Tuesday, August 23, 2011

World Youth Day Numbers from Madrid 2011

Earthquake in Washington, DC and Joe Biden Said What?!

Inequality Grows As Poor, Ignorant Atheists Swamp US | Via Meadia

Article here

Christine O’Donnell says masturbation, not gay marriage led to CNN walk off

A few days ago, I posted an article about an interview featuring Christine O'Donnell, where the host was asking her about gay marriage. At the time I said her subsequent walk-off was inappropriate and that she should have stuck around to answer Piers Morgan's questions. However, I will have to slightly change my opinion on the matter after I have discovered new information.

Apparently Piers was totally fixated on asking Ms. O'Donnell every imaginable question about sexuality, and most of it involving sexual immorality. Christine was a good guest and kept answering all of his questions, even though she did not come on the show to exclusively talk about how much sexual immorality she condones. Anyway, after he relentlessly asked the same types of questions, she finally walked off the set.

Unfortunately, the media is portraying this as innocent Piers asking her one little question about gay marriage and Christine O'Donnell just getting up and walking away. However, there is a lot of back-story.

Article here from Examiner.com

New Doctor of the Church: San Juan de Ávila



This is really amazing news. It's a very rare occurrence that a new Doctor of the Church is named. "Doctor" comes from Latin and actually means "teacher". In the Catholic Church, a person is assigned the title "doctor" if their contributions in writing have been vast and influential.

The title first started to be used in 1298 when the original four doctors were named, Sts. Gregory the Great, Ambrose, Augstine, and Jerome. Their writings on doctrine and teaching were very influential and are often quoted today by churchmen.

Until 1970, the title belonged exclusively to men, but in that year two women, St. Catherine of Siena, and St. Teresa of Avila were given that title. In 1997, St. Térèse de Lisieux became the third woman so honored.

Now, fourteen years later, St. John of Avila will become the 34th such individual. Some reports have stated that the designation is not yet official but that Pope Benedict is simply intending it.

Friday, August 19, 2011

Lots Of Work To Do

Communion in the Hand

Who needs a Creator when you've got gravity? (OneNewsNow.com)

Article here

ABC's "What Would You Do?" Buy Me Condoms



This one is similar to the last I posted, but it's about condoms, and not Plan B. This time the actor is a young man. Of course most people buy the condoms for him or just say they're too busy or something. But then a Catholic emerges and defends the teaching of the Church. Happily, the program presents this as a good thing, even if with a tinge of humour. Fast forward to around 5:30 to get to the good one.

ABC's "What Would You Do?" Buy Me Plan B

What would you do is unfortunately getting worse... As you probably know it's a show to catch on camera real people's reactions to various controversial situations.

Anyway this one is about an abortifacient known as Plan B. Yet this fact about Plan B is not mentioned. Almost everyone "helps" the girl get Plan B from the pharmacist. Two people object, but it's not for moral reasons.

The whole story makes Plan B seem like a great thing and the people who get it for the girl are depicted as loving and caring individuals. That may be their motivation, but what they are objectively doing is sinful. They are providing the young girl with a way to abort the embryo in her body, if there is one, and that is murder.

Thursday, August 18, 2011

Catholic News Roundup 08-18

Shut up, Socialists! 08-18

Put people ahead of profits, Pope says



Over the past several months, I have been learning more about economic theory, and have been especially influenced by Milton Friedman and Thomas Sowell. They are economists who are very concerned about helping the poor and improving the lot of ordinary people. So it may surprise you to know that they advocate free market capitalism and the end to artificial barriers in trade.

I have not heard the pope speak directly, but his words are being widely reported. The pope allegedly condemned the profit-at-all-costs mentality and in fact cited it as a cause for the economic woes experienced in Spain. However, I must disagree with this stance. No system to our knowledge has done more to help the low person on the totem pole than capitalism. All other systems have failed the poor. On the other extreme, we have communism, where millions of poor people perished, with so much waste and mismanagement.

On the other hand, we see the effects of capitalism in Hong Kong, a desperately poor rock at the tip of China, once overwhelmed by poverty. The British took over and allowed free-market capitalism to reign free. The government did not offer support of benefits, just enforced basic laws. The result: the average person gained in wealth, and some individuals became extraordinarily wealthy.

The problem in Spain is not capitalism, but the leftist policies that have been adopted. In 1996, José María Aznar became Prime Minister of Spain. He enacted many conservative economic policies. The unemployment rate plummeted to 7.6% (compared to today's 20%).

Aznar moved to privatize many previously government-owned entities to increase efficiency.

Aznar also faced the powerful civil servant unions and froze their wages. This of course sparked their ire and protests ensued. But it was a good economic policy. Less government is the key.

The prime minister also attempted to help people by ending the tax-payed subsidies on the coal industry in the country. This would allow cheaper fuel to enter into the market and thus people would need to spend less on it. This would increase the real value of their money. Unfortunately the coal mining companies dramatically protested this and blocked off all the highways. This effectively ended the debate, but the people were all worse off for it, except maybe the coal miners.

Later, the government tried to end farming subsidies, which would benefit everyone except farmers in the short term. Also, they tried to adjust the welfare system so that it would be harder for recipient to turn down jobs. These reforms were met with violent protest and thus never got off the ground.

The government also attempted to pass legislation that would allow more choice in schools and would be based on merit, etc. People again reacted against this proposal, as they believed it might lead to some arbitrary "inequality".

