Gazizza.Net

"May the father of all mercies scatter light, and not darkness, upon our paths, and make us in all our several vocations useful here, and in His own due time and way everlastingly happy." - George Washington

"On Monday [Rev. Wright] insisted that he is not anti-American: It is, he said, Americans' government, not the American public, that is a genocidal perpetrator of terrorism. So, he now denies that America has a representative government- that it represents the public. He believes that elections constantly and mysteriously- and against the public's will- produce a genocidal, terroristic government." - George Will

"I am all too familiar with the false theology of these racist black preachers. [They]... attempt to use their pulpit, the Bible and God himself to hide the evil that lies within their hearts. They use the anger of black Americans to keep them demoralized, dependent and Democrat." - Rev. Jesse Lee Peterson

"Could the pastor of a man hoping to become president really have said those things? And what would it mean for the nation and the world if America's highest officeholder had marinated for 20 years in that kind of thinking?" - Kathleen Parker

"Whom will Obama believe and trust if he is the president? How will he judge an ally and an enemy? How will he staff a vast Executive Branch? Whom will he appoint to the Supreme Court and how will he judge their characters and their personal histories?... If he even figures out who the radicals are, will he have the courage to refuse them office or influence?" - Hugh Hewitt

"The biofuels debacle is global warm-mongering in a nutshell: The first victims of poseur environmentalism will always be developing countries. In order for you to put biofuel in your Prius and feel good about yourself for no reason, real actual people in faraway places have to starve to death." - Mark Steyn

"Sometimes people come up to me and inquire, 'Justice Scalia, when did you first become an originalist?' You know, as though it's some weird affliction, you know, 'When did you start eating human flesh?"' - Justice Antonin Scalia

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I picked up this book after hearing an interview with the author on Catholic Answers Live. (Listen to the interview online.) By way of coincidence, the author Brennan Pursell is a professor at DeSales University in Allentown, run by the Oblates of Saint Francis de Sales, who also run the best damn high school around. Oh, and while I'm on the subject of my high school: St. Mark's sucks!

The point of this book is to draw a picture of Pope Benedict XVI not just as a theologian or a Bishop, but as a Bavarian. It does an excellent job of showing how growing up in Bavaria impacted the Pope's life making him the person he is today. By the accounts of all who actually know him, he is a gentle, humble kind man who tries to lead and persuade, rather than impose his will as some stereotypes would have it. It should hardly need to be done, but Pursell takes the time to deflate the myths of the "Panzer Cardinal," claims that Benedict was a Nazi who shot down American planes, or that he's a hardliner who crushes all questioning on theological topics. He shows the falsity of all of those claims with specific examples from Benedict's life.

He also provides an introduction to Benedict's theological thought and beliefs which serves as an interesting starting point for learning more about his approach to Christianity. An interesting note: his thesis was rejected the first time it was presented due to his contradiction of the beliefs of a member of the board presenting it, and a poor typing job. He was given the opportunity to revise it and re-present it, only to have the board turn on each other debating his central arguments. He was, of course, ultimately allowed to pass. History could have taken a much different path had he been rejected again.

One thing I had read a while back, but forgotten, that the book brings out is that Bavarians do not really consider themselves German. Having had independence from greater Germany for much of history, they don't feel as as strong a connection with the rest of the nation. (Religious difference likely exacerbate this: Bavaria tends to be very Catholic, especially when compared to the Protestantism of much of the rest of Germany.) Bavaria was one of the most anti-Hitler regions of Germany, as it wasn't until Hitler was given dictatorial powers that there was much of a Nazi presence in Bavaria, and even then it tended to be "softer" than in the rest of Germany, while still quite deadly to those who openly opposed Hitler, and there were quite a few Bavarians who met their end this way.

This book serves as both a useful introduction to Pope's theological views and his many theological books and a reminder that we can't understand the person Joseph Ratzinger if we think of him as German. He's not: he's Bavarian as this book amply shows and explains. It's a great way to get to know our "German Shepherd."

