very useful mortification - we are mortifying, putting to death, our love of the mediocre, banal, and salacious.

Denying ourselves luxuries - more clothes than we really need, or multiple bottles of cosmetics and potions when what we already possess is more than adequate for our needs - other things we feel we are supposed to be entitled to as Americans (or Europeans) - a very useful mortification.

Giving of our selves and our resources when it is inconvenient - denying our love of consolations and comforts and luxuries that are not essential to health or safety or genuine well-being...

Being pleasant and doing my duty to people I don't like and would rather avoid - a mortification!

There are stories of saints who slept on boards for a bed, without a mattress, mortifying their love of physical comfort to identify with the truly deprived - who fasted and undertook disciplines in order to tame what St. Francis humorously called "brother ass" (the flesh) - Some even added deliberate discomforts - the wearing of hair shirts (itchy!) or the discipline of flagellation, personal penances, and the like -

I don't advocate wearing hair shirts. I worry about people who have poor sense of self-esteem confusing self-loathing with self-denial and so teeter into deeper emotional instability with religious-guised excesses. I distrust people who boast about their devotions and their acts of charity and service. Mortifications should be quiet, discreet. They should be something we can reasonably fulfill - not great overwhelming mountains to boast of trying to scale.

I think we start small, like my silly little candy bars, or resolving within our minds to treat that difficult person with a softer, gentler voice than we usually do (and to try to tame the indignation that wells up on the inside). God will show us - Our Lady will show us! She wants us to draw closer to her Son, and we attain that greater intimacy with Him by death to self.

It's a process. We fail, only to try again. Ego is a resilient beast, hard to train. But we keep on trying.

Advent thoughts: Purgatory

I'm not sure why, as Advent begins, I'm thinking so much about Purgatory, but here I am. Purgatory.

We tend to think of Purgatory as a place of punishment, where the "payment" of our sins is exacted. You know - the analogy of the kid breaking the window: the vandalism is forgiven, there is no prosecution of criminal charges, but the kid still has to make restitution.

I'm not satisfied with that analogy. Never have been. I always dismissed my discomfort as being remnants of Protestant theology - that Christ not only forgave the debt, he marked it "Paid in Full" with his sacrifice on Calvary.

Besides, as I have been thinking in recent days, it's Purgatory - whose root is "Purge" - which means not to punish, but to clean! You've eaten something you ought not, you're prescribed a purgative - not for punishment but to clean the poison out of your system.

Purgatory does just that. After all, when we die, we don't cease being ourselves - with our loves, affections, habits, and attachments. We carry those things with us, because they are attributes of our heart.

Too many of those attachments are not proper to bring into the presence of God. Habits - of thought and behavior - that have held us in their grip while we live on this earth have to be purged from our hearts. Things we loved that are not consistent with Divine Love - they have to be released once and for all.

"For he is like a refiner's fire," goes the alto Aria in Handel's Messiah - from Malachi 3:2-3 - and the refiner's fire is the white-hot fire that burns the dross from fine metals, leaving only the pure metal behind.

That's what Purgatory does, it is the fire of God's love that burns out the residue and dirt from our earthly lives.

Some of us experience forms of purgation on earth: sickness, sorrows, losses that leave us somehow purer and closer to God than we were before. We think in terms of hell when we suffer - "He's been to hell and back," I've heard it said of people who've been through intense sufferings - but in fact this is part of the great Purgation that scours us down to the fundamentals.

That is not to say that the process is completed on earth. For some, maybe, the saints - those people who love with such single-minded passion that all else fades into insignficance... Perhaps they get immediate admittance into Heaven. But I'm not ready, and I don't know of anyone who is - except maybe Mother Teresa of Calcutta, who served God by sheer dint of will when her emotional dimension was full of dark and her Lord felt far, far away.

But we can welcome these experiences as part of our preparation for meeting God face to face, in Heaven. This Advent, when we are focused, in the liturgical season, on preparing for His Coming, let us embrace the purgations we experience here below, and even embrace voluntary mortifications in order to hasten that process - of the sort we associate with Lent.

Happy Thanksgiving to you all!

Does this mean I can start playing Chriatmas music now?

Actually, I've been singing Christmas music for weeks! - Chorale prep, you know.

Last night was the first performance of Handel's Messiah with the Carolina Ballet. First time I've done it with them, but this is a long-standing tradition with the Master Chorale.

I have to admit, the thought of a major religious oratorio like Messiah being choreographed to ballet seemed a bit like sacrilege, but I was so very impressed. The dance moves, the costuming - everything was well-integrated into the textual elements of the work. The ballet is appropriate, compatible, joyful and reverent, from the first prophetic arias (our tenor and bass actually perform those arias of Part One on stage with the dancers!) to the final glorious "Amen!" where the Messiah Ascends into Heaven (with the help of a cable).

We're in the orchestra pit, so we had to be broken up into mini-choirs for the weekend. I'm back on tap for Saturday's matinee, and I'm really looking forward to it!

Meantime - y'all enjoy the turkey, and don't forget to really thank God for all His blessings and provisions to you and yours.

Yeah, I'll join in!

After checking with several friends with military connections and specialties in Middle Eastern "stuff" -
I hereby join the group of bloggers celebrating this as Victory in Iraq Day - No sense in letting BHO take credit for something that W has won through diligence, hard work, determination and just plain clean vision. Damn the liberals who have made it tough for our Nation to fight this war - and win it! May they be consigned to a place in Punishment of having to watch never-ending replays of the incidents of 9/11, the beheading of American soldiers and reporters, and all the other evidence of why we HAD to be in Iraq.

May God protect our troops and keep them safe - and allow them to complete the ENTIRE mission - because it's been publicized, no thanks to our mainstream media, that as soon as we pull out, Al Quaeda is going back in with a vengeance.

Praying for the safety of our troops -
Saint Michael the Archangel,
defend us in battle.
Be our protection against the wickedness and snares of the devil.
May God rebuke him, we humbly pray;
and do Thou, O Prince of the Heavenly Host -
by the Divine Power of God -
cast into hell, satan and all the evil spirits,
who roam throughout the world seeking the ruin of souls.
Amen.

Digital Conversion for your Television Service

Oh, I so identify with this!
(Thanks to Bill for sending it to me!)

Lavender blue, dilly, dilly - etc.

you are lavender #E6E6FA

Your dominant hue is blue, making you a good friend who people love and trust. You're good in social situations and want to fit in. Just be careful not to compromise who you are to make them happy. Your saturation level is very low - you have better things to do than jump headfirst into every little project. You make sure your actions are going to really accomplish something before you start because you hate wasting energy making everyone else think you're working. Your outlook on life is bright. You see good things in situations where others may not be able to, and it frustrates you to see them get down on everything.

the spacefem.com html color quiz

Laura, Warrior Princess - It's Official

A woman praying in solitude can do amazing things, but a woman praying as part of a deliberate army - much more.

Today I have been enrolled in St. Maximilian Kolbe's Militia Immaculata. I've just put myself on the front lines.

When I was contemplating becoming a Catholic, the single most difficult aspect was Marian theology. I'd heard that Catholics worshipped Mary, and although my head knew they did not, and understood the difference, a lot of behaviors by good Catholics sure felt like some kind of idolatry, and made me exceedingly uncomfortable.

It really makes a lot of sense, though, this business of Marian devotion. When Mary was greeted by the Angel, he addressed her by her title: "Full of Grace." It wasn't a courtesy - the angel was identifying Mary and her deepest, her innermost character. From her conception, she had been filled with God's grace in preparation of this immense privilege - of being the woman to give birth to the Messiah, to be the Ark of the New Covenant.

