Lightning Bolt: Thunder Thighs are Part of God's Plan for Women

Titian’s  tribute to feminine beauty, the fleshy "Flora."

Those jiggly thighs you've been grieving over are actually storehouses of omega-3 fatty acid DHA for optimal development of your baby's brain during pregnancy.

That's right!  Rejoice my sisters! 

Quit fighting your body's God-given purpose: Stop buying into the globalists' media idea that women should be rail thin to be attractive.  Read more about how women's fat is stored and used differently than men's HERE.

And before you decide to follow the modernists' advice to finish college and "see the world" before you marry, you might consider that it's possible that God had something else in mind.  "Frequent and early" pregnancy may help prevent endometriosis.  This treatment was even suggested by a gynecologist to a young friend of mine who already has Stage 2 endometriosis.  So it is not just for prevention, and it's not just some crazy internet advice.  

We are wonderfully and fearfully made to conceive and nurture children.

There's beauty in that fat.

A Nun Speaks Out: "Leave the Syrian People Alone"

Our government is funding and training the rebels, which means the USA is working alongside the Muslim Brotherhood and al Qaeda against Christians and other innocent civilians.  Yes, even babies have been brutally murdered.  I read about one in particular who was killed out on the street right in front of his family.  Both presidential nominees and their running mates support the continued military interference of the United States in sovereign countries.

Here is the story, via American Everyman, of the nun in the video as explained on Information Clearinghouse:

A NUN who has been superior at a Syrian monastery for the past 18 years has warned that media coverage of ongoing violence in that country has been “partial and untrue”. It is “a fake”, Mother Agnes Mariam said, which “hides atrocities committed in the name of liberty and democracy”.

Superior of the Melkite Greek Catholic monastery of St James the Mutilated in Qara, in Syria’s diocese of Homs, which is in full communion with Rome, she left Ireland yesterday after a three-day visit during which she met representatives of the Irish Catholic Bishops’ Conference in Maynooth.

She told The Irish Times she was in Ireland “not to advocate for the (Assad) regime but for the facts”. Most news reports from Syria were “forged, with only one side emphasised”, she said. This also applied to the UN, whose reports were “one-sided and not worthy of that organisation”.

UN observers in Syria had been “moderate with the rebels and covered for them in taking back positions after the withdrawal of heavy equipment, as seen so tragically in Homs”, she said.

When it was put to her this suggested the whole world was out of step except for Syria, Russia and China, she protested: “No, no, there are 20 countries, including some in Latin America” of the same view.  Read the rest HERE.

The Pro-Life Movement: I Plead the Fifth

Adam and Eve grieve over the death of Abel in "The First Mourning" by Bouguereau

 After the 2008 presidential election, I resolved to ignore politics, deciding that it really was not compatible with my place as the heart of the home.  I was much happier in this mode:  Ignorance truly is bliss in this regard.  However, after I watched the Cristero movie earlier this year, For Greater Glory, I realized how dangerously close Americans are to having a Cristero-type scenario with our government.  I decided that I could no longer keep silent, that I had a duty to speak up.

This I have done on Facebook.

I have pointed out the dangers of the military-industrial complex, the immorality of our wars, the hypocrisy of the "conservative" movement, and the Masonic agenda in both the major political parties, etc., etc., etc.

I don't think it has made a bit of difference.  As soon as Paul Ryan was chosen as Romney's VP, many of my Catholic friends jumped on board because Paul Ryan is Catholic and says he is "pro-life".

I really don't understand.

The man is big government all the way.  He supports all the wars and even wants more military spending.  He voted to make the Patriot Act permanent.  He voted for all the bailouts.  He supports NDAA, the indefinite detention of Americans without trial if suspected of terrorism.

Even his pro-life credentials are suspect to me.  He sees the protection of the unborn as a social issue.  Poverty is a social issue.  Murder is not.  And in 2010, he supported calling a "truce" on the pro-life fight until he was called to task by others in the movement.  Then he flip-flopped on demand.  He is just exactly the same as Romney.  He'll do or say whatever he needs to in order to get elected.

I think Catholics keep getting tricked into voting for candidates like Paul Ryan because of a faulty definition of what it means to be pro-life.  We wear "American baby in the womb" blinders and never consider that the pro-life movement in America today is just one part of the Fifth Commandment, "Thou Shalt Not Kill".  It commands us to live in peace and union with our neighbor, to respect his rights, to seek his spiritual and bodily welfare, and to take proper care of our own life and health; controlling one's anger.  It forbids all willful murder, suicide, abortion, euthanasia, artificial contraception, sterilization, cloning, endangering life and limb of self or others, fighting, anger, hatred, revenge, and bad example.

To make being "pro-life" a litmus test for acceptability as a political candidate while ignoring his stance on the totality of the Fifth Commandment is morally wrong and completely illogical.  It is compartmentalized thinking, a hallmark of modernism.  How can supporting the wars in the Middle East (and elsewhere around the globe) be compatible with being pro-life in particular and with the commandment not to kill in general?  We kill innocent civilians there every day.  There are estimates that as many as a million Iraqis have died at our hands, even though there were no weapons of mass destruction and Iraq had nothing to do with 9/11.

I guess Middle Eastern babies do not count.  They are not exceptional.  They are not from the shining city on the hill.

I know.  We will never forget.  Almost 3000 Americans died in the twin towers!  So that gives us the right to destroy the Middle East, even the Christian communities.  Because America is exceptional.  Our people are more valuable than other countries' people.  As Christopher Check says in Dropping the Atomic Bomb:

My Country, Right or Wrong

Americans have another blind spot when it comes to evaluating our country’s political actions—perhaps especially our military adventures, because these are seen as patriotic events. The blind spot is nationalism. Patriotism, love of one’s native land, is a genuine virtue, to be sure. But when it becomes nationalism—an excessive veneration of one’s country and its government—it becomes a vice.

This vice is nothing less than a heresy condemned by Pope Leo XIII in 1899 as “Americanism.” Americanism, no less virulent in our day than it was in Leo’s, combines a collective sense of Christian exceptionalism (America as the “Shining City on a Hill”) with the hubristic conviction that America can draw up her own moral code. 

Catholics today seem mortally infected with Americanism.  I guess that is understandable.  We Catholics want to fit in.  I have often wondered if that is why American Catholic women ditched their veils in the '60s, despite no instruction to do so.  Was our desire to fit in the reason why we gave up so easily the Tridentine Mass?  Because we wanted to fit in and be American Catholics instead of Catholic Americans?  Whatever the reason, we have been assimilated.  As far as I can tell, there is little difference in the thinking of Catholics and other Christian Americans of the same socioeconomic group.

Now Catholics rally together with Protestants in opposition to the HHS mandate in order to fight for the "value" of religious liberty, rather than naming abortion and contraceptive use as immoral acts under the Fifth Commandment.

And every election, we put on our pro-life blinders and play the voting game.  Abortion continues unabated, whether we have a Republican in the White House or Republican control of Congress.  We let our enemies write the rules; we get beaten over and over again, but we keep playing anyway.

Embracing Fertility

My much-anticipated package of toothpaste ingredients arrived the other day, but the most interesting thing in it had nothing to do with homemade toothpaste.  It was a catalog with a gorgeous photo of an adorable baby, cunningly dressed, with the headline "Making Babies".

"Whew!" I thought.  "Now that's one way to get consumers to open your catalog!"

Of course, "Making Babies" is not about sex.  From what I could discern from quickly reading the sales blurb and watching the YouTube commercial, it teaches women how to eat and take care of themselves in a way that is optimal for having a baby with lifelong health.  This is the hard core approach, the traditional foods method, eating densely nutritious food like grassfed beef liver, fermented cod liver oil and pastured butter.  It is definitely not What to Expect When You're Expecting.  I'm sure it probably covers what the man needs to do as well.   Eating for fertility seems to be the latest hot topic in the health world.  I've seen several health gurus marketing such products.  Another one that comes to mind is Chris Kresser's "Healthy Baby Code".   I think it's great but also a little sad.  Clearly, our culture no longer knows how to "make babies" and needs remedial coursework.  For a long time we have denigrated the role of the nurturing mother.  We protect by law those who kill babies in the womb.  So these new educational products make an important statement.  A small segment of our culture is beginning to value procreation.  This is not to say that they are embracing having large families, but I believe that once a husband and wife make the commitment and the sacrifice necessary to have a truly healthy baby, their whole value system will be righted.  They will be awed by God's plan, whether they believe in it or not.  They will be so blessed by this new life, they will want to do it all over again.  Maybe they will even come to the conclusion that Emma did when she gazed rapturously at the photo of the baby on the catalog:


"Making babies is my favorite thing!"

Dominican Sisters of Mary, Mother of the Eucharist, Issue Statement on President Obama’s So-Called Compromise

NEWS RELEASE

Dominican Sisters of Mary, Mother of the Eucharist

Issue Statement on President Obama’s So-Called Compromise

 

Ann Arbor, MI - In response to President Obama’s remarks regarding the final rule for individual and group health plans under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, Mother Mary Assumpta Long, O.P., the Prioress General of the Dominican Sisters of Mary, Mother of the Eucharist released the following statement:

 

“Regarding the so-called compromise by President Obama on the Department of Health and Human Services rule for “preventative” services that mandate coverage for abortion-inducing drugs, sterilization, and artificial contraception for their employees, the mandate still compromises religious, economic, and political liberty.

Despite the assurances by President Obama that separating the premiums paid by religious institutions to insurance companies somehow protects the religious liberty of Catholic and other religious institutions, the bottom line is these institutions will still have to pay the insurance company that is mandated to provide these services for free to any employee who wants these services.  It is insulting for President Obama and his administration to suggest the so-called compromise “should be net cost neutral.” It is simply impossible to ensure that the insurance companies will not pass on those costs to the organizations and individuals who conscientiously object to their insurance policies covering abortion-inducing drugs, sterilization, and artificial contraception. In short, not only does the Administration not comprehend Catholic moral reasoning and the full-meaning of the principle of religious liberty, it does not even understand the basic economics of health-care insurance. The fact that Planned Parenthood has so quickly expressed satisfaction with these arrangements only confirms that nothing has changed in substance.

As the Second Vatican Council declared in paragraph four of its Declaration on Religious Liberty, Dignitatis Humanae:

“religious communities rightfully claim freedom in order that they may govern themselves according to their own norms, honor the Supreme Being in public worship, assist their members in the practice of the religious life, strengthen them by instruction, and promote institutions in which they may join together for the purpose of ordering their own lives in accordance with their religious principles.”

Moreover, as citizens of the United States we are guaranteed by the Constitution the right to fully and vibrantly live our Catholic faith according to the teachings of the Church.  We as Catholics demand that our institutions not be required to formally or materially cooperate in acts that the Church has always taught to be intrinsically evil.

The Dominican Sisters of Mary, Mother of the Eucharist plead with God to protect the ability for all Americans to freely exercise their religious liberty.  The Dominican Sisters of Mary will offer up daily prayers with the intention that this unjust mandate be overturned, and we will do so until it is overturned.”

 

The Dominican Sisters of Mary, Mother of the Eucharist is a Roman Catholic community of women religious based in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Our primary apostolate is the education and formation of young people. We remain open to engaging the modern culture with new forms of evangelization in order to preach the Gospel and teach the Truth.  In 15 years, the Sisters have grown to over 100 in 14 years, the average age is 28 and the average age of the women who enter is 21. Sisters represent most of the States across the U.S., various Provinces in Canada, and countries in Europe and Asia.

Third Order Carmelite Leaves Pro Life Legacy

Dr. Edward Hannigan: A Pro-Life Hero Texas Right to Life

"As a moral pillar of UTMB, Dr. Hannigan was crucial in keeping abortion out of UTMB. He stood firm during accreditation review procedures when questioned about UTMB not offering abortion or abortion-related services on its premises. He also shaped the convictions of countless medical students so that they, too, would adopt only life-affirming medical practices."

I did not know Dr. Hannigan, but he was a fellow parishioner of Queen of Angels. I was very impressed by what I read in the Texas Right to Life article linked above. He received Last Rites from Fr. Zendejas shortly before he died on Tuesday and was buried in a Carmelite habit at Mount Olivet Cemetery yesterday afternoon. His obituary is here.

True Romance

Mead. The word evokes romantic connotations in my mind, but honestly, I did not know exactly what it was until last week. I did know that it is a drink, and an ancient one. I did know that it plays an important part in literature. After all, where would Beowulf be without the Mead hall?

Now, I also know that it is the ideal homesteader's wine, made from fermented honey, sometimes called honey wine. It is simple to make and offers endless flavor variations, not to mention health benefits. Does that not sound marvelous? I have dutifully added it to the long list of things to try when we finally get our bees established. By that time we will be well-practiced cheese makers, and we shall picnic in the hayfield, savoring fresh blackberries, raw-milk cheese, and mellow Mead. . .

I was surprised to find that Mead is gaining popularity. I found YouTube videos on how to make it, and Mother Earth News just featured it in this article.

In my research into its history, I saw several mentions of its possible use in wedding customs. About.com sums it up this way:

"In Celtic cultures, Mead was believed to enhance virility and fertility, while also contributing supposed aphrodisiac qualities. As a result, Mead quickly found its way into Irish wedding ceremonies. In fact, the term “honeymoon” is believed to have stemmed from the Irish tradition of newlyweds drinking honey wine everyday for one full moon (a month) after their weddings."

What a great wedding custom! If the goal is to promote fertility, this makes a whole lot more sense than throwing rice at the newlyweds. I wonder if there is a wedding registry with "A Month of Mead" as a gift choice?

A Visit With Rudy

Emma and I visited Rudy yesterday afternoon. It was the first time that we had gotten to see him. I was immensely reassured by how good he looked. Underneath all the tubes and wires, he still looked like the Rudy Reyes I know and love.

Since he is such a good-natured fellow, I took the opportunity to chat non-stop in his ear and tease him about the little round thing on his head. I told him that he looked like he was wearing a little girl's chapel veil. I really thought his eyes might fly open at that remark, but they didn't. However, when Rudy's buddy, Mike Stafford, talked to him, his eyelids did lift partially, two times. Mike saw it both times. Christian saw it once. Mike said that before Rudy's stroke, he and Rudy talked on the phone all the time.

I asked Christian about Rudy's breathing, the pressure on his brain, etc. He told me that Rudy is breathing on his own, but if the ventilator is removed, he may choke on his tongue. The pressure on his brain is normal. Later Margot confirmed that "Rudy is breathing 100% on his own." She also said that Thursday Rudy responded when the doctor shined a light in his eyes. This was new. He had not responded before, so he is improving.

In fact, all his vital signs are good from what we could read on the monitors, but when Margot asked the nurse for the results that she was writing in his record, the nurse refused to tell her. Obtaining the record of these vital signs is critical to preventing the hospital from removing Rudy from life support.

Although the rules state that only two visitors can see Rudy at one time, somehow a kind nurse managed to let seven of us in to pray the Rosary. We all knelt around his bed. Margot squeezed Rudy's hand throughout. We sang the Gloria Patri at the end of each decade, and I could not resist looking at Rudy's face as we did. I knew he could hear us!