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BBC NEWS | Business | US grows by 0.6% in first quarter

The US economy grew by 0.6% in the first quarter of 2008.

The first quarter figure exceeded analyst expectations of a 0.2% growth and eased expectations of an economic slowdown.

Somehow, I doubt the media will be trumpeting these results. To the extent they're covered, it will be with a "yeah, but..." attitude. Because good economic news under a Republican presidency is no news.

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SEVERE language warning

Lee Elia Tirade

Earl Weaver on Orioles Hangout

A drunk John Wayne on college protesters

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Click on the image to see it larger.

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Loyola Press had a promotion where people participating in a parish RCIA program either as candidates for full communion with the Catholic Church or as team members could receive a free book from their catalog. I looked at the books they were making available through the program and selected Living the Mass: How one hour a week can change your life by Father Dominic Grassi and Joe Paprocki. I didn't really have high expectations for the book, as I had a hunch based on past experience with Loyola Press that the book would be somewhat fluffy and lightweight. Plus, you get you what you pay for, right?

Well, I wasn't wrong... The book was kind of light and fluffy and I didn't find much new in the way of insight. And the authors got some stuff wrong: they belittled the "old" Mass for giving people the supposedly mistaken notion that the priest alone, without participation from the laity present, performs the consecration, changing the bread and wine into the Body and Blood of Christ. Of course, this is exactly what happens, as the priest-author should know, especially since he relates that he often celebrates the Mass alone, as priests are encouraged to do on days when they are not publicly celebrating the Mass. If the laity's attendance were essential to the consecration, then he couldn't perform the consecration alone. (I don't think I misinterpreted what they were writing; I read the paragraph a number of times.)

In addition, they seem to develop a false dichotomy between the body and the blood of Christ saying that receiving under the appearance of bread expresses our unity with all of Christ's baptized people, since "through baptism, we become members of his mystical body", while receiving from the cup expresses our "commitment to the mission of the church." There are a number of problems with this section. First, there is no separation between the body and the blood under the two different species. Receiving either under the appearance of bread or under the appearance of wine gives us the fullness of Christ's body, blood, soul and divinity. Receiving under both species is not necessary. While describing that way might be helpful and make it more meaningful, implying that both are necessary is incorrect and against the long-held teaching of the Church. Additionally, if receiving under the form of bread expresses our unity with all the baptized, why has the Catholic Church always restricted reception to those in full communion and good standing with the Catholic Church, excluding those Catholics not yet admitted to Communion, those not in a state of grace, and non-Catholic Christians?

I can't really recommend this book. The theology is shaky and I think it really fails in its main mission of inspiring us to live the Mass during the week.

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Townhall.com::An Old Newness::By Thomas Sowell

Many years ago, a great hitter named Paul Waner was nearing the end of his long career. He entered a ballgame with 2,999 hits -- one hit away from the landmark total of 3,000, which so many hitters want to reach, but which relatively few actually do reach.

Waner hit a ball that the fielder did not handle cleanly but the official scorer called it a hit, making it Waner's 3,000th. Paul Waner then sent word to the official scorer that he did not want that questionable hit to be the one that put him over the top.

The official scorer reversed himself and called it an error. Later Paul Waner got a clean hit for number 3,000.

What reminded me of this is the great fervor that many seem to feel over the prospect of the first black President of the United States.

No doubt it is only a matter of time before there is a black president, just as it was only a matter of time before Paul Waner got his 3,000th hit. The issue is whether we want to reach that landmark so badly that we are willing to overlook how questionably that landmark is reached.

I'm a sucker for a good baseball analogy, especially when it works as it does here. We shouldn't obsess ourselves with getting "the first black President" (or woman President for that matter); rather, we should focus ourselves on getting the best president we can at all times. Just like Paul Waner wanting to earn his 3000th hit, the first black President should be someone capable and qualified. Obama seems to fail on both accounts.

We had a similar situation in Wilmington last decade. Jim Sills was the first black mayor of Wilmington and that seemed to put him beyond reproach in many people's eyes. Meanwhile, his administration was spending like crazy, destroying the tax base, handcuffing police among lots of other damage he did to Wilmington, that we're still trying to fix and recover from. But he was untouchable in many eyes due to his status as "the first black mayor."

