Thursday, December 29, 2011

Some thoughts on our Midnight Mass this year

I just wanted to take a few minutes to give my thoughts on Midnight Mass this year at St. Teresa's. There were 3, but I went to the one at 8pm. We got in through the side door around 7pm. There were few people there, but when they opened the doors, people swarmed in like it was a boxing day sale!

It was great to see so many people around, many of whom only show up to Mass once or twice a year. Fr. Tony at the beginning explained that since Advent of this year, we've been using a new translation for the Mass and people should look at the cue cards provided to say the right things. Most people were caught off guard when we read the new translations. There was also a fair bit of confusion over when to kneel and at one point my family and I were the only only people in our "area" doing so.

The Mass had some very nice music, and was celebrated well by Fr. Bidgood. (Wow, that's weird, just as I'm typing this I heard what sounded to be church music coming from my computer, but I cannot ascertain the source and it's gone now. Anyway, back to the blog post). We actually read out the entire Nicene Creed, which is a little unusual at our parish. I then proceeded to take up the collection from a corner of the church. It was extraordinary how much money people gave. My basket was overflowing and people were dropping in twenties all over the place. It was great.

I did, though, have some criticisms. First of all, several times during Mass people applauded. A couple of times it was for the performances by the choir, another time was when the priest specifically recognized certain people or groups. This violates the intention of the Mass. The Mass is not about a "performance" and our focus should not be on the choir no matter how good they are. Yes, they add to the celebration of the Eucharist, but they are not the focal point of it.

As Cardinal Ratzinger said:

"Wherever applause breaks out in the liturgy because of some human achievement, it is a sure sign that the essence of liturgy has totally disappeared and been replaced by a kind of religious entertainment. " (Spirit of the Liturgy p. 198)

I think part of the blame lies with the parishioners who decide to clap, especially weekly churchgoers. They should know the difference. But a lot of the responsibility lies with how the Mass is set up. It's hard not to expect applause if a solo piece is performed, after which there is a period of silence. You can rest assured that in that circumstance, applause will break out.

Another issue I had was the choir director invited children to sit in the sanctuary during the Mass to sing a Christmas song. Again, we are taking the focus away from Christ and his sacrifice and placing it on children singing a song. I have no problem with children singing, but there is a proper time and place for everything. People may think I am being a big scrooge, but they wouldn't say that if they understood the Mass. If someone said they didn't want a special children's choir singing at a funeral, would they be a scrooge? The focus of the Mass should always be on Jesus Christ and his sacrifice.

I guess these things were my main concern. The priest also plays into these ideas when, at the end of the Mass, he specifically points out the efforts of the choir and asks everyone to thank them. This is before the Mass is officially ended. An analogy I thought of to describe this is to imagine being at the crucifixion of Christ and then instead of focusing on Christ and the great sacrifice he is making, people are asked to focus on someone playing a musical instrument in the background.

I finished the preceding sentence after I wrote what was before that. In between those two times, I heard someone, I think on Catholic Answers Live, making a similar analogy. He asked if you would clap at the crucifixion of Christ. He asked how people reacted to Jesus, once they knew he was the Son of God. He said they would fall on their face or kneel before him. It was not a party, especially at the crucifixion.

Even Christmas Eve Mass is about Christ's sacrifice on the cross to save humanity from our sins so that we can be with God in the next life. Every day has a different feast, but they are all the sacrifice of the Mass.

Overall there were many great things about this Mass, but I think we sometimes need to remember that Mass is not a form of entertainment, but a very solemn and holy time to focus on Jesus.

Monday, December 26, 2011

Nigeria Christmas Day Church Bombings - radical Muslim sect has claimed ...

This is absolutely atrocious. One of several bombings of churches on CHRISTMAS DAY this year. Those responsible claim they want to enact Sharia law throughout all of Nigeria. How do they think this will further their aim? Is killing Christians part of Sharia law? What is wrong with these people?

