"I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate."
--Romans 7:15 (RSV)
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House approves $463.5B spending bill - Yahoo! News
The House passed a $463.5 billion spending bill Wednesday that covers about one-sixth of the federal budget as Democrats cleared away the financial mess they inherited from Republicans.
Hat Tip: The Corner
Although, it's a bit disconcerting to see Ah-nold introducing it. Why doesn't he try governing like somone who's a Friedmanite?
"I suppose, indeed, that in public life, a man whose political principles have any decided character and who has energy enough to give them effect must always expect to encounter political hostility from those of adverse principles." - Thomas Jefferson
"Cutting government spending and government intrusion in the economy will almost surely involve immediate gain for the many, short-term pain for the few, and long-term gain for all." - Milton Friedman
"Somehow strangely the vice of men gets well represented and protected but their virtue has none to plead its cause- nor any charter of immunities and rights." - Henry David Thoreau
"The claim to support the troops is a sham. Supporting the troops is merely something to be figured out later. It's an afterthought, to be addressed after Democrats, with some Republican support, rush through a resolution telling our troops that the mission for which they are putting their lives on the line is not just meaningless but absolutely antithetical to our nation's interests." - Mark Finkelstein
"Our combat forces have never lost an engagement in Iraq. Let's make sure they don't lose the war in Washington. Unshackle the military and let our soldiers and Marines do their job. This will quickly silence the critics, as well as the insurgents and radical Islamist fundamentalists." - James A. Lyons, Jr.
"[President] Bush came up with the ‘surge' plan. Will it work? Nobody knows. But the one thing the American people know about George W. Bush is that he wants to win the war. What the Democrats believe is anybody's guess." - Jonah Goldberg
"What the resolution tells us is that most members of Congress, echoing what they think is the view of most voters, yearn to return to the holiday from history that we thought we were enjoying between the fall of the Berlin Wall and Sept. 11, 2001. And that they have no idea at all of how to get there." - Michael Barone
"The Senate's 81-0 vote on Friday to confirm Lt. Gen. David Petraeus as commander is just the latest sign of the intellectual incoherence of that chamber's approach to Iraq. Right now, anti-war lawmakers are afraid to act on their convictions and cut off funding right away, so they seem to have opted for a two-track strategy: on the one hand, approving some funds for the war so they can't be accused of hurting the troops that they claim to support, on the other, denouncing President Bush's policies at every opportunity regardless of whether such actions project weakness or embolden the enemy. The unanimous vote for Gen. Petraeus- a thoughtful advocate of President Bush's efforts to increase troop levels in Baghdad- comes as many of these same lawmakers prepare to vote for a resolution which will likely come before the Senate this week which will denounce what Gen. Petraeus and President Bush are attempting to do: win the war. Passage of such a resolution (which appears to have overwhelming support) is utterly nonsensical if senators are serious about defeating the enemy. But such an action makes perfect sense for cynical politicians who have calculated that failure is certain and want to be in the most politically advantageous position after the United States is defeated in Iraq." - The Washington Times
"What the Democrats will do with their newfound power is a question worth asking, provided you don't expect much of an answer." - William Rusher
Jay Leno: The Constitution does not specify how long the State of the Union address must be. You know who gave the longest State of the Union address ever? Bill Clinton. You know who gave the shortest? George Washington. It was just a couple of minutes. Well sure, when a politician cannot tell a lie, it limits how much they can say. Clinton could go on for hours. ... The political experts are asking what role Bill Clinton will play in Hillary's campaign. I'm guessing the cheating husband? ... I guess you heard by now Sen. John Kerry announced he will not run for president, in 2008. He said the time is just not right. You know why it's not right? It's an election year. ... John Edwards, who is also running for president, is being criticized because the new house he just moved into is one of the biggest houses in North Carolina. It's 28,000 square feet on 102 acres. See, Edwards became famous for talking about the two Americas. Now both of them can fit into his backyard. ... Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi is now in Iraq. She made a surprise visit. Well, you thought Bush wanted to bomb the place before! ... She didn't say how long she was staying in Iraq, and President Bush said he was against setting any timetables for Pelosi to return. He said to bring her back prematurely would send the wrong message.