Jesus of Nazareth, the Second Person of the Holy Trinity, came to earth through a woman - and that woman's Fiat, her "Yes," is so integral and so far-reaching a part of God's plan of salvation that we lose a significant portion of it in ignoring it - and her.

He came to us through her, and to this day she is actively involved in bring us to Him. As the woman clothed with the sun (Rev. 12) is identified as Mary, whose firstborn is Jesus, we are her other children - hers by adoption, according to the language of St. Paul. She is our mother, and she assists in our spiritual re-birth, in our discipleship and our total journey toward Heaven. She intercedes for us even as she interceded on behalf of the poor couple in Cana, who had run out of wine at their wedding feast.

Her few recorded words serve as instruction ("Do whatever he tells you!") and example ("Be it done to me according to thy word") - and as inspiration (the great hymn of praise, the Magnificat, in Luke 1)

King Solomon, a type of Christ, placed his mother on a throne (I Kings 2:19). Mary sits on a throne, also, crowned with the glory her Son gives to her - and there she intercedes for us all.

As the woman clothed with the sun, Mary is not some frightened potential victim of the Devil - she is obedient to God in all things - and being the bearer of the one who will crush the head of the serpent, she is intimately engaged in the great battle which rages around us now. She - and her Son - will be victorious in the end, but there is no better example we can have of obedience to God, or help in attaining that obedience - or of fidelity or strength. She was with her Son from the time of the Angel's Visitation (see that painting in my heading, again) - until and through the birth of the Church. The only significant event she is not recorded being present for? - the Last Supper, when her Son instituted the Holy Eucharist and the Holy Priesthood.

If she is the handmaid of the Lord, then in being her handmaid, we do well in serving Him.

Must-see Blog View

Father Z has a great blog post I wish you all would take a look at - read it and watch the lovely video.

A graceful nod of the mantilla-clad head to Dove for the link.

And now, for something completely different:

After all the political talk, I thought it might be time to interject something, well, more ladylike. This is a photo of a "Romantic" era dress, pattern provided by Sense and Sensibility Patterns. I think I'm going to have to learn how to sew - There is a jumper under the Romantic page, and a walking skirt under the Edwardian, and the tea dress under the Titanic page, that I could see being worn out and about even now, without one becoming conspicuous for doing so.

Is Obama an American Citizen? cont...

Alan Keyes is one of the Petitioners named in a legal action in California, asking that the California electoral vote not be submitted until Barack Hussein Obama has proven by presentation of a valid birth certificate that he is indeed eligible to hold office of President of the United States.

I could've voted for Alan Keyes, quite happily. A real Conservative and a far better role model for the black community than BHO.

Read the rest of article here

Merry Tossmass! - Yeah, I can do this!

Thanks, Ann, for the intro!

More from Charleston and Greenville -

From Msgr. Laughlin's statement:

CHARLESTON, S.C. (November 14, 2008) - This past week, the Catholic Church’s clear,
moral teaching on the evil of abortion has been pulled into the partisan political arena. The
recent comments of Father Jay Scott Newman, pastor of St. Mary’s Catholic Church in
Greenville, S.C., have diverted the focus from the Church’s clear position against abortion. As
Administrator of the Diocese of Charleston, let me state with clarity that Father Newman’s
statements do not adequately reflect the Catholic Church’s teachings. Any comments or
statements to the contrary are repudiated.

However, I do dispute Msgr. Laughlin's claim. I dispute it passionately!

Father Newman did not divert focus from the Church's position against abortion. Father Newman's statements do very clearly reflect the Catholic Church's teachings.

Father Newman reminded his parish that the Catholic Church steadfastly, and without equivocation, opposes abortion. He reminded his parish that support of abortion - by promoting it, recommending it, advising it, providing it, or otherwise condoning that practice - is grave matter.

He reminded his flock that voting for a pro-abortion candidate when a reasonable alternative exists is grave matter.

In a letter to his parishioners to be disbursed on Sunday, forwarded to me by a friend in the parish, he says his written commentary to the Greenville, SC, paper and Associated Press included this statement:

I cannot and will not refuse Holy Communion to anyone because of his
or her political opinions or choices, even as I continue to teach what
the Church teaches about the necessity of being in full, visible
communion with the Church before receiving the sacraments. Only those
who believe what the Catholic Church teaches and who seek to live
according to that teaching should even be interested in receiving the
sacraments of the Church, and on the question of the intrinsic and
grave evil of abortion, there is and can be no doubt about what the
Church teaches.

The AP turned that remark, and the observation that Barack Hussein Obama is the single most liberal pro-abort Senator and Presidential candidate in our history, into the headline "No Communion for Obama Supporters."

That twisting of the facts is a flagrant distortion of the priest's own words.

And the diocesan administrator has evidently not troubled himself to confer with Fr. Newman before issuing his statement - which has in the past hour been removed from his website and replaced with an embedded video, only.

Please continue to pray for Father Newman. He is being wrongly accused, vilified, and rebuked.

White Martyrdom begins

White martyrdom is persecution. It is happening, from what I see, to Father Newman of St. Mary's in Greenville, SC. Last Sunday, Father Newman distributed a letter which instructed his parishioners that - because voting for a pro-abort candidate was complicity with grave evil - anyone who voted for Obama should be sure to go to Confession before presenting themselves for Communion.

A veritable firestorm has broken out. The instructions of the former bishop of Charleston seem to support this decision - Bishop Baker signed an agreement between Charleston, Charlotte, and the Archdiocese of Atlanta to deny Communion to pro-abort politicians.

Sadly, the current diocesan administrator, Msgr. McLaughlin, appears not to have remembered that precedent; he has issued a statement in opposition to Father Newman, accusing him of partisan politics in violation of the Church's stance on engagement with political concerns.

Msgr. McLauglin will be hearing from me. Fr. Newman pointed out that, had the other party's platform included a strong support for FOCA (Freedom of Choice Act, which seeks to overturn the Bush ban on partial-birth abortion and the Born-Alive Infant Protection Act), he would have been just as outspoken about it, too. It is the pro-abort policy and promises made by the individual candidate - and the Church is very clear in her insistence that Life Issues are the most important concerns facing Christians in the voting booth.

Pray for Father Newman, won't you, please? A friend in Greenville tells me he received over a thousand emails in a 4-hour period, last night, and now that major networks have picked up the item, the heat will only increase. You can see from the comments on WRAL.COM webpage (I'm lauraleigh, in case it isn't obvious) that the general sentiment is not in favor of the good Father.

I left a phone message and sent an email this morning. I would post the parish website here, but it's down at the present.

More to follow -

and I don't mean just about Fr. Newman. When administrators within the Church turn on a faithful priest who has told his flock what they need to know for the sake of their immortal souls, you know that ordinary laypeople like you and me are at very high risk, within the church as well as in the world. We expect to be hated in the world; it's always a bitter shock to encounter hostility and contempt within the church.

Things are only going to get worse in the coming months.

Another of my heroes -

SC Priest, Father Jay Scott Newman, has stirred a lot of controversy among liberals for a letter he has sent out, warning his flock that those Catholics who voted for Obama are complicit in the grave sin of supporting abortion, and should go to Confession before presenting themselves for Holy Communion.

I don't know what Newman's bishop is saying about this, but I hope with all my heart that he is supporting Father Newman in this courageous stance for Truth.

Do, please, pray for Father Newman. And consider writing a letter or email of support and encouragement to him, won't you? I'm reluctant to place too much info here in my blog, but you can find it easily enough with a very short Google trail...