Electing on identity politics alone, as Obama's and Hillary's supporters often seem to be pushing, can be very damaging if the wrong person is being elected due to their identity. Wilmington's past shows that, and it's lesson the entire nation shouldn't be forced to learn.

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I recently read that love is entirely a matter of chemistry. That must be why my wife treats me like toxic waste.
David Bissonette

When a man steals your wife, there is no better revenge than to let him keep her.
Sacha Guitry

After marriage, husband and wife become two sides of a coin; they just can't face each other, but still they stay together.
Hemant Joshi

By all means marry. If you get a good wife, you'll be happy. If you get a bad one, you'll become a philosopher. Socrates

Woman inspires us to great things, and prevents us from achieving them.
Dumas

The great question... which I have not been able to answer... is, "What does a woman want?
Sigmund Freud

I had some words with my wife, and she had some paragraphs with me.
Anonymous
"Some p eople ask the secret of our long marriage. We take time to go to a restaurant two times a week. A little candlelight, dinner, soft music and dancing. She goes Tuesdays, I go Fridays."
Henny Youngman

"I don't worry about terrorism. I was married for two years."
Sam Kinison

"There's a way of transferring funds that is even faster than electronic banking. It's called marriage."
James Holt McGavran

"I've had bad luck with both my wives. The first one left me, and the second one didn't."
Patrick Murray

Two secrets to keep your marriage brimming
1. Whenever you're wrong, admit it,
2. Whenever you're right, shut up.
Nash

The most effective way to remember your wife's birthday is to forget it once...
Anonymous

You know what I did before I married? Anything I wanted to.
Henny Youngman

My wife and I were happy for twenty years. Then we met.
Rodney Dangerfield

A good wife always forgives her husband when she's wrong.
Milton Berle

Marriage is the only war where one sleeps with the enemy.
Anonymous
A son asked his Dad how much it costs to get married. His Dad replied: I don't know son, I'm still paying.

A man inserted an 'ad' in the classifieds: "Wife wanted". Next day he received a hundred letters. They all said the same thing: "You can have mine."
Anonymous

First Guy (proudly): "My wife's an angel!"
Second Guy: "You're lucky, mine's still alive."

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I don't carry a gun to kill people. I carry a gun to keep from being killed.

I don't carry a gun to scare people.
I carry a gun because sometimes this world can be a scary place.

I don't carry a gun because I'm paranoid.
I carry a gun because there are real threats in the world.

I don't carry a gun because I'm evil.
I carry a gun because I have lived long enough to see the evil in the world.

I don't carry a gun because I hate the government.
I carry a gun because I understand the limitations of government.

I don't carry a gun because I'm angry.
I carry a gun so that I don't have to spend the rest of my life hating myself for failing to be prepared.

I don't carry a gun because I want to shoot someone.
I carry a gun because I want to die at a ripe old age in my bed, and not on a sidewalk somewhere tomorrow afternoon.

I don't carry a gun because I'm a cowboy.
I carry a gun because, when I die and go to heaven, I want to be a cowboy.

I don't carry a gun to make me feel like a man.
I carry a gun because men know how to take care of themselves and the ones they love.

I don't carry a gun because I feel inadequate.
I carry a gun because unarmed and facing three armed thugs, I am inadequate.

I don't carry a gun because I love it.
I carry a gun because I love life and the people who make it meaningful to me.

"Police Protection" is an oxymoron.
Free citizens must protect themselves.

Police do not protect you from crime,
they usually just investigate the crime after it happens
and then call someone in to clean up the mess.

John Steinbeck issued a warning that all should remember:
"Don't pick a fight with an old man. If he is too old to fight, he'll just kill you.

Personally, I carry a gun because I'm too young to die
and too old to take an ass kickin'.

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Elbert tagged me with the following meme:

1. Write a six-word memoir.
2. Post it on your blog (accompanying pics, art, music, etc. optional).
3. Link to the person that tagged you in your post.
4. Tag five more blogs with links.
5. Leave a comment on the tagged blogs with an invitation to engage.