1927 Time magazine, with Pierre S. du Pont, II, featured on its cover, reported that he had already spent $5 million on Delaware schools. He was also credited with building 89 schools for African American children, when the state would not.
Delawareans should never forget the great generosity of the duPont family over the years. We'd be in a much worse position without them.
Wow! You are awesome! You are a true Biblical scholar, not just a hearer but a personal reader! The books, the characters, the events, the verses - you know it all! You are fantastic!
Ultimate Bible Quiz
Create MySpace Quizzes
Most of those questions are really easy, though. Much easier than that quiz Jeff linked to a while back.
One note for my non-Catholic readers: some of the questions might have dealt with some books you don't have. I can never remember which those are.
Edwards Home County's Largest:
The house, which includes a recreational building attached to the main living quarters, also is probably the largest in the county."The Edwardses' residential property will likely have the highest tax value in the county," Orange County Tax Assessor John Smith told Carolina Journal. He estimated that the tax value will exceed $6 million when the facility is completed.
Remember, the market value of a house can be much larger than the tax value.
Knight approved the building plans that showed the Edwards home totaling 28,200 square feet of connected space. The main house is 10,400 square feet and has two garages. The recreation building, a red, barn-like building containing 15,600 square feet, is connected to the house by a closed-in and roofed structure of varying widths and elevations that totals 2,200 square feet.The main house is all on one level except for a 600-square-foot bedroom and bath area above the guest garage.
The recreation building contains a basketball court, a squash court, two stages, a bedroom, kitchen, bathrooms, swimming pool, a four-story tower, and a room designated "John's Lounge."
Yowsa. A basketball court? That's friggin' huge! Just the basketball court might be bigger than my house.
Aerial shots of the mansion are available at thelink above as well.
UPDATE: Mark Steyn had this to say on The Corner:
[P]lease don’t mock John Edwards’ new mansion. Edwards Manor or Suing-'em Palace or whatever it’s called could so easily have turned out like the two Americas: it was designed as two separate sections - a main wing and a subsidiary building which houses "John's Lounge". And yet the Democratic candidate managed to connect these two mansions with a $200,000 heated enclosed walkway lined with photographs of himself and his family.Don’t you find that inspirational? Imagine if President Edwards were able to connect the two Americas with a heated enclosed walkway.
Immediately upon his arrival at the court, Justice Thomas was savaged by court-watchers as Antonin Scalia's dutiful apprentice, blindly following his mentor's lead. It's a grossly inaccurate portrayal, imbued with politically incorrect innuendo, as documents and notes from Justice Thomas's very first days on the court conclusively show. Far from being a Scalia lackey, the rookie jurist made clear to the other justices that he was willing to be the solo dissenter, sending a strong signal that he would not moderate his opinions for the sake of comity. By his second week on the bench, he was staking out bold positions in the private conferences where justices vote on cases. If either justice changed his mind to side with the other that year, it was Justice Scalia joining Justice Thomas, not the other way around....
Consider a criminal case argued during Justice Thomas's first week. It concerned a thief's effort to get out of a Louisiana mental institution and the state's desire to keep him there. Eight justices voted to side with the thief. Justice Thomas dissented, arguing that although it "may make eminent sense as a policy matter" to let the criminal out of the mental institution, nothing in the Constitution required "the states to conform to the policy preferences of federal judges."
After he sent his dissenting opinion to the other justices, as is custom, Justices Rehnquist, Scalia and Kennedy changed their votes. The case ended up 5-4.
The false notion, likely based in the Left's racist views, that Thomas is unintelligent will likely never go away. He's long been my favorite Supreme Court Justice, he and I sharing a stronger respect for originalism than Scalia. Hopefully articles like this will at least start the process of opening people's minds to him.
Crossposted at Delaware Conservatives.
Hat Tip: Jimmy Akin
Within a year, the U.S. missile defense system should be able to guard against enemy attacks, while testing new technologies, the deputy director of the U.S. Missile Defense Agency said on Monday.The United States activated the ground-based system last summer when North Korea launched one long-range and six short-range missiles.