More and more -

- it feels as if my studies are not preparing me for a career, but for the identity of Warrior Princess. This is Basic Training - or maybe a somewhat more advanced course of study? for spiritual warfare.

I am so proud of the American Bishops for speaking out in opposition of Obama's reported intended liberalization of abortion policy. BHO has already demonstrated that he does not brook opposition; I think we are going to be in for it.

May God find us faithful.

Taking up the Armor of Christ

I am nearly 100% persuaded that I am to join the Knights of the Immaculata - the Militia Immaculata - begun in 1917 by St. Maximilian Kolbe.

For weeks now, I've had the phrase "warrior princess" pounding around my mind, my imagination.

I feel that we are on the brink of great turmoil and upheaval, that Christians will be very actively and deliberately persecuted - religious speech will be curtailed (from the now-deleted Agenda at change.gov)

The battle is raging. Will you join, too?

http://www.consecration.com/Default.aspx

Look. If you don't daily check out http://daybydaycartoon.com - you ought to.

And more obscuring, still -

As of last night, the entire AGENDA section of change.gov has been deleted. Some of it had already been edited in the face of a lot of protest (compulsive volunteer service) but as more and more protests have arisen, evidently Obama's Chief of Website (a new cabinet post?) decided that it would be prudent to simply delete the agenda.

Doesn't mean the agenda is altered - just that now we can't see it in advance and prepare for it.

Civilians don't fight - Citizens do

And after taking a brief look at http://change.gov - I want to be known as a CITIZEN -

Plans made obscure

The language is impressive - but what does it mean?

"It means the Ministry is interfering at Hogwarts." Right. Starting with the curtailment of First Amendment Rights.

http://change.gov

Zo - YES

Yes, it's from the ONION -

Obama Win Causes Obsessive Supporters To Realize How Empty Their Lives Are

THANKS! to SS for sending me this!

Jane Austen Heroine -

Take the Quiz here!

Oh, such a relief! I also consider Anne Elliot one of my favorite literary heroines, ever!

And another image that seems to fit -

Somehow this seems apt this morning...

Post-election thoughts

I'll share my own thoughts later - still journalling them - but here is a strong statement from Bob Parks.

Election Day 2008

Elections are always a high-energy time, lots of nerves and expectations, but I don't remember seeing anything like this year's election, before.

I voted two weeks ago - and most of my friends have taken advantage of early voting, too.

One thing is certain: - If we win tonight, we can't just go back to sleep at the wheel again, as we did four years ago. If we want to save our Nation from destruction, we are going to have to apply a lot of deliberate, steady pressure to reverse the crazy swing to the left that our culture has been taking, unchallenged, for the past decade or more.

I'll write more about that later - right now I have to get ready to go volunteer at the GOP HQ.

Deliver us, O Lord, from every evil, and protect us from all anxiety. In your mercy, hear our prayer. Amen.

In the midst of all the political bru-ha-ha -

There really are some things more important. Six years ago today, I stood before a congregation of about 500 people, and declared myself:

"I believe all that the Roman Catholic Church teaches, preaches and proclaims to be revealed by God."

I joined in the recitation of the Nicene Creed - and I think my voice carried over everyone else's there, that morning.

On November 3, 2002, I was received into Christ's One, Holy, Catholic Apostolic Church.

Deo gratias!

Something to think about

When the time comes, as it surely will, when we face that awesome moment, the final judgment, I've often thought, as Fulton Sheen wrote, that it is a terrible moment of loneliness. You have no advocates, you are there alone standing before God -- and a terror will rip your soul like nothing you can imagine. But I really think that those in the pro-life movement will not be alone. I think there'll be a chorus of voices that have never been heard in this world but are heard beautifully and clearly in the next world -- and they will plead for everyone who has been in this movement. They will say to God, "Spare him, because he loved us" - and God will look at you and say not, "Did you succeed?" but "Did you try?"
~ Congressman Henry Hyde

With gratitude to Angie.

Wizard of Washington

You don't have to be a conservative Republican to appreciate the skill and wit that went into creating this video. Enjoy!

Thanks to Steve for sharing - I have no idea where he got it!

More.... DAY BY DAY

you know where to find this, right? follow along at http://www.daybydaycartoon.com/

How I spent my birthday

I hate birthdays. Don't mind getting older, but if there is one day in the year when I can count on being disappointed, stressed, and downright miserable, it is October 28.

This year was no different.

Nevertheless, some good stuff happened.

This year, my birthday was on a Tuesday - that means Chorale night. And as I was driving up the road toward that city wherein Chorale meets... I helped catch a horse.

Yep. Catch. A. Horse.

I was about 7 miles up the road, and traffic was almost at a standstill - and I was about to pass when I saw the horse galloping north (same direction I was headed) up the road. I ducked into the driveway of the house where I was pretty sure he'd come --- met by about a half-dozen Dachsunds, and a misc Heinz-type hound, all barking their fool heads off... and no one was at home. I was getting into the car when a truck pulled in behind me - another neighbor! Hooray!

They went north, headed off the horse and turned him around south - I blocked the highway with my car and steered the fellow back across the road into his own people's driveway. Then I got pulled my car back into the driveway, and got out just as he was thinking maybe he wanted to go back out into the road again. I simply raised my arms (a little more extended than the orans position, but I promise you I was praying!) and said "Whooooa!"

And lo! the horse stopped! and he looked at me, and I stood there and started talking babytalk to him (yes, I confess it) - and he walked to me and dropped his head onto my shoulder. Poor baby!!!

I was patting his neck and telling him how lovely a baby he was, and wondering how in the world to lead him without a halter - and the neighbor slipped past me, opened the gate and went into the feed room. When the big boy (gelding, probably close to 17 hands high) heard the food bucket rattle, he abandoned me and went trotting off to his feed bucket.

The neighbor's son ran the parameters of the small pasture - no broken fence slats, so we figure he must've jumped. The big guy wasn't limping and had no visible wounds, so I wrote a note and left it in their back door. Left my phone number, but haven't heard a word from the folks - I'm going to stop by there, tomorrow, and inquire.

I've always loved horses, so that was a treat - even though I was in the wrong kind of shoes for tramping around chasing after one.

Remainder of trip was pleasant. Arrived early - auditioned for solo for Messiah performances with Carolina Ballet, coming up Thanksgiving weekend. I don't expect to be given one, although I think "He was despised" went fairly well - we have some really fine singers in that group, and I was outsung every which way from Sunday. That's okay, though - it was a good and valuable experience.

And after rehearsals, I went out with the crowd to the Irish Pub where I enjoyed a chicken club sandwich with kettle chips, and a slice of Baileys Cream cheesecake for dessert. I was the only conservative Republican at the table, which felt weird, and I grieved the loss from our group of the other Conservative who's a LOT more knowledgable than I and always good for instructive and edifying conversation.

Filled up the car for $21.50 - $2.64/gallon, which is about fifteen cents/gallon cheaper than it is here at home.

Soon as the clock passed midnight, my very poor mood lifted and I began to enjoy myself quite a bit.

Thanks for all the well-wishes that have come to me via email, Facebook, and other blogs. I'm grateful for my friends.

God bless y'all's socks off.

I Want to meet Wendy Button!

and shake her hand - The former Democratic Speech-writer tells why she's voting for John McCain here.

Happy Birthday Laura!

Yeah.

It's my birthday.

not a big deal.

Thanks for the well-wishes.

Please pray for my intentions.

Laura, Warrior Princess

Confession: I've been holding out on giving God 100% of myself. There are two things I want very much, and I've been holding on - rather like Lot's wife looking back at the home she didn't want to leave - fighting giving all to Him because I want my own desires that much.