I wonder if someone can answer this for me. These people say they want to implement Sharia law, which is the Islamic legal system. They seem rather concerned with having a particular legal system. In terms of Sharia, you would think they would be "law-abiding citizens". So the question is, how does this fit into their law? If these people are totally focused on having a certain legal system, it would not be logical that they would be violating that very same legal system in order to achieve it... So the question is, how can they reconcile the two?

Apparently this same sort of thing happened last year.

One of the priests at my church, Fr. Gabriel is from Nigeria. It must be so difficult for Christians from that area.



Monday, December 05, 2011

Dramatic Supreme Court Trial on Bill Whatcott

Wow, there is a lot of drama happening in Canada's Supreme Court as Bill Whatcott is tried for "hate speech". This Supreme Court decision will determine the fate of hate speech laws in Canada. The courtroom discussions are very frank, especially thanks to Bill's lawyer.

It’s not like they didn’t hear the truth on homosexuality: Waiting on the Supreme Court (Part 2) | LifeSiteNews.com:

'via Blog this'

Friday, December 02, 2011

Crystal Cathedral now owned by Catholic Church

So I just found out that last night the Crystal Cathedral had to declare bankruptcy and was subsequently acquired by the Catholic diocese of Orange, California. The Vatican has formally approved the $57.5 million transaction.

The Church seats 2,736 people and was designed by Philip Johnson. It was established at the behest of Reverend Robert Schuller, who has been the main pastor there for decades.

The Catholic Diocese struck a deal with Robert Schuller's organization to allow him to lease the church for 3 years, after which they will move to a smaller Catholic church in the area, and the Catholic community will take over this large edifice.

Interestingly, the currently named "cathedral" is a misnomer since no bishop has his "cathedra", or chair, there. But after three years, it will indeed become a cathedral once the Catholic bishop officially relocates. Was this foreshadowing?

Apparently there has been substantial growth in the Catholic community of that area which is why they require this large church. I'm glad to see this type of growth.

Friday, November 25, 2011

Now that it's sports, the tables have turned

I was driving home not long ago when I heard Jian Gomeshi on his program Q on CBC Radio speaking with journalist Jane Leavy, from the Washington Post. She wrote an article in which she tries to sympathize with Mike McQueary, a wide receiver for the team, who witnessed Jerry Sandusky allegedly rape a 10-year-old boy. Mike told two school officials and Joe Paterno about the incident but did not contact the police or any other law enforcement agent.

Jane Leavy then wrote an article exploring all the possible psychological issues a person faces in these situations and says he is perhaps not all that blameworthy.

Her article takes the form of a letter to Mike McQueary, beginning with the following:

Dear Mike,

We don't know each other and I doubt we will ever meet, though I'm available if you want to talk.

She goes on to explain away the action or inaction of this man.

The reason I am writing this is not to say she wasn't hard enough on Mike. I'm writing to show the hypocrisy in the world of journalism. No one ever wrote a letter saying they understand the actions of the handful of bishops who did not report the activities of a small number of priests to the authorities. These bishops were lambasted for not going to the police. In fact, people have condemned the entire church, and have tried to implicate the Holy Father himself.

I have seen no attempt in all the years since the Catholic sex abuse story broke to try to explain the actions of the bishops from everyday journalists. This is an amazing double standard.

And this is not the only case of childhood sexual assault to be found in the sports sector. More and more cases emerge all the time of sexual abuse of minors by hockey coaches. So it's not an isolated incident.

But even though these abuse cases seem widespread in sports, just as much or more than in the Catholic Church, I don't hear anyone say the entire NCAA or NFL or NHL are guilty of these crimes. I don't see multi-million or billion dollar lawsuits emerging. I certainly don't hear anyone say marriage must be the cause for the actions of this minority of sports leaders.

One thing about all these stories is that it is emerging that sexual abuse does not only happen in the Catholic Church, it happens anywhere where there are children. That is becoming very clear, and in some areas it's far worse than in the Church. Nowadays the Church is the safest place for kids anywhere. For example, out of 40,000 priests in the US in 2008, there were only 6 accusations of sexual impropriety. That's accusations, not convictions.

