Excellent Reflections on Ted's Funeral and Boston Cathedra that is Sede Vacante

Thanks to the many of you who have sent me articles, opinions and blog posts about the Kennedy Funeral and the spiritual chaos that it's left in it's wake.

I could literally take weeks to post all the excellent reflections.

Judie Brown and our friends at the ALL have several posts that I think summarize the sentiments most of the convictions you've sent to me. I was taken back by Judie's description that the funeral went beyond anything she's seen in her 65 years of experience. Considering her credentials, that's breathtaking. She describes the opportunity given to Obama in the Sanctuary as perhaps the most dastardly thing she's ever seen.

After the heaping pack of lies of the Caritas debacle and the long history of the past five years of malignant spirituality metastasizing from the Cardinal and the Chancery wizards -- there is nothing that will surprise me. I actually expected Obama to politically manipulate the moments to lobby for socialized medicine and the Cardinal applauding. So, two moments of great relief for me - one, when Obama left the Sanctuary without lobbying for deathcare -- and two, when he stood up and exited the aisle when Communion started and the camera quickly swung to the ceiling until everyone was through the Communion line. I'm sure - he was just moving out of the way for Joe Biden to receive...but...I'm glad there was nothing to postmortem about who got in line.

Mike Huckabee, by the way, hit the irony of advocating for socialized medicine at this moment, right between the eyes. Ted would have been denied the surgery and medicines that bought him his time and given the pills to end his own life a year and a half ago.

Steve Jalsaevec has written some great reflections here on Lifesite.

The message from the Boston Catholic Basilica event to all Catholic politicians, to all Catholics in positions of authority and to the world was clear. In the end, abortion doesn't really matter. Same-sex marriage is not really an important issue. Church moral teachings in general are just talking points for consideration. And finally, the central teaching authority of the Church is an outdated concept. It does not matter what Christ, the Ten Commandments, the Pope's and the saints have said. Image, worldly respect, your local bishop or priest friend or theologian trump all the other universal things of the faith. I do not at all mean to say that Cardinal O'Malley believes any of this. He does not. But he let this happen and gave the event his presence.

Much of what took place in the Basilica, regarding Kennedy's political legacy, was missing real love and real charity. Christ showed what true love was and they crucified him for it

It is impossible to have the desire the salvation of your flock and make the kind of decisions made by Cardinal O'Malley. It's as inane as packing up the vestments and heading to the Boston Common to sit with the thousands of children smoking pot at the annual ritual of having a day of weed defiance. Your presence and silence means something. Shaking the hands of people selling crack pipes on the way to your pious corner as the televison cameras roll and Austin Fleming gives a blow by blow (no pun intended) -- it's not a show about salvation.

Father Michael Orsi from Ave Maria has written another dynamic piece here.

I still don't agree with Father's conviction that Ted should have been denied the Rite of Christian Burial. It's clear to me from the descriptions of his last days - - and most certainly from the letter Ted authored himself to the Pope that he was grappling with the drivel he was fed by the misfits of the American presybterate. He wanted affirmation from the Pope himself that his public defiance of leadership of others on the Church's teachings and the resulting 51 million deaths will not be judged by Christ because all of his wonderful deeds and kindnesses. It wasn't gelling on his deathbed. If (and I think the chances are remote) his confessor left that as an omission when the man was clearly reaching out for guidance - the sentence of that penance is served by the confessor. I don't seek solace in this - and I think many Catholics misunderstand it - - (especially priests) but at least his confessor is still alive and can mosey into the confessional - should he get it through his thick skull. If they are not going to set the record straight on the teaching publicly -- the funeral should have been a very private affair. I think there's still time to set the record straight. We need to lobby for it.

Some of Fr. Michael's thoughts:

A Mass of Christian Burial is a privilege -- not a right. It is for those who have lived a Christian life. Senator Kennedy’s scandalous disregard of his Church’s teaching and the destruction of human life that may be attributed to his voting record make his funeral celebration quite dubious. The Catechism of the Catholic Church states: “Scandal is an attitude or behavior which leads another to evil… and that it takes on a particular gravity by reason of the authority of those who cause it”(n. 2284-85). For such a person the Code of Canon Law says, “Church funeral rites are to be denied to the following (unless they gave some sign of repentance before death): manifest sinners to whom a Church funeral could not be granted without public scandal to the faithful” (c. 1184.3). How many Catholics have been led astray by Senator Kennedy and other prominent pro-choice Catholics? And, finally, how many other Catholic politicians will be emboldened to emulate his behavior because the honor the Church is extending to him?

It's about the people left behind.

....from an address by Archbishop Fulton Sheen to the Supreme Convention of the Knights of Columbus in June 1972,

Who is going to save our Church? Not our bishops, not our priests and religious. It is up to you, the people. You have the minds, the eyes, and the ears to save the Church. Your mission is to see that your priests act like priests, your bishops act like bishops, and your religious act like religious."

Thanks to everyone who sent articles and their thoughts about my reflections.

God help us.

Bishop Martino is Pooped Out

Our Good Shepherd Bishop Martino has thrown in the towel.

"As the song says, you have to know when to hold them and when to fold them," Martino said at a news conference. "And I think it's time to move on."

Martino had been heavily criticized by some parishioners who felt his imperious leadership and staunch defense of Catholic orthodoxy had alienated many in the diocese of 350,000. Supporters said Martino was simply enforcing church doctrine.

The bishop conceded Monday that the stress has taken its toll.

"For some time now, there has not been a clear consensus among the clergy and people of the Diocese of Scranton regarding my pastoral initiatives or my way of governance," Martino said. "This development has caused me great sorrow, resulting in bouts of insomnia and at times a crippling physical fatigue."

Dude - join the club!

At least when families formed in the faith needed a candle to point their children towards in the wackiness of their parishes and diocese underneath him, they had back up that gave credibility to the authentic teachings of the Church. Something most of us are salivating for...

That what we're doing now? Handing the potential faithful of the next generation over to the unfaithful and saying... KNOCK YOURSELVES OUT! ??

I have many friends who think so.

I guess, in a lot of ways, most of us have done it ourselves? We've packed up our children, our families and taken them to safe havens - left the unholy ground to devour everyone up.

Good luck to ya. Enjoy the plagues.

Bishop Martino ought to take a rest for himself and then get a blog where the rest of us are hanging out with the Blood of the Lamb on our doorways.

He can't waste that talent. We could use him. We need him.

I'm freezing my butt off

It's too soon for this.

I want he humidity back.

The People Ted Kennedy Left Behind

I opened up the Globe today to read that mob boss, gigolo, conman and murderer Jerry Angiulo is dead at 90.

When I read his obit in the Globe, I couldn't help thinking about the Tom Foolery in the coverage of Kennedy's death in Catholic blogosphere. I realize people had mixed emotions and thoughts about Kennedy's death, but I was somewhat fascinated by the inability to process those thoughts and emotions and articulate something honest and substantive.

Can you imagine hearing Catholic rightly formed in the faith saying things like God Bless Jerry Angiulo, let us be charitable, this is not the time to speak of his legacy on earth?

Come on kiddies, we can do better than this.

Angiulo, of course, was a ruthless killer and it really isn't a fair or accurate comparison. Kennedy was a kind, compassionate man who loved Christ who was grossly misled - by commission and omission - by the Jesuits, priests and Bishops of the American Catholic Church - the "Vatican II" and Woodstock moonbats.

But, the victims of abortion are not any less dead than Angiulo's, are they? Catholics and those of good will fighting to stop the legal atrocities to the unborn realize the impact to the victims, to Kennedy himself, the multitudes who followed the it's okay to have personal beliefs and cry out for mercy on your death bed while the people who bought into your ideas continue on the path to perdition - and we're heartsick. We had every duty to make sure the actions of the Catholic priests in the aftermath of their incompetence as shepherds doesn't further entrench the uncatechized on that path.