As if I could bully Him into letting me have my way by holding out on Him! HA!

Yet the people I love and long for - and my desires always involve people, not things - are even more precious to God than they are to me. I can trust Him to take care of them.

In fact, just a moment ago, listening to a course lecture on St. Louis de Montford's True Devotion to Mary, I asked that my parental authority over my daughters, even now that they are grown women, might still be applied (after all, I didn't know this stuff when they were growing up) - and I have consecrated my daughters to Jesus through Mary.

This shouldn't really shock anyone - not of my Catholic friends, anyway; it is really the ultimate fulfillment of the Infant Dedication we made of them when they were under a year old. What I wanted then for my daughters is fulfilled in what I have learned about devotion to Jesus through Mary. This is just repeating and perfecting the pledge made then.

I make this devotion also of myself, and will formalize it before witnesses at the appropriate time.

In the Dedication, three major things are accomplished. They are contained in the prayer of Dedication:

First, we renew and ratify our Baptismal promises: we renounce forever Satan, his pomps and works.

Second, we choose that Mary, the Handmaid (slave) of the Lord will be our Mistress; we will become the slave of the Slave. "I deliver and consecrate to thee, as they slave, my body and soul, my goods, both interior and exterior, and even the value of all my good actions, past, present and future..."

This takes us full circle - to the Cross: "And I give myself entirely to Jesus Christ, the Incarnate Wisdom, to carry my cross after Him all the days of my life, and to be more faithful to Him than I have ever been before."

This is an amazing act. I can only get glimpses of the power of it, the significance of it, in my imagination.

Thankfully, I don't have to fully understand everything. It is enough that I recognize that I have been fighting, like a wild colt - only instead of stopping fighting for the weariness of fighting's futility, I am coming gladly to the Master to ask Him what He wants of me.

I will serve as His bondservant all the days of my life. I will and do renounce Satan and his works, and I put on the armor provided me to fight against him forever.

Totus Tuus - All for thee, dear Lady, so that you might give all and more to your Son.

Kudos to www.daybydaycartoon.com - and thanks to Angela Messenger for alerting me to the need to make this permanent - since the former link changes ... Day by Day! LOL - {blushing wildly}

Yea, Zo!

Do Republicans act like this?

Merry talks about an incident she witnessed at her college:

When I got to school yesterday, 2 Black girls were walking through the parking lot and I heard, "I should've keyed her van." The other girl said, "You shouldn't talk like that." First girl: I don't care.

When I got out of class I noticed the van she was talking about. It had a big Nobama painted on the window with shoe polish.

Do Republicans behave this way? I haven't heard of any of it.

God help us, in two weeks - we're in for trouble regardless what happens.

White Ribbon Week - October 26-31

First time I've heard of it, which is a shame, because it's a worthy cause, probably even more worthy than the pink ribbon campaign against breast cancer.

What is it?

Pornography, an international scandal which demeans and creates victims several times removed from its production - by influencing the attitudes men (and women!) have toward women and children.

Excellent article from Town Hall on the matter, here.

Many thanks to Mary T for the link.

Who was it, really?

Who Am I?

I was raised in one country but my father was born in another. I was not his only child. He fathered several children with a number of women.

I became very close to my mother because my father showed little interest in me. Then my mother died at an early age from cancer. Later in life, questions arose over my real name. My birth records were sketchy and no one was able to produce a reliable birth certificate.

I grow up practicing one faith, but converted to Christianity because this was widely accepted in my country. But I practiced non-traditional beliefs and did not follow mainstream Christianity.

I worked and lived among lower-class people as a young adult before I decided it was time to get serious about my life and I embarked on a new career.

I wrote a book about my struggles growing up. It was clear to those who read my memoirs that I had difficulties accepting that my father abandoned me as a child.

I became active in local politics when I was in my 30s and then burst onto the scene as a candidate for national office when I was in my 40s. I had a virtually non-existent resume, very little work history, and no experience in leading a single organization. Yet I was a powerful speaker who managed to draw incredibly large crowds during my public appearances.

At first, my political campaign focused on my country's foreign policy. I was critical of my country in the last war. But what launched my rise to national prominence were my views on the country's economy. I had a plan on how we could do better. I knew which group was responsible for getting us into this mess.

Mine was a people's campaign. I was the surprise candidate because I emerged from outside the traditional path of politics and was able to gain widespread popular support. I offered the people the hope that together we could change our country and the world.

I spoke on behalf of the downtrodden including persecuted minorities such as Jews, but my actual views were not widely known until after I became my nation's leader. However, anyone could have easily learned what I really believed if they had simply read my writings and examined those people I associated with. But they did not.

Then I became the most powerful man in the world, and the world learned the truth.

Who am I?


Sounds a lot like a particular presidential candidate on the current ballot, doesn't it?

However it isn't -

It's Adolph Hitler.

Thanks to Ann for sharing this.

oh yeah - I'm having one of those days, myself...

A voice for Life

Cheers and BRAVOs to Robert Laird, the other directors and employees of Divine Mercy Care Pharmacy in Chantilly, VA, set to open its doors today.

Divine Mercy Care Pharmacy is setting a pace in providing a pharmacy that does not stock any forms of contraception, pornography, or other typically-stocked materials that violate reverence for the sanctity of life.

"Contraception is not health care," said Laird.

Again, Bravo!

Many thanks to Maria, from The Washington Times, for alerting me to this news. Please go check out the article in the link.

So - Biden said WHAT?

During the debate between himself and Sarah Palin, Biden enraged gay rights activists by insisting that neither he nor Barack Obama supported gay marriage. Yet today, on "Ellen," he said that, were he a resident of California, he would vote against Proposition 8.

Proposition 8 is the one that defines marriage as between a man and woman ONLY.

So - Biden's talking out of both sides of his mouth, just as Obama himself has been doing all along.

What else is new?

And how long will it take for the good Christian people planning to vote the Democratic ticket this month to see the serpant for what it is?


What's more - on ABC News, Biden predicted that the U.S. will suffer another terrorist attack in the early months of Obama's presidency, and that the American people will need to be prepared to stand by him as he makes "unpopular decisions."

Sure, we will.

#1 - Biden has just admitted to the entire world that Barack Obama is an inexperienced neophyte. That in itself should discourage ANY half-witted voter from casting a Democratic ballot in the General Election.

#2 - The Democratic Party was all in support of President Bush after 9/11/01 - it would have been political suicide to oppose him after the attacks on our Nation. But now, while it's POPULAR and POLITICALLY CORRECT to oppose the President in his duty as Commander-in-Chief (and doing a good job under terribly difficult circumstances, no less), Senator Biden (Bidin' My Time?) says we have to give UNQUESTIONING SUPPORT to Obama....

To a man who has expressed Muslim sympathies, who has sworn that he would uneqivocally meet and negotiate with our enemies...

And Biden says we ought to unquestioningly give such a traitor, such a despot, our unquestioning support?

NO!

Eddie

We've been praying for Eddie, who had brain tumor, for several months. I received a beautiful email from his daughter a little while ago, informing me that he entered Eternity on October 3, his 64th birthday.

She spoke of the time at home, and the sweet privilege of caring for him - a privilege I can share passionately with, because of the time I spent with my father during his final days, in 1991 -

and all I can think, beyond even my sorrow for my friend's grief, is that there are people who would arbitrarily "relieve suffering" by terminal anesthesia, or euthenasia.

Ours has become a self-centered, narcissistic culture, concerned not with the ultimate wellbeing of our loved ones (do we even know how to truly love, any more?) but with our own convenience, our own deliverance from inconvenience or suffering or self-sacrifice.

