….Forget the Humans, Save the Whales….

By Judie Brown, CNSNews,  May 28, 2010

Sebelius: Rationing Advocate is ‘Absolutely Right Leader At This Time’ to Run Medicare

Thursday, May 27, 2010 05:49 PM EST – HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius says that Dr. Donald Berwick, an advocate of health-care rationing nominated by President Barack Obama to run Medicare and Medicaid, is “absolutely the right leader at this time” to run the government’s largest health-care entitlement programs.

___________________________________________________________

He’s a Very Busy Man

Obama’s 3 hour tour of Louisiana…

Regularly spends 5 hours on golf course…

Don’t be fooled that diversity is a good thing. The word is being used to sneak in an agenda that is targeted at destroying Christian Civilization.

This program is from RealCatholicTV.com

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Obama’s Counterterror Adviser, John Brennan, Defends Jihad as ‘Legitimate Tenet of Islam’

“Nor do we describe our enemy as ‘jihadists’ or ‘Islamists’ because jihad is a holy struggle, a legitimate tenet of Islam, meaning to purify oneself or one’s community, and there is nothing holy or legitimate or Islamic about murdering innocent men, women and children.”

….You get the picture. The complaints and finger-pointing are mounting, and Obama’s present “villains” are the oil companies, the Republicans, and, of course, the previous administration….

By John Gizzi, Human Events, 05/28/2010

If there is anything to be gleaned from yesterday’s news conference, it is the whining, the complaining, and finger pointing of the President who increasingly behaves like a “juvenile in chief.”

And in an increasingly turbulent election year, my prediction is: this is only the beginning.

John Gizzi is Political Editor of HUMAN EVENTS.

http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=37252

La. Congressman Breaks Down During Hearing

May 27, 2010 — Louisiana Congressman Charlie Melancon broke down during a House Energy subcommittee meeting Thursday morning talking about the BP Oil spill and the coastal damage the spill has caused. (May 27)

“It should be your care, therefore, and mine, to elevate the minds of our children and exalt their courage; to accelerate and animate their industry and activity; to excite in them an habitual contempt of meanness, abhorrence of injustice and inhumanity, and an ambition to excel in every capacity, faculty, and virtue. If we suffer their minds to grovel and creep in infancy, they will grovel all their lives.”

—John Adams, Dissertation on the Canon and Feudal Law, 1756

Whose Blowout Is It, Anyway?

THE GULF OIL SPILL 05/28 12:00 A.M.
> > >  Why have we pushed oil drilling from barren areas to populated ones? ► CHARLES KRAUTHAMMER

THE GULF OIL SPILL II 05/28 12:00 A.M.

He’s Not Our Daddy

The Gulf oil spill should remind Obama that he’s not omnipotent. ► RICH LOWRY

THE GULF OIL SPILL III 05/28 12:00 A.M.

The Crisis Bores Him

At his first press conference in 308 days, Obama fielded questions with a sluggishness bordering on geriatric. ► MICHELLE MALKIN

THE STATES 05/28 12:00 A.M.

New Jersey, Little Greece

Meet the newest conservative hero: The Trenton Truth-Teller, Chris Christie! ► MONA CHAREN

• We may experience the infilling of the Holy Spirit in a powerful, dramatic way. Or then again we may not

What is most important to remember is that within the Church and her sacraments the Holy Spirit is given to us in a solid, reliable and unfailing way. In baptism, confirmation, confession, the Eucharist the Holy Spirit is given, fulfilled, renewed and refreshed. It happens. It’s a fact. It’s real–whether we happen to feel the burning in our hearts or not.

By Fr. Dwight Longenecker, Catholic Online, May 28, 2010

My own personal life is merged with the Body of Christ the Church and therefore, my life which was once insignificant, comes to assume cosmic importance because it is part of a much greater whole, a small part in a greater symphony, a tiny orbit within the everlastingly complex whirling of thegreater created order.
GREENVILLE, SC (Standing on My Head) – The iconography of the church often reveals startling reminders of the truths of the faith. When Pentecost is represented we most often see the tongues of flame descending on the heads of the Apostles, but we also see the apostles gathered around the Blessed Mother-reminding us that Pentecost is not just a personal experience, but a corporate experience.