I started to understand the magnitude of the problem that Margot is dealing with when Miriam Massie arrived to help Margot with legal steps to prevent the hospital from removing life support and giving Rudy morphine. Miriam's dad is an attorney, and he had written letters for Margot to submit to the ethics committee declaring her desire that Rudy not be removed from life support or given morphine or any "treatment" that would hasten his death. Apparently Texas law allows hospital ethics committees to decide the fate of a patient, even if he has expressed the desire for a different choice. Once the ethics committee makes a decision to withdraw treatment, and food and water are defined as treatment, the patient has only ten days to find an alternative hospital or care situation. Texas Right to Life says that patients often run out of time before they can secure the transfer. Memorial Hermann is trying to do this without giving Rudy the benefit of the ten days. At least that is my understanding. It is all very complicated. Miriam was also working with Margot to get a case manager assigned to Rudy. The case manager works as a liaison between the attorney and the ethics committee.

Christian looked much better yesterday than we visited him on Tuesday. He has not left the hospital since arriving Sunday night. He told us that he has made lots of friends among the staff. One of the nurses gave him a bag of homegrown fruit while we were there.

The whole Queen of Angels parish seems to be working together to help the family. It is very gratifying. Kathleen O'Neill is coordinating it all. Heather Martinez is working on getting a bank account set up for donations and a fundraiser organized. So I will get that information out as soon as I get it.

Thanks for your continued prayers for Rudy and his family.

Fighting the Hospital for Rudy's Life

Rudy is still in a coma, but he has struggled against the nurses trying to take his blood, and he has responded to his wife's voice by lurching forward. He has had some difficulty breathing, but I'm not sure if that is still the case. The biggest problem now is that the hospital is pressuring Margot to take him off life support. They wanted to do it this morning. The priests are advising her. This is what I heard last night from another parishioner, Kathleen O'Neil:

It's late, 11:30 pm. Margot has succesfully obtained additional time through Monday.

It is becoming like David and Goliath in that hospital. The hospital wants to give him morphine, but Fr.Scott advised vehemently against that as it will slow his respiration.

Margot has gotten in touch with a lawyer ( Mr.Frazier) through Cerene Winkler at N. Chapel and in the morning they will talk about how to handle the next few days. It's time to strong arm the hospital. They are not interested in giving food and water either. Morphine only. But actually Fr. stated he 's not in pain. This is part of the manipulation.

Fr. Zigrang spoke to her again tonight.

Please continue your prayers for Rudy and his family.

We Need a Miracle

Our friend Rudy Reyes, husband to Margot and father of Christian, 15, Christiana, 9, Julianna, 7, Joseph, 5, and Gemma, 3, (ages approximate) is in the Neuroscience Intensive Care Unit of Memorial Hermann Hospital. The stroke he suffered Sunday night occurred in the brain stem, and the prognosis is bleak. Christian told us last night that the doctors have told them that if his dad lives, he will never be the same. He is the sole support of the family with his business, Angelus Mechanical. His top priority, though, has been to ensure that his children have the faith, not material goods. He has succeeded. While Christian accompanied his mom to the hospital Sunday night, Christiana stayed up late praying Rosaries for her dad. Then she prayed extra decades and offered them to the Eucharastic Crusade. Christian has been praying without ceasing and staying at the hospital with his dad around the clock, allowing Margot to go home at night to stay with the children.

I have been told that the family has no medical or life insurance.

I have come to love Rudy over the last year and a half. There is a childlike sweetness about him, yet his faith is that of a giant. Whenever he came down from my attic after working on our air conditioner, he would be drenched with sweat but always cheerful. I would always offer him ice water, and he would not take a sip without bowing his head and saying a little prayer.

When he was done working on the air conditioner, he always took time to play a game of pool or X-box football with Nathaniel and eat a piece of Emma's latest baking project. At church, he organized all the chess tournaments and the baseball games and practices. He also planned group father-son outings to watch the Astros play. And he maintained all the air conditioners at church.

So please, pray for a miracle for Rudy.

Save the Humans: Use DDT to Fight Malaria

I received the latest Access to Energy newsletters the other day. Written and published by Dr. Arthur B. Robinson, they give me insight into many science topics that I normally would not read about.