My dear friend wrote of her father's final days - "I would gladly have spent ten years caring for him again!" she wrote, and I know what she meant. We are deeply altered (altared?) by such proximity to suffering and Dying.

She wrote of the peacefulness of his passing - how God granted all their desires for his final moments -

How many people are deprived of the grace of these sufferings by impatient family and medical personnel who unnecessarily hasten the end of life, lacking understanding of the utter redemptive beauty of allowing God to choose when life begins and ends?

We've become a utilitarian people - God help us, it's getting worse all the time - and if this election goes badly, we'll be seeing even worse, at a greatly accelerated pace.

Too Funny not to share again -

I don't know which movie it's from, but this line is CLASSIC

Problems at Blog Talk Radio

This ENTIRE POST is from No Compromise When It Comes to Being Right -
Of very particular interest since Blog Talk Radio is the web home for Flylady's web forum (with which I recently had a peck of trouble for posting a an anti-Obama thread)- thanks to Serenity for alerting this to me:

Pro-Obama Censorship at BlogTalkRadio
October 16, 2008 · 2 Comments

Thank you New Media Journal for printing my commentary.

October 16, 2008

There used to be a classic American saying, “I disagree with you, but I will fight for your right to say it,” which changed to, “If you don’t like it, turn the channel,” and now we hear, “You’re inciting hate, so I will have you charged with a Hate Crime, you bigot!”

America is becoming a nation filled with people who whine about hurt feelings which leads to quashing one’s Right to speak in one way or the other. Americans do not, nor never have had the Right to be aggrieved!

Our nation is turning from a once free country to people being scared to say what’s on their mind for fear of offending someone else or being called a bigot! Here in America!

Yesterday, [October 13, 2008] on my Blog Talk No Compromise Radio show, my guest was Phil Berg, a Philadelphia attorney and Democrat, who has filed a Federal Law suit against Barack Hussein Obama because he claims that Obama is not a natural born Citizen of this country which is a requirement under Article 2 of the Federal Constitution in order to run for President.

The subject matter is controversial but the conversation we were having was quite tame. In other words, it was not at all of the shock jock nature by any stretch! Thirteen minutes into my show Blog Talk Radio, shut me down, and disabled my account with no warning at all!

Within a few hours after this travesty, I received an email from the BTR assistant Director of Customer Relations, Shannon Dingee-Kramer, citing the BTR “Terms of Use” stating that my show was, “racially or ethnically offensive, defamatory, unreasonably violent, threatening, intimidating or harassing; and that it contained falsehoods or misrepresentations that could damage BlogTalkRadio or any other person.”

Wow, how was she, in just a few short hours, able to obtain the proof that what I say on my show is false and contains misrepresentations since my show is a commentary style show? How was my show racially or ethnically offensive? Because Obama is 1/16th part black, I’m sorry, African-American? oh, wait, he certainly was born in Africa, but the American part–big question mark! Is she subversively saying that all partially black people not born in America and their public actions are off limits for questioning?

That’s amazing to me! Also, she failed to tell me exactly what it was that I, or my guest said that was offensive and unreasonably violent! However, I can prove that her behavior toward me was all of those things and more!

America is in trouble, folks, real bad trouble. We are losing our American spirit and culture. We are losing our guts and fortitude and all of this is based on one single lie spouted off across airwaves and print media: You are a bigot!

If you have a controversial opinion you are labeled a bigot. If you disagree with how a political system or cult like religion violates the Human Rights of individuals you are labeled a bigot! If you disagree with a political candidate you are targeted for attack and accused of crimes against humanity!

Most people don’t care anymore which is sad to me, but those of us who are in the communications business better start caring a little louder because yesterday it was me who was violated; tomorrow it could be you!

America is on the precipice of being changed forever if we don’t start getting back to our fundamental roots and American culture. We are Americans first. I don’t agree with my fellow Americans who are for Barack Hussein Obama at all, however, I will fight for their Right to campaign for, and vote for whomever they choose. Why? Because my American freedoms can withstand our disagreements. America has always withstood disagreement. What America will not be able to withstand is making my disagreement with you, a crime, a target for attack, a reason for those who hate me to hurt my property or my Rights! Our Country won’t survive that!

I am asking you to stand with me regardless of our differing opinions. Protecting Free Speech has to become more important than protecting people from being emotionally aggrieved because they disagree!

Create Your Own........ RELIGION???

Interesting business, being on a secular web forum. You get to see, in a wee internet microcosm, the complexities of human nature and the effects of the world we live in. There are a couple of Catholics, a few evangelical-type Protestants (Baptists, independents, etc.) and a whole bunch of … Unitarian Universalists, Buddhists of some description, agnostics, atheists, and an interesting variety of Create-Your-Own-God type people.

Of course, there are those who believe the UU fits that category. Looks like it to me.

And their favorite Bible verse is “Judge not, lest ye be not judged.”

Favorite? Their only, from the looks of things. And they all pat one another on the back and tell one another how wonderful each other is and how awful it is that anyone would dare to claim to have “the” truth and to be such wet blankets on the fun and the constructive dialogue that comes in a secular society….

So – why am I so angry?

Because I am angry. Not that I took some hard and unjustified, ignorant and mean-spirited hits in there – but that the double standard flourishes unchallenged by people who are supposed to be more intelligent than that.

They spout off “Judge not,” while they are exercising judgment – and ill-informed judgment, no less.

They gloat and glory in smug self-satisfaction – which is really contempt for anyone who doesn't see things in their elitist milieu.

They want everyone to get along just fine, but they don’t want to accept the orthodox among them.

They behave childishly, meanly – and gloat over a victory of their presumed superiority – and they don’t realize how unrespectable they’ve become.

And I’m angry - because I'm so poorly and inadequately equipped to show them what I see and love and believe in with my whole soul!

I subbed at the high school this week, and I saw more kids pulling out the victim mentality, and being essentially rewarded for it.

And I’m angry.

I feel as if the world is in a terrible crisis, that we’re on the verge of serious crisis – and I asked a friend from my former parish about this week’s homily, and she said, “Oh, Laura, you know what it was about. It was about how we have to love one another. Love, Love, Love!”

And I’m angry.

Look. Maybe I’m nuts and maybe it’s like a couple of friends tell me – I don’t give myself enough credit – but it seems to me that if I see something, everybody else ought to have seen it WEEKS ago - “Hey, Laura, what took YOU so long anyway?”

If there is a God, then He must have a personality. A Character. His own integrity – not some vacillation of being that you or I or anyone else can assign to Him.
He has to be consistent.

And so – it’s dangerous to go around, trying to re-create God to suit ourselves. There must be an independent, objective Reality about God that doesn’t vary by culture or epoch. If God is God, then He has to be true to Himself at all times, for all ages, for all men.

No! There is A Truth - THE Truth - and it is our obligation to be faithful to strive for it, for Him, to keep trying more and more and more - not because it's what we believe, but because IT IS, and nothing else is good enough - because anything else is something less!

I’m angry.

People whose lips drip with honey tell the gullible that God can be whatever they want Him to be. It’s all cool, it’s all the same – whatever floats your boat, Honey.

And here we are – the people of God, the sons of adoption, the members of the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church – the Church Militant, for crying out loud!

And we’ve GIVEN IN. We’ve caved in, acquiesced.

We get homilies on mushy love junk instead of real LOVE –

LOVE, people – that powerful, virile, honest, gut- and life-changing power that redeems and transforms people and doesn’t let them go to Hell without a fight.

Where is the Love?