North Korea's intercontinental Taepodong 2 missile fell into the Sea of Japan shortly after launch but the short-range tests appeared successful, said Brig. Gen. Patrick O'Reilly, deputy director of the Pentagon's Missile Defense Agency.
O'Reilly said there would be no formal announcement that the system was operational. He predicted the capability to defend against enemy missiles and to continue testing and development work would be achieved within a year.
...
Through the end of 2007, the program will focus on protecting the United States from threats from the Middle East and North Korea, expanding coverage to U.S. allies and boosting protection against shorter-range threats.In 2008 and beyond, there would be increased focus on countering unconventional attacks and increasing the U.S. inventory of interceptors and sensors, O'Reilly said.
This is certainly good news and kind of an "in-your-face" to those who said it would never work. It was always irrational to leave America defenseless against a missile attack. (Those who called Mutual Assured Destruction "MAD" were certainly correct, but were often the first to oppose a purely defensive system. Being able to protect Americans from a lunching by a madman, be he Korean or Persian con only be a good thing. Let's see on what grounds the Left opposes this.
Fr. Leonard R. Klein will be interviewed on the EWTN program The Journey Home on Monday , January 29 , 2007 at 8:00 p.m. (That's tonight!)
Father Klein is a former Lutheran pastor who converted to Catholicism and was ordained a Catholic priest last year. He is currently the only married Catholic priest in the Diocese of Wilmington, and one of only about 100 married priests in the entire country.
Here's an article from last year about him.
And another article that likely ran in The Dialog last year
In her salad days, Judy Spires was as green as it gets, a teenage cashier at an Acme in Westmont, N.J.Thirty-seven years later, she is president of the regional grocery chain.
"The American dream is still alive and well at the supermarket," she said. "Any bagger you see could wind up being president of this company."
But that's impossible, everyone knows that people in minimum wage jobs are stuck there and can't possibly advance. We're told time and again that minimum wage workers have gone without a raise for over a decade!
Tickle Me Elmo On Fire - Google Video
There's just something hilarious about watching this video of Elmo laughing histerically claiming that being burned to death tickles.
Hat Tip: The Corner
“[A] Congress with power to do whatever would be for the good of the United States... as they would be the sole judges of the good or evil, it would be also a power to do whatever evil they please.” —Thomas Jefferson
“The one resolution, which was in my mind long before it took the form of a resolution, is the key-note of my life. It is this, always to regard as mere impertinences of fate the handicaps which were placed upon my life almost at the beginning. I resolved that they should not crush or dwarf my soul, but rather be made to blossom, like Aaron’s rod, with flowers.” —Helen Keller
“Marriage in America is undoubtedly less robust than it was 50 years ago. But it is not yet a candidate for the endangered-species list, let alone the ash heap. The Census Bureau reported last spring that by the time they are 30 to 34, a large majority of American men and women—72 percent—have been married. Among Americans 65 and older, fully 96 percent have been married. Yes, the divorce rate is high—17.7 per 1,000 marriages—and many couples live together without getting married. But marriage remains a key institution in American life... The ‘60s, the sexual revolution, no-fault divorce, the rise of single motherhood—there is no question that marriage has been through the wringer... Yet for all the buffeting our most important social institution has taken, it remains a social ideal: Boys and girls still aspire to become husbands and wives.” —Jeff Jacoby
“It is important for all Americans to remember that our Declaration of Independence states that every person has the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. It also states that these rights come from our Creator, and that governments are formed to secure these rights for all their citizens. And we believe every human life has value, and we pray for the day when every child is welcome in life and protected into law... As we move forward, we’ve all got to remember that a true culture of life cannot be built by changing laws alone. We’ve all got to work hard to change hearts... The sanctity of life is written in the hearts of all men and women. And so I say, go forth with confidence that a cause rooted in human dignity and appealing to the best instincts of our citizens cannot fail.” —President George W. Bush
“We are a nation that has a government—not the other way around. And this makes us special among the nations of the earth. Our government has no power except that granted to it by the people. It is time to check and reverse the growth of government which shows signs of having grown beyond the consent of the governed.” —Ronald Reagan