If this lady wants to write an article which attempts to understand the actions or inactions of this sports player, that's fine, I don't have a problem with that. My main problem is that the Catholic Church is portrayed as uniquely bad, and cut absolutely no slack. Rather the entire Church is implicated and hardly a journalist anywhere tries to correct that misperception. How about less bias?

Monday, November 14, 2011

Dr. Scott Hahn at Franciscan University of Steubenville

Amazing video by Dr. Scott Hahn explaining Mass. He is such a great speaker. I urge you to listen to even the first ten minutes of this presentation. You won't regret it.

Friday, November 11, 2011

Seven Deadly Sins: Pride - History Channel - WATCH

There's a lot of iffy stuff in this documentary about Pride, but it's fun to watch and actually does contain some truth. So check it out.





USCCB marriage advisor resigns after suggesting devil plays role in homosexuality

First of all, I don't know of any evidence that homosexuality is genetic. But what if some people were predisposed to it, and they were born like it. Would that justify homosexual actions or even gay marriage? I would say no. Within Catholic teaching, something doesn't automatically become acceptable as long as someone has a "natural" desire for it. Adultery is wrong. But you could argue that a man is naturally predisposed to want to have sex with a woman who is not his wife. Should we then be accepting of this because it's "natural"?

Just imagine a man who cheats on his wife reassuring her by saying "This is just who I am. It's natural, I was born this way! God wouldn't have created me this way if he didn't want me to act on it!" I doubt his wife would be very convinced.

But the same argument could be made for all kinds of behavior. A serial killer could argue he was "born that way", that he didn't choose to be a killer, but it's just how God made him. Or a pedophile. He could also argue that's how God made him, and then rhetorically ask "if God didn't want me to act on my pedophilia, why would he create me like this?"

I'll probably get a bunch of comments blasting me for comparing homosexual actions to murder, but all I can say to this is that you are missing the point. The point I'm trying to make is that just because we find a "natural" desire to do something, that doesn't automatically legitimize it.

Article here by LifeSiteNews.com

Pope ranks 7th on Forbes 2011 Most Powerful List

Thursday, November 10, 2011

Wednesday, November 09, 2011

IVF vs. C-section

Ok, so I wrote a comment on that last video on Youtube outlining my objection to IVF. Another user responded to my comment by asking what the difference between IVF and a C-section is. I didn't fully know how to answer his question, so I decided to see if by chance Catholic Answers Live had an appropriate guest on the show to answer my query. Amazingly, Fr. Tad Pacholczyk was there and was the perfect guy to ask.

Here is the response I received from him:



Then I typed in Fr. Tad's name into Google, and the second result that appeared was Fr. Tad talking about IVF and the Catholic position on it. That video can be found here:

Saturday, November 05, 2011

Alison Motluk: A Primer on Assisted Reproductive Technology

This clip talks about the terribly immoral act of IVF. Most of the time embryos are destroyed. Children have the right to be conceived in the loving embrace of their parents and not at the hands of a lab technician in a petri dish in a sterile laboratory. Not only that, some of these innocent children never discover their real parents. What a sad story. A moral country would ban such a practice.

Unfortunately, besides briefly saying the word "moral", there is no discussion of the morality of this act. Truly horrible.

Friday, November 04, 2011

A Very DISGUSTING Harold and Kumar Christmas

Thank goodness for movie reviews. The only way I would suggest going to Harold and Kumar Christmas Movie would be if you were in immediate need of an emetic. The kind of absolute filth you will find in this film is staggering. But don't worry, they make sure only to mock Christians, and mostly Catholics. That's right, they wouldn't dare criticize any other faith, only society's perennial whipping boy, the Christians.

If the foul language and disgusting jokes aren't enough to make you upset, the inappropriate sexual references to Catholics priests and nuns will surely put you over the edge. From the reviews, this movie seems to have no redemptive quality to it whatsoever, just a roller coaster ride of gag-inducing humorless schtick that's only funny through its sheer shock value.