Two thought:

What the hell's wrong with him:

Paul, in Just one Word: Conservative

I hate tagging people, so do it or don't do it as you choose

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The Top 22 Geek Bumper Stickers (Part II)

1f U c4n r34D tH15, U n33D 2 G3t l41D

IT guys do it with... oh, who am I kidding?

</tailgating><bitch>

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This past weekend, official Washington gathered for its fancy prom night, otherwise known as the White House Correspondents dinner. At a garden party preceding the event, Terry McAuliffe, Hillary Clinton's finance chair, was nonplussed when asked at the registration table to fill out a ballot asking whom he thought would win this fall's presidential election.

"You gotta be kidding me, you know who I am? You still want me to vote?" he said. He was told the party's organizers still wanted him to vote. Mr. McAuliffe then attempted to use a pen to fill out his ballot. But no matter how hard he put pen to paper, it wouldn't write, frustrating the top Clinton honcho. The lady at the registration table told him just to rip a hole in the ballot paper. A guest standing behind him yelled out, "Dude, just hang a chad."

Mr. McAuliffe wasn't amused, especially when another guest shouted out that the pen incident was a clear sign from the heavens that the Clinton fund-raising machine was running dry too.

Source: OpinionJournal.com's Political Diary

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"Were we directed from Washington when to sow, and when to reap, we should soon want bread." - Thomas Jefferson

"[T]he most recent government data shows food inflation for the average American household is now running at 4.5% a year. And some prices are rising even more quickly. The latest data show cereal prices rising by more than 8% a year. Both flour and rice are up more than 13%. Milk, cheese, bananas and even peanut butter: They're all up by more than 10%. Eggs have rocketed up 30% in a year. Ground beef prices are up 4.8% and chicken by 5.4%. These are trends that have been in place for some time. And if you are hoping they will pass, here's the bad news: They may actually accelerate. The reason? The prices of many underlying raw materials have risen much more quickly still. Wheat prices, for example, have roughly tripled in the past three years. Sooner or later, the food companies are going to have to pass those costs on. Kraft saw its raw material costs soar by about $1.25 billion last year, squeezing profit margins. The company recently warned that higher prices are here to stay. Last month the chief executive of General Mills, Kendall Powell, made a similar point. The main reason for rising prices, of course, is the surge in demand from China and India. Hundreds of millions of people are joining the middle class each year, and that means they want to eat more and better food. A secondary reason has been the growing demand for ethanol as a fuel additive. That's soaking up some of the corn supply... The emerging bull market in agricultural products is following in the footsteps of oil. A few years ago, many Americans hoped $2 gas was a temporary spike. Now it's the rosy memory of a bygone age." - Brett Arends

"We have the right, as individuals, to give away as much of our own money as we please in charity; but as members of Congress we have no right so to appropriate a dollar of the public money." - Davy Crockett

"[W]hen we talk about federalism here in Washington, we're really talking about putting the States more and more in charge. And that means that if what we conservatives believe in, if the principles that we stand for, are to succeed and prevail, we will need more conservatives... in our State legislatures... I can't help wondering about that old argument for federalism. It used to be said that if we gave the States more power they'd show that they had the maturity to handle as well as Congress handles its power. Talk about faint praise." - Ronald Reagan

"Politicians love a 'crisis.' John McCain, Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama all think that the government should bail out homeowners who can't pay their mortgages. When they say the government should do this, they mean the taxpayers, including those who are paying their mortgages. They also think the government should regulate the lending and investment industries further. Why? Because 'crisis' justifies making big government bigger. It's why we now have a global warming 'crisis' and in previous years we had 'crises' over avian flu, the Y2K threat to computers, imaginary cancer spikes caused by pesticides, killer bees flying up from Mexico, and uncontrolled population growth leading to a 'Population Bomb' that will bring 'riots and mass starvation' by the year 2000. This is not to say that lots of homebuyers aren't having a hard time. But the rapid rise and fall in housing values in some parts of the country- and the rippling consequences at each stage- do not justify scrapping what we know about economic success and turning to government control. Prosperity and stability come from people being free to innovate and produce- and yes, fail... The best regulator of economic activity and source of knowledge is free competition. Of course, government inhibits that in many ways. If we want to avoid disruptions like the current one, let's undertake a wholesale examination of government intervention in the economy. Freedom, not control, is the ticket to success." - John Stossel