“In an era when our media and even our education system exalt emotions, while ignoring facts and logic, perhaps we should not be surprised that so many people explain economics by ‘greed.’ Today there are adults—including educated adults—who explain multimillion-dollar corporate executives’ salaries as being due to ‘greed.’ Think about it: I could become so greedy that I wanted a fortune twice the size of Bill Gates’s—but this greed would not increase my income by one cent. If you want to explain why some people have astronomical incomes, it cannot be simply because of their own desires—whether ‘greedy’ or not—but because of what other people are willing to pay them. The real question, then, is: Why do other people choose to pay corporate executives so much?... Every time oil prices shoot up, there are cries of ‘greed’ and demands by politicians for an investigation of collusion by Big Oil. There have been more than a dozen investigations of oil companies over the years, and none of them has turned up the collusion that is supposed to be responsible for high gas prices. Now that oil prices have dropped big time, does that mean that oil companies have lost their ‘greed’? Or could it all be supply and demand—a cause and effect explanation that seems to be harder for some people to understand than emotions like ‘greed’?” —Thomas Sowell
“To understand why the Founders put war powers in the hands of the Presidency, look no further than the current spectacle in Congress on Iraq. What we are witnessing is a Federalist Papers illustration of criticism and micromanagement without responsibility. Consider the resolution pushed through the Senate Foreign Relations Committee... by Joe Biden and Chuck Hagel, two men who would love to be President... Both men voted for the Iraq War. But with that war proving to be more difficult than they thought, they now want to put themselves on record as opposing any further attempts to win it... In addition to being feckless, all of this is unconstitutional. As Commander-in-Chief, the President has the sole Constitutional authority to manage the war effort. Congress has two explicit war powers: It has the power to declare war, which in the case of Iraq it essentially did with its resolution of 2003. It also has the power to appropriate funds. There is a long and unsettled debate over whether Congress can decide to defund specific military operations once it has created a standing Army. We lean toward those who believe it cannot, but the Founders surely didn’t imagine that Congress could start dictating when and where the 101st Airborne could be deployed once a war is under way.” —The Wall Street Journal
Yesterday at Mass, while I was taking up the collection, I saw something I'd never seen in my more than two decades of ushering. A guy held up a $20 bill and asked me if I had a ten he could take back as change. I was so stunned I just answered his question with a "I don't know. I don't keep track of what people put in." He then reached into the basket and found two fives, dropped the twenty in and sent me on my way.
I told that to another usher, who's also been ushering a long time, and our associate pastor and neither of them had heard of it, either. Telling my girlfriend that night, we formulated a new (11th?) Commandment: "Thou shalt not make change from the collection basket."
She then proposed an additional one: "Thou shalt not allow thy cell phone to ring loudly during service." (She's Baptist.)
Later, a related occurred to me: "Thou shalt not answer thy cell phone during Mass/service." (Which I've sadly seen a number of times, including by a US Senator.)
So, any other suggestions?
I've crossposted this at Friends of Catholic Exchange and will bring the best suggestions from there over here and vice versa.
The relationship between faith and reason is a serious challenge for the present prevailing culture in the Western world, and it is precisely for this reason that our beloved John Paul II wrote an encyclical, which was entitled precisely "Fides et Ratio" -- "Faith and Reason." I also took up this argument recently, in the address to the University of Regensburg.In reality, the modern development of the sciences brings countless positive effects, which must always be acknowledged. At the same time, however, it must be admitted that the tendency to consider true only that which can be experienced constitutes a limitation for human reason and produces a terrible schizophrenia, evident to all, because of which rationalism and materialism, and hypertechnology and unbridled instincts, coexist.
...
Faith implies reason and perfects it, and reason, illuminated by faith, finds the strength to rise to knowledge of God and of spiritual realities. Human reason loses nothing when it is open to the contents of faith; what is more, the latter calls for its free and conscious adherence.