Apparently you can say whatever you like about Catholics and get away with it in Canada. How many human rights cases will emerge because of this work of depravity? None of course. But I don't have a problem with that. I don't think there should even be a Human Rights Tribunal. The whole idea is stupid. All I'm saying is there is complete hypocrisy here. Criticize any other group like this and you would be in deep "descriptor this movie". You'd be lucky if this movie got a PG rating in Canada. Probably go in as G. Teachers will probably bring their students to see it.

For some Christian reviews of this production that somehow passes as a movie, please visit this site.

Tuesday, November 01, 2011

Overpopulation on Night Line

This is an audio clip of me on VOCM Night Line speaking about the 7 Billionth child being born

Monday, October 31, 2011

Scary CBC commenters solution to so-called "overpopulation problem"

As the world celebrates the birth of the 7 billionth person, others are not so happy. The population extremists, who have existed since Malthus in the 18th and early 19th century when the population was only 1 billion, are sounding the alarm on our impending doom unless we enact freedom-destroying legislation to curb the growth of the human disease, uh, I mean population.

As you may rightfully point out, not everyone who thinks the Earth is overpopulated has bad intentions. Some genuinely believe we are in a crash course to a population-caused disaster. Some say we are already there. But some of the comments I read on CBC are rather frightening. Perhaps even more frightening is that many of them have high approval ratings from other readers. Here are just a few:

12 out of 16 agreed with this statement:
Yes we should care, but it's not the West's fault. It's the East's. They need to stop having so many damned kids. Countries with over 1 BILLION people just in the one country? That's insane.

15 out of 22 agreed with this statement:
This is just plain scary! Which brings up the question, "why are we here?" We are just destructive, selfish, wasteful creatures, and have done absolutely nothing good for this planet.


This one is particularly scary. 14 out of 23 people gave this one a "thumbs up":
I'm sure there will be a plague in Asia or Africa sometime in the next 50 years that will bring the population back in check.

A majority, 7 out of 12, even agreed with this callous statement:
Luckily global warming will help reduce those numbers.

34 out of 40 assented to this comment:
global warming and the next ice age will sort out the population problem

36 out of 66 people agreed with this comment:
As long as people believe it is somehow a "right" to have children - regardless if you can feed, shelter and clothe them - the Earth is doomed.

A rebuttal to these comments and those who support them could be that often people will indicate they like a statement but if they don't like it, they will simply ignore it. However, I found the majority of people gave a thumbs down to the following comments:

5 out of 7 people disliked this comment:
Steven W. Mosher is an internationally recognized authority on China and population issues, as well as an acclaimed author, speaker. He has worked tirelessly since 1979 to fight coercive population control programs and has helped hundreds of thousands of women and families worldwide over the years.


I find it scary that there is a group of people who have such a callous disregard for human life and see it only as a disease on the planet. Some people seem to think that certain others do not have a "right" to reproduce. Let's try to maintain human dignity and remember that everyone has a right to be here.

Burgeoning Population Now is Being Termed a Graver Threat to Human Society than Nuclear Bombs

So said an article published in the October 26th, 1965 edition of the Free Lance-Star, and written by Associated Press Science Writer Alton Blakeslee, when the Earth had only reached 3 billion people. Ever since human population has been calculated, there have been alarmists who have insisted that unless massive, centralized action is taken worldwide, the human race was bound to destroy itself.

It doesn't seem to matter how many people there actually are, the threat always concerns some inexact time in the future when the proverbial excrement hits the fan. I think people see it like everyone in the world is in a huge Boston Marathon, just running the race, not realizing there is a sheer cliff just up ahead. The population controllers feel it is their duty to informs these individuals of their impending doom and to enact draconian laws which often violate human rights to "save the masses".

These predictions have been made since Thomas Malthus, a late 18th, and early 19th century scholar who predicted dire consequences for the earth because food production increases at a lower rate than population growth. This was back when the population was only 1 billion, compared to our current 7 billion.