"Hillary Clinton is not Barack Obama's problem. America is Mr. Obama's problem. He has been tagged as a snooty lefty, as the glamorous, ambivalent candidate from Men's Vogue, the candidate who loves America because of the great progress it has made in terms of racial fairness. Fine, good. But has he ever gotten misty-eyed over ... the Wright Brothers and what kind of country allowed them to go off on their own and change everything? How about D-Day, or George Washington, or Henry Ford, or the losers and brigands who flocked to Sutter's Mill, who pushed their way west because there was gold in them thar hills? There's gold in that history. John McCain carries it in his bones. Mr. McCain learned it in school, in the Naval Academy, and, literally, at grandpa's knee. Mrs. Clinton learned at least its importance in her long slog through Arkansas, circa 1977-92. Mr. Obama? What does he think about all that history? Which is another way of saying: What does he think of America? That's why people talk about the flag pin absent from the lapel. They wonder if it means something. Not that the presence of the pin proves love of country any cynic can wear a pin, and many cynics do. But what about Obama and America? Who would have taught him to love it, and what did he learn was loveable, and what does he think about it all?" - Peggy Noonan

"Take [William] Ayers. Obama makes it sound as if the relationship consists of having run into each other at the DMV. In fact, Obama's political career was launched in a 1995 meeting at Ayers' home. Obama's own campaign says that they maintain 'friendly' relations. Obama's defense is that he was 8 when Ayers and his Weather Underground comrades were planting bombs at the Pentagon, the U.S. Capitol and other buildings. True. But Obama was 40 when Ayers said publicly that he doesn't regret setting bombs. Indeed, he said, 'I feel we didn't do enough.' Would you maintain friendly relations with an unrepentant terrorist?... As people begin to learn about this just-arrived pretender, the magic dissipates. He spent six weeks in Pennsylvania. Outspent Hillary more than two to one. Ran close to 10,000 television ads- spending more than anyone in any race in the history of the state- and lost by 10 points. And not because he insufficiently demagogued NAFTA or the other 'issues.' It was because of those 'distractions' - i.e., the things that most reveal character and core beliefs." - Charles Krauthammer

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when the Constitution Party doesn't want you as its nominee:

Meeting in Kansas City on Saturday, the Constitution Party tapped talk show host Chuck Baldwin over former ambassador Alan Keyes as its 2008 presidential nominee.

The pick was seen as something of an upset, given Keyes' higher national profile. Known for his fiery stemwinders, Keyes is a two-time GOP presidential candidate who abandoned the Republican Party this month to join the Constitution Party, which stands for limited government and is committed to ending abortion and bringing U.S. troops home from Iraq.

Alan Keyes, please exit stage right.

Hat Tip: The Constitution Center

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Some pro-lifers are calling for this video to be removed from YouTube, but I think that would be a mistake. This video, whether intentionally or not, shows how abortion is really about keeping men from having to deal with the consequences of their actions. Far from "choosing" abortion, many women who have had abortions state they felt pressured into aborting a child they would have liked to have kept.

Abortion is the irresponsible man's best friend: a loophole in case the girl he's using get pregnant. This video shows that and that abortion is one more manifestation of violence against women.

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Reports: Fallon to succeed Conan on 'Late Night' - CNN.com

Jimmy Fallon appears to be inching closer to Conan O'Brien's "Late Night" chair.

What's the show going to be? An hour of the host giggling while trying to make jokes?

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1951 After being delayed because somebody stole it, the cornerstone for the new state police Penny Hill station was finally laid by Governor Elbert Carvel.

That makes me laugh.

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"The citizens of the United States of America have the right to applaud themselves for having given to mankind examples of an enlarged and liberal policy worthy of imitation. All possess alike liberty of conscience and immunities of citizenship. It is now no more that toleration is spoken of as if it were by the indulgence of one class of citizens that another enjoyed the exercise of their inherent natural rights, for happily the Government of the United States, which gives to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance, requires only that they who live under its protection should demean themselves as good citizens in giving it on all occasions their effectual support."

-- George Washington (letter to the Hebrew Congregation of Newport, Rhode Island, 9 September 1790)

Reference: Our Sacred Honor, Bennett (330)

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Our Local Correspondents: Up and Then Down

Interesting article on elevators. Some highlights:

The story of a man trapped on an elevator for 41 hours

Loading up an empty elevator car with discarded Christmas trees, pressing the button for the top floor, then throwing in a match, so that by the time the car reaches the top it is ablaze with heat so intense that the alloy (called “babbitt”) connecting the cables to the car melts, and the car, a fireball now, plunges into the pit: this practice, apparently popular in New York City housing projects, is inadvisable.

What's wrong with the people who do this sort of thing?

In most elevators, at least in any built or installed since the early nineties, the door-close button doesn’t work. It is there mainly to make you think it works.

Just like those buttons that are supposed to help you cross the street, no doubt.

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"We never cease to be amazed by the inability of the left to feel shame and its lack of reverence for America and those who defend its freedoms, including the right to be stupid. The cover of the April 21 issue of Time, taking the famous Joe Rosenthal photo of Marines planting our flag on the blood-soaked island of Iwo Jima and replacing our flag with a tree, qualifies for obscenity of the year. It echoes the greenie theme first advanced by Al Gore in his book Earth In The Balance that the internal combustion engine is the greatest threat in the history of mankind. Gore and Bill Clinton have both said that global warming is ultimately a greater threat than terrorism... This trivializing of the sacrifice of American blood and treasure to defend freedom ignores the fact that in World War II we faced a real enemy with a terrible agenda. The bombs that fell on Pearl Harbor were quite real, not the output of some badly fed computer model. 'Global warming may or may not be a significant threat to the United States,' Tim Holbert, a spokesman for the American Veterans Center, [said]: 'The Japanese Empire on February 1945, however, certainly was, and this photo trivializes the most recognizable moment of one of the bloodiest battles in U.S. history'." - Investor's Business Daily

"When a man ceases to believe in God, he doesn't believe in nothing. He believes in anything." - G. K. Chesterton

"There is an inverse relationship between reliance on the state and self-reliance." - William F. Buckley Jr.

"We have to get back to the values and perceptions of those wise old dead white guys who invented this country." - Charlton Heston

"The Constitution is a written instrument. As such it's meaning does not alter. That which it meant when adopted, it means now." - United States Supreme Court, South Carolina vs. United States, 1905

"Outside the teachings of religion there is no answer to the problems of life." - Calvin Coolidge

"[Hillary's win in Pennsylvania] is great news. For Sen. John McCain. She's never getting out. Hillary will not leave the race tonight. She will not leave the race before the convention in August. She may not leave the race ever." - Rich Galen

"One of the key questions for a president is where do you draw your team from? Who are your friends? What and who influenced you?... When will the MSM get around to a sustained examination of Obama's ideological history? Thus far the farthest left major party candidate in American political history has received the least scrutiny of any modern near nominee of a major party." - Hugh Hewitt

"Ultimately, people have to wonder what it is about Obama that attracts the support of Hamas, Communists, and domestic terrorists to him." - Matt Lewis

"The big irony here is that while Obama has done extremely well for himself in our very unique free-market economy, he has the 'audacity' to demonize others who have done well for themselves, and to propose economic policies that, if implemented, would radically change our nation into something more akin to a Western European socialist state." - Austin Hill

"I think a healthy society needs both God and guns: it benefits from a belief in some kind of higher purpose to life on earth, and it requires a self-reliant citizenry. If you lack either of those twin props, you wind up with today's Europe- a present-tense Eutopia mired in fatalism." - Mark Steyn