Faith without reason is superstition and reason without faith has no meaning. You need both to truly understand reality.
I was given a flier about how much the benefits Catholic schools bring to the community here in Delaware:
Savings to the Community
· Delaware spends more than $9,700 per public school student, on average
· Almost 13,000 students attend Catholic schools in Delaware (more than 1 out of ten Delaware students attend Catholic schools)
· Therefore Catholic school families save the state of Delaware at least $126,000,000 a year. (Note: That figure might be a little high. If there are 13,000 students in Delaware Catholic schools, a percentage of them are residents of other states. I was friends with Pennsylvanians, Marylanders and New Jersey-ites (?) throughout high school. But the savings to Delaware taxpayers are certainly in the 9 figures annually.) Imagine how high our school taxes would be without Catholic schools.
Quality
Achievement
| Grade Equivalent Based on National Test Score | |||
| Grade 3 | Grade 5 | Grade 7 | |
| Reading Composite | 5.5 | 9.7 | 11.0 |
| Language Composite | 6.8 | 10.3 | 12.6 |
| Math Composite | 4.7 | 7.0 | 10.3 |
| Science | 5.0 | 7.5 | 10.8 |
| Social Studies | 5.6 | 7.4 | 11.5 |
Source: Delaware Alliance of Catholic School Parents
Now, one obvious response to the above achievement is the issue of student selection. Public schools have to take everyone which private schools can take who they choose. While that's true in theory, in practice it's not so true. For example, my parish school, St. Ann's Elementary, is slightly under capacity and could take more students if more applied. I was told my senior year at Salesianum that in the four years I was there, we had turned down a total of two students, and they tested as legitimately retarded and therefore needed special schooling. And from personal observation, I attended school with people who would not have been admitted in a truly competitive environment.
None of the above benefits include perhaps the most important element of education: forming whole persons, those who are good people. Learning proper values and a sense of responsibility are at the center of every school experience. I was thinking this past week that for all the importance and focus given to the three R's (reading, 'riting, and 'rithmetic), there two even more R's we need to teach our children: right and 'rong. Those R's are at the center of every Catholic education.
So, when considering where to send your children to school, take a look at Catholic schools, where they get a thorough education in the things that truly matter.
Meme going around, via American Papist:
I'm tagging: Ann(-e), Duffy, Miriam, and the members of the DCBA
If someone had predicted 40 years ago that by the Third Millennium, marriage and family life would be thriving, child abuse eliminated, abortion almost nonexistent, teenage pregnancy a thing of the past, and people in general enjoying a level of contentment and happiness unsurpassed in human history, we would not consider this person a very accurate social forecaster. A meteorologist, who was so mistaken on his predictions, would be unemployed.On the other hand, if someone 40 years ago had predicted that in the beginning of the Third Millennium, the institution of marriage itself would be weakened as in no other moment in the history of Western civilization, sexual promiscuity and its related health problems would be rampant, abortion would be both legal and common, pornography would become culturally acceptable, and some nations would actually force their citizens to limit family size, we would have to acknowledge this person ’s wisdom and adeptness at recognizing the long-term consequences of social trends.
...
The argument was made that the widespread use of artificial contraception would result in every child being a wanted child, virtually eliminating child abuse and abortion. It was asserted that easy access for adolescents to contraceptives would rid society of teen pregnancy. Liberated from the repression of sexual activity, caused in part by the fear of pregnancy, advocates of “The Pill” predicted that the mental health of the general population would improve significantly.On the other hand, Pope Paul VI, in his much-criticized 1968 encyclical letter, “Humanae Vitae” (“Of Human Life”), in the process of re-articulating the church’s teaching on the nature of marriage, identifies many of the inevitable societal consequences resulting from a redefinition of the meaning of sexual intimacy that excludes its life-giving power. He specifically cites: 1) “the general lowering of morality”; 2) an increase in marital infidelity; and 3) the effect on the young, particularly young men, encouraging a disregard for the moral law and the treatment of women as “a mere instrument of selfish enjoyment.”