Like Christ crying out to the Father, interceding for those nailing Him to the Cross, I want to scream "Forgive them Father, for they know not what they do". The Kennedy family has been spiritually abused. As far as I'm concerned, it's the priests and Bishops responsible for the chaos. That's where the feet have to be held to the fire.

I waited several days before posting about the situation because I wanted to see what the spiritual circumstances were surrounding Kennedy's passing. The letter Obama carried to the Pope was a clear signal several weeks ago, accounts emerged that he surrounded himself with prayer and the Sacraments. His heartfelt letter to the Pope confirmed the state of his mind and soul. I don't have any delusions that Ted was given the same treatment at the pearly gates as Pope John Paul II. Like most of us, I imagine he'll be making a pitstop into purgatory. As a trench warrior, there's nothing more delicious than to see an adversary stop the rebellion and surrender fully to Christ. We can (and should) celebrate and rejoice in that victory. For me, Ted Kennedy's story is a story about redemption and salvation - and the Rite of Christian Burial was a joyous occasion. Yes, the intercessions went awry. The Cardinal sitting there, appearing to give credibility to the Catholic Church harboring hatred for homosexuals underscores the absurdity and we have work cut out for us.

Even though we rejoice at Ted's victory, we all have grave concerns about those misled by his ideology and enticed into it who will never have the opportunity to die surrounded by priests being coached into atonement, the Sacraments - and be the recipients of daily Communion and an Apostolic Blessing.

Here in Boston, if you're lucky enough to get some advance warning that you're about to be face-to-face with the Lord and try to call a priest for Viaticum, and the Red Sox are on television, it's a crap shoot. I'm not exaggerating in the least bit. Numerous people have stories about priests unwilling to take calls to deliver the Sacraments when their relatives are dying. We've got a lot of non-believers in the Boston presbyterate. Everyone is saved, you see, and so reaching out to clean your soul is responded to as zealously as the emptiness of the confessional box at your local parish. We're in deep trouble here. Forget about sending an entourage to the Legion - at least they know this much, the Vatican needs to send an entourage to Boston.

I digress.

In Ted's letter, he articulates that his mother immersed her family in the Catholic Faith. Others are not so enriched. Poverty of spirit is a pandemic in the formation of the family. Indigence, death and other misfortunes, mental illness, crime, the Jesuits, etc., create a vaccuum in some families that is too difficult to overcome. When the wind comes, they're swept away - for generations.

Mothers, fathers, grandparents and family who impart the gift of faith to their children get the opportunity for atonement and redemption Ted Kennedy got in his dying days. The people with circumstances that challenged their faith formation, not so much.

This is the injustice of reserving personal beliefs about redemption and taking full advantage of them on your death bed after having set up a generation of constituents to believe they can exercise their right to kill another human being without remorse, confession and absolution and give them the impression the life they are living is every bit as salvific as Mother Teresa's, so long as they serve in the soup kitchens.

Being blessed in this life to have the circumstances to know your Faith, take a leadership position, but set up your constituents to travel another path while reserving what you know is the path to redemption for yourself, is neither charity nor valor. I can't personally think of anything more egregious as a Catholic.

Assuming Ted Kennedy righted his ship on his death bed, there is much rejoicing as far as I'm concerned. For him.

Unfortunately, we still have some loose ends to clean up.

He was a public leader with a public ministry and stood in public defiance of many of the teachings of the Church - in spite of what he now says were his own personal convictions. That record has not been publicly corrected.

As I watched his beautiful family, I feel compelled to solicit influential theologians, priests, Bishops to help them to understand where and why we hold the positions we hold - to heal those divisions and wounds and beg for a new era of Roman Catholic political leadership in the fullness of the Truth. It isn't born of acrimony, but zeal for Christ's souls - something gone tragically awry in seminary formation in the United States.

We've done a terrible job getting this across to masses - or more accurately stated, we've been too darn lazy and craven to combat the mainstream media using the fringe to contort where our heart lies in the things we say and do in a generation where the priests are hopping into the sack, the bottle, the pills and every other indulgence to fix their broken self-esteem. I'm sorry to say it but it is what it is.

We've got to inventory the challenges and set a strategy to rise above them.

A commenter in another post wrote that if Obama turned his positions about abortion, to authentic prolife positions and then acted upon those positions, what a leader he could be. We will never, not ever, attempt to find common ground while 51 million children and counting die in the protion of the culture of death in his administration. Stop asking us. This country didn't leave slavery legal and instead attempt to influence people not to use them. Rebellion and divisions are heighted at such a stupid suggestion. It's about killing people.

How we get there, I don't know but I know we've just got to try. We can't continue this course. After Labor Day, we've got work to do.

Boston Catholics continue to be outraged that their Cardinal enticed others to carry out his abortion business to "save" Caritas Christi. The handling of the matter, the sneakiness of using the media to to distort the truth about what he was doing makes union with him is irreconcilable. It is the same cesspool Ted Kennedy fell into. With "healthcare" reform on the horizon and possibly new efforts posthumous - Boston prolifers have a duty to force the Cardinal to release the opinion of the National Catholic Bioethics Center and, to obtain copies of contracts that will reveal the current situation so others will not fall into the trap. We intend to follow through with that duty.

Catholic Action League Press Release

Our friend CJ Doyle has issued a press release about Ted Kennedy's contribution to the end of 51 million children and the passions those injustices bring to the surface for many of us. Advocating the right to kill millions of people legally without a public acknowledgment that this was regrettable leaves a lot of confusion and potential scandal behind.

I have to believe that with all the notice Kennedy had that he would be face-to-face with Christ that he got his spiritual affairs in order. By all descriptions from his family priest and the confidence he expressed, this appears to be the case. Therefore, I wasn't able to muster up any indignation about his Catholic funeral. I'm glad it wasn't at the Cathedral and I wish it were a private affair - Given the legacy of the massacres he promoted, great caution should have been given to making sure that people didn't walk away thinking the very public send Catholic send-off doesn't give rise to people concluding abortion and other defiant transgressions against God are not an obstacle to our salvation. Nevertheless, a funeral Mass of a repentant sinner who has made their peace with God is something I can't help but rejoice in. Though the intercessions derailed, for the most part, I didn't find anything offensive to my sensibilities in the rest of the Mass - and I'm very critical and intolerant about the smallest amount of nonsense.

The Kennedys are poster children of the misfeasance and malfeasance of the American Catholic priesthood. Personally, I believe they are accountable and responsible for the spiritual chaos of the family and our country. That is where my outrage is directed.

It's true that Kennedy had many opportunities to be counseled about his defiance and rejected them. His priests, Bishops and Cardinals should have stood up and spoken the truth in a way that left little doubt in the minds of the faithful that his path was unacceptable. If a parent watched a defiant teenager get behind the wheel of a car stinking drunk - he shouldn't let the rest of his family get in the car with him without doing everything they can to persuade them not to. The silence of the presbyterate in Boston, the Bishops and those that held the Cathedra has been deafening for 40 years.

I was very moved by the letter Ted Kennedy sent to the Pope and the Pope's reply during the last days. Kennedy's letter to the Pope is posted at David Gibson's blog.

The sentiments Boston Catholics over the harm cowardice and selfishness has done to our faith is reflected in CJ's press release. I loathe the circuses of feigned and disordered charity they try to impose upon the chaos while massacres are on the battlefield. It's like watching parents of a five year old playing with matches and gasoline demand we watch comedy central with them and getting offended when we mention the danger.

God help us all.

