Bishop: No Catholic can Vote for Barack Obama in Good Conscience

Here's an ad from a very courageous Bishop, his excellency, Rene Gracida.



The text of the ad is as follows:

This is Bishop Rene H. Gracida, reminding all Catholics that they must vote in this election with an informed conscience. A Catholic cannot be said to have voted in this election with a good conscience if they have voted for a pro-abortion candidate. Barack Hussein Obama is a pro-abortion candidate.

The ad is also available on YouTube in Spanish.

Please forward this ad to every Catholic you know. It took a lot of courage for Bishop Gracida to say this so forcefully. Please remember him in your prayers.

Alveda King, Niece of Martin Luther King Jr., endorses McCain-Palin

The following is taken from an article in today's Philadelphia Bulletin:

"I am very excited about the McCain-Palin ticket, simply because they support the values that mean the most to me," Ms. King said. "It is a plus to me that Sarah Palin is a woman because I've been elected to office as a wife and mother. I've been appointed to office as a woman and at the time I was a mother and became a grandmother." 



Ms. King said her experience taught her she could both be a good mother and still serve the public. This is something she has in common with Gov. Sarah Palin, R-Alaska, McCain's running mate.

However, the most important reason she is backing the McCain-Palin ticket is its commitment to the pro-life cause.

Click here to see the video mentioned in this article:

A Matter of Faith, Race and Politics

Brief review of Holmes: The Age of Justinian & Theodora (1905)

Having never discovered this particular history before in my research, I was looking forward to reading it after discovering it in the library. Now I know why hardly anyone cites it. The author, William Gordon Holmes, does not uphold even the pretense of scholarly objectivity. Never before have I run across an historian who displays such open contempt for his subject matter. The Byzantines were a deeply religious Christian people and Holmes openly and continuously decries the religious beliefs of late Roman Christians in language that is little short of vitriolic. And beyond this, he carries the attacks to modern Christians as well, claiming in one footnote that Christian beliefs spring either from ignorance or insanity.

In one particular 60-page tangent, Holmes offers his own version of the history of Christianity. Having little to do with his original subject, Holmes uses this digression to pontificate upon the "death" of Christianity in his time. In a footnote, he celebrates the lack of religious vocations and says that, "those who are engaged in impressing a belief in obsolete mythologies on the community should realize that they are doing an evil service to their generation." Ominously, Holmes predicts that the "Romish and Orthodox churches" will retain their power over the ignorant masses for a while longer "until at last they have to face suppression by force."

Perhaps worse, Holmes is a social Darwinist of the kind that flourished pre-WWII but is hardly to be found today (at least openly). In one place, he calls the modern Spanish people "unintelligent." He insinuates that Hawaiians are a lower race. And in another place, he envisions a future where "famous stallions should stand to cover brood mares in the human as well as the equine world."

Sadly, there is a good bit of useful data here in between Holmes's pompous paeans to atheism and eugenics. He gives a very useful, if occasionally inaccurate, tour of Justinianic Constantinople and his footnoting is generally very helpful when dealing with matters outside of religion. But unfortunately, this book is so completely saturated with the author's bloviating bigotry to make it a supremely obnoxious read for anyone but a hard-core anti-Christian atheist.

Ignore the polls

For those of you down in the dumps about Obama's poll numbers as compared to McCain's, take heed. It is my belief that the polls are being manipulated by the media in concert with the Democrats. The strategy is to make Obama seem like an irresistible force and to depress the conservative turn out in an attempt to create a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Here's an article from the NRO campaign spot that bolsters this theory. The money quote is as follows:

"Believe me, there is someone in the Obama campaign who is deathly afraid of the 'McCain pulls even or goes ahead' poll." (And in Gallup, it was within 2 percent.) "That Obama strategist knows how much depends on the whole Chuck Schumer and Rahm Emanuel approach —.work with the media to demoralize conservatives, and keep the perception of a juggernaut going. But a day or two of a few bad polls, and that strategy backfires. The conservatives know they've still got a shot at this."

Thus, the message for conservatives is to ignore the polls. If this theory is correct, no pollster will show McCain ahead for the duration of the election. In such a climate, the best thing to do is to assume McCain is 1% behind, and work like heck to get him elected. Volunteer. Call. Walk precincts. Vote!

Review of Thomas Mann's Death in Venice

If you like short stories about disgusting sexual attractions, suicide, and self-absorbed German narcissism, you'll love Death in Venice. Me, I don't much cotton to such themes in what I read, so I had trouble wading through this morass of early 20th century European bourgeoisie decadence. But as this book was the choice of our book club, I had to persevere.