Pope Paul VI also anticipated China’s One-Child Policy by predicting government policies that would attempt to impose contraception on their citizens. Pope Paul VI also foresaw that the widespread use of the artificial means of contraception would lead to a cultural acceptance of both abortion and pornography.
...
Was “Humanae Vitae” a desperate effort to present an antiquated morality? Or was it a prophetic statement of the truth and consequences of abandoning our traditional morals? What does the experience of the past 40 years teach us? Think about it!
If you take the time to read Humane Vitae, I think you'll be surprised by how prophetic it was and how much it just makes sense. I accepted the Church teaching on artificial contraception but didn't really believe it until I'd read this document. It's so clear and well thought-out, it's hard to argue with once you open yourself to its logic.
As as Archbishop Naumann argues in the column excerpted above, it's hard to ague that contraception has had the effect that was promised: child and spousal abuse are more common, rapes have increased, pornography is everywhere and abortion is rampant. Without the contraception revolution, society would likely be in a much better place.
Hat Tip: The Curt Jester
Today is the feast of Saint Angela Merici, patron saint of Wilmington's Ursuline Academy and foundress of the Ursuline sisters.
Catholic Encyclopedia entry
Catholic Forum
ReflectionCatholic.org:
When she was 56, Angela Merici said "No" to the Pope. She was aware that Clement VII was offering her a great honor and a great opportunity to serve when he asked her to take charge of a religious order of nursing sisters. But Angela knew that nursing was not what God had called her to do with her life.
Hat Tip: Miriam's Ideas
Garry Kasparov on Russia's descent into despotism
This is a story that people aren't paying attention to. Just as many on the Left are sticking their fingers in their ears and closing their eyes as their idol Hugo Chavez shows his totalitarian tendencies, most people are missing the consolidation of power and crushing of dissent going on in Russia. The Bush Administration, at least publicly, is one of those missing the boat on this critical issue. Bush claims to have looked into Putin's heart and seen that he's a good person, but events would indicate otherwise. (Jesus asks each of us to have the heart of a child; I'm concerned that Putin keeps his in a jar on his desk.) Foruantely, Kasparov and many others have formed a multi-lateral association in Russia to defend against Putin's power grab, but they need international support. Unfortunately, many nations seem to be looking the other way in favor of closer with Putin's government. (See Kasparov's comments on inviting Russia to join what is now the G-8.)
We may ahve won the Cold War, but we're in danger of allowing another dictatorship to come back to Russia if we're not careful.
Click the image to order.
I was sent these quotes in the mail yesterday and thought they were worth sharing, although I'd seen them all before:
"Here's my strategy on the Cold War: We win, they lose."
- Ronald Reagan
"The most terrifying words in the English language are: I'm from the government and I'm here to help."
- Ronald Reagan
"The trouble with our liberal friends is not that they're ignorant: It's just that they know so much that isn't so."
- Ronald Reagan
"Of the four wars in my lifetime none came about because the U.S. was too strong."
- Ronald Reagan
"I have wondered at times about what the Ten Commandment's would have looked like if Moses had run them through the U.S. Congress."
- Ronald Reagan
"The taxpayer: That's someone who works for the federal government but doesn't have to take the civil service examination."
- Ronald Reagan
"Government is like a baby: An alimentary canal with a big appetite at one end and no sense of responsibility at the other."
- Ronald Reagan
"The nearest thing to eternal life we will ever see on this earth is a government program."
- Ronald Reagan
"I've laid down the law, though, to everyone from now on about anything that happens: no matter what time it is, wake me, even if it's in the middle of a Cabinet meeting."
- Ronald Reagan
"It has been said that politics is the second oldest profession. I have learned that it bears a striking resemblance to the first."
- Ronald Reagan
"Government's view of the economy could be summed up in a few short phrases: If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it stops moving, subsidize it."
- Ronald Reagan
"Politics is not a bad profession. If you succeed there are many rewards, if you disgrace your self you can always write a book."
- Ronald Reagan
"No arsenal, or no weapon in the arsenals of the world, is so formidable as the will and moral courage of free men and women.