What people seem to forget is that humans are very adaptable. If a particular resource runs dry, we develop new ones. If we run out of oil, there are dozens of other technologies emerging. Who could have known 200 years ago that Uranium could be used to produce energy? Or even oil for that matter. Scientists have shown that there is currently enough food to feed more people than the entire population of the Earth. A lot of food is even diverted away from food, like corn, which is often used as biofuel.

There are many fallacies about the population. In the next article, I will talk about some of the scary comments people have made about their "solutions" to these problems and how others have reacted to these solutions.

Welcome, baby 7 billion

Article from LifeSiteNews.com

Monday, October 24, 2011

Libyan Christians – All Foreigners: Leader Says Sharia Law is Law of Libya: What Do You Know About Noah’s Grandfather? | Maggie's Notebook

According to the following article, "Libya is an overwhelmingly Muslim country, and missionary activity is not allowed, though clergy say the regime has respected Christians’ freedom of worship."

How will this change now that Libya has said the main source of their new legal code is Sharia Law?

Libyan Christians – All Foreigners: Leader Says Sharia Law is Law of Libya: What Do You Know About Noah’s Grandfather? | Maggie's Notebook

The great population debate: too many carbon footprints?

I've watched about half of this video so far. It's around an hour. I think it's important for Catholics to watch who take their faith seriously, even though it's not a religious video. The video concerns the idea of overpopulation, and there is a debate between two men in their respective fields.

The first man, in my opinion, is rather annoying. He represents a group which believes people are having too many children and that the Earth is overpopulated. He believes in using contraception to reduce the population of the planet. But the thing that struck me about him is his enormous arrogance. He speaks about those who do not believe in overpopulation as if they are very stupid. He talks down to anyone who disagrees with him. In fact, in one part he refers to "rednecks". This all comes back to a form of elitism, where certain people feel they must tell others what to do and use the government to back them up, or else those people will not know. He thinks he can plan out the whole planet.

And something else he says is actually kind of shocking. Without any prompting whatsoever, he mocks the idea of salvation and God. I have no idea why he tried to bring religion into the debate, but he does. Also, he seems extremely critical of the pope.

Feel free to skip the first guy. He does seem rather intelligent, but you can strongly sense what the second man calls "misanthropy". Basically, the population control people seem to view human beings as viruses of the Earth.

Anyway, the second guy who speaks does present some very good arguments. He is great to listen and will provide ammo to anyone debating against the myth of overpopulation.

Wednesday, October 19, 2011

Occupy Rome Protesters destroy Statue of the Virgin Mary

I saw a video today which was very disturbing. I don't want to post it here because it is rather offensive, and I think a lot of people would prefer not to see it. Basically in the video, a protester in Occupy Rome finds a large status of Our Lady, takes it out to the street, lifts it up, and the smashes it onto the ground. It is basically destroyed or at least badly damaged. Some people then kick it or do other actions. This is absolutely deplorable and very sad. Let's say a special prayer of atonement.

Monday, October 17, 2011

Canadian Anti-Catholic Bigotry Kills African Women | Blogs | NCRegister.com

Canadian Anti-Catholic Bigotry Kills African Women | Blogs | NCRegister.com

This is another article about Dr. Walley and his crusade to save women's lives. He is in charge of MaterCare, an international organization whose goal is to prevent the deaths of women during childbirth. Unfortunately, the so-called Conservative government refuses to fund MaterCare because it does not provide abortion and contraception, which as Dr. Walley points out, is very irrelevant when it comes to maternal deaths.

Other organizations are being sponsored by the government, which is really our hard-earned taxpayer dollars. These include abortion-loving organizations like Planned Parenthood. Apparently it's okay to want to save the life of women as long as you're also open to killing babies.

My solution to this problem is not to fund MaterCare with taxpayer dollars, but rather to defund all other institutions, give us back our tax money and let people decide for themselves who they want to sponsor. It's sickening to think that tax money goes to slaughtering babies, but a pro-life organization is summarily dismissed even though there are plenty of pro-lifers out there.