Of the eight short stories contained in this book, I found only the three middle ones, Mario and the Magician (1929), Disorder and Early Sorrow (1925), and A Man and His Dog (1918) to be of any worth. The others--Death in Venice (1911), Tonio Kröger (1903), The Blood of the Walsungs (1905), Tristan (1902), and Felix Krull (1911)--range from simply tedious and uninsightful to gross and perverse. Interestingly, it is Mann's earlier stories that fall into that category. I suppose these stories were meant to have shock value in their day. But in an era when the most disgusting pornography is only a mouse-click away, they seem painfully trite and pedestrian today.

Mann's later stories are better, possibly because as he matured, Mann became a more skillful observer of the beauty and joy of everyday life. But if tinged with sentimentality, these stories don't really inspire. Of all the stories, Mario and the Magician is the only standout. It was the singular tale which kept me riveted with larger than life characters and underlying themes which got beyond the mundane or the merely sexual.

As a whole, this is exactly the type of work that made me dislike studying modern literature as a student. The prose is dense and despite Mann's impressive descriptive ability, the stories do little to uplift the human spirit. Instead, the reader is left encumbered with a myriad of very negative ideas and disturbing notions of humanity.

Of course, as I am reading Mann in an English translation, it is not impossible that his genius as a writer was more easily discerned in the original German. In English, it was fairly invisible to me. I say this as someone who loved writers like Dumas, Dostoevsky, and Tolstoy in English translation.

Dems 4 McCain Flyer

Here's a downloadable flyer that should stir up some trouble. Use it to:

1.) Give to Democrat family members and friends.

2.) Give Democrat colleagues at work.

3.) Post around your college campus or on community bulletin boards.

4.) Place in in any public place where literature may be distributed.

5.) Hand out in front of post offices, train stations, or any other high-traffic area where it's legal to do so.

6.) Keep on you to give to any folks you meet with whom the election comes up as a subject of conversation.

It's a simple, no frills flyer that gets the point across. It's in color, but it looks just fine printed out on a standard laser printer or copy machine.

Click on the lo-res version of it below to download a PDF for easy printing (148K):

Farrakhan proclaims Obama the Messiah

No, I'm not kidding. Watch for yourself:

The publishing industry and liberal hypocrisy

For those of you who may not know, the publishing industry is almost completely run by liberals. Any debate on this should be ended by an August survey from Publishing Trends which showed a whopping 86% of respondents plan to vote for Barack Obama in November.

Yes, 86%.

Here's the real stunner, though. A survey in Publishers Weekly released in July of 2008, found the following:

The salary divide between men and women actually increased in 2007—men received an average salary increase of 4.5% last year, compared to 4.2% for women. Men earned an average salary of $103,822 last year, compared to $64,742 for women, and while one reason for the higher overall salary for men is that more men are in the higher paying management and sales side of the business, the discrepancy is in all segments, including editorial, where men out-earned women $67,000 to $48,000.

Yes, you read that right. In an industry where 86% of the folks self-identify as Obama-voting liberals, there isn't pay parity. In fact, it's not even close.

Now don't get me wrong. I fully understand the underlying reasons why women are generally paid less than men and why the whole issue of pay parity is a red herring. But it really irks me that the same leftists who moan and complain endlessly about such things can't even manage it in industries that they dominate.

But perhaps we shouldn't be surprised when the Obama campaign itself can't even manage pay parity between men and women--in stark contrast to the McCain campaign.

Letter to my State Senator and Assemblymen

Here's the letter I wrote to my local reps regarding this bill. Please feel free to use bits and pieces of it, or the whole thing, as you see fit.

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Esteemed Representatives,

It has come to my attention the New Jersey Assembly will be considering a bill (ASSEMBLY Bill No. 3123) which sets new and unprecedented restrictions on the right of home education within the state of New Jersey.

There's an old saying (which admittedly uses improper grammar) which says: "If it ain't broke, don't fix it." The current laws in New Jersey which cover homeschooling work and are considered among the most liberal (in a good way) in the nation. This horrid bill would put New Jersey into the educational dark-ages. As you no doubt are aware, homeschoolers routinely score among the highest percentiles on national and state standardized tests and on average, perform well above their peers in public education. This trend has even been recognized by many universities who now actively recruit home educated children.