- Ronald Reagan
"If we ever forget that we're one nation under God, then we will be a nation gone under"
- Ronald Reagan
Link to video if above embedding doesn't work
She's 12 and doing some amazing work as a self-taught artist, claiming to inspired by God. She was raised an atheist, but at age 4 began claiming to have visits and visions from God.
Check out her website: ArtAkiane.com
Hat Tip: Jimmy Akin
Well, nuts to that. Look, ladies, deciding not to marry for your own well-being is one thing, but it is us you're not marrying in the process. Your decision is killing us single men — literally.Single men partake in more risky behavior than married men. We eat badly, smoke more, and avoid doctors' offices. We die younger. We're far more likely to wake up in a pile of crumpled newspapers still clutching the tequila bottle we began sipping from two days before.
The reason why is not complicated. We are social animals. Men and women are very different creatures, but we were made for each other. The Catholics call it complementarity — a man and woman, in union and harmony, round each other out.
Men need to be rounded out, too. Take dust. Because our brains take in less sensory detail than a woman's, we don't notice dust. Thus, married men tend to live in orderly, dust-free homes, whereas single men, says P. J. O'Rourke, clean up their place about once every girlfriend.
...
Oh, just admit it, ladies. You need us, too. Sleeping next to a burping, snoring lug of a husband may not be the stuff dreams are made of, but it sure beats sleeping alone. When you hear a prowler rattling the door knob in the middle of the night, who will you send to investigate? Your cat?I know the Times is eager for a more "progressive" society to take hold — one in which the stodgy traditional marriage is kicked to the wayside — but the fact is that marriage, imperfect though it is, is good for us.
Married people are happier, says the Pew Research Center. They enjoy life more; they enjoy sex more, too. Children raised by married couples fare better. Society fares better. Successful civilizations are built on the stability that traditional marriage brings.
But despite these simple and obvious truths, we keep trying to reinvent our nature. We keep trying to prove there are better ways to fulfill our simple needs; keep trying to leave every option open, so that we can be "free" and "independent" forever.
And we end up alone.
Marriage is the foundation of all stable, civilized societies. We destroy it at our own peril. It's good for society and it's good for the man and woman in the marriage.
"In the writings of the Ephesians there was this precept, constantly to think of some one of the men of former times who practiced virtue." - Marcus Aurelius
"I am entirely persuaded that the American public is more reasonable, restrained and mature than most of the broadcast industry's planners believe." - Edward R. Murrow
"When the political columnists say ‘Every thinking man' they mean themselves, and when candidates appeal to ‘Every intelligent voter' they mean everybody who is going to vote for them." - Franklin P. Adams
"Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it whether it exists or not, diagnosing it incorrectly, and applying the wrong remedy." - Ernest Benn
"Sen. Clinton ticked off the issues about which she is ticked off, because she says the Bush administration has failed to deal with them. They include health care, Social Security, Medicare and Iraq. The Bush administration has attempted to address all of these, but Democrats have blocked any progress. It's an old political trick. You work against success and then blame failure on the president." - Cal Thomas
"In Congress, Democrats have decided to chip away at the war with various symbolic postures but not to oppose it outright: That way, if things go well, they can muscle in on the credit, but if things go badly, they'll be able to say they told you so without getting stuck with the blame." - Mark Steyn
"Our political elite and chattering classes deserve a stiff rebuke for ignoring- and encouraging the public to ignore- the truth: In a global war for the Free World, there is nowhere to run." - Frank Gaffney
"I find myself arguing with a whole bunch of people on the left who ‘know' things that aren't true. I'm both amused and surprised not only at the ignorance out there, but the confidence with which it is bandied about." - Dinesh D'Souza
"[This] is a world in which facts always bow to feelings. What matters is not so much that you do good, but that you feel virtuous, or perhaps more to the point, are seen to be virtuous." - Mona Charen