One of these topics is the use of DDT to combat malaria. I was a little surprised that Dr. Robinson favored its use. I generally think pesticides are bad and try to buy organic food when I can. DDT, in particular, had a horrible association in my mind with damaging bird eggs. I don't know where that idea came from, possibly My Weekly Reader when I was in elementary school. Whatever the source of my information was, it failed to impress upon me how many human lives were saved by DDT. Access to Energy did that. I did some other reading, and I found out that the kind of spraying that is done for malaria is very restricted and is done inside the home, not outdoors.

"The same organization and people that demand an end to our use of coal, oil, and natural gas, have deliberately killed tens of millions of people--mostly children--in sub-Saharan Africa and other underdeveloped regions. After DDT was used to eradicate malaria in the developed world, it was denied to the underdeveloped countries--just as it was beginning to eradicate malaria there," Dr. Robinson said.

He was responding to an article in a May 2009 issue of The Wall Street Journal that reported the World Health Organization's (WHO) reversal of its 2006 decision to endorse DDT's use. The 2006 decision reversed a 25-year ban on DDT. During the 25-year ban, the WSJ article says that there were 50 million deaths from malaria.

Environmentalists like Medha Chandra of Pesticide Action Network say that new, safer, and more effective methods of fighting malaria are now available. What's the first one she lists? Mosquito netting for beds. Hmmm. I wouldn't describe mosquito netting as new, and I wonder if Chandra is saying that it is safer for the environment or the people. It certainly can't be more effective than DDT. Of course the netting must be used in conjunction with other methods, but from what I read, nothing new has been developed that is as effective as DDT. When that true solution comes, I will wholeheartedly endorse it, but sacrificing human lives in the meantime is not acceptable--unless you're a career environmentalist.

Obviously, career environmentalists have different priorities than people who value human life. I have thought about the similarities between environmentalists and pro-abortionists in the past. I did a little searching and found the connection I was looking for. This post on the Wintery Knight blog tells what the environmentalists' goals are and lists solid quotations for proof.

Honoring the "Abortionist-in-Chief"

John Vennari explains how we got to this point in his Catholic Family News article, "Obama, Notre Dame, and the Counter Syllabus".

The Best That I Could Do

Never have I longed so desperately for the Social Reign of Christ the King.

I found out Saturday that because I am so quick to point out the problems with McCain's candidacy my own father thought that I was supporting Obama. He told me, "You people who are supporting Obama are going to be sorry."

Well, yes. Mortal* sin does generally have that effect.

Since my father had this miconception about me, I wanted to make sure that my readers know that just because I am not voting for McCain, it does not follow that I am voting for Obama. I am not. I also wanted to let my readers know that though I knew from the beginning that I could not vote for McCain, I worked hard to help nominate a Republican candidate that I could support and to spread the pro-life message during the campaign. That candidate was Ron Paul. Not only did our family support Ron Paul's campaign financially, I distributed flyers and made phone calls as my precinct's captain. Herb and I were delegates to the precinct convention after the primary. We took Nathaniel and Emma and submitted a pro-life amendment to the Texas Republican Party platform that passed and went on to the county level. As a delegate to the county convention I stood up and argued against a man who wanted to eliminate a clear definition of marriage from one of the proposals we were debating and against another man who said that homosexuality was not really an issue except in California. I would prefer not to have been in that situation. I would prefer to live under the rule of true Catholic monarchs or at least in a Catholic country where good Catholic men debate each other, and good Catholic women stay home and focus on their domestic duties. Unfortunately, that scenario is far, far from reality, and I do try to deal with reality, though I often find it incredibly discouraging.

I will hate it if Obama gets elected, but I did the best that I could to elect a good man and to promote the pro-life, pro-family cause.

*I would feel like I had committed mortal sin if I voted for Obama, but I could not find any clear statement from the USCCB.

Election Rosary Novena and Prayer Against Revolutionary Men

I won't board McCain's "Straight Talk Express", but my family and I will be participating in this Rosary Novena. Please go to Catholic Family News for details and to sign up. The Holy Sacrifice of the Mass (Tridentine) will be offered for - and in union with — all those who take part in the Novena on October 27 and November 4.

Root Cause Analysis: Abortion

The open letter that I have excerpted here is a much better explanation of what I was trying to say yesterday in my post A Different Destination.

We have abortion because of the break-up of the family and the ensuing moral decadence, not because of Roe v. Wade. Why do we have the break-up of the family? It is because the family has been supplanted by the State (and the corporation). In actuality families have absolutely no rights in the United States, indeed, children can be taken from the home on mere suspicions. Yet it is the family that is ever the last bastion against tyranny.

Christians must realize that the evil of abortion, like all moral evils, will only be eradicated when the populace converts from its neo-paganism. This is the job of the Church, not the current government, which itself is neo-pagan in its self-worship. Indeed, there is an indisputable correlation between the waxing of the State and vice and the waning of the family and virtue. As the State becomes more totalitarian its citizens become more vicious and as the citizens become more vicious the State becomes more totalitarian. Thus to end abortion we must defeat the totalitarian State and increase personal virtue. The most effective way of increasing personal virtue is to restore the sacrosanct status of the family. A strengthened family plus a weakened State equals a moral virtuous populace equals less abortion.

G. C. Dilsaver, Christians and the Pro-life Ploy

A Different Destination

The long eight years of Bush's "pro-life" presidency draw to a close. Abortions proceed apace. Fear slithers among the so-called conservatives; they hear the death rattle, expressed in ever louder tribal rhythms: Ba-rack, Hus-sein, O-ba-ma! Ba-rack, Hus-sein, O-ba-ma!

"We must vote pro-life. We must vote McCain-Palin!" the Christians cry.

I see the glittering eyes, the snake in the grass. I am tempted to vote McCain-Palin--to sip the poison in hope of a future immunity. I remind myself to think long-term, grasping firmly the clear definitions, avoiding labels, hacking away at Newspeak with my vorpal blade, snicker-snack.

I can not separate "the life issue" from matters of personal and economic freedom. I see that both candidates travel eagerly the broad road to socialism, which threatens to end at China's company store, to which we owe our soul. And there, I fear, we will have traded the elective abortion for the forced abortion.

I have read the entreaties from people I respect, begging me to vote for McCain. I understand their point. But I want a different destination, not a detour to the same place. That different destination requires that I stand up and be counted, not for my fear but for what I truly believe, which is best expressed by Chuck Baldwin and the Constitution Party.

No Contraceptives, No Pornography, No Cigarettes

A truly Catholic pharmacy opens today in Virginia, next door to a Catholic bookstore. Thanks to Jill Stanek.

Obama Supporters and the "Pre-viable Fetus"

At the Farmer's Market on Saturday I stopped to listen to live music played and sung by a man and woman. It was lovely, and as usual with me, caused me to feel a certain kinship with the musicians. I was disconcerted, though, when I realized that the man was wearing an "Obama" ball cap. Then I realized the lady had pinned an "Obama" button to her top.

This shook me up. Once again, I realized how naive I am--how easily I float along in a dream world, attaching my own belief system to everyone who seems to be of good will.

I saw the lady smile at a young boy and tell him that she liked his hat. I remembered Obama's position that abortion survivors should not be given medical care. I tried to picture this friendly lady with the beautiful voice standing by while a baby was left to die. I couldn't. I don't think that she could do it. I pray that she could not do it.

But if she could not. . .

How can she then vote for Obama?

A Little Momsense on Republicans and the Pro-life Issue

A politicalized version of Anita Renfro, Sarah Palin definitely livens up the cadaverous McCain. She's the vivacious, fun-loving, smart-alecky best girlfriend that every woman, including me, would love to have: She's a Sisterwoman of the first order. May God bless her.

However, watching the Republican convention last night, I waited in vain for someone to promote the pro-life position, since we are all supposed to vote for McCain now that he has chosen pro-life Palin as his VP running mate. No one promoted the life issue while I was watching, not even Palin, whose speech directly followed Rudy Giuliani's. That positioning in itself was disturbing to me: the Republican Party is a split personality; the Giuliani personality is the dominant one.