NEWS RELEASE

SATURDAY, AUGUST 29, 2009

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

CONTACT: C. J. DOYLE

(781) 251-9739

SCANDAL AT MISSION CHURCH IN BOSTON

The Catholic Action League of Massachusetts today decried the scandal which occurred this morning at Boston's most historic Catholic shrine --- the Minor Basilica of Our Lady of Perpetual Help, known as Mission Church --- where a Mass of Christian Burial was used to “celebrate the life” of one of America's most notorious opponents of Catholic morality, the late Senator Edward M. Kennedy. Senator Kennedy fought for more than three decades to keep the killing of pre-born children legal and unrestricted in the United States.

Surgical abortion has claimed more than fifty-one million human lives since 1973. The Catholic religion defines abortion as an “abominable crime”.

President Barack Obama delivered the eulogy, in which he alluded to Kennedy's support for gay rights. One of the Prayers of the Faithful was a petition to end divisions “between gays and straights”.

Ecclesial participants included Rev. Raymond Collins, Rector of the Basilica; Rev. Mark Hession, Kennedy’s parish priest from Our Lady of Victories Church in Centerville on Cape Cod; Rev. J. Donald Monan, Chancellor of Boston College; and Sean Cardinal O'Malley, Archbishop of Boston, who thanked President Obama for his words and his presence. Both the homilist, Fr. Hession, and Cardinal O'Malley suggested that the late senator had found eternal salvation.

The Catholic Action League called the event “a tragic example of the Church’s willingness to surrender to the culture, and serve Caesar rather than Christ”.

Catholic Action League Executive Director C. J. Doyle stated: “Senator Kennedy supported legal abortion, partial-birth abortion, the public funding of Medicaid abortions, embryonic stem cell research, birth control, federal family planning programs, and so-called emergency contraception. He defended Roe v. Wade, endorsed the proposed Freedom of Choice Act (FOCA), and opposed both the Human Life Amendment and the Hyde Amendment. Kennedy maintained a 100% rating from both NARAL and Planned Parenthood. In 1993, he received the Kenneth Edelin Award from Planned Parenthood, and in 2000 received the Champions of Choice Award from NARAL Pro-Choice Massachusetts at the hands of the same Dr. Kenneth Edelin, the infamous abortionist.”

During his 1994 reelection campaign, Kennedy said ‘I wear as a badge of honor my opposition to the anti-choicers’. His successful obstruction of the nomination of Judge Robert Bork to the U.S. Supreme Court in 1987 effectively prevented the overturning of Roe v. Wade. Beyond his specific positions on human life issues, Senator Kennedy, along with the late Congressman Robert Drinan, provided the cover and the example for two generations of Catholic politicians to defect from Church teaching on the sanctity of innocent human life.”

“No rational person can reasonably be expected to take seriously Catholic opposition to abortion when a champion of the Culture of Death, who repeatedly betrayed the Faith of his baptism, is lauded and extolled by priests and prelates in a Marian basilica. This morning's spectacle is evidence of the corruption which pervades the Catholic Church in the United States. The right to life will never be recognized by secular society if it is not first vindicated and consistently upheld within the institutions of the Church itself.”

–

Oh God No

The Insufferable McCarrick is officiating in D.C.

Our political adversary is on his way to his final resting place

His son Patrick said his dad was far from a perfect man but he believed in redemption. The priest with him in his final days on this earth described the solace Ted and Vickie took in the Eucharist. His family, friends described the precious time spent in these last few years with him, putting closure on things that needed closure, teaching and just enjoying each other. Something each of us hopes for..

I feel for this family - for his wife, his colleagues and those who loved him and described the wonderful presence he was in their lives.

As a Boston Catholic who grew up in Irish Catholic Boston and a lover of politics and fighting for the civil rights and things we believe in for our country - I laughed, cried, prayed that Mass with zeal for all of us.

Many times, the readings referenced the reading for I was hungry and you fed me, thirsty and you have me drink, naked and you clothed me, sick and you cared for me, in prison and y9ou visited me. The Democrats never get that when you legislating killing people - you can do none of these things to them or for them. Killing people, especially children, cries out for justice. It's reprehensible. As a country we don't balance whether murderers are visiting the food pantry when we seek justice for the crimes they commit. As a country, we've got to stop giving people license to kill other people. Until and unless we do, our country is forever destined to be torn apart. There's no basis for authentic reconciliation with these atrocities being advanced legislatively.

How we make our political adversaries see this, I just don't know. Today, I'm simply profoundly sad at the state of affairs that prevents us from getting it through their heads.

Joan has got to lose those long blonde wigs

Too long in the tooth.

Obama's Eulogy...

To his credit, he did not use the moment to politically manipulate.

Frankly, it was tasteful and moving.

Ted Jr - a gracious child....

Beautifully done.

Hear a maiden's prayer

Ave maria! maiden mild!
O listen to a maidens prayer!
For thou canst hear amid the wild
( for thou canst hear though from the wild)
Tis thou, tis thou canst save amid despair.
We slumber safely til the morrow,
(safe may we sleep beneath thy care,)
Tho we, by men, outcast, reviled;
(tho banishd, outcast, and reviled;)
O maiden! see a maidens sorrow -
O mother, hear a suppliant child!
Ave maria!

Ave maria! undefiled!
The flinty couch whereon were sleeping
(the flinty couch we now must share)
Shall seem with down of eider piled,
If thou above, sweet, watch our keeping
(if thy protection hover there.)
The murky caverns airs so heavy
(the murky caverns heavy air)
Shall breathe of balm if thou hast smiled;
O maiden! hear a maidens pleading!
(then, maiden! hear a maidens prayer;)
O mother, hear a suppliant child!
Ave maria!

Ave maria! stainless styled!
O fiends of air and earth the essence
(foul demons of the earth and air)
From this their wonted haunt exiled
Shall flee before thy holy presence
(shall fee before thy presence fair)

We bow beneath our care so laden
(we bow us to our lot of care)
To thy dear guidance reconciled;
(beneath thy guidance reconciled;)
Then hear, o maiden, simple maiden!
(hear for a maid, a maidens prayer;)
And for a father hear a child!
Ave maria!

Worst moment of a funeral....

When the pallbearers start coming back up the aisle nearing the end of the Mass.

O'Malley uses the hands?

Strange dude.


I was surprised not to see him on the Altar during at least the Canon.

Panis Angelicus!

The Bread of Angels.

Amen!

That's GOT To be LEO playing the organ!

Fill the Heaven's with sweet accord - Holy, Holy, Holy Lord!

Phew!

George is sitting beside Hillary!

Bahhh!

Joe Kennedy

I vehemently disagree with the politics of Joe Kennedy. But....his face is kind, he too loves Christ, his family and the poor - tries to serve them in a quiet way.

Living and working in Boston, I have many friends who are liberal whackaddoos. In spite of our differences, they love me -- and I love them back.

I go sword to sword with the Kennedy's on many things. The Kennedys are a part of the culture to most cradle Boston Irish Catholics - especially those old enough to have lived through John Kennedy's political career. There's something about Irish Catholic politics ( Dapper O'Neill, James Curley, the Kennedys - etc.) that can't be explained.

Every once in a while, a politician comes along with whom we can turn swords into plowshares. Ronald Reagan -- I think Mike Huckabee is another. There's something about Joe Kennedy that I also believe has this charism - at least for me. If the guy ever could embrace the full teachings of the Church - what a politician he could be.

What's with Schwartznagger?

His presence seems separate from his wife.

Obama's Arrival...

By way of... Melnea Cass Boulevard?

I wonder if they hustled the homeless, pimps, prostitutes and drug dealers off the streets yesterday?

Cardinal O'Malley's Presence at Kennedy Funeral Mass

There's been a lot of subterfuge in the Boston Catholic community over what kind of a message O'Malley presiding at Ted's funeral Mass will give to the tenet of "thou shalt not kill" to the salvation of the soul. O'Malley is a man who makes contracts with abortionists to carry out a business arrangement to improve the financial portfolio of the diocese. He is anathema.

Ted Kennedy was a loving man. He had many broken days and by all accounts his beautiful wife - a woman with grace and much love - healed many of his wounds and improved the quality of his life. He loved Christ. He loved his family. He loved his country. He loved the poor. As a Catholic, I was heartbroken that the priests and Bishops and Cardinals misled his spirit and soul - as I was when I found out they were misleading my own...all of us.

Ted Kennedy received Viaticum. Hopefully, the minister of that Sacrament had the spinal fortitude to explain what needed to be explained. That duty lies with that minister and the failure is charged to his soul - another heartbreaking thing to watch for Catholics who know their faith and spiritual world. A beautiful Mass is about to begin in a beautiful House of Worship and Our Lady of Perpetual Help is petitioned and venerated by many, many people for hundreds of years.

I'm watching and praying for all the moonbats who are assembling there. God help us. God protect us and inspire us. God have mercy on us all.

Fifty Million Children Dead - no mention of them from Bishop McManus

Kennedy "triumphed over failings"

Worcester Bishop Robert J. McManus said Mr. Kennedy’s “zealous advocacy” for so many issues over his 50 years of public service benefited not just the commonwealth, but the entire country.

“Our hearts and prayers go out to the members of the Kennedy family at the death of a man who cared so much for them as loving father, brother, uncle and friend. May God bring them his peace and consolation in this time of loss and grief,” Bishop McManus said.

Bishop McManus doesn't mention the advocacy to slaughter 50 million babies in his theory about Ted Kennedy. One wonders what Catholic obituaries would look like for Adolph Hitler. Temperance is not a virtue of learned men in the Catholic Church. They have derailed.

Perhaps Cardinal O'Malley Will Lend Obama His Crozier and Mitre...

Quite frankly, I'm relieved Obama won't be sitting in the Cathedra -- the services will be held at Mission Church.

For those of you from out of town, Mission Church is a very historical and meaningful House of Worship for Irish families who immigrated to Boston. The icon of Our Lady of Perpetual Help is located on the left side of the Church in a beautiful spot for veneration and prayer. Many miracles have occurred in the Church. On each side of the icon are large containers filled with crutches and tributes to the cures. My mother used to tell me that every Good Friday, the Irish in Roxbury would go through a pilgrimage called "the Seven Churches". The schools would organize the children and off everyone would go to made a visit to the seven Churches. A plenary indulgence is given to those who make the pilgrimage.

As a member of Boston's old Irish Catholic population who grew up in the 60's, I have many stories of families suffering injustice that Ted helped. Snafu's at Social Security when elderly's checks would get gummed up, etc. The people he helped are too numerous to count.

I hope and pray to God that some priest or dare I say Bishop helped his conscience aquiesce to God's soveriegnty and he left this world in a state of Grace - like we all hope to do. I have very mixed feelings about the canonization in the public square and his legacy of catastrophic policies to the unborn. This I can say: Obama's place to give a eulogy was not a Catholic pulpit. Since the Cathedra in Boston is sede vacante, I'm not surprised at the chancery wizards have handed Obama five minutes of hijacking the funeral to garner support for policies that the antithesis of Catholicism. I hope my prediction is wrong and Obama doesn't exploit the moment. I don't hold out a lot of hope.

Unholy Alliance in Healthcare

Excellent story written by Gail Besse on the threat against conscience protections for Catholics and the civil rights of unborn children developing in Manchester New Hampshire.

“D-H doctors have testified in the state legislature against the diocese on end-of-life issues,” Souza explained. “Their chief palliative care doctor helped get legislation passed that led to the state issuing a dangerous ‘living will’ called the New Hampshire Advance Directive.

“Dartmouth refers girls to Planned Parenthood in Manchester, where we have a picket going five days a week. If you partner with D-H and give them credibility, it’s a weak moral argument to say, ‘They do it under a different roof, so we won’t be culpable,’” she said.

Catholic Bishops are making contracts with abortionists and sending women and children to their physical and spiritual deaths. The misfeasance and malfeasance in this new assault against children is far more offensive than their alliance with pedophiles.

Kudos to the handful of women who are fighting these crimes against the civil liberties of children.

Ted Kennedy

RIP

Barney Frank Filing Bill for Unprecedented Control Over Financial Institutions

Poster boy for Power Corrupts.

Massachusetts Choose Life Plates

Info on Choose Life Plates - Spread the word...

Dear supporters,

You have probably seen pro-life license plates from other states and
thought, "wouldn't it be great to have them here, but of course this is
Massachusett s!"

But having the plates is within our reach--All organizers need to do to
get the Choose Life plates in MA is to have a total of 1,500 people send
in their $40.00 registrations right now, and they're 2/3 of the way there!

Choose Life plates will:
*         Help convince women with crisis pregnancies to give their babies
life.

*         Support Crisis Pregnancy Centers across the state. Finally,
public money will go to help a woman to keep her baby.
*         Increase morale and show how much support there is for life.

Choose Life plates are a win-win-win proposition!

They can't happen unless you sign up right now.  ONLY 454 more sign ups
are needed!


Print:

http://www.machoose-life.org/images/ChooseLife_Registration_Application.pdf

...and mail to the address on the form, with a $40 check to the RMV.

The deadline to do this is coming soon, so please mail your form ASAP.
Thank you!

You have received this message because you have subscribed to a mailing
list of Coalition for Marriage and Family Inc.. If you do not wish to
receive periodic emails from this source, please click below to
unsubscribe.



Paid for by The Coalition for Marriage and Family Action

Smoking Swine flu Crackpipes or 90,000 deaths - anyone's guess

"Serious threat to the Nation"?

Aug. 24 (Bloomberg) -- Swine flu may infect half the U.S. population this year, hospitalize 1.8 million patients and lead to as many as 90,000 deaths, more than twice the number killed in a typical seasonal flu, White House advisers said.

In a report by the President’s Council of Advisers on Science and Technology, President Barack Obama today was urged to speed vaccine production and name a senior member of the White House staff, preferably the homeland security adviser, to take responsibility for decision-making on the pandemic. Initial doses should be accelerated to mid-September to vaccinate as many as 40 million people, the advisory group said.

Frankly, I think these folks are high strung. But, take a look-see at who's at the center of the swineflue tornado:

The President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology is chaired by John Holdren, the director of the White House Office of Science and Technology,

Stop drinking the tapwater now if you haven't already - even for your tea and coffee.
Stock up on Poland Springs.
Do not touch or hold onto railings on your commuter trains or any other place.
Don't touch faucets or door handles in public bathrooms with your bare hands - use paper towels.
Wash your hands with antibacterial like you've got obsessive compulsive disorder.
Buy antibacterial and drill safety precautions into your children's heads.

And, do check out Michelle Malkin's Obama's Scienze Czar (John Holdren) is a whackjob.

Michelle links to this narrative of Holdren's nutty ideas.

If you're thinking my precautions are reactionary - good luck to you. Those are direct quotes from Holdren's ideas.

In more news over the past 48 hours, the Obama Administration is already using the Veteran's Administration to brainwash sick and suffering veterans into a premature death.

The controversy over a 52 page book called "your life, your choices" that was suspended during the Bush Administration and recently kicked back into circulation and promotion by the White House Wizards. Arlen Spector has called for hearings and suspension of the "hurry up and die" policies being pushed at the VA.

But Tammy Duckworth, an injured veteran who is the assistant secretary for the Department of Veterans Affairs, said the manual is still under revision -- as stated in a disclaimer on the official Web site -- and has not officially been "reinstated."

She said it was one of many options for injured veterans, calling it "simply a tool."

"This ultimately is about the ... health care for veterans," Duckworth said.

Though Duckworth said the document has not been fully vetted, an official directive from July tells VA health practitioners to refer veterans to the document. Duckworth questioned whether that directive had been authorized at the highest levels.

What's the Obama Administration think is healthcare for our veterans:

One section titled, "What Makes Your Life Worth Living?," offers a checklist of scenarios -- the person filling out the form is asked to rate whether life would be worth living under each of them.

"I am a severe financial burden on my family," says one of them. "My situation causes severe emotional burden for my family," says another.

Diabolical.

I'm predicting there'll be a lot of of swine flu at the Veteran's Hospitals?

A sick bunch.

Two Interesting Legal Decisions Affecting the Unborn

The first one in South Dakota where a judge ruled that women must be told that abortion is ending a human life.

Go ahead, kill another human being because in this country - you can.

The second ruling from Massachusetts where a judge extended an abuse prevention order on behalf of her unborn child over the objections of the mother.

The judge noted that, "the Guidelines [do indeed] suggest that a court should not deny a plaintiff's request to vacate or modify an abuse prevention order for the sole reason that the court concluded her decision was unwise. Recognizing the protective purpose of G.L.c. 209A, there is no valid reason to deny protection here simply because the child in this case is yet to be born."

The father in the case had a long history of violence and crimes and had beaten her while pregnant. She subsequently decided she'd like to talk to him about doctor's appointments, the pregnancy, etc. The self-esteem of some women is so pathetically low, they put themselves and their children into an abusive situation. Bottom line: Protecting a child from harm in utero when a woman can't tear herself away from an abusive jerk kicks the constitutional status of unborn child up a few notches.

800 meter gold metal winner undergoing gender testing

Amind concens that the teenager competed as a female but may not "meet the requirements of being a female".

Before the race, IAAF spokesman Nick Davies stressed this is a "medical issue, not an issue of cheating." He said the "extremely complex" testing has begun. The process requires a physical medical evaluation and includes reports from a gynecologist, endocrinologist, psychologist, internal medicine specialist and gender expert.

Extremely complex?

Have the luminaries looked at the birth certificate and checked out her medical records about what kind of equipment she was born with - or has now?


Further, the South African team manager's words sure indicate to me that the spot where they filled in the gender of the individual was not a decision based on genetics:

"We entered Caster as a woman and we want to keep it that way," Mlangeni-Tsholetsane said. "Our conscience is clear in terms of Caster. We have no reservations at all about that."

Doesn't say the teenager is a female, was therefore entered as a female, the tests will prove she is a female and the young woman should be apolgized to. He says they made the decision to enter the person as a female and they'd like to keep it that way.

Give me a break.

Lockerbie Lunacy

Have they named the wizards who made the decision to release the homicidal madman responsible for freeing the airline bomber?

Khadafy praised Prime Minister Gordon Brown and members of the royal family by name for what he described as influencing the decision to let the terminally ill Abdel Baset al-Megrahi return home to die

The Brits are denying it but something smells in their denials.

Further, in spite of Obama's indignation over the release, I'm not buying it. I can't swallow that the Scotts would release this lunatic without Barack Obama and his crew of terrorist-loving compassionates approving the decision to free him. Obama ran his campaign with a soundbyte of freeing terrorits from GITMO. I think this is part of Barack's credo.

Scottish Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill decided to release al-Megrahi on compassionate grounds because the Libyan has prostate cancer and was given only months to live by top British

It is not compassionate for the victims of the mass murderer. Nor is it wise to release a man with weeks left to live who has proven he is capable, willing and interested in acts of terrorism that result in mass murder.

Barack calls on critis to abandon "phony" claims?

I honestly can no longer tell whether he's dangerously naive or deliberately deceptive.

Obama calls on critics to abandon phony claims about healthcare

“This is an issue of vital concern to every American, and I’m glad that so many are engaged,’’ Obama said in his weekly radio and Internet address yesterday. “But it also should be an honest debate, not one dominated by willful misrepresentations and outright distortions, spread by the very folks who would benefit the most by keeping things exactly as they are.’’

“So today, I want to spend a few minutes debunking some of the more outrageous myths circulating on the Internet, on cable TV, and repeated at some town halls across this country,’’ the president said.

Obama said the overhaul would not cover illegal immigrants nor use taxpayer dollars to pay for abortions, and he does not intend a government takeover of health care - as critics have contended at contentious town hall-style meetings.

“As every credible person who has looked into it has said, there are no so-called death panels - an offensive notion to me and to the American people,’’ Obama said. “These are phony claims meant to divide us.’’

Actually - I don't think this is panning out that the American people find it's Barack who is credible. I think the more they see, the less credible he gets.

He's already using taxpayer dollars to pay for abortions, he's hired people who believe the government should dump contraceptives into the drinking water supply, force women into abortions, target prolifers as potential shoebombers worthy of terrorist alert, and other whacky ideas. If he finds these ideas offensive, why does he fill his Cabinet with proponents of them?

The Bill speaks for itself.

Nobody aging needs a government appointed healthcare nazi to make decisions about their medical choices. Those decisions are made between the doctor and the family. I think he's counting on people to be stupider than they actually are. I'm sure he thinks the elderly are too feeble-minded to put 2 and 2 together.

With all his rhetoric, I've yet to hear anyone get an explanation out of him as to what he thinks needs intervention between the patient, doctor and their family making decisions. We've heard nothing but hooey.

Senior citizens are using healthcare when they are sick. There's no room to cut services from the elderly, sick and suffering so he can add 48 million people and call his bill humane. Obamacare is inhumane and the American people are not buying into rationing medicine to sick people. Every country in the world that has done it, regrets it.

If he was smart, he'd let this die and pick something else out of his communist agenda to see if the people's opiates have dulled their intellect enough to pass. Perhaps before they germinate the country to spread a pandemic of the flu, Holden should dump Prozac and other mind-numbing drugs into the public drinking water?

See you in 2012 suckers.

Bishop Olmsted on the Devil

Kudos to the Catholic Key Blog for kicking this onto the radar screen

Bishop Olmsted on the Devil and Fr. John Vianney:

Fallen angels, also known as devils and evil spirits, try to hinder all of us in our pursuit of holiness. Their ordinary ploy is by means of temptations, which God allows so that we can make good use of our freedom in resisting them and thus growing to fuller maturity in Christ.

In addition to these ordinary ploys, demons resort to other extraordinary acts, on rare occasions, with the same intention of thwarting the plan of God and undercutting our filial trust in Him. These harassments can be of three kinds: infestations, obsessions and possessions.

With infestations, the devil makes use of noises, outcries, rattling, apparitions and other extraordinary outbursts of some sensible nature aimed at terrifying people, intending to undercut their confidence in God. He used these repeatedly on the Cure of Ars, sometimes to keep him from getting badly needed sleep, at other times to disturb his peace of mind and to try to shake his trust in God. All these were aimed at disrupting the effective ministry of this holy priest.

Early on, Fr. Vianney became aware that these infestations were most outrageous just before an outstanding action of grace was about to occur through his priestly ministry, usually the conversion of a sinner. In fact, he remarked that the worst assaults of the devil happened when he was on the verge of “landing a big fish,”...

The Cure of Ars himself never suffered from demonic obsession or possession, but he dealt with them in others whom he served in his sacred ministry. With obsession, the devil goes beyond infestations and actually plays on the external senses of the body or influences a person’s memory or imagination. In cases of possession, which are even more rare than those of obsession, the devil actually uses the whole human organism, with the exception of the mind and will.

The suffering that obsession and possession bring to a person is almost unimaginable. Moreover, to be freed of these satanic harassments, the Church’s sacred power from Christ is needed.

Great piece.

Enjoy the Chemicals

There should be a counter-revolution at the intimidation practices of unemployed health food nuts pretending they have money in their wallets to purchase groceries at Whole Foods.

They've got to be kidding.

If we don't go along with taking away medical care from the sick and elderly and poor Americans to give it to millions of illegal aliens - Obama's forces will try to put us out of business? Personally, I'm going to sleep sounder knowing these brutes and bullies will be eating and drinking chemicals.


I've been gradually eliminating any foods with chemicals and preservatives for the past ten years. I love Whole Foods. There's a trick to shopping there as a busy Mom - you've got to freeze the meats as soon as you get them home and shop the sales. If I could kick my Vitamin Water habit (the 10 calorie), I'd shop there exclusively.

Let's rally the prolife and sanctity of life forces to shop at Whole Foods and take up a collection to bus the moonbats from the parking lots of Whole Foods to the nearest Walmart where the human rights of employees are trampled every day, shall we?

Obama States he is God's Partner in Deciding Who Lives and Who Dies

Exploits a Jewish prayer to see who he can round up to make decisions over who gets to live and to whom they will withhold life-giving resources.

"We are God's partners in matters of life and death," Obama said, according to Moline (paging Sarah Palin...), quoting from the Rosh Hashanah prayer that says that in the holiday period, it is decided "who shall live and who shall die."

Given Jewish history, anyone climbing aboard that train is without honor.

Also today, Obama said something about August and September makes his opponents wee-wee and no matter how much we wee-wee, he's not going to give up.

There's "something about August going into September," Obama added,"where everyone gets all we-weed up."

Barack also expressed his frustration with a certain media focus that only shows angry people who oppose his ideas.

You don't say.

Obama flashed some irritation with the media focus on the opposition to his health care plan. "You could have 20 really civil town hall meetings but if there's one where there's somebody screaming you know which one is going to get on television," he said.

Asked by one supporter where all the "lies" about his health care plan are coming from, Obama suggested it was some unnamed TV networks. "If you just flick channels.. and stop on certain ones, uh-huh, you'll see who's propagating this stuff."

Cry me a river.

John Zmirak's Screed on The Perverse Use of of Christian Impulses

I absolutely love reading John Zmirak. He has such a way of zeroing in on our flaws and using biting sarcasm. His style is entertaining, enlightening, shocking and if you're sauntering along the road of trying to perfect your own flawed and sinful nature-it's a fabulous spiritual tool. Especially if being mocked is up your alley.

There's always a good hearty laugh at his perspective of worldly things that are driving us crazy as warriors and a little dose of what's driving the people around us crazy.

I've seen people really do this -- for instance, Catholic bloggers who seem to boast about the depth of their former sins, and wallow in their specialness compared to dreary, bourgeois churchgoers who've always tried to follow the rules. There's a certain type of "penitent" who delights in playing the perpetual prodigal son, always deserving of the fatted calf. Just by going one more day without doing heroin, or cheating on their spouses, they think they are forever causing greater joy in heaven than whole cloisters full of holy Carmelites. The trick is to stay the "lost sheep," and never blend in and become one of those boring 99 . . .

He takes on the Litany of humility like nobody else could.

Give yourself a gift and read his latest screed:

Please Allow Me to Humiliate You.

Not too flattering pic of Steve Tyler about a minute from my house

Yowza

He needs a haircut, a hamburger and a new pair of sunglasses.

Bob Novak - RIP

This is a beautiful tribute to Bob Novak written by Paul Begala.

"Ad hoc legal approach for fighting terrorism that was neither effective nor sustainable"

Obama made the astounding assertion that the Bush administration was ineffective at fighting terrorism.

Did I sleep through acts of terrorism in the United States after 911?

The freedom from terrorists in post 911 America as a result of aggressive policies and proactive defense of our country's liberties from the Bush Administration somehow escaped Barack?

I'm not buying it.

At about 2:20 in the youtube,Obama announces that because there are some people who will never be able to be prosecuted for crimes because in some cases evidence may be tainted but who nonetheless pose a threat to the security of the United States - he proposes prolonged preventive detention plan.



Wait a minute....wasn't this his gripe about GITMO?

I'm confused.

Obama goes on to say that "we must do this with an abiding confidence in the rule of law"

What rule of law and civil liberty imprisons people without evidence in order to prevent them from committing crimes?

He says his "administration begun to reshape standards that apply to ensure they are in line with the rule of law...we must have clear, defensible and lawful standards for those who fall into this category"

I guess that would not be the innocent until proven guilty category.

Obama continues with the ideas of the White House wizards:

"We must have a thorough process of periodic review so that any prolonged detention is carefully evaluated and justified"

If they're carefully evaluated the evidence and it's insufficient for a trial - Periodically reviewing it as you detain them can never be justified.

"goal - construct alegitmate legal framework for remaining GIMTO detainees that cannot be transferred. Goal is not to avoid a legitimate legal framework. In our constitutional system, prolonged detention should not be the decision of any one man. If and when we determine that the United States must hold individuals to keep them from carrying out an act of war, we will do so with judicial and congressional oversight...going forward, my administration will work with congress to develop an appropriate legal regime so that our efforts are consistent with our values and our constitution."

He's going to develop a legal regime?

A regime , as the MSNBC correspondent notes will be outside of the courts and outside of the military system so that you can indefinitely imprison people without charges and you will build this regime from scratch.

Breathtaking.

Is this the same guy who made assertions that Cambridge police responding to a 911 call and asking for identification were acting "stupidly" and racist?

"Lead, Follow or Get out of the Way" was a Guest Column on Judie Brown's/American Life League Blog This Week

As far as I'm concerned, the only place better to defend life in all of Christendom than having your column featured at Judie Brown's ALL is a spot on the Pope's piazza!

A daily visit to her blog is a must for any activist or Catholic who wants to keep up with the latest news,advice and wisdom for advancing the culture of life.

Serving the Lord with all your heart and soul,come what may to bring truth into the light is a rare gift of fire for our faith. Most apostolates and people cease to fight when the attacks against life are coming from within the Catholic Church.

Thank God for her leadership and courage.

May God continue to inspire, bless and protect her and her wonderful staff.

Ad lucem!

Where will Obama's peeps report images of Barack's face with a rubber nose and the like?

The White House has disabled the flag electronic email tips to report "fishy" activism against the White House agenda.

Following a furor over how the data would be used, the White House has shut down an electronic tip box — flag at whitehouse.gov — that was set up to receive information on “fishy” claims about President Barack Obama’s health plan.

E-mails to that address now bounce back with the message: “The e-mail address you just sent a message to is no longer in service. We are now accepting your feedback about health insurance reform via http://www.whitehouse.gov/realitycheck.”

The “flag” service was introduced Aug. 4, with a White House blog post saying: “There is a lot of disinformation about health insurance reform out there, spanning from control of personal finances to end of life care. These rumors often travel just below the surface via chain emails or through casual conversation. Since we can’t keep track of all of them here at the White House, we’re asking for your help. If you get an email or see something on the web about health insurance reform that seems fishy, send it to flag at whitehouse.gov.”

Asking the village idiots to report private conversations and emails to them was going down as all Nazi-like - adding momentum to their public relations nightmare.

Obama Delegate/Organizing for America Host Poses as Doctor

Tom Blumer has the story.

LA-area blogger Patterico, best known for his relentless skewering of the target-rich environment known as the Los Angeles Times, exposed Ms. Mayer, who claimed to be a doctor when she spoke at a town hall meeting held by Houston Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee (and who later hugged her, as seen at the top right), as a leftist fraud....

Some attendees at the meeting spoke in favor of the plan, go (sic -- going?) so far as to want a system where the government had complete control.

One supporter, Dr. Roxana Mayer, a physician who does not live in Jackson Lee’s district, praised the reform plan for overhauling a broken system.

“I don’t know what there is in the bill that creates such panic,” she said

Perhaps this is a recruit from the Craigslist ads hiring people for $325 to 600 to mobilize activists and show up at Obama's TownHall meetings. Using dorks for staged infomercials for Obama's socialized medicine is not panning out for them.

Patterico's posted a link from the LoneStar Times that is hysterical. Apparently the woman who came with the planted phony doctor also has an interesting history:

Now here’s where it spins off into a whole new dimension of weird. See the bug-eyed woman seated behind not-doctor Mayer?

Look familiar?

Yes, that little ray of sunshine, who accompanied Mayer to the meeting, is none other than Maria Isabel, the unhinged moonbat who ran a Barack Obama campaign office, complete with Che Guevara (Cuban communist) flag.

Hell, she’s even wearing the exact same outfit she wore the last time we mocked her!

Check out the "certified fishy,flag@whitehouse.gov" stamp on the last picture, mocking the white house email address and program set up for the moonbats to report "fishy" allegations about Obamacare.

Got to love it!

Don't miss the priceless comments on the Patterico site.

Signs of Dropping Government-Run HealthCare

WASHINGTON - Boston to Republican pressure and an uneasy public, President Barack Obama's administration signaled Sunday it is ready to abandon the idea of giving Americans the option of government-run insurance as part of a new health care system.

Facing mounting opposition to the overhaul, administration officials left open the chance for a compromise with Republicans that would include health insurance cooperatives instead of a government-run plan. Such a concession would likely enrage his liberal supporters but could deliver Obama a much-needed win on a top domestic priority opposed by GOP lawmakers.

I'm not sure what the pros and cons are to this latest development. We may be going in the right direction but giving 4 billion dollars would seem to buy some significant influence. And, if Kathleen Sebelius is fer it, Catholics probably ought to be agin' it.

We'll have to do some homework.

Too bad they didn't keep going with it until they took every shred of trust the American Public has in the Democrats and the beezabuls down with it.

May be time for Nana to stick another pin in the voodoo dollies.

Is Nana practicing witchcraft at the White House?

According to Townhall sources, Obama is concerned about pagan witchcraft rituals being practiced by Michelle's mother at the White House and the Secret Service is barring Nana's witch and voodoo friends from entering.

This is how it happened. Marian Robinson became increasingly frustrated as her husband, Fraser Robinson, was hobbled by multiple sclerosis in the late 1980s. The family pastor prayed with her and counseled her, but "she turned to Santeria in a desperate hope," Michelle’s friend said. "Michelle put her foot down when she heard that her mother took her dad to ceremonies where they did spells and trances, and sacrificed animals, chickens and goats I think. But Marian was desperate and kept going anyway, even when her husband was to sick to go with her. I don’t think the president knew anything about this earlier because it was before they met. Michelle and Craig (her brother) wanted to close the book on this and never talked about it again after their father died in 1991."

The first grandma appears to be worried about her health now, even though doctors pronounce her in good shape. "Marian invited an old friend from Chicago to visit her at the White House, and she performed a Santeria ceremony in the residence. When Michelle saw this woman, a voodoo priestess she recognized her from when her father was sick, she had a fit. When she told the president about it, he blew up and said, ‘No voodoo in the White House. Absolutely. I don’t care what you call it.’ As far as I know, it only happened once," the friend said.

Yowza.

Crosses in St. Therese's Eyes

Fascinating picture of St. Therese here.

Scroll down four or five pictures.

Some background of the photo here.

House to House Search for Individuals Making Fun of Obama

There's Federal Pandemonium trying to find the madmen associated with making a caricature out of Barack Obama.

Clermont police have interviewed one suspect who is admitting to putting up the dozens of posters pasted around the city depicting President Obama as the Joker character from the Batman film The Dark Knight, city officials confirmed....

At this point officials are not sure how much damage was caused by the signs or the dollar amount associated with the clean-up.

Dozens of the posters were pasted around the city earlier this week. A pair of the posters were pasted to a Clermont Post Office collection box. They prompted the postmaster to contact the Postal Inspector's office, which is looking at potential federal crimes for defacing federal property.

City officials, meanwhile, are trying to determine what local crimes might be associated with the posting of the images on public and private properties. They've also been busy ripping down the sticky signs because they're a violation of city ordinance regarding illegal signs.

Jensen said he doesn't have a good count on the number of posters put up because, he said, "People are going out and tearing them down."

Somewhere in the transition between the Bushes and the Obamas, making fun of the President and his family became a federal crime.


Heil Obama.

These are definitely on my shopping for Christmas list.

We're taking a chance they'll roll out the tanks?

Tom Blumer's OFA Adventure

Check out Tom Blumer's chronicle of his grassroots adventure to oppose socialized medicine.

The National Guard is Preparing for a "flu riot"

On Thursday morning, four or five National Guard Humvees will travel from Augusta to Paris with vials of fake serum. The National Guardsmen will take on the roles of panicked citizens and military police and practice what they would do, such as using tear gas, in the case of a riot.

"This is just a component of moving the stuff from point A to B," said Oxford County Emergency Management Agency Director Scott Parker. The plan will be put into place only if needed, he said.

Plans were developed in April to have vials of serum sent from the federal government to Augusta, Parker said. From Augusta, the supplies will be transported to designated distribution centers.

During the April conference, concerns were raised about a possible out-of-control rush on the serum, Parker said. Because of that concern, Gov. John Baldacci and Gen. John Libby, adjutant general of the Maine National Guard, agreed that a plan should be devised to quell such a disturbance.

Local police chiefs have also been involved in the planning, Parker said. In a real event, local police would be in charge of security once the serum arrives in Paris. "We own it. We're in charge of providing security," he said.

As of Aug. 5, the Maine Center for Disease Control said there had been 323 confirmed cases of H1N1 in Maine, of which 176 are Maine residents and the rest out-of-staters diagnosed in Maine. A total of 19 people required hospitalization. Sixty percent of the victims were under the age of 25.

On Tuesday, health authorities reported Maine's first death from the H1N1 virus. Dr. Dora Anne Mills, director of the Maine Center for Disease Control, said a York County man in his 50s was hospitalized for three weeks and died last week of underlying conditions complicated by H1N1

.

This is from the fringe. Thirty-five thousand (otherwise sick and compromised) people around the globe die from the flu annually. They have one death in Maine and only approximately 350 sick and otherwise compromised people have died this year.

Are these the same people waiting on the ledge from the spaceships?

Fluffing the Pillows in Auschwitz

The senior citizen euthanasia counseling has been dropped from the healthcare package. With the AARP backing out of their support for Obamacare this week, the direct citations affecting senior's right to life, liberty and healthcare in the bill making their way throughout the country, they're dropping the most obvious threat from the bill.

Senior citizens have found out they elected Edward Scizzorhands and he's going cut their lives short so he can provide health benefits to illegal immigrants.

Do the boogeymen believe tweaking the bill will win back the trust and support of senior citizens?

Flugate

They practically have the National Guard stationed for the "flu outbreak" they're orchestrating this Fall.

Somebody in the White House must have a crystal ball.

The pandemonium over sore throats and fevers is positively astounding.

Cardinal Rigali: Healthcare Bills Funding Abortion "Seriously Deficient"

Kudos to Cardinal Rigali for his leadership role in combatting Obama's inhumane reforms in healthcare.

Cardinal Rigali said his present letter concerned the America’s Affordable Health Choices Act (H.R. 3200) and related legislation, emphasizing that respect for human life and the rights of conscience is a “fundamental requirement.”

“Much-needed reform must not become a vehicle for promoting an ‘abortion rights’ agenda or reversing longstanding policies against federal funding and mandated coverage of abortion,” the cardinal wrote, echoing his July 29 letter to the House Energy and Commerce Committee.
“In this sense we urge you to make this legislation ‘abortion neutral,’ by preserving longstanding federal policies that prevent government promotion of abortion and respect conscience rights.”

He described the proposed health care act as “seriously deficient” in that it delegates to the Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) the power to make unlimited abortion a mandated benefit in the health insurance plan the government will manage.

“This would be a radical change: Federal law has long excluded most abortions from federal employees’ health benefits packages, and no federal health program mandates coverage of elective abortions,” he pointed out.

Further, federal funds authorized by the proposed legislation do not pass through the Department of Labor or the HHS appropriations bill, and so are not covered by the Hyde Amendment restricting federal funding for abortions and health benefits package that include abortion.

According to Cardinal Rigali, the Capps Amendment, which was approved by the House Energy and Commerce Committee, created a “legal fiction” and a “paper separation” between federal funding and abortion. The proposal uses federal funds to subsidize the public health plan and private plans that include abortion on demand. It requires a premium to cover “all abortions beyond those eligible for federal funds under the current Hyde Amendment.”

The claim that federal taxpayer funds do not support abortion in the health care proposal is an “illusion,” Cardinal Rigali said.

“Funds paid into these plans are fungible, and federal taxpayer funds will subsidize the operating budget and provider networks that expand access to abortions,” he continued, warning that those who must purchase the public health plan will be “forced by the federal government to pay directly and specifically for abortion coverage.”

“Government will force low-income Americans to subsidize abortions for others (and abortion coverage for themselves) even if they find abortion morally abhorrent,” the cardinal alerted the representatives, saying this is the opposite of current policy

.

Reports from Obama's healthcare town meeting in New Hampshire state there were 1800 protesters outside that weren't let in -- and amazingly, everyone who was let in was a fan of Obama and his healthcare reform.

It was staged.

They used an 11 year old as a plant.

A girl from Malden asked President Obama a question at Tuesday’s town hall meeting in New Hampshire about the signs outside “saying mean things” about his health care proposal.

Eleven-year-old Julia Hall asked: “How do kids know what is true, and why do people want a new system that can — that help more of us?”

Michelle Malkin points out:

Manning Hall has donated thousands of dollars to Obama, as has her law firm.

But, you know, um, like Obama said: “I don’t want people saying I just have a bunch of plants in here.”...

” I have been honored to work with Kathleen Manning Hall on the New England Finance and Steering Committee for Barack Obama for over a year. She has raised money, slogged through the snow in New Hampshire and has devoted every minute of her time toward electing Barack Obama President of the United States. She has not only talked the talk, but walked the walk. Please elect her as a delegate to the Democratic National Convention to vote for Barack Obama.”

Creepy.

Maciel: Fruit of the Loom Takes on a Whole New Meaning

Patrick Madrid has a post up about new allegations developing against Marcial Maciel.

Whether the story that Pope John Paul II and others were acutely aware of the liberties taken by Maciel to sexually abuse and the subsequent coverups (and bullying of whistleblowers) by the Legion - to me is immaterial. There is a long history of evidence that demonstrates the Vatican, the Episcopal Conference of Bishops, Chanceries and Catholics all the way into the pews go along with the institutional flaws of protecting evils perpetrated at the hands of priests, Bishops and Cardinals.

I've said it before and I'll say it again: This cult mentality has got to be pried out.

Somewhere between allegations and due process of the accused is righteousness and justice. The rights of the innocent are just as trampled as the rights of authentic victims.

It's unacceptable. It cannot and must not be tolerated.

Patrick Puts T Fare Hikes on Hold After Being Caught Swindling Commuters

Price-Gouging Thieves at the Patrick Administration are looking around to see who they can throw under the bus now

Aloisi said yesterday that fare increases are off the table until the completion of an independent review of the T’s finances....

In June, Aloisi said at an MBTA meeting that the agency was so in need of new revenue that public hearings on fare increases should be speeded up.

But in recent weeks, the administration began painting the increases as the brainchild of Grabauskas. Last Thursday, after Grabauskas resigned, Aloisi said the increase would be reevaluated, following an independent review of the MBTA’s management to be completed by Nov. 1.

“I want those fresh eyes, and I want that independence,’’ Patrick said in an interview yesterday. “And frankly, just so there is absolutely no confusion, I have directed the secretary to suspend any more of those workshops until that work is done.’’

The call for a "fresh pair of eyes" came after Patrick gave Grabauskas $300,000 to take the fall. What Patrick didn't count on was Grabauskas releasing his trail of emails saying the 30% fare increase described as "urgent" wasn't actually needed.

Grabauskas told the Globe he was pushed out in part because the administration feared he would question the need for fare increases at yesterday’s hearing.

Patrick sidestepped questions about the issue yesterday.

“I’m not going to get into a tit for tat with a discredited former manager,’’ Patrick said. “This is not about Dan Grabauskas, try as he might to make it so.’’

But rivals say the administration has made a series of blunders in transportation. House minority leader Bradley Jones, Republican of North Reading, and Senator Richard Tisei, Republican of Wakefield, sent a joint letter to Patrick yesterday calling for the ouster of Aloisi, citing “a series of decisions and actions . . . that have been shortsighted, fiscally imprudent, and in some instances have risen to a level of gross negligence that have jeopardized the safety of our Commonwealth’s citizens.’’

Voters in Massachusetts are not the sharpest tools in the shed, but I'm having a hard time visualizing Patrick winning another election in 2010.

Time will tell!

Somebody check this guy for steroids

Kevin Youkilis, left, of the Red Sox charged the mound and tackled Detroit pitcher Rick Porcello after being hit by a pitch in the second inning of Tuesday night's game at Fenway Park. Tigers first baseman Ryan Raburn tried to get in the middle, but Youkilis took Porcello to the ground.

Check out the look on his face.

Is he serious?

Pitching can go a little awry. Your arm gets tired, you let go of the ball a little too soon, you lose your footing on the mound - etc.

Do you mean to tell me that everyone in the Red Sox Administration can look at the pictures today in the Globe, review the reaction and not check his arms for needle marks?

If he's not on steroids or drugs, something is seriously wrong with the individual. Baseball has got to sweep out bullies, oafs and drug addicts. They are destroying the appeal.

Tax it All Deval Caught Ripping Off Commuters

Recently fired General Manager Grabauskas released an email exchange that clearly leaves Governor Patrick and Transportation Secretary Aloisi caught in a web of lies about their opposition to a fare increase.

What a guy. What a party.

Obama claims "we" are creating a boogeyman?

At the town hall, the president said he seeks a rational debate and took a poke at critics who he said were trying to "scare the heck out of folks." He said there should be a vigorous debate over health care, but "with each other, not over each other."

"Where we disagree, let's disagree over things that are real, not these wild misrepresentations that don't bear any resemblance to anything that's actually being proposed," Obama said.

He accused critics of creating a "bogeymen."

We're only taking citations from the Healthcare reform bill and citations from the ideas of people he's hired to execute the plans.

If the shoe fits, wear it.

Obama Administration Goes After Catholic Institutional Freedom to Practice Religion

Revisiting a case that had been thought closed, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) has ruled that Belmont Abbey College’s decision to remove contraception from its faculty health care policy, in accordance with Catholic teaching, discriminated against women.

The tip of the iceberg of Obamacare whackiness.

The ruling came after eight faculty members filed a complaint claiming the Church had a discriminatory health insurance policy.

I'm surprised that Belmont Abbey employs teachers who are unfaithful to Christ's Church. I thought they had a fairly decent reputation. What a pathetic witness to the many children whom they permitted to be led astray by hiring people who dissent from the Catholic religion.

Catholic institutions should hire Catholic teachers and only Catholic teachers who assent to the teachings of the Church. You reap what you sew.

I certainly hope this Catholic school has a policy to terminate employees who mislead children from doctrinal faithfulness to the Catholic Church - and follows through with firing them.

The EEOC claims that it is gender discrimination not to provide abortifacients to their female staff because men don't take oral contraceptives.

Every faithful member of staff ought to raise the heat in the EEOC's kitchen. Start filing discrimination complaints for the insurance to cover Viagra, in-vitro fertilization, embryonic stem cell research and every apostasy known to humanity. Blow it up until it becomes a public relations nightmare for them to defend their logic.