"So now, as the U.S. and its allies work to economically isolate Iran, as a second aircraft carrier heads to the Persian Gulf, as coalition forces arrest Iranian officials suspected of stirring violence in Iraq, what is Russia's response? Last week, Russian defense minister Sergei Ivanov confirmed that Moscow had sold air defense missiles to Iran. Yes, that's right. Russia is selling weapons to Iran. It's selling weapons to a state that is a leading sponsor of terrorism, whose president has vowed to wipe Israel off the map. It is selling these weapons even though the UN has been warning and cajoling and threatening Iran to stop its nuclear program for years. How did Ivanov justify the sale? Simple. It was all part of a contract signed in December 2005. Translation: Business is business, and to hell with the rest of the world. The Russians insisted that the sale doesn't violate any international agreements. And that the missiles are short-range and purely defensive. But let's see. What might Iran be defending? Its illegal uranium-enrichment sites? Other nuclear facilities where it is likely to be developing the expertise to build a bomb? And whose forces would be the likely targets of those missiles? The Russians, like the Chinese, issue reassuring pronouncements about opposing Iran's nuclear march. The Chinese recently called on the Iranians to give a ‘serious response' to the UN resolution. Yes, harumph, harumph. Serious!... Iran poses a grave nuclear threat. Russia seems intent on giving it cover." - Chicago Tribune
"Obama is at that stage in Presidential politics which roughly equates to lighting a charcoal grill: You stack the briquettes, pour on the lighter fluid, throw in a match and... whoa! Smoke and fire and heat! Very exciting. But you can't cook a steak on that." - Rich Galen
"It's possible that nothing is going to fix Iraq, but ‘Why can't we all just get along' parleys have about as much chance of bringing the factions together and ending Iranian and Syrian mischief as a rabbi has of being elected king of Saudi Arabia." - Ralph Peters
Jay Leno: Spanish newspapers are reporting that Fidel Castro is in very grave condition, very ill health. In fact, his priest told him yesterday that he will soon be in a better place. And Castro said, ‘I'm going to Miami?' ... It was Castro's wish to be buried at sea, but, unfortunately, all the rafts are currently in use in Cuba. ... Senator Hillary Clinton is on her way back from a fact-finding tour of Iraq. She said although there are many problems in Iraq, she said there are good things about the Iraqi people- like the fact they hang adulterers. ... In her first press conference after her trip overseas, Hillary Clinton said she thinks we need to send more men to Afghanistan. The men she wants to send? John Edwards and Barack Obama.... Hillary says that she has gotten hundreds of calls telling her to go on the road and campaign for the next two years. That's just from her husband Bill. ... New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson is running for president. Which is good because every day we have thousands of new Mexicans who enter the country. ... Kansas Senator Sam Brownback says he is running. He said he's going to follow the yellow brick road to the White House. Just watch out for the Wicked Witch of New York! ... John Kerry says that he loves cookies so much that he thinks he is the illegitimate son of Cookie Monster. Really? Looks more like the illegitimate son of Herman Munster.
Francis didn't merely argue that all people were called to holiness; he argued that each must live it out in a different manner as befit their state in life. While it may seem obvious to us now that a priest had a different calling to live out the faith than a lay person, at times through Church history the idea creeps in that only those in religious life are called to holiness. Francis demolished that idea and showed how people could live out holiness regardless of their state in life.
He was ordained as Bishop of Geneva, but due to the strong Calvinist influence at the time, Geneva was fiercely anti-Catholic. So, he published a series of letters, called The Catholic Controversy, which succeeded in winning many back to the Church.
He is a Doctor of the Church, meaning his writing are recognized as timeless and having values to all Christians regardless of where or when they live. He is the patron saint of the Oblates of Saint Francis de Sales, the Catholic Diocese of Wilmington, Salesianum School, writers, journalists, deaf people, and teachers, among many others. (Given that there is no patron saint of bloggers as yet, we might look to him for guidance as we blog.)
More about Saint Francis de Sales:
WikiPedia
Catholic Encyclopedia
Catholic Forum
Catholic.org
UPDATE: Introduction to the Devout life is available in its entirety for free on the Internet, courtesy of DeSales University.
Hat Tip: Amy Welborn