There are so many socialist problems happening in Spain at the moment. Unions are far too powerful and there is too much government intervention. The problem is not with free-market capitalism. A free market system would allow people to get the best prices for products and services, not pay artificially high rates. Exports would increase and unemployment would go down. People would be better educated because they would have free choice in schools, and thus increase the wage they could earn.

It seems the only reason Spain is in the economic mess that it is is because of its socialistic economic policies.

Groundbreaking series on Catholicism to air on PBS this fall

Article from Catholic News Agency (CNA)

I can`t wait!! I`ve watched many Fr. Barron YouTube clips over the past couple of years. This amazing achievement is a 10 part series, which will air on PBS. It`s also available for purchase, where you can get a study guide and more.

The website for the series is http://www.catholicismseries.com/

Nuclear units still best for children

Article in the Herald Sun

So apparently there are some sensible Aussies left. Why do I say this? Well, I have seen a lot of news stories coming from the land down under concerning IVF and other immoralities, and they seem to have pushed quite far in this frontier. Now a prominent politician is having a baby which was achieved through a number of immoral actions. The baby is as innocent as any baby, but the way in which this woman went about it is very immoral, objectively speaking.

But this article presents a good defense to traditional thought on marriage and some good reasons why it ought to only ever be between a man and a woman.

Christine O'Donnell Walks Off Piers Morgan Interview

First of all, I didn`t realize Christine O`Donnell was Catholic, so that`s good anyway. But this interview is just terrible. Piers Morgan is just asking her a question which deals with a controversial subject, namely gay marriage. But for some reason, Michelle refuses to say anything about it, and then walks off stage.

If you are going to have a position about proper morals on issues such as marriage, sex, etc. you must have the ability to enunciate them properly. To just walk off a talk show because the host asks a question is a very bad idea. All it ends up doing is making her seem as though she has no idea what she`s talking about. It`s as though her position on gay marriage has no basis whatsoever.

People, especially politicians, have a duty to be informed about major political issues. In general, if you are an advocate of something, you should at least have some ability to present or defend it.

Here`s the video:

Protect humans, not just animals, bishop in Congo urges

Article from Catholic Culture

Humans must always come before animals in the order or importance. If a wild animal is a threat, it must be destroyed. Obviously, God created animals and all of nature, but they do not occupy the same place of importance as each human being with an immortal soul. This article is about monkeys severely attacking some workers in Congo, but they are protected species. This could be another example of Western interference, forcing Congo to recognize this animal as endangered, and then disallowing legitimate protection of humans. Any person is more valuable than even the last remaining one of these monkeys.

New York Times Abortion Story Shows How IVF Not About Children | LifeNews.com

Article from LifeNews.com

Friday, August 12, 2011

Milton Friedman - Population and Ecology

Even Milton Friedman, the Nobel prize winning economist with no stake in religion, does not believe in the overpopulation myth, and this was back in the 70s when people were having more babies than they are now.

Sunday, August 07, 2011

Craziness has reached a new high

So apparently not satisfied at their current reputation as being crazy, Planned Parenthood has decided to take things a step further and celebrate the forced insurance policy coverage of contraception with Bollywood dancers. I should correct myself, only 2 or 3 of the 25 person dancing troupe are Indian, the rest look like white feminists.

So now everyone has to pay for everyone else's birth control, no matter what. Other stuff, like medically necessary stuff, are not covered, but birth control is. Using birth control is morally wrong. For those who do not care about sexual morality, one good reason why it's immoral is that you are curtailing or frustrating a normal, healthy part of the body and that's self-abuse. A couple engaging in contracepting sex is withholding their sexuality from their partner. That union is not really a union, but almost just mutual masturbation.

Get real people, Margaret Sanger was an avowed eugenicist who considered the black population a problem that had to be solved by birth control. But since everyone started using it, all the stuff it was supposed to make better just got much much worse.

I hope Margaret Sanger went to heaven when she died, but people should know about history and realize what Planned Parenthood stands for.

Here's the article, and make sure to check out some of the comments. Some of the ones I read were really funny.

Planned Parenthood Goes Bollywood to Celebrate New Birth Control Guidelines - National - The Atlantic Wire

Saturday, August 06, 2011

Groups: Obama Admin Decision Violates Catholic Conscience Rights | LifeNews.com

Article

Religious liberty & the case against gay 'marriage'

This guy's Baptist, but I think it's appropriate for Catholic audiences. He makes some really awesome points. Those who are pushing a brand-new definition of marriage that isn't really valid anyway are not simply out for equally, they want complete domination. They want everyone to just shut up and not express their opinion and those who do are attacked in various ways.

Baptist Press - FIRST-PERSON: Religious liberty & the case against gay 'marriage' - News with a Christian Perspective

Good book for Catholics who consider themselves homosexual

New Release Simplifies Catholic Church's Views on Homosexuality; Book by James B. Lloyd | Benzinga.com

Mad scientists create sperm from stem cells

Scientists that would make Frankenstein blush have created sperm cells using stem cells in mice. I can't really explain the science, but basically they want to make sperm out of other cells. Of course, this is absolutely insane and immoral, but as usual, we will defer to the scientific community to see if it's ok to do this, even though science has absolutely no moral character and is utterly incapable of telling the morality of an action.

As usual, the general populace are like a frog in gradually heating water. First it was contraception, then in-vitro fertilization, then surrogacy, and it just keeps on going on. We have sperm banks and people donate eggs. Kids don't even know their parents and they are the real losers in all of this.

It's all just so sad.

Yet another attack on religious freedom

Contraception mandate tramples religious freedom, US bishops say :: Catholic News Agency (CNA)