In our individualistic, sentimental society we tend to judge things according to the impact they have on us personally. We want the buzz. We want the experience. We want the ‘personal encounter.’ This is often the emphasis in religion as well. Whether it is charismatic renewal or new ecclesial movements that stress ‘the encounter with Christ’ or some Protestant experience based worship encounter, we look for the Holy Spirit baptism to be some sort of powerful, mystical, emotional, subjective experience.

Nothing wrong with that necessarily. These kind of experiences are fine. We don’t want to deny them or rule them out. However, we do need to be properly skeptical of them, for personal emotional religious ‘experiences’ may be the result of mental or emotional disturbances and they can be manufactured in all sorts of ways from illegal substances to shyster evangelists and cult leaders. The emotional, subjective ‘Holy Spirit experiences’ are all well and good, except that sometimes they’re not well and they’re certainly not good.

In addition to having a proper scepticism about personal mystical, emotional religious experiences it is even more important to remember that the baptism of Holy Spirit is not just a personal religious encounter. More importantly, the Holy Spirit is the inspiration for the foundation of the Church. That is why, in the painting here, and in so much of the church’s iconography, the scene is portrayed as it is–the apostolic church gathered together around the Mother of the Church–the Mother of God. Continue reading →

Soros-funded group urges more government control of media

Aaron Klein, WorldNetDaily, May 28, 2010

Ben Scott

NEW YORK – The policy director at a George Soros-funded, Marxist-founded organization calling itself Free Press has just taken a key State Department position, WND has learned.

Free Press Policy Director Ben Scott has been named a policy adviser for innovation at the State Department.

“We will miss Ben’s leadership, wise counsel, and strategic brilliance – for Free Press and the overall movement for media and technology policy in the public interest,” said Free Press President Josh Silver.

Free Press is a well-known advocate of government intervention in the Internet.

Scott authored a book, “The Future of Media,” which was edited by the founder of Free Press, Robert W. McChesney.

McChesney is an avowed Marxist who has recommended capitalism be dismantled.

He is a professor at the University of Illinois and former editor of the Marxist journal Monthly Review.

In February 2009, McChesney wrote in a column, “In the end, there is no real answer but to remove brick-by-brick the capitalist system itself, rebuilding the entire society on socialist principles.”

The board of Free Press has included a slew of radicals, such as Obama’s former “green jobs” czar Van Jones, who resigned after it was exposed he founded a communist organization. Continue reading →

By Dr. Mark W. Hendrickson, Catholic Exchange, May 28th, 2010

Alfred M. Rotondaro and Prof. Janet Smith.

CNA STAFF (CNA) – Alfred M. Rotondaro, chair of the board of directors of the Obama-supporting group Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good, has called for a “new Vatican Council” while claiming abortion is “here to stay” and “gay sex is good.” In reply, one Catholic theologian suggests he is not a good judge of when a Church council is needed.

In a May 25 piece for the Huffington Post, Rotondaro claimed the Catholic Church is having “a mental breakdown.” He complained about Catholic schools’ refusal to enroll the children of lesbian parents, Marquette University’s withdrawal of a dean offer to a lesbian sociologist, and the bishops’ “punishing” of nuns who supported the health care bill.

Rotondaro, who is also a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress in Washington, D.C., proposed “a new Vatican Council,” saying the world would benefit from “an application of traditional Catholic values presented by a reinvigorated Church.”

He said the role of women in the Church should be a starting place, claiming he has “never seen any rational reason” why a woman could not be a priest.

“A second point is the theme of sex. Sex comes from God. It should be celebrated,” his Huffington Post piece continued. “Gay sex comes from God. Married sex without the intent of procreation is now an evil, according to the hierarchy. But does any practicing Catholic under age 80 believe this?

“And in a pluralistic nation like America, we must realize that abortion is here to stay. We must examine the reasons for abortion and deal with those reasons to reduce abortions.”

“But one last important point is that the council must be held in the spirit of John Paul and of America’s secular saint — Abraham Lincoln,” Rotondaro’s article concluded. “The spirit that animated those magnificent men must guide the new Vatican Council.”

CNA spoke about Rotondaro’s piece with Prof. Janet Smith, holder of the Father Michael J. McGivney Chair of Life Ethics at Sacred Heart Major Seminary in Detroit.

In a Thursday e-mail, she wrote that she wondered whether he was “a reincarnated Rip Van Winkle.”

“The items he wants to have discussed have been discussed and will continue to be discussed. A council won’t be able to resolve any of the issues he raises.”

In Smith’s view, he mixes together issues like abortion and sexual ethics, matters of moral principle, with how best to deal with settling immigrants, a matter of both moral principle and context. Continue reading →

May 28, 2010
Friday of the Eighth Week of Ordinary Time
Father John Doyle, LC

Mark 11:11-26
Jesus entered Jerusalem and went into the Temple; and when he had looked around at everything, as it was already late, he went out to Bethany with the Twelve. On the following day, when they came from Bethany, he was hungry. Seeing in the distance a fig tree in leaf, he went to see whether perhaps he would find anything on it. When he came to it, he found nothing but leaves, for it was not the season for figs. He said to it, “May no one ever eat fruit from you again.” And his disciples heard it. Then they came to Jerusalem. And he entered the Temple and began to drive out those who were selling and those who were buying in the Temple, and he overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who sold doves; and he would not allow anyone to carry anything through the Temple. He was teaching and saying, “Is it not written, ´My house shall be called a house of prayer for all the nations´? But you have made it a den of robbers.” And when the chief priests and the scribes heard it, they kept looking for a way to kill him; for they were afraid of him, because the whole crowd was spellbound by his teaching. And when evening came, Jesus and his disciples went out of the city. In the morning as they passed by, they saw the fig tree withered away to its roots. Then Peter remembered and said to him, “Rabbi, look! The fig tree that you cursed has withered.” Jesus answered them, “Have faith in God. Truly I tell you, if you say to this mountain, ´Be taken up and thrown into the sea,´ and if you do not doubt in your heart, but believe that what you say will come to pass, it will be done for you. So I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours. Whenever you stand praying, forgive, if you have anything against anyone; so that your Father in heaven may also forgive you your trespasses.”

Introductory Prayer: Once again, Lord, I come to you to pray. Even though I cannot see you, I trust that you are present and want very much to instruct me in your teachings. In the same way you demonstrate your love me by spending this time with me, I want to express my love for you by dedicating this time with you in a spirit of faith, confidence and attention. Here I am, Lord, to listen to you and respond with love.

Petition: Lord Jesus help me to learn how to unite prayer and action.

1. The Barrenness of a Sinful Life We witness Jesus withering a barren fig tree right down to its roots even though he knows that it is not the time for harvesting figs. Jesus never worked a miracle for himself, so we know it was not a punishment for not satisfying his hunger. This event immediately precedes his entering the Temple at Jerusalem where he expects to find people “busy about his Father’s affairs.” Instead he finds them occupied in worldly activity, and often fraudulent and unjust activity at that. The fruits of honesty and uprightness that Jesus expects to find are simply not there; so in a sense the fig tree symbolizes Jerusalem. Am I honest in my dealings with others? Do I realize that the Lord expects me to bear fruit? Do I invest my time well, both prayer and action, to this end?

2. A Day in the Life of … This Gospel passage would make for a good documentary on a day in the life of Christ. He starts out early from Bethany to Jerusalem, he enters the Temple, faces the wrath of those there as he cleanses it, and then teaches for the rest of the day before returning to Bethany late in the evening. The very next day he begins his ministry again by teaching on the importance of faith in prayer. Jesus did not waste a second of his day; rather, he went about fulfilling his Father’s will. Still, Jesus was not a busybody. He did not generally meddle in others’ affairs, but he certainly was not about to allow worldly activity of a dishonest nature in his Father’s house. And so he throws the dishonest merchants out of Temple. Do I use my time well? Does that include the time I dedicate to prayer? Do I always act respectfully in God’s house where my Eucharistic Lord dwells?

3. Faith in the Power of