As for McCain finally realizing how important social conservatives are to the Republican Party, I think that is the usual wishful thinking. Palin's appearance at a Republican National Coalition for Life reception honoring her was canceled at the last minute, according to this ABC News Political Radar blogpost which contains the following quotes from Phyllis Schlafly of Eagle Forum:

"I think this is clearly somebody in the McCain campaign who doesn't understand where the votes are coming from," Schlafly told ABC News. "They only told me this at 10 o'clock last night, and it was a call from somebody down-the-line in the McCain campaign.

"The pro-lifers who paid $95 to come to this event because of Sarah Palin are going to be very unhappy," she added.

To paraphrase, I'm afraid that the pro-lifers who vote for McCain because of Sarah Palin are going to be very unhappy.

I think the Republican party is willing to put up with Palin's pro-life beliefs as long as she continues to support Israel, which may be the real glue in the McCain-Palin ticket. Despite all the "Country First" signs at the convention last night, the Republicans are still firmly ruled by the Israel-first neocons, of whom McCain is definitely one.

As long as Ron Paul and Chuck Baldwin are firmly pro-life and pro-America first, they will be considered fringe candidates. Personally, I love fringe.

Nevertheless, wiser Catholics than I make compelling arguments for voting the Republican ticket this year.

My head spins. I think I'll watch the Momsense video again. That is something I can really understand.

Palin Doesn't Change Everything

I was really surprised by McCain's choice of Gov. Palin as his vice presidential running mate because I like her. The only problem is, I still don't like him. I have heard nothing to lead me to believe that McCain will now adopt the truly conservative ideals that Palin holds and seems to live by. Furthermore, I'm disgusted by the Republican convention featuring endorsements by pro-aborts Lieberman and Giuliani while refusing to allow pro-life Ron Paul a chance to address the convention. I don't understand how "conservatives" are so excited about Palin but turned up their noses at Ron Paul. The Republican party is a mystery to me.

Constitution Party presidential candidate Chuck Baldwin says it all in his current column, "Can Two Walk Together Without Agreement?". He also nails McCain's true "pro-life" record in his column of Aug. 22, "John McCain Pro-life?" that I quote here:

John McCain openly embraces embryonic stem cell research. In 2000, he boldly said he did not favor the overturn of Roe v. Wade. John McCain was a member of the infamous "Gang of 14" senators from both parties whose purpose was to oppose pro-life, strict constructionist judges.

Speaking of judges, John McCain voted for the pro-abortion justice, Stephen Breyer, and the radical, pro-abortion, ACLU attorney, Ruth Bader Ginsburg. So much for the argument that we need John McCain for the sake of appointing conservative justices to the Supreme Court. For that matter, Republican appointments dominated the Court that gave us Roe v. Wade and the one that later gave us Doe v. Bolton. Proving, once again, that the Republican Party, as a whole, has no real commitment to the life issue.

John McCain also gave us McCain-Feingold. This is the law that keeps pro-life or pro-Second Amendment organizations from broadcasting ads that mention a candidate by name 30 days before a primary election or 60 days before a general election. This proves that John McCain believes neither in the right to life nor the right to keep and bear arms. (This is one reason why the Gun Owners of America gives McCain a grade of F.)

In a debate with George W. Bush in May of 2000, John McCain attacked Bush's support for the pro-life plank in the Republican Party. Still today, John McCain believes that babies who are conceived via rape or incest should be murdered. I remind readers, however, that there are no "exceptions" in the womb, only babies.

If all of the above is not enough, as a senator, John McCain has repeatedly voted to fund pro-abortion providers such as Planned Parenthood with federal tax dollars. In fact, McCain has voted to use federal tax dollars to support abortion providers at home and overseas. Yes, this "pro-life" senator (along with "pro-life" President, George W. Bush) has significantly increased federal spending for abortion providers to levels eclipsing even the appropriations authorized by President Bill Clinton and his fellow Democrats.