Nunc dimittis

It's amazing that such a humble, almost diffident man, a man who was very good at staying out of the spotlight for most of his career, could manage such a dramatic finish to his papacy.

As Vatican spokesman Greg Burke reminded us on NBC's Today, Pope Benedict did hint in his book-length interview with Peter Seewald, Light of the World, that he viewed resignation as a possible end to his reign, though he gave no timetable for it.  At 85, Papa Ratzinger has given over sixty years' service to the Faith, contributing to the success of his blessed predecessor's reign when other men and women of his age group were spending their pensions golfing and chasing their grandchildren, and was called to succeed Bl. John Paul just when he was anticipating his own retirement.

To people on the outside, such as FOXNews' John Moody, in any comparison between Benedict and John Paul II, Papa Bene is bound to come up short.  Papa Wojtyła changed the papacy dramatically, as befit a poet and playwright, tearing apart the centuries of distance and formality, making the Vicar of Christ a familiar face as he roamed the world preaching the evangelium in as many languages as he could over twenty-seven years.  Even now, I must confess, when I call him up in my own memory, I see him big and broad-shouldered, carrying his crozier like an alpine staff or a halberd, looking almost as if someone had dressed a Steelers linebacker in the white cassock.  Even more impressive, though, were the last few years as John Paul forced his ailing, crippled body along in testimony to endurance in suffering, continuing to preach God's love until finally he could preach no more.

Terrorism in the name of tolerance

Floyd Lee Corkins II

Floyd Lee Corkins II pleaded guilty today to committing an act of terrorism while armed, interstate transportation of a firearm and ammunition, and assault with intent to kill while armed, all in connection with  the shooting of Leo Johnson, the building manager at the Family Research Council, last August. Corkins, 28, had a list of four "anti-gay" PACs that he’d gotten from the website of the Southern Poverty Law Center and was planning to kill people at all four, smearing Chick-fil-A sandwiches on their faces, in order to intimidate gay-rights opponents.  Fortunately, his plan fell apart right away when Johnson wrestled him to the ground and took his weapon away, suffering a bullet wound in the process.

"In order to intimidate gay-rights opponents".  That's not me putting words in his mouth; that's what CNN reports that he told judge Richard Roberts.

If you felt your buttocks clench and you became very, very defensive, just think of how we feel when people try to make the wingnuts at Westboro Baptist our "representatives".  Consider what pro-life people feel when hardcore pro-aborts make us responsible for the terrorists who bomb clinics.  What's sauce for the goose ....

Pulling off the scabs—UPDATED

Brig. Gen. Charles E. "Chuck" Yeager, USAF (Ret.)

On Dec. 12, 1963, Col. Chuck Yeager was testing a specially modified F-104 Starfighter for use in the Air Force's astronaut training program.  The fighter was showing some problems of pitch-up at extremely high altitudes, but on previous flights the problem had been overcome with the peroxide jets in the nose, just like the jets used for attitude control on satellites and other spacecraft.  On his second flight that day, the peroxide jets didn't work; eventually, the plane fell into a flat spin and rotated like a phonograph record as it hurtled to the desert floor below.

Yeager punched out.  But as his parachute deployed, his ejection seat got caught in the risers.  Eventually it fell, and the hot exhaust pipe clobbered Yeager's helmet, setting the rubber seal on fire in the pure oxygen atmosphere.  Yeager put the fire out and touched down safely on the desert floor, but sustained massive burns to his face and neck.

Let's let Chuck tell the story from there:

So it was several days before I realized how bad things really were.  My face was swollen to the size of a pumpkin, badly charred from being blowtorched.  [Dr. Stanley Bear] came in and sat down.  He said, "Well, Chuck, I've got good news and bad news.  The good news is that your lungs have not been permanently damaged from inhaling flame and smoke, and your eye looks good.  The bad news is I'm gonna have to hurt you like you've never been hurt before in your life to keep you from being permanently disfigured.  And I'm gonna have to do it every four days."