Where is the Church Militant while women are told their sexuality is cheap and value-less, and they don't deserve lifetime commitments from good men? That women are to be objectified through pornography? That the objectification of our sexuality, and the exploitation of our sexuality for a man's pleasure without any requisite responsibility or commitment is all we are entitled to?

Where is the Church while insanity rules in the secular culture and people are being deluded to lives of depravity and loss?

Where is the training, the preparation for taking our place in the culture wars? The war of the world, the flesh and the devil?

Why are we left to fumble about on our own to learn to wear the Armor of Christ? Why do we have to depend on internet sources to learn what it even is, and how to don it, and even how to use it? Why are we having to learn in isolation and loneliness to fight without a proper teacher to help us hone our skills and our vision and our ability to recognize the Enemy and to distinguish the walking wounded from the Sold-Outs?

I’m angry.

This is the age that the Church has prayed for for centuries. Look at our culture – we have more in common with ancient Rome, the pre-Constantinian Rome, than with our own grandparents!

And what are we doing? We’re getting hit – HARD! – and left to stagger about unaided, untrained, unskilled.

I’m not a warrior princess by nature; I’ve become one out of utter necessity. But who is going to help me find my balance with this? And who is going to train me?

I’m very angry.

yeah. what he/she said

more animals

From Mr. Berg - who filed lawsuit against Obama re: Citizenship

A cool pic from a cool guy

Thsnks to Zo for sharing the graphic!

So beautifully explained - so tenderly stated

Hat tip to Mary L. for this link.

2-Story OutHouse

Rather profound statement?

The obscenities increase

Video Catches Planned Parenthood Covering Up Statutory Rape
(original posting from pro-life nurse Jill Stanek's fear-instilling to the bad guys site)

ARLINGTON, VA, October 6, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Students for Life of America (SFLA) has released a video exposing two Planned Parenthood clinics in Winston-Salem and Charlotte, North Carolina covering up statutory rape of young girls. To view the video, go here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vkakpcWSyWY

In June of 2008, two college women volunteering for Students for Life of America entered two clinics in North Carolina posing as underage girls, 15 and 14, who just had unprotected sex with their mother's live-in boyfriend who was in his 30s. Each girl told the clinic workers that he suggested she come get the morning the Morning After Pill. According to N.C. Gen. Statue 7B-301 and 7B-101, this information was enough to trigger North Carolina statutory rape reporting laws, obligating any person who learned of this story to report the crime to authorities.

In both visits, Planned Parenthood staffers acknowledged that what was happening to the girls was statutory rape and in one case even repeatedly admitted that they were required to report the incident.

However, after the visits, Students for Life of America filed North Carolina Public Records Requests to find out if the Planned Parenthood locations had reported the crimes. SFLA has obtained and posted documents, which show that the crimes were not reported to authorities in either Charlotte or Winston-Salem. To view the reports from police department authorities, go here: http://www.studentsforlife.org/index.php/plannedparenthoodinvestigation/

In addition to covering up the statutory rape of these young girls by failing to report, both Planned Parenthoods were willing to help them get on birth control without their parents' knowledge, which would prolong the abuse while covering evidence. One staffer in Charlotte even said to the girl, "You can do it now," and set an appointment for the minor to obtain birth control the following week.

Further, both clinics told the girls that anyone over the age of 18 could simply go to a drug store and buy the Morning After Pill for them, giving the girls' rapists a tool to further cover their crime of rape.

SFLA's Executive Director, Kristan Hawkins commented on the videos today saying, "These videos are simply shocking. That Planned Parenthood staffers acknowledged the girls were being raped and then did not report the crime is horrific. They allowed these girls to go home to their rapists and even confirmed that their rapists could get the Morning After Pill for them to cover their crimes."

Tom McClusky, Vice President of Government Affairs for the Family Research Council, responded to the investigation, "As long as Planned Parenthood puts their fealty to abortion on demand above protecting young girls from statutory rapists then investigations such as the ones done by SFL will be needed."

To view the video, go here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vkakpcWSyWY

- (emphasis mine)

This is infuriating on so many levels I hardly know where to begin.

First of all, we've known for years that Planned Parenthood has an agenda. But that they would break laws set in place to protect minors is even worse.

Furthermore, they present this scenario of statutory rape as if it were something the girls wanted - or their own crime.

Now, in this particular incidence, the situations were fabricated. But what about those girls for whom it is real - sexual harrassment and abuse by someone who should be engaged in protecting them against these violations?

More and more, the radical feminists are presenting to girls the idea that they want what is a violation of their privacy and their safety, that they've invited it, that they are displaying false modesty -

Radical feminism, manifested by Planned Parenthood, is telling girls that their natural modesty and reserve is unnatural - that being the victim of a crime against their bodies is normal and even desirable.

This is obscene! It has to stop!

And it has to stop with us, who know better and who can tell young girls, wherever we have the opportunity, of their inestimable worth, of their right to be respected, of their right to have their natural reserve and desire not to be objectified honored.

Thanks to Karla for this news item.

Why Do Women Shack Up?

I was called "mean" and "ugly" on a blog where I challenged a gal about living with her boyfriend. She'd written for advice because she was feeling imposed upon: he wasn't doing any of the housework.

What I want to know - no, that's not true; I know the answer - I just want her to think about it. Why aren't they married? Why is she living with him?

Well, we're waiting til we have the money... Nonsense. If you have enough money to shack up, you have enough money to get married.

We're just not ready. Oh. You can "play house" but you can't do it for real.

Look, girls. There is only one reason why men want to shack up: They want free access to sex while they keep their options open. You give them what they want in bed, and you keep house for them. They haven't made any sort of commitment to you, they can end the relationship with no consequences to themselves whatsoever, and they can still prowl around with an eye on your competition.

What do you get? You have already bonded with this guy when you gave him your body in sex. He experienced no such equivalent sort of bond. You have given him your all - your heart, your soul and your body, all interconnected - and he's given you...

Nothing. No security. No concrete promise to be faithful. No set hope for a future together.

Girls - Please! Some of you even have children (plural!) with these men. Do you not realize that if anything happens - if he cheats on you, steals from you, leaves you, gets hurt or sick, or dies, you have no legal protection under the law. You get nothing for yourself.

What's more, if you can get him to marry you, some indefinable place on down the road, you are more than 3x more likely to end up divorced than if you'd made him put his name on the dotted line to start with.

Meantime - you have invested yourself - to you, emotionally, it's a marriage. You have your eyes on one man: him, that guy you're living with. You're in it 100%.

To him, it's a shack-up. He's free to keep an eye out on your competition, see whether something better can be had, on down the road. He's in it... what? 10%? 50%? I can promise you - it ain't 100%.

Let me be candid: you have been sold a bill of goods. A basket full of lies, courtesy of radical feminism, which denigrates marriage and your own value as a woman.

The reason you are living with this guy is because you don't value yourself enough. You've sold yourself cheap. He's getting all the benefits of the shack-up, you get no commitment, no compensations, no validation for your self-giving.

This is not a romantic interlude. It's Booty-ville. This is a form of emotional and spiritual slavery. You have voluntarily enslaved yourself and it is going to cost you.

You don't believe me? Go see what "Guy" says, over at What Women Never Hear. He'll give it to you straight.

Why Does It Matter?

Why get involved in politics? Why push and push and push on a variety of issues? Why be relentless?

Because, dear friends, this upcoming election - and it has already started, with early voting and Absentee Ballotting - has more on the line than we ever have had before.

Women fought long and hard for the privilege of voting, yet almost as soon as the privilege was won, we began to abuse it, voting on emotional rather than factual considerations.