Given the successes I have observed among the homeschooling community, I would ask that you oppose this ill-advised and coercive bill and ask that it be withdrawn immediately before it messes up a good thing. Homeschoolers need more support from the state, not more restrictions and regulation.

Please be advised that I consider a vote in favor of this bill to be utterly disqualifying in terms of my future support, both in terms of my vote and who I contribute to in the next election.

Sincerely,

Etc.

Fighting for Homeschooling in NJ

Two NJ legislators, Democrat Sheila Y. Oliver District 34 (Essex and Passaic) and Democrat L. Harvey Smith District 31 (Hudson) have declared war on homeschoolers in New Jersey. Their bill which will make NJ the most homeschool-hostile state in the union, may be read here:

ASSEMBLY, No. 3123, STATE OF NEW JERSEY (Introduced September 22, 2008)

Ms. Oliver and Mr. Smith need to hear from all NJ homeschoolers right now. Here are their phone numbers. Also, click their names to take you to their pages at the NJ Legislature page. You can get their office addresses and send emails from there. I recommend doing all three:

Sheila Y. Oliver - (973-395-1166)
L. Harvey Smith - (201-536-7851)

The legislators sponsoring the anti-homeschooling bill are about to find out how networked homeschoolers are. Let's make them rue the day they ever tried to pull this nonsense.

NJ about to go Nanny State on Homeschoolers?

You knew it was only a matter of time. The liberal homeschooling laws in New Jersey are now under fire from two "concerned legislators" in Trenton.

Read it and get angry.

http://www.njleg.state.nj.us/2008/Bills/A3500/3123_I1.HTM

This needs to be hammered and hard if NJ homeschoolers are going to maintain their right to educate their children as they see fit without interference from the state.

Book Review: The Walls of Cartagena

I recently signed up for the Amazon.com "Vine" program which provides free advance copies of books to regular reviewers in an attempt to generate buzz for these new titles immediately upon release. They send you a regular newsletter via email with books (and other items) on it that you can request for review. From my perspective, about 90% of the stuff on there is junk--or at least supremely uninteresting. However, this book, The Walls of Cartagena, caught my eye.

Calepino is a 13-year-old Black boy in Cartagena. Life is hard in this slave-trading city, but Calepino has a talent for languages and works with Father Pedro and Sacabuche as an interpreter in the fetid holds of the arriving slave ships. In the course of his duties, Calepino becomes attached to two new arrivals from Africa--Mara and her young son Tomi. But when Mara and Tomi are sold to a cruel master, Calepino decides he must take action to save them.

The Walls of Cartagena is an entertaining little book meant for younger readers, age 10-12. The story is uncomplicated, the characters are generally sympathetic. There are numerous charming illustrations throughout. I appreciated the generally positive portrayal of the Catholic priest, Father Pedro, who is in reality Saint Peter Claver. The author obviously put a great deal of research into the story and this comes through in the numerous little details of life in 17th century New Spain which adorn the story. The writing is elegant and flows well. A good reader could easily devour this little story in one or two sittings.

My main criticisms of the book center around the author's incomplete and sometimes inaccurate overall historical perspective. While the author correctly examines the horrors of the slave trade, she also engages in a bit of historical hyperbole with regard to the Black Legend of the Spanish Inquisition. One character, Dr. Lopez, is presented as being persecuted by the Inquisition because he is a Jew. The author does not explain that Jews were never targeted by the Inquisition, but only those who feigned a conversion to Catholicism to maintain wealth or status within Spain or her colonies. Indeed, the Inquisitional courts of the 17th century were often considerably more lenient than comparable secular courts in other European kingdoms of the time.

The author also seems to follow the conventional wisdom with regard to the modern fable that the Catholic Church suppressed intellectual curiosity and exploration. There's a mildly tedious aside where Dr. Lopez introduces Calepino to the "forbidden" works of Galileo, who, the author tells us, "was under house arrest in Italy for asserting that the sun, rather than the earth, was the center of the universe." Anyone familiar with the history of this incident knows that this was not the reason Galileo was confined. Indeed, Copernicus had made this exact same claim decades before Galileo and suffered no such punishments. Galileo's contentions with the Church were much more personal than scientific.

Finally, I disliked how the author made the heroic rescues in the story only possible by the blatant telling of untruths by the major characters, including St. Peter Claver. This struck me as little more than a plot device as such actions were dramatically out of character for most 17th century Jesuits, who were often paragons of courage when it came to telling the truth to power. Many would have put their own heads on the chopping block before resorting to such dishonest expedients.

Setting aside these flaws, I found The Walls of Cartagena to be an enjoyable read and one which I would definitely read with my own kids as an intro to life during the Renaissance. I would, however, read it along side books which told "the rest of the story" such as The Outlaws of Ravenhurst or Angels in Iron.

Every Catholic needs to see this before election day

This short video puts everything into perspective nicely.



It's long past time for those who call themselves Catholic to start voting like it.

Book Review -- Father Elijah

I was first introduced to Michael O'Brien's writing when doing research for my reviews of the Harry Potter series. Mr. O'Brien is an ardent Potter-basher and at first, I considered him a bit strident. Yet after I finished reading the series and J. K. Rowling made her ridiculous "Dumbledore is homosexual" statements, Mr. O'Brien's opinions suddenly seemed right on the money. Here was a man who was able to cut through the moral haze of Pottermania and discover the slime within well in advance of the rest of us.

I had previously heard of Father Elijah but only recently made the connection between the book and its author. Once I did, it became imperative that I read it and I'm very glad I did so. Father Elijah is a fascinating and engrossing tale. Interestingly, it's subtitled "An Apocalypse"--as opposed to the Apocalypse. I suppose this is because this is a work of speculative fiction that offers a scenario of how the Apocalypse could happen and might be happening right under our noses.

The main character, Father Elijah himself, is a monk who entered the monastery after converting from Judaism. His past life was a succession of tragedies--he is a survivor of the Holocaust and was formerly a prominent figure in Israel. He has lived peacefully in a monastery near Mount Carmel in Israel for many years but now he has been called upon for a much more dangerous mission--to confront the one suspected by the Vatican of being the anti-Christ and convert him.

The plot continues from there through numerous twists and turns. There are moments of calm reflection on the mysteries of the Catholic faith interspersed with scenes of genuine spiritual warfare that are often frighteningly real. The characters are well-drawn and true to life. A couple of them seem like parodies of certain individuals or types within the Catholic Church. The better you know the Church, the more likely you are to chuckle at these characters. Overall, the writing is superb and flows well. It's easy to rip through 80 page chunks in one sitting.

O'Brien is insightful and clearly privy to the undermining effects of modernism which have been gnawing at the Church's foundations for at least the past 100 years. In Father Elijah he creates a mirror-world where certain clerics within the greater Church as well as within the Vatican itself, have embraced the spirit of the world and who view the spirit of God with contempt. There is one scene in particular where the sickly and aging Pope confronts a headstrong Cardinal on this very point and the outcome is striking. One is forced to wonder how many of our prelates in the Church today would act in the same way toward the Pope?

One thing that struck me about Father Elijah is that it clearly is set in an age before the internet. It was originally published in 1996 when the "old media" still ruled the roost. Among the chief culprits undermining the work of the Vatican and good priests like Father Elijah are those who run the so-called Catholic media--newspapers, magazines, etc. These are exposed as merely agents of the world who are trying to co-opt the Church for their own diabolical purposes. And indeed, in the bad old days of the 1980s and 1990s, the Catholic media often acted in just this way, though with a few notable exceptions.

But in the 12 years since Father Elijah was first published, there has been a sea-change brought about primarily by the advent of the internet. Now, obfuscatory, dishonest, and outright dissenting articles published in places like the National "Catholic" Reporter can be exposed and criticized in a public forum before millions of serious readers. A good priest who is faithful to the Pope can have a blog that gets read by hundreds of thousands every day, while the true numerical and popular weakness of dissenters in the Church is made plain for all to see. Bishops, priests, and powerful lay people who publicly dissent from Church teaching and act as wolves in the sheepfold are known beyond their own localities--indeed, the whole world knows them now.

Of course, this takes nothing away from Father Elijah. It is an excellent read, highly recommended to anyone who is a Catholic and who wants to have a better understanding of the nature of evil and how evil has occasionally donned the guise of goodness and penetrated even the Church itself.

By way of closing, this book reminded me a great deal of another fascinating work of fiction called Dream of Fire. The plot is similar, though Dream of Fire is set in a fantasy world and is considerably more brutal, at least in a physical sense.

Obama took $100K from Failed Fannie and Freddie

Well, well, well. It looks like Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, though eye-ball deep in bad paper, have been mighty generous with the Democrats, including neophyte Barack Obama. According to Capital Eye, the junior senator from Illinois has taken over $100,000 in campaign contributions from Fannie & Freddie and ranks third on the overall list of pigs who feed at this particular larder.

What's most impressive about Senator Obama's feat is that he's a newcomer to the field. Old porkers like Chris Dodd, who leads Obama's total by a mere 30K, took decades to amass these contributions. Even Hillary Clinton has only managed to compile $75,000, as compared to the Obamessiah.

Considering that the taxpayers are now expected to foot the bill for Fannie & Freddie's failure, I think it's only fair that Senator Obama return his $100,000. That would be the kind of change we could believe in.

Abp. Niederauer of San Fran chastizes Pelosi -- well, sort of

Nancy Pelosi recently made outrageously false statements about Catholic teaching and abortion (Pelosi lies about Catholicism and abortion). In response, at least three good bishops that I am aware of stood up to rebuke her in no uncertain terms—Cardinal Egan of New York, Archbishop Wuerl of Washington, DC, and Archbishop Chaput of Denver.

Conspicuous by his silence was Archbishop Niederauer of Pelosi's home diocese of San Francisco. Well, better late than never. Archbishop Niederauer finally released a statement on the matter today. In just under 2,000 ponderous, rambling words, the Archbishop manages to say very little by way of a direct rebuttal of Pelosi's words. Nor does he highlight the grave sin it is to spread un-Catholic teachings in the guise of Catholicism. Nor does he make it clear that individuals who are public advocates of abortion should not approach the sacraments.

Instead, the archbishop closes with the following words:

I regret the necessity of addressing these issues in so public a forum, but the widespread consternation among Catholics made it unavoidable. Speaker Pelosi has often said how highly she values her Catholic faith, and how much it is a source of joy for her. Accordingly, as her pastor, I am writing to invite her into a conversation with me about these matters. It is my obligation to teach forthrightly and to shepherd caringly, and that is my intent. Let us pray together that the Holy Spirit will guide us all toward a more profound understanding and appreciation for human life, and toward a resolution of these differences in truth and charity and peace.

Yes, a conversation. I'll be interested to see how Nancy Pelosi responds to this request.

One can only hope that the Archbishop is made of sterner stuff behind closed doors than he is in public.

It's official--the left is in total meltdown freak-attack mode

Right now, Sarah Palin and her family are going through a media meatgrinder the likes of which hasn't been seen since Clarence Thomas dared to escape from the Democrat plantation in 1991. The Left doesn't like it when a constituency they consider "their property" gets uppity.

Sarah Palin is a stiff right-cross to the jaw of the left--hence the absolutely hysterical rush for "dirt" on this mother of five from Alaska. Indeed, Obama's surrogates at MoveOn.org are offering $5,000 for dirt on Palin's husband. And the elite media has been all too willing to pile on--going after her kids without the least bit of shame.

But these filthy tactics have always been a hallmark of Obama campaigns, despite his pious mumblings to the contrary. His surrogates in the Chicago media managed to get George Ryan's sealed divorce records unsealed in 2004, causing Ryan to drop out of the race. When Ryan was replaced by Alan Keyes, surprise! the media revealed that Keyes's teenaged daughter Maya was a homosexual.

At last, it seems that some on the left have had enough of this garbage. On Democratic Underground, the poster B2G wrote:

I've been here a long time. Not a prolific poster, but a prolific reader. And from what I've read today, I don't belong here anymore.

Women being bashed for their right to choose having a family and a career with the support of their spouse.

Women being called sluts, bimbos and brood mares.

Women having their appearance dissected and witchhunts for compromising photos.

Innocent young girls being slandered with rumors & innuendos.

Enough. I want to win. But I don't want to win this way. And if you do, then I don't want any part of it.

Is it possible there is some shame in lib-land? Maybe. Time will tell.

In the mean time, it behooves all good and honorable Americans to denounce this garbage in no uncertain terms. The best way to do so is to volunteer to help elect Johh McCain and Sarah Palin and make sure that Obama goes down to an epic defeat this November.

The NOBAMA shirt

And here's a shirt using my NOBAMA logo...

McCain/Palin shirts

Here are some McCain/Palin shirts I made up last night:



The text under McCain/Palin says: "America First - Pro-Life"

Enjoy!

Are we psyched about McCain's VP pick?

Oh yeah!

Here's a CafePress store I just set up to help promote the ticket. Click here to get some McCain/Palin swag to help promote the most pro-life Republican ticket in history:


You can also get some of my NOBAMA stuff on there as well, to help defeat them most pro-abortion Democrat ticket in history.