I stayed in the hospital a month, and every four days Doc started from the middle of my face and neck, scraping away the accumulated scab.  It was a new technique developed to avoid horrible crisscross scars as the skin grew beneath the scabs.  And it worked beautifully.  I have only a few scars on my neck, but my face healed perfectly smooth.  The pain, though, was worse than any I have ever known.

The HHS' running sick joke

So tell me: Why did the Obamination even bother with this new rule change, this latest attempt to hide First Amendment violations under creative bookkeeping?

According to the legal analysis done by Americans United for Life, for-profit employers like Hobby Lobby and Bible publisher Tyndale will still not be afforded any exemption under the proposed new rules.  Worse, if one affiliate of a group plan doesn't meet the stringent requirements, the group itself won't be exempted or even "accommodated".

The "accommodation" is worthy of a fuller quote:

The [Notice of Proposed Rulemaking]’s description of the "accommodation" as alleviating the conscience concerns of even the select few it pretends to protect requires a substantial amount of make-believe.  Its argument that a “separate” contraceptive plan (that employees/students must be automatically enrolled in — there is no individual opt-out) will somehow not require the payment of either the enrollees or the “accommodated” religious non-profit, rests on the idea that it “is cost neutral because they would be insuring the same set of individuals under both policies…”  Put another way, it is only cost-neutral for the insurance company if both “separate” policies are considered.  In order to make the Obama Administration’s math for “free contraception” work, these insurance plans are not really distinct [bold font mine.—TL].

 In other words, the NPRM concedes damn little, in return for further restrictions in a couple other areas.

Stop the pr— No, don't stop the presses!

I had to get this typed out and posted as quickly as possible, before MSNBC realizes their mistake and pulls this video footage down:

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Yes, folks, what you're seeing is footage captured by an authentic bastion of the librul MSM that: 1) tacitly admits a pro-life march took place in Washington DC yesterday and 2) gives some impression of its real size (well over last year's 400,000 according to some estimates, though as FOXNews reported the National Parks Service itself no longer attempts estimates — perhaps they ran out of fingers and toes?).

Now available for your edification: CATHOLIC STAND!

Catholic Stand is a brand-new e-zine, brought to you by the marvelous trio of Tito Edwards (who hath given us Big Pulpit), the ever-amazing Dr. Stacy Trasancos and the totally awesome Chelsea Zimmerman.  What does CS bring to the party?

Here at Catholic Stand, we know [preaching the Gospel] is not always easy. We recognize that we live in a time when most nations are not nations that turn to God. We recognize that many of us may experience persecution in some form right now for living the truths the Church teaches. We are here to offer our stories, our encouragement, when we can, our instruction, our love, and our communion. If you desire to live the truths the Church teaches boldly, but are unsure sometimes what to do or say, we hope this website provides what you need; and if it doesn’t, let us know. We are Catholic citizens just like you, of all ages, various professions, and different places in the world, all in this together, people of prayer, hope, faith, and destiny.

 "Catholic Stand provides perspectives and education on topics that matter to citizens living the truths the Church teaches."  That's as simple a mission statement as you could want, but it's a broad enough base to cover a lot of topics: history, law, science, medicine, education, parenting ... just about any place where Catholic beliefs intersect with life.  Because, when you get right down to it, religion isn't something that can be conveniently boxed into one hour of one day every week (or month, or holiday of your choice); if it's not pervading every aspect of your life and relationships with other people, it isn't really a religion in any meaningful sense.

The leadership have invited me to be a regular contributor, where my semiliterate ramblings will be overshadowed by greater talents such as Donald R. McClarey, LarryD, Leila Miller, Marcus Allen Steele (OOH-RAH!) and Patti Maguire Armstrong, to name a handful.  Boy, I'm getting around, aren't I?  Right now I'm working on a deal where, when you fall asleep at night, my posts appear on the insides of your eyelids.

I'm really stoked to be a part of this project, because I get to talk about God, Christ, faith and the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church in another venue right alongside of other people who love to talk about the same things.  My first post will appear Feb. 18, but don't let that stop you from checking the other fine writers out: Stacy starts us out along with Debi Vinnedge, John Darrouzet, Edmund Mitchell and Marcus Allen Steele.  