Yet women are the conscience and the heart of a nation. It is we who raise her sons and watch them go off to fight in defense of her freedoms - because with freedoms come great, and frightening, responsibilities.

We women of America, and our sister Nation to the North, Canada, are obligated to be the conscience of our Nations. We have a duty to call for what is right, and true, and honorable.

The rhetoric promoted by the Democratic party masks a lot of dysfunction and even overt evil.

How can a woman stand by to protect someone's right to kill a child?
How can a woman not protest the violence of terrorism and be content to allow it to influence our domestic and our foreign policy?
How can a woman not see through the rhetoric and the attempts to sway via emotional drive to the facts, the issues, and the real needs and rights?

Barack Obama's hands are covered with bloodguilt.

Alone, he opposed the Born-Alive Infant Protection Act, legislation that requires babies that survive late-term abortions be given medical treatment - not just dumped onto a dirty linen gurney and left to die of neglect and exposure. He insists that the right to free and unrestricted access to abortion shall not be hindered, and that he will enact the Freedom of Choice Act as his first act as President - which will overturn the Born-Alive Infant Protection Act. Yet the Born-Alive Infant Protection Act does not prohibit late term abortions; it only secures humane and just treatment of infants who survive the procedures.

How can a woman, born to nurture life, not be moved to outrage at such an extreme attitude in contempt of the greatest gift God has given us: life itself?

Barack Obama's political career began in the living room of William Ayers - founding member of the Weathermen, an American terrorist organization of the 1960s. Ayers was convicted of terrorism, fled and lived as a fugitive from Justice until his conviction was overturned - on a technicality. He now lives, unrepentent and unconverted from his violent youth - in Chicago, where he teaches the teachers of children.

Obama has ties with other criminal bosses and organizers in the Chicago area.

These are moral issues which no true woman can fail to protest, out of a sense of moral virtue.

Barack Obama has close ties to the current economic crisis - he has hired in an advisory capacity at least two of the men responsible for driving Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac into the ground - and he received more political contributions from those men and those agencies than any other politician except one: Chris Dodd of CT, who oversees the regulatory committee over those agencies.

Women who work hard to keep our heads above water and to provide homes for our families, often alone and unsupported, should be outraged that this presidential candidate, the man who would win your vote, should be exploiting the very agencies whose collapse and subsequent requisite bailout by the federal government threatens the financial serenity we have worked so hard to achieve.

Barack Obama has demonstrated strong Islamic sympathies. He's played both sides of the fence in the Arab-Israeli conflict, fostering a sceptical distrust of the U.S. by both Israel and Palestine.

Barack Obama has held multiple citizenships. His loyalties are clearly, visibly divided.

How can a woman, the daughter of America, not be alarmed that such a duplicitous individual could be elected to the highest office of the Nation? These are unscrupulous vacillations presented only to impress the audience he is addressing at any given time. How cam a woman, whose heart is given to undivided loyalty, be insensitive to such deviance?

We are America. It is our future, our families, our homes at stake in this Presidential election. We must engage our full giftedness - our minds, our hearts, our passions, our moral virtue - to protect ourselves, and our integrity, individually and as a nation. Our moral superiority must be engaged to demand the best and the truest for this nation.