For anyone in doubt, think about this: right now we have a Conservative government at least in name. All the other parties are more liberal and even more in favor of abortion and contraception. But even with this government, we are forced to pay for abortion. There isn't a snowball's chance in hell that the Canadian Government will ever use its power to provide funding to pro-life organizations. The best course of action is to reduce the government. There is a huge movement toward this in the United States, but we are a little behind the times in Canada. We still see the government as our maternal care-giver. But remember, once the government has the power, it can use it for good or evil. Give the power back to the people!

Thursday, October 13, 2011

Pray for Copts

Coptic Christians are being slaughtered in Egypt. It's a very sad situation. Now that the dictator, Hosni Mubarak is gone, these Christians have no protection from the violent mobs and military. First, their churches were being destroyed by the violent mobs, then while they were peacefully protesting, the military opened fire on them killing 26 people, and injuring over 200 more. It's truly shocking and terrible. I can't believe this is happening.

Monday, October 10, 2011

Taxation Immorality

Michael is picking up on the idea I've been talking about in my blog, but from a somewhat different angle.

Sunday, October 09, 2011

Mention of Dr. Walley from Newfoundland

This is Catholic News Roundup, a service of RealCatholicTV. In this episode, they mention Canada and Newfoundlander Dr. Walley, who is the founder of MaterCare. Sadly, but unfortunately not surprisingly, Canada is not going to fund a pro-life organization, which provides maternal care for mothers giving birth.

I believe the reason is that the organization does not provide abortion or contraception, but as Dr. Walley pointed out, women who are about to give birth do not require any of those things.

It's kind of cool that Dr. Walley is mentioned, but too bad it has to be in this way.

Thursday, October 06, 2011

Archbishop Currie and Poverty

The Archbishop of St. John's, Martin Currie, a man whom I respect greatly, has taken on the laudable task of reducing poverty in our province. It's interesting that I'm writing this article now because just yesterday I wrote a similar one, but this morning I was made aware of a religious coalition in the province which aims to reduce poverty, of which Archbishop Currie is a member. Unfortunately, I think he may be barking up the wrong tree when it comes to solutions.

The archbishop is a member of the multi-religion group called "Religious Social Action Committee". Its stated goal is to reduce poverty, but I'm afraid its solutions are off-base and need to be seriously re-evaluated. They basically come at poverty from the tired old perspective of the NDP and other socialist groups which claim the reason people are poor is because other people are far too rich, that we need to "spread the wealth around". That's essentially the idea behind communism. On the surface, it sounds like a fantastic idea, but history, and economics shows it is intellectually bankrupt.

One of the big themes these people constantly harp on is the "growing gap between rich and poor". At first, that sounds fine, but when you scratch the surface a little, you realize it is somewhat illogical. If the average poor person at Time 1 has $10,000 per year and the average rich person has $100,000, but then at Time 2, the average poor person has $20,000 per year and the average rich person has $500,000, then the gap between rich and poor has grown substantially. But the poor are far better off than before. The rhetoric of the gap between rich and poor is thus invalid. It has gone from concern for the poor to envy or hatred toward the rich. I have not accumulated too many statistics, but in our province, the median income (which counters the effects of outliers like very rich people) shows an increase in income from $19,400 per year in 2005 to $24,550 in 2009, for the median person, which means your typical Joe. If the rich are indeed getting richer in Newfoundland, it seems so are the "poor".

What this underlies is a misunderstanding of wealth? Most people conceive of wealth as a zero-sum game, where if one person gains, someone else loses. So if a person becomes a millionaire, that means lots of people lost that potential money. But this is demonstrably false. 100 years ago, there was far more poverty than now, and also far fewer millionaires, even after accounting for inflation. But everyone rose in wealth. That's because wealth is created. As a good example I heard one time, most people conceive of wealth as a pie, where if one person receives a larger piece, everyone else must make do with a smaller piece. But in fact, new pies are created all the time, and real wealth is created.

So what solution does the Religious Social Action Committee suggest for reducing poverty? Of course, they propose the old canard of raising taxes on the people and companies who have "too much" money. They have decided, by the way, that too much money is people making more than $250,000. They say they should get a higher tax rate and people making more than $500,000 should get an additional surtax on top of that. Sounds lovely, but doing this will probably not result in the intended effect. Thomas Sowell, a preeminent economist, notes that tax rate and tax revenue are two different things and often they are negatively correlated. He points out that the Bush tax cuts that everyone is up in arms about actually increased tax revenue in the country. The same with the Reagan tax cuts and the Kennedy tax cuts.

The knee-jerk reaction to "tax the rich" is faulty on other levels as well. Many companies, such as those offering certain services, or even manufacturers, etc are not geographically bound. They set up shop in favorable business environments. If Newfoundland raises taxes, these companies will decide to locate elsewhere and thousands of jobs could be lost. The key to economic success is increased productivity. By pushing away large companies, the province is reducing the potential of people to earn money. Also, because productivity is the key to economic success both individually and for society as a whole, simply redistributing wealth will not add any value. What we need is an influx of money, not redistribution.

The problem with this anti-poverty group is that they are unable to see that what they are advocating is exactly what got us here in the first place. Too much government is the problem, and they just want more government. Political parties are all too willing to use this point of view to their advantage. Even the theoretically more fiscally conservative group, the PCs, never speak about the role of government or how much government is necessary, but instead focus on what the government will do for "you". How it will spend more and more money on countless programs. The problem with government programs is that they are awash in bureaucracy and red-tape. They are inefficient and there is no incentive or mechanism to improve.

So, let's get back to basics. What makes a company successful? A company is successful if it provides products or services more people want and creates more value. The executives who create companies that do this best are also compensated the best. Bill Gates became a billionaire by providing billions of people with technology that improved their lives. No one forced anyone to buy any of Microsoft's products. People willingly chose to buy them, and because Mr. Gates satisfied more people, he received remuneration for that. By doing what he did, he created tens of thousands of jobs, and by increasing productivity, he increased the wealth of the entire country.

Many executives receive very high salaries, but that is because they are creating many multiples of that in value for the company. If they are not creating value for consumers, they don't earn as much money. We should be attracting these people who know how to create business and increase wealth. By doing so, we can employ more people and improve their lives. Why then, is there a knee-jerk reaction to tax them to the hilt which will ultimately force them out?

But let's stop for a second and ask what the logical conclusion of this anti-poverty group would be. They want everyone to earn the same income. They want huge government control, high taxation, etc. This is basically the definition of socialism. So we are really comparing socialism and capitalism. It would be interesting to see what would happen if half the country ran on socialist concepts and the other half ran on capitalist concepts. This would be a good experiment. Fortunately, it has already been done! After World War II, Germany was divided into East and West, Socialist and Capitalist. The results are quite obvious. While East Germans were starving, and risking their lives to escape to West Germany, West Germans were far more successful, and their economy improved dramatically. How many people each year put build a rickety boat and risk their lives to escape the capitalism of Florida to enter the socialism of Cuba? None. But the route the other way is quite busy.

As Nobel Prize Winning Economist Milton Friedman once said, "So that the record of history is absolutely crystal clear. That there is no alternative way, so far discovered, of improving the lot of the ordinary people that can hold a candle to the productive activities that are unleashed by a free enterprise system."

Let's remember that as we try to fight poverty.

Catholics and Political Parties

Ok, as usual I guess, this isn't really a scientifically researched document, but I think it's something that needs to be said.

Catholics usually try to do the right thing. So they can get confused by political rhetoric. Many are falsely led to believe if they care about the poor and less fortunate, they have to support the NDP. Little do they realize the NDP is a strong advocate for most of the moral issues Catholics must object to, including abortion, contraception, embryonic stem cell research, gay marriage, etc. It's what Catholics Answers calls the non-negotiables.

But some Catholics support the NDP because of its declaration that it will help the poor and less fortunate, and tax the greedy corporations to pay for all the social programs. I say, don't be fooled.