And, of course, you can "Like" us on our Facebook page, or follow us on Twitter!

Who's really winning the abortion debate?

The timing couldn't have been better ... at least for the pro-abort side.

As hundreds of thousands of young people prepare to arrive in Washington for the annual March for Life parade, NBC News in conjunction with the Wall Street Journal released a poll showing that, "for the first time ever" (Really? Perhaps you mean "the first time ever this year"), the majority of Americans favor legality for abortion under most circumstances, and that 70% don't want Roe v. Wade overturned.  The Conventional Wisdom concerning these disturbing numbers is that the election-year struggles over contraception have allowed further education on the subject, shifting many people off center and into more solidly pro-abortion positions.

You'll pardon me if I don't bust a gut laughing.  The only education that took place came from the opponents of contraception and abortion.  The only contribution the pro-death side made to the national discussion was the creation of a new meme: the "war on women", the paranoid fantasy that hordes of "misogynists" are massing to strip women of all their hard-won victories and shove them back into domestic slavery and forced birth.  As analysis or as argument, it was as patently absurd as the Mayan Apocalypse ... or even the Zombie Apocalypse.  But that was the only side we were allowed to hear from the MSM, who repeated it breathlessly as the Gospel According to Sandra Flake.

The road to bad writing

... is paved with Experienced Writers' rules.

1. Avoid Alliteration. Always.
If you're going to alliterate that badly, by all means, refrain.  Starting three successive words with the same letter is bad alliteration.  However, Anglo-Saxon poetry was highly alliterative, and Shakespeare was a master of distributing alliterative sounds.

2. Prepositions are not words to end sentences with.
This is the sort of absolute rule up with which no one should put.

3. Avoid cliches like the plague. (They're old hat.)
Okay, I'll give him this one.

Let's see, what's in the news today?

Poor little rich girl Zong Fuli.

Help wanted: One boyfriend for billionaire Chinese heiress

"Zong Fuli, 30,  the daughter of beverage magnate Zong Qinghou (net worth around $12 billion), tells the Chinese edition of Marie Claire that she is rich and boyfriendless. She says she can't find a regular nice guy, and that men simply want her for her money."

You mean she's rich, too?  I'd be happy to take her out ... if she'd settle for Applebee's and a movie.

Seriously — if she were a salesperson at Kohl's or a restaurant hostess, most of the men I've known would still be pleased to esquire her around just to make other guys envious, even if she were a whining shrew.  We're men; we're shallow and egotistical; that's how we roll.  The money is a plus; you really have to be mercenary to look at that elegant face and see only a fat payday.

Connecticut's alleged cross-dressing meth priest reportedly liked sex in rectory

The Catholic priest indicted by a federal grand jury in an alleged nationwide methamphetamine ring was reportedly suspended after Connecticut church officials discovered he was a cross-dresser who was having sex in the rectory at Bridgeport’s St. Augustine Cathedral.

The FoxNews.com article doesn't print the source of these allegations, nor of the report that Msgr. Kevin Wallin bought an "adult specialty and video store"  (it's not professional to write "porn shop", y'know) after his resignation as pastor of St. Augustine Cathedral in Bridgeport while still on the diocesan payroll.
Still, this story just saddens me.  The priesthood is no place to escape one's personal demons.

With allies like these guys, who needs enemas?

John Corapi once gave a basic explanation of good politics: “If I’m a king, and you want me to grant you something — a piece of land, some money, whatever — the last thing you want to do is insult my mama!”  Likewise, if you seek a political alliance with a larger, much more established group, it’s not smart to say anything like, “You're all evil and damned to Hell, but we’re willing to sully our hands with your acquaintance in order to achieve our mutual goal.”

As did Toby of Abolish Human Abortion, an Evangelical Christian organization:

Needless to say, this got around, and AHA’s webpage very quickly got bombed by irate Catholics, who shared the screenshot along with a note to have nothing to do with the anti-Catholic so-and-sos.  Not long after, the page admin put this up: