Planned Parenthood Federation of American shows 528,000 active donors on it's most recent tax filing ($1.04 Billion budget). What are the donors thinking? Is there not enough death, destruction and disease in the world without claiming it on their income tax as a charitable deduction? The primary "beneficiaries" of these gifts are the poor and black.
According to its 2009-2010 report it provided 329,445 abortion procedures and just 841 adoption referrals.
State Rep. Chuck Kruger, the Democratic chairman of the Maine Legislature’s Moderate Caucus, tweeted in August, “Cheney deserves same final end as he gave Saddam. Hope there are cellcams #cheney.” The Maine Wire first reported this, and preserved a screen shot of the now-deleted tweet.
Accustomed to the rigors of German scholarship and theology, the visiting young student Bonhoeffer not yet 25 writes in 1930 about his colleagues—faculty and students—at Union:
“The theological atmosphere of the Union Theological Seminary is accelerating the process of the secularization of Christianity in America. Its criticism is directed essentially against the fundamentalists and to a certain extent also against the radical humanists in Chicago; it is healthy and necessary. But there is no sound basis on which one can rebuild after demolition. It is carried away with the general collapse. A seminary in which it can come about that a large number of students laugh out loud in a public lecture at the quoting of a passage from Luther’s De servo arbitrio on sin and forgiveness because it seems to them to be comic has evidently completely forgotten what Christian theology by its very nature stands for.”
“Things [outside the seminary] are not much different in the church. The sermon has been reduced to parenthetical church remarks about newspaper events. As long as I’ve been here, I have heard only one sermon in which you could hear something like a genuine proclamation, and that was delivered by a negro. . . One big question continually attracting my attention in view of these facts is whether one here really can still speak about Christianity. . . There’s no sense to expect the fruits where the Word really is no longer being preached. But then what becomes of Christianity per se?”
The American seminaries had, of course, taken their lead from the 19th century German theologians, even though as Bonhoeffer noted they were not even up to the level of the fundamentalists they ridiculed. America had long since lost the fervor of the “awakenings” that had shaped it, at least in the seminaries. At that time, Hitler’s small party was gaining ground in Germany. Germany has since recovered from that disastrous time—at least politically and economically. I’m not sure the American mainline churches have been able to expunge the demons of the liberal seminaries.
From p. 105-6 of Bonhoeffer by Eric Metaxas
I’ve decided to recommend Bonhoeffer by Eric Metaxas for next year’s book club selection. In order to have it finished by the next meeting in May, I have to read at least 22 pages a day. The following description is from Truth and Triumph, for which he’d done an interview:
“Eric Metaxas is the New York Times bestselling author of Amazing Grace: William Wilberforce and the Heroic Campaign to End Slavery. His work has been published in The New York Times, Atlantic Monthly, The Washington Post, Regeneration Quarterly, Christianity Today, National Review Online, Beliefnet, and First Things. He's also been featured on CNN, The Fox News Channel, and National Public Radio. He lives with his family in Manhattan.
Last fall, Metaxas' newest book, Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Prophet, Martyr, Spy, became a New York Times No. 1
bestseller. In the book, Metaxas explores what happened when the German theologian's profound faith convictions ran up against a Nazi regime determined to co-opt, corrupt, and then neutralize the voice of the church in Germany.”
Natalie Portman and Johnny Depp
You won't find anything prettier. . .
“The videos were shot on 35mm and Paul worked with Academy Award winning cinematographer Wally Pfister (Inception, The Dark Knight), editor Paul Martinez and producer Susanne Preissler to create these elegant and powerful films based on an original idea by Stella McCartney.
'My Valentine' is the second Paul McCartney music video Natalie Portman has starred in, the first being the Michel Gondry directed 'Dance Tonight' in 2007. For this new performance, she was exclusively dressed by Stella McCartney. Johnny Depp also plays guitar in his version and recorded the track's guitar solo live. His guitar take was then mixed and mastered into the final track. The original guitar solo on the studio version of the song was performed by Eric Clapton. “
The Obamas’ adjusted gross income was their lowest income since 2004 when he wrote his best-selling memoir, “Dreams From My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance.” This was the first year since 2006 that the Obama family income dipped below $1 million. In 2010, his adjusted gross income was $1.7 million; in 2009, it was $5.5 million.
I wonder how much the fabulous vacations they’ve had since January 2009 would rack up in any other family’s budget, the incredible state dinners, the gifts of clothing from designers, the servants to attend to every need, the limo service and celebrity entertainment? I’m sure it’s a stressful job, but for the wife and kids, it’s pretty nice—especially considering how that life style is condemned almost weekly in his speeches. If we elect Mitt Romney, I’m guessing he’ll pay his own way for many of the perks Michelle has come to demand.
“When I read your constant barrages aimed at the first black president, I think to myself, "Doesn't [Norma], the devout Christian, understand what it took to get to this place? And where would [Norma] have been in the years of the freedom struggle that finally eventuated in some measure of equality for African-Americans and even a black president?" Isn't there some way you can temper your attacks on Obama with this history in mind?. . . "The presidency of an African-American is a dramatic symbol of the advances in the struggle for human rights in this country so long denied to black citizens. Unless you have a record deep in the civil rights struggle, relentless attacks on this symbol will be seen as giving aid and comfort to, if not an expression of, the latent racism that is still much with us in this country. That is why criticisms of this president-as-symbol are not to be made in the same way as the conventional political fisticuffs."
But it was said about another writer critical of this president. . . someone named Pete who insists on judging the president on his actions and knowledge, his political and economic leadership, not the low expectations and double standards of liberal supporters and the American media.
If John McCain, a great patriot and war hero, had won in 2008 and took the same downward path, reversed his promises and then told lies, I would still be writing a blog about the deficit, the czars, expanding the war into more middle east countries, the over regulation of the health and energy industries, the strange reasoning of the Buffett fair tax, even his narcissism if it jumped out in every public appearance. And if McCain’s wife (the second one) who is quite pretty for her age appeared in Las Vegas in a crotch exposing skirt disgracing the office of FLOTUS, I’d mention it here.
Creator/Producer Nahnatchka Khan thinks this is real life America. And maybe it is in his neighborhood. Turn it off.
“Last night Don’t Trust the B---- in Apt. 23 premiered on ABC at 9:30 pm Eastern/Pacific -- that's just 8:30 in the Central and Mountain time zones -- and it may well represent a new all-time low for broadcast television.
The program is a sexist mixed-bag of hedonism, drug-use, alcohol abuse (including the main character plying a 13-year-old boy with alcohol to get him drunk) and explicit levels of promiscuity that are shocking even by today’s broadcast TV standards. “
http://www.parentstv.org/ptc/publications/emailalerts/2012/0412.htm
To me, it looks like bus transportation is the problem. But what about that metropolitan area traffic for the bus drivers if schools start later [110,000 students along 6,500 routes , 1,500 buses]?
“Most high schools in Fairfax County, VA [suburban Washington DC, median family income $122,200] start at 7:20 a.m., with bleary-eyed students getting picked up by their school buses as early as 5:45 a.m. In Arlington, the high school start time is nearly an hour later, and in Loudoun [richest county in the country] most high schools begin at 9 a.m.
“It’s important for the physical and mental health of our adolescent students,” said School Board member Sandy Evans (Mason), who sponsored the resolution and was a co-founder of the advocacy group Sleep, which led previous efforts to shift start times.
Evans cited research indicating sleep deprivation contributes to such problems as depression, obesity and poor academic performance. In a county survey, two-thirds of students reported getting seven hours or less of sleep on school nights.”
United States Conference of Catholic Bishops
Ad Hoc Committee for Religious Liberty
Excerpt
Is our most cherished freedom truly under threat? Sadly, it is. This is not a theological or legal dispute without real world consequences. Consider the following:
It is with sadness that we brought this legal action but with a deep sense that we, as people of faith, have no choice but to defend the right to the free exercise of religion granted to us as citizens of Alabama. . . . The law makes illegal the exercise of our Christian religion which we, as citizens of Alabama, have a right to follow. The law prohibits almost everything which would assist an undocumented immigrant or encourage an undocumented immigrant to live in Alabama. This new Alabama law makes it illegal for a Catholic priest to baptize, hear the confession of, celebrate the anointing of the sick with, or preach the word of God to, an undocumented immigrant. Nor can we encourage them to attend Mass or give them a ride to Mass. It is illegal to allow them to attend adult scripture study groups, or attend CCD or Sunday school classes. It is illegal for the clergy to counsel them in times of difficulty or in preparation for marriage. It is illegal for them to come to Alcoholic Anonymous meetings or other recovery groups at our churches.4
Recently at our Faith of our Fathers group (FOOF) at the UALC Mill Run church we were discussing the removal of most religious/Christian content from public education textbooks and courses despite its inclusion in the founding documents. But maybe we should be looking closer to home.
Today I picked up (free) a copy of Columbus Bride at Giant Eagle. You'd be hard pressed to find any religious content in the wedding photos--hardly even a church or cathedral. Lots of country clubs, old barns, the Atheneum (which has sort of a faux chapel), Franklin Park Conservatory, old wineries, city streets, parks, and party barns. Maybe it's the interior of the modern churches which look like theaters and party houses--so why not just rent one or take the photos outside?
When we were in Russia in 2006 we saw so many weddings in the public square--in front of government buildings, fountains, parks etc. They had 70 years of Communism. What's our excuse?
--everyone is doing better in this country. The income of households between the 60th and 80th percentiles grew by 40 percent, and those in the 40th to 60th percentile grew by nearly 40%, and of course, these groups are very fluid. I've been in 4 of the 5 percentiles myself and am at the bottom again (retired), same as when I was 21 and graduating from college 5 months pregnant and no job. But I know that cutting taxes works better for me than raising them, and reducing my spending is the only way for me to have money to invest or to donate to charity. However, I also know a household made up of a married couple of college educated parents with 2 or 3 children will always do better economically than a single mom with a high school education and 2 or 3 children. That's just math. That's not even political affiliation or loyalty, or race or age. If it didn’t work that way why would we have all these grants and loans to send low income people to college, if not to elevate them?
But there is a party who come November will say Uncle Sam is a good step-father, but it lies.
I know nothing about the author of the book review, the author of the book, the murder of this particular lover of JFK, or the website that posted the review, but after I started reading the very lengthy book review, I did sort of get interested. http://www.fff.org/comment/com1204g.asp
“In early 1976 the National Enquirer published a story that shocked the elite political class in Washington, D.C. The story disclosed that a woman named Mary Pinchot Meyer, who was a divorced spouse of a high CIA official named Cord Meyer, had been engaged in a two-year sexual affair with President John F. Kennedy. By the time the article was published, JFK had been assassinated, and Mary Pinchot Meyer herself was dead, a victim of a murder that took place in Washington on October 12, 1964.
The murder of Mary Pinchot Meyer is the subject of a fascinating and gripping new book by Peter Janney, Mary’s Mosaic, who was childhood friends with Mary Meyer’s three sons and whose father himself was a high CIA official. Janney’s father and mother socialized in the 1950s with the Meyers and other high-level CIA officials.”
One of the clerks at the coffee shop loves “true crime” type books, so I may print this out for her. For me, just reading the review was enough. The further away we get from 1963, the less we know it seems.
Henninger in today’s WSJ mixes some metaphors, with fortress, ICBMs, carpet-bombing, drinking the Kool-aid, and encyclicals, but he’s on target—one dare not attack the Democrats at the heart and soul of their beliefs—big government even if it collapses under its own weight is good for you personally and for the nation. Paul Ryan outrages them into launching the big religious guns:
Ah, he gutted them and they know it. “. . . one of the primary tenants of Catholic social teaching, means don't keep people poor, don't make people dependent .”“What Mr. Ryan actually said is worth quoting, because it should revive the debate over the proper relationship between individual citizens, including the poor, and the national government:
"A person's faith is central to how they conduct themselves in public and in private. So to me, using my Catholic faith, we call it the social magisterium, which is how do you apply the doctrine of your teaching into your everyday life as a lay person?
"To me, the principle of subsidiarity . . . meaning government closest to the people governs best . . . where we, through our civic organizations, through our churches, through our charities, through all of our different groups where we interact with people as a community, that's how we advance the common good. By not having big government crowd out civic society, but by having enough space in our communities so that we can interact with each other, and take care of people who are down and out in our communities.
"Those principles are very, very important, and the preferential option for the poor, which is one of the primary tenants of Catholic social teaching, means don't keep people poor, don't make people dependent on government so that they stay stuck at their station in life. Help people get out of poverty out onto a life of independence." “
The Obama administration will have to fight to the death over this one truth. So they have to bring down what formerly was the largest social agency in the country (before the War on Poverty), and is still the largest globally, the Roman Catholic Church.
This is probably not a lot of money considering the national deficit, but there are thousands of programs like this one. I’d just been reading through a $25 million ArtPlace article when I noticed this one:
I have no idea what a place-based community oriented crime and neighborhood revitalization initiative is, but I’m pretty sure justice won't include the arrest or impeachment of Eric Holder for Fast and Furious or looking into arresting the New Black Panthers who are threatening Floridians. This really sounds like an ad for ACORN with fancy gummit talk.“U.S. Department of Justice: Launching a New Place-Based, Community Oriented Crime and Neighborhood Revitalization Initiative
The Department of Justice is looking for a fellow to help support the development and launch of a new place-based, community oriented program that is part of the White House’s Neighborhood Revitalization Initiative (NRI) and is being implemented in collaboration with the Departments of Education and Housing and Urban Development. The fellowship will be located in the Bureau of Justice Assistance, whose mission is to provide leadership and services in grant administration and criminal justice policy development to support local, state, and tribal justice strategies to achieve safer communities. The fellow will work on several aspects of this project, including the site selection process for the first round of the Building Neighborhood Capacity program. The fellow will support coordination with the other partners in NRI and assist in other assessment of data and resources to support the program coordination and selection processes.” Link
Here is Catholic News Roundup for April 11, 2012
You’ll hear news here that won’t be elsewhere, and see sponsors you’ve never heard of.
I just discovered it, so I don't know how long the daily news stays available, or if it continues to roll backwards for the archives. You only have to google Michael Voris STB to see that many Catholics don't agree with him.Oh, young people love to hear that one, don't they? My chosen career, librarianship, was and probably still is, at the bottom of the pay scale for an advanced degree (entry level degree is a master’s but many have PhDs). But I loved it. What could be more fun than buying, organizing, preserving and distributing information, knowledge and wisdom? ("For the protection of wisdom is like the protection of money, and the advantage o...f knowledge is that wisdom preserves the life of him who has it." Eccl. 7:12) I don't envy Bill Gates' wealth or the 3 winners of the Megamillions. In fact, my religion says coveting is very, very bad not only for a society but for me personally. However, my president says it's good. He wants "fairness," which actually means coveting what others have. If you don't believe me, try teaching fairness to 6 year olds--you'll create jealousy as they each eye what the other has and start to whine.
The Buffett rule is something for President Obama to talk about during the campaign so he doesn't have to face the huge economic problems he has created and to rail against “rich Republicans” if it fails. The biggest, wealthiest donors are all contributing to Democrats, but don’t let the facts confuse him—he’s already way off track and it plays well with the unemployed he hasn’t helped. He wants the government to take more of what you or someone else has, not to use for any particular purpose, but to satisfy a vague belief in "fairness."
The Buffett rule takes money out of the economy and gives it to the government, where it will be spread around the various bureaucracies, revolving door non-profits and unions and you'll never see a dime of it.
A blogger I’ve known only through our shared cyber-space as librarians on discussion lists and as bloggers mentioned at his blog that he has moved over to an Anglican church from the Catholic church due to the Roman Catholic’s position on women clergy, on marriage of gays, and the sexual abuse scandals.
That’s putting a lot of stock into current cultural beliefs in the face of 2,000 years of church history and teaching, plus all the Hebrew/Jewish traditions that came before that. In fact, it flies in the face of the history of the human race and all religions, not just Catholicism. There’s virtually no mention of homosexuality in the Old Testament except in veiled references to temple practices of other religions which the Jews were supposed to avoid at all costs. But dalliances with young men and male temple prostitutes were certainly well known and even accepted in Greek and Roman cultures. Gracious! Have you seen some of those murals in collapsing ancient buildings? The Greeks and Romans lived in sex saturated times, male, female, animal, child, multiples—made no difference (if we can believe their art and literature, and why shouldn’t we?). They probably inherited profligate and perverted sex from the civilizations who came before them. God chose the Jews for a reason—they were the only ones, even in sin who seemed to really get the story of creation.
That said, even with trips to the temple for sex with young, beautiful temple prostitutes, male and female, when it came to building blocks for the society, it was marriage between a male and female. Yes, some engaged in polygamy, or polyandry, some had mistresses and concubines and some men may have preferred a male concubine, but the state/monarchy/emperor or tribal elder recognized the marriage. There was a distant memory and command in the mind of all cultures.
As for women priests, show me a church that is growing under female leadership. Sure, maybe you support it, but have you joined one? Have you encouraged your call committee in that direction? Even men who claim to be “feminists” don’t like sitting under the authority of a woman, often not at work, but certainly not at the church. They’ll never admit it, but quietly, the numbers begin to drop.
Child abuse? The Roman Catholic church is a huge target; and it’s rich. Why sue a school system where the abusers, at least until recently, are just passed from school to school, protected by their unions? We’re just beginning to hear how many female teachers are predators as the stories are leaked to the papers. How many Protestant clergy have been caught with their hand in the . . . well, and just quietly moved on to the next small church thinking the problem will go away if we just warn him. Although many young girls have certainly been molested at the hands of clergy, teachers, babysitters, etc., the number of boys and gay men involved is way out of their proportion (1.5%) in the general population.
But this particular librarian who has left the church, who became a convert to Catholicism and took all the instruction in 1992, now thinks that the profound spiritual wisdom of the 20th and 21st centuries exceeds that of the church he committed himself to just 20 years ago and in which he agreed to raise his children and be faithful to his wife (who has remained Catholic).
Imagine all the stuff a Protestant is exposed to in RCIA which must completely have baffled him—like 7 sacraments, or the teaching about the perpetual virginity of Mary, or all the stages to go through to become a saint, or all the special holidays, seasons and observances he’d never heard of. Think about undoing all the teaching Christians hear in Baptist or Lutheran or Nazarene churches about evil, unscriptural Catholicism. That’s a huge leap for gay marriage and the ordination of women priests!
And he threw it all over for a fad, fable and fantasy. I’m not a Catholic, but it appears he wasn’t either.
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