Do some research and you will find that you do not have to compromise between morals and helping the poor. In fact, more right-wing parties are generally better for both.

I came to realize that when government gets involved, it doesn't help the poor in the long run or in any real way, but very clearly makes things worse. The list of things is almost innumerable. Suffice it to say more freedom means more prosperity for everyone, and conversely, more government control usually makes everyone worse off.

For example, we spend so much on education in this province, but we don't consider ways of improving it or getting more bang for our buck. The way it is now, the government have a complete monopoly on education. Because of this, there is no real mechanism for improvement. If the schools are terrible or wasteful or doing a terrible job, they continue to be funded. School choice would improve things.

Minimum wage sounds wonderful, but it actually prevents lower-skilled workers from entering the work-force because their skills do not justify a wage at or above the minimum, and they become unemployed. While unemployed or on welfare, they do not improve in experience or skill, so they never increase in value. They are then permanent members of the welfare program.

I could go on with many more examples.

But look at the properity brought to many Asian countries like Hong Kong, Singapore, Japan, etc. which used to be poor, but they employed capitalism and the lot of the everyman increased.

Anyway, the basic point I'm trying to make here is that a conservative or right-wing party can be the best of both worlds. Don't be fooled by vague references to "helping the poor", etc.

Tuesday, October 04, 2011

Principles

Just wanted to talk briefly about principles and how I think they are lacking in much of our society. This is not necessarily an overt religious article, but our religion informs our morality, so in that sense it is.

I find all too often, people sacrifice principles because a subjectively "good" end has been achieved. One such example is from the US, where Obama ordered the killing of Anwar Al-Awlaki, an American citizen living in Yemen. Many people believe he was an evil person bent on the destruction of the United States, and I'm not here to argue whether or not he was.

The problem with the scenario, is that as an American citizen, Al-Awlaki is entitled to a trial before he is executed, regardless of where he is located in the world. Obama chose to ignore this and decided this man was better off dead.

What I'm talking about is principles. Many people rejoice at the death of a terrorist, and I'm not here to talk about that. I'm not a pacifist and believe countries have a right to defend themselves, but I find people are far too comfortable with saying that what happened was legally wrong, but oh well, we killed a bad guy so there's nothing wrong with that.

But this violates the entire purpose of due process and the law in the first place. The legal system was established not to treat our friends properly, but to uphold the rights of our worst enemies. Once we start ignoring the law and arbitrarily deciding who is protected by it or not, then it ceases to be a "law", and becomes more of a whim.

This man was not convicted, he was only suspected. That's why countries like Canada and the US have court systems. Even Jeffrey Dahmer, or Paul Bernardo and Karla Homolka received a trial and were sentenced according to the law. No one would argue that these are good upstanding citizens. Indeed, most believe they are evil and reprehensible. Yet even for these individuals, there is a trial in an official court of law.

I'm sure not too many people would shed many tears if Jeffrey Dahmer was murdered after what he did, but does that give the government the right to assassinate him in the absence of real evidence in a court of law?

Once we go to this point, we start using vigilante justice, and the whole legal system is in jeopardy.

Michael Coren & Tanya Gralic Allan: Thomas or Tammy? An 8 Year Old's Se...



How disgrace are the actions of these parents! Michael Coren is absolutely right, they should be charged with a crime, and this child should be taken away. How did they even end up with this child? They are two lesbians, so it obviously wasn't an act of love between the two of them that produced this child. It was probably some sort of adoption or in vitro fertilization or something. And the woman is right too. Kids might ask for anything. They might want to be anything, but that doesn't make it right. It could be horribly wrong. And this really is.

Did you know that some people have a psychological desire to amputate limbs? Do we believe it's good to give in to these demands? Some people actually believe they are certain animals. Should plastic surgery be used to transform them? The answer is obvious.

This is not just an isolated incident. Things like IVF, surrogate motherhood, and other types of immoral sexual activity have bred a society which can accept or allow this type of grotesque thing to happen. It occurs when we believe we create life and that we control it. We need to have far more respect for life and dignity.

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.