"My guess is if tax time meant that everybody had to reach into his or her own bank accounts for the full tax amount owed, there would be a new mindset about taxes. Why don't we try it?" - Matt Towery

"The liberal world order will not let go of their global-warming assault on free economies until hell freezes over- by which point, obviously, the global-warming theory will be visibly disproven." - Tony Blankley

"The Carter administration was that bad: stagflation, gas lines, appeasement, never-ending sanctimony... You name a colossal mistake and Jimmy Carter probably made it a policy." - Paul Greenberg

"Hillary Clinton was endorsed by the Plasterers Union Tuesday. Support law and order, you get the Police Union, support tariffs, you get the autoworkers. Drink a shot and a beer on camera, and you are the national spokesman for getting plastered." - Argus Hamilton

Jay Leno: In Pennsylvania, Hillary and Obama celebrated Earth Day by throwing dirt at each other. ... According to some of the political blogs, Democratic operatives have been looking for dirt on John McCain since February. You know what you call someone who digs up dirt on John McCain? An archaeologist. ... As you know, Hillary Clinton is trying to appeal to the blue-collar voters. She's drinking, talking about hunting and fishing, and it's working. She is now, in the latest poll, up eight points in the mullet vote. ...

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I don't think so either, but the American Papist spotted her wearing a Marian bracelet on the day of the Pennsylvania primary. (Follow the link to see pictures.)

In the spirit of my hopes that President Bush might join the Church, I'll repeat that all are welcome, even Hillary.

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Pic: Firefox in space | Geekend | TechRepublic.com

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The Club For Growth - http://www.clubforgrowth.org

In between innings of the Phillies-Mets game on Sunday, a segment aired on the center field screen asking the Philly players what they would change in the world. While most of the players cited world peace, Cole Hamels said that " there are too many taxes."

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The Campaign Spot on National Review Online

"Here, in Youngstown and across America, obviously the answer to our problems is not the siren song of protectionism," McCain said during a stop at Fabart, a rusting steel-fabricating plant that has only five remaining workers. "Protectionism and isolation has never worked in America's history."

According to USA Today, a former AFL-CIO official told McCain that in that region, NAFTA is a "four letter word."

McCain's response? "Jack, I am prone on occasion to make mistakes, but the last time I checked, NAFTA is five letters."

As frustrating as McCain's been to conservatives over the years, I'm starting to reflect that he's right on the most important issues that face us today: Iraq, the right to life, free trade, taxes, etc. The issues where we disagree with him and he frustrates us the most are secondary. (Or in the case of his support for global warming remedies can likely be stopped by a determined GOP filibuster in the Senate.)

He's bothering me less and less all the time. Either that, or the Kool-Aid's tasting really good.

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YouTube - Tax Freedom Day: The Song!

Hat Tip The Corner

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Washington Policy Center - Press Releases

• “...civilization will end within 15 or 30 years unless immediate action is taken against problems facing mankind,” biologist George Wald, Harvard University, April 19, 1970.

• By 1995, “...somewhere between 75 and 85 percent of all the species of living animals will be extinct.” Sen. Gaylord Nelson, quoting Dr. S. Dillon Ripley, Look magazine, April 1970.

• Because of increased dust, cloud cover and water vapor “...the planet will cool, the water vapor will fall and freeze, and a new Ice Age will be born,” Newsweek magazine, January 26, 1970.

• The world will be “...eleven degrees colder in the year 2000. This is about twice what it would take to put us into an ice age,” Kenneth Watt, speaking at Swarthmore University, April 19, 1970.

• “We are in an environmental crisis which threatens the survival of this nation, and of the world as a suitable place of human habitation,” biologist Barry Commoner, University of Washington, writing in the journal Environment, April 1970.

• “Man must stop pollution and conserve his resources, not merely to enhance existence but to save the race from the intolerable deteriorations and possible extinction,” The New York Times editorial, April 20, 1970.

• “By 1985, air pollution will have reduced the amount of sunlight reaching earth by one half...” Life magazine, January 1970.