Voter's guide -

From Catholic Answers -

Voter’s Guide for Serious Catholics
Copyright © 2004, Catholic Answers.
All Rights Reserved.
HOW THIS VOTER’S GUIDE HELPS YOU
This voter’s guide helps you cast your vote in an informed manner consistent with Catholic moral teaching. It helps you avoid choosing candidates who endorse policies that cannot be reconciled with moral norms that used to be held by all Christians.
On most issues that come before voters or legislators, the task is selecting the most effective strategy among several morally good options. A Catholic can take one side or the other and not act contrary to the faith. Most matters do not have a "Catholic position."
But some issues concern "non-negotiable" moral principles that do not admit of exception or compromise. One’s position either accords with those principles or does not. No one endorsing the wrong side of these issues can be said to act in accord with the Church’s moral norms.
This voter’s guide identifies five issues involving "non-negotiable" moral values in current politics and helps you narrow down the list of acceptable candidates, whether they are running for national, state, or local offices.
You should avoid to the greatest extent possible voting for candidates who endorse or promote intrinsically evil policies. As far as possible, you should vote for those who promote policies in line with the moral law.
In many elections there are situations where all of the available candidates take morally unacceptable positions on one or more of the "non-negotiable" issues.
In such situations, a citizen will be called upon to make tough choices. In those cases, citizens must vote in the way that will most limit the harm that would be done by the available candidates.
In this guide we will look first at the principles that should be applied in clear-cut races where there is an unambiguously good moral choice. These same principles help lay the groundwork for what to do in situations that are more difficult.
Knowing the principles that are applied in ideal situations is useful when facing problematic ones, so as you review the principles you should keep in mind that they often must be applied in situations where the choice is more difficult. At the end of the guide we will offer practical advice about how to decide to cast your vote in those cases.
YOUR ROLE AS A CATHOLIC VOTER
Catholics have a moral obligation to promote the common good through the exercise of their voting privileges (cf. CCC 2240). It is not just civil authorities who have responsibility for a country. "Service of the common good require[s] citizens to fulfill their roles in the life of the political community" (CCC 2239). This means citizens should participate in the political process at the ballot box.
But voting cannot be arbitrary. "A well-formed Christian conscience does not permit one to vote for a political program or an individual law that contradicts the fundamental contents of faith and morals" (CPL 4). A citizen’s vote most often means voting for a candidate who will be the one directly voting on laws or programs. But being one step removed from law-making doesn’t let citizens off the hook, since morality requires that we avoid doing evil to the greatest extent possible, even indirectly.
Some things are always wrong, and no one may deliberately vote in favor of them. Legislators, who have a direct vote, may not support these evils in legislation or programs. Citizens support these evils indirectly if they vote in favor of candidates who propose to advance them. Thus, to the greatest extent possible, Catholics must avoid voting for any candidate who intends to support programs or laws that are intrinsically evil. When all of the candidates endorse morally harmful policies, citizens must vote in a way that will limit the harm likely to be done.
FIVE NON-NEGOTIABLES
These five current issues concern actions that are intrinsically evil and must never be promoted by the law. Intrinsically evil actions are those that fundamentally con flict with the moral law and can never be deliberately performed under any circumstances. It is a serious sin to deliberately endorse or promote any of these actions, and no candidate who really wants to advance the common good will support any action contrary to the non-negotiable principles involved in these issues.
1. Abortion
The Church teaches that, regarding a law permitting abortions, it is "never licit to obey it, or to take part in a propaganda campaign in favor of such a law, or to vote for it" (EV 73). Abortion is the intentional and direct killing of an innocent human being, and therefore it is a form of homicide.
The unborn child is always an innocent party, and no law may permit the taking of his life. Even when a child is conceived through rape or incest, the fault is not the child’s, who should not suffer death for others’ sins.
2. Euthanasia
Often disguised by the name "mercy killing," euthanasia is also a form of homicide. No person has a right to take his own life, and no one has the right to take the life of any innocent person.
In euthanasia, the ill or elderly are killed, by action or omission, out of a misplaced sense of compassion, but true compassion cannot include intentionally doing something intrinsically evil to another person (cf. EV 73).
3. Embryonic Stem Cell Research
Human embryos are human beings. "Respect for the dignity of the human being excludes all experimental manipulation or exploitation of the human embryo" (CRF 4b).
Recent scientific advances show that often medical treatments that researchers hope to develop from experimentation on embryonic stem cells can be developed by using adult stem cells instead. Adult stem cells can be obtained without doing harm to the adults from whom they come. Thus there is no valid medical argument in favor of using embryonic stem cells. And even if there were benefits to be had from such experiments, they would not justify destroying innocent embryonic humans.
4. Human Cloning
"Attempts . . . for obtaining a human being without any connection with sexuality through ‘twin fission,’ cloning, or parthenogenesis are to be considered contrary to the moral law, since they are in opposition to the dignity both of human procreation and of the conjugal union" (RHL I:6).
Human cloning also involves abortion because the "rejected" or "unsuccessful" embryonic clones are destroyed, yet each clone is a human being.
5. Homosexual "Marriage"
True marriage is the union of one man and one woman. Legal recognition of any other union as "marriage" undermines true marriage, and legal recognition of homosexual unions actually does homosexual persons a disfavor by encouraging them to per sist in what is an objectively immoral arrangement.
"When legislation in favor of the recognition of homosexual unions is proposed for the first time in a legislative assembly, the Catholic lawmaker has a moral duty to express his opposition clearly and publicly and to vote against it. To vote in favor of a law so harmful to the common good is gravely immoral" (UHP 10).
WHICH POLITICAL OFFICES SHOULD I WORRY ABOUT?
Laws are passed by the legislature, enforced by the executive branch, and interpreted by the judiciary. This means you should scrutinize any candidate for the legislature, anyone running for an executive office, and anyone nominated for the bench. This is true not only at the national level but also at the state and local levels.
True, the lesser the office, the less likely the office holder will take up certain issues. Your city council, for example, perhaps will never take up the issue of human cloning but may take up issues connected with abortion clinics. It is important that you evaluate candidates in light of each non-negotiable moral issue that will come before them in the offices they are seeking.
Few people achieve high office without first holding a lower office. Some people become congressional representatives, senators, or presidents without having been elected to a lesser office. But most representatives, senators, and presidents started their political careers at the local level. The same is true for state lawma kers. Most of them began on city councils and school boards and worked their way up the political ladder.
Tomorrow’s candidates for higher offices will come mainly from today’s candidates for lower offices. It is therefore prudent to apply comparable standards to local candidates. One should seek to elect to lower offices candidates who support Christian morality so that they will have a greater ability to be elected to higher offices where their moral stances may come directly into play.
HOW TO DETERMINE A CANDIDATE’S POSITION
1. The higher the office, the easier this will be. Congressional representatives and senators, for example, repeatedly have seen these issues come before them and so have taken positions on them. Often the same can be said at the state level. In either case, learning a candidate’s position can be as easy as reading newspaper or magazine articles, looking up his views on the Internet, or studying one of the many printed candidate surveys that are distributed at election time.
2. It is often more difficult to learn the views of candidates for local offices because few of them have an opportunity to consider legislation on such things as abortion, cloning, and the sanctity of marriage. But these candidates, being local, often can be contacted directly or have local campaign offices that will explain their positions.
3. If you cannot determine a candidate’s vie ws by other means, do not hesitate to write directly to the candidate, asking for his position on the issues covered above.
HOW NOT TO VOTE
1. Do not vote based just on your political party affiliation, your earlier voting habits, or your family’s voting tradition. Years ago, these may have been trustworthy ways to determine whom to vote for, but today they are often not reliable. You need to look at the stands each candidate takes. This means that you may end up casting votes for candidates from more than one party.
2. Do not cast your vote based on candidates’ appearance, personality, or "media savvy." Some attractive, engaging, and "sound-bite-capable" candidates endorse intrinsic evils, while other candidates, who may be plain-looking, uninspiring, and ill at ease in front of cameras, endorse legislation in accord with basic Christian principles.
3. Do not vote for candidates simply because they declare themselves to be Catholic. Unfortunately, many self-described Catholic candidates reject basic Catholic moral teaching.
4. Do not choose among candidates based on "What’s in it for me?" Make your decision based on which candidates seem most likely to promote the common good, even if you will not benefit directly or immediately from the legislation they propose.
5. Do not vote for candidates who are right on lesser issues but will vote wrongly on key mor al issues. One candidate may have a record of voting in line with Catholic values except for, say, euthanasia. Such a voting record is a clear signal that the candidate should not be chosen by a Catholic voter unless the other candidates have voting records even less in accord with these moral norms.
HOW TO VOTE
1. For each office, first determine how each candidate stands on each of the issues that will come before him and involve non-negotiable principles.
2. Rank the candidates according to how well their positions align with these non-negotiable moral principles.
3. Give preference to candidates who do not propose positions that contradict these principles.
4. Where every candidate endorses positions contrary to non-negotiable principles, choose the candidate likely to do the least harm. If several are equal, evaluate them based on their views on other, lesser issues.
5. Remember that your vote today may affect the offices a candidate later achieves.
WHEN THERE IS NO "ACCEPTABLE" CANDIDATE
In some political races, each candidate takes a wrong position on one or more issues involving non-negotiable moral principles. In such a case you may vote for the candidate who takes the fewest such positions or who seems least likely to be able to advance immoral legislation, or you may choose to vote for no one.
A vote cast in such a situation is not morally the same as a positive endorsement for candidates, laws, or programs that promote intrinsic evils: It is only tolerating a lesser evil to avoid an even greater evil. As Pope John Paul II indicated regarding a situation where it is not possible to overturn or completely defeat a law allowing abortion, "an elected official, whose absolute personal opposition to procured abortion was well known, could licitly support proposals aimed at limiting the harm done by such a law and at lessening its negative consequences at the level of general opinion and public morality"(EV 73; also CPL 4).
Catholics must strive to put in place candidates, laws, and political programs that are in full accord with non-negotiable moral values. Where a perfect candidate, law, or program is not on the table, we are to choose the best option, the one that promotes the greatest good and entails the least evil. Not voting may sometimes be the only moral course of action, but we must consider whether not voting actually promotes good and limits evil in a specific instance. The role of citizens and elected officials is to promote intrinsic moral values as much as possible today while continuing to work toward better candidates, laws, and programs in the future.
THE ROLE OF YOUR CONSCIENCE
Conscience is like an alarm. It warns you when you are about to do something that you know is wrong. It does not itself determine what is right or wrong. For your conscience to work20properly, it must be properly informed—that is, you must inform yourself about what is right and what is wrong. Only then will your conscience be a trusted guide.
Unfortunately, today many Catholics have not formed their consciences adequately regarding key moral issues. The result is that their consciences do not "sound off" at appropriate times, including on Election Day.
A well-formed conscience will never contradict Catholic moral teaching. For that reason, if you are unsure where your conscience is leading you when at the ballot box, place your trust in the unwavering moral teachings of the Church. (The Catechism of the Catholic Church is an excellent source of authentic moral teaching.)
WHEN YOU ARE DONE WITH THIS VOTER’S GUIDE
Please do not keep this voter’s guide to yourself. Read it, learn from it, and prepare your selection of candidates based on it. Then give this voter’s guide to a friend, and ask your friend to read it and pass it on to others. The more people who vote in accord with basic moral principles, the better off our country will be.
ABBREVIATIONS
CCC Catechism of the Catholic Church
CPL Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith, Doctrinal Notes on Some Questions regarding the Participation of Catholics in Political Life
CRF Pontifical Council for the Family, Charter of the Rights of the Family
E V John Paul II, Evangelium Vitae (The Gospel of Life)
RHL Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Instruction on Respect for Human Life in Its Origin and on the Dignity of Procreation
UHP Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Considerations regarding Proposals to Give Legal Recognition to Unions between Homosexual Persons