• “Population will inevitably and completely outstrip whatever small increases in food supplies we make,” Paul Ehrlich, interview in Mademoiselle magazine, April 1970.

• “...air pollution...is certainly going to take hundreds of thousands of lives in the next few years alone,” Paul Ehrlich, interview in Mademoiselle magazine, April 1970.

• Ehrlich also predicted that in 1973, 200,000 Americans would die from air pollution, and that by 1980 the life expectancy of Americans would be 42 years.

• “It is already too late to avoid mass starvation,” Earth Day organizer Denis Hayes, The Living Wilderness, Spring 1970.

• “By the year 2000...the entire world, with the exception of Western Europe, North America and Australia, will be in famine,” Peter Gunter, North Texas State University, The Living Wilderness, Spring 1970.

Hat Tip: Catholic and Enjoying It!

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ABC News: 11th Hour Clinton Ad Features Bin Laden

Clinton further displayed tough talk in an interview airing on "Good Morning America" Tuesday. ABC News' Chris Cuomo asked Clinton what she would do if Iran attacked Israel with nuclear weapons.

"I want the Iranians to know that if I'm the president, we will attack Iran," Clinton said. "In the next 10 years, during which they might foolishly consider launching an attack on Israel, we would be able to totally obliterate them."

She'll take an uncompromising position on America's enemies. Even though she's wrong about abandoning Iraq (and I believe she'll find a justification to "change her mind" in the future if she wins the nomination or election), she's committed to defending America. She won't try to understand, or empathize with, those who wish to cause us harm. She'll seek to destroy them. She's got the second largest pair among the remaining Presidential candidates and will act accordingly.

Hat Tip: Instapundit.com

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Historical Christian: Catholicism and the Pope: Articulating the Truth about Life

Sometimes it was subtle, such as in the preaching of accepted theological “truths” that, in time, I began to notice weren’t always consistent with, and sometimes contradicted, what I was reading in the bible, though they claimed to take the bible “literally.” And sometimes it was overt, like the time when, idling around after church one day, I saw a pastor heft his bible in the air and say to bystanders, “We don’t need anything but this! We don’t need college degrees, or psychology, or anything else except the bible!” It struck me as odd – especially as an intelligent, fairly intellectually-inclined woman. God did give us brains, you know. Aren’t we supposed to use them?

When I began to encounter Catholic teaching, I also began to encounter real intellectual challenge and rigor of a kind I didn’t know existed in the Christian world - I have to say the greatest intellectual challenge and rigor I've ever encountered anywhere, an unflinching, relentlessly logical examination of the reality of life, what it means to live, and how to live. The light of Revelation, explained and articulated by the Catholic Church, is no myth - it is the brilliant light that illuminates reality, shows us reality, what reality really is, and how to live in and according to it.

Anyone who thinks Catholicism is just a collection of superstitions or myths or fables simply does not know what they are talking about. They've either never examined, or not with real intellectual honesty, what the Church actually teaches, or have examined it with such deeply ingrained prejudices that they simply cannot not see the truth for what it is (and I have met a few like that). I challenge anyone to honestly study and reflect on the Church teachings of recent decades, with the aim to truly understand them, not simply mock or try to disprove them, and not come away profoundly moved and awed.

I studied, and I am a Catholic today as a result. I found truth here of a kind nowhere else on earth, because it is not of earth, but of God, Whom I now profoundly believe in with both the assent of faith and with the truth of reason – God the Creator and Source and Orderer of all reality, of all that is, in Whom and only in Whom can one truly understand everything else that is.

I've had much the same experience, with the exception of being a cradle Catholic who for quite a while didn't let the Faith bother me too much. The more I read the Bible and early Christian writers and Church documents, the more it all fits together and the more Catholic I become. It often strikes me that perhaps some non-Catholics are so strident in propounding their opinions and attacking Catholicism because they're trying hard to jam the puzzle pieces together to make their picture, while in Catholicism the pieces fit together nicely and neatly creating a coherent, beautiful completed puzzle.

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Available here.

Hat Tip: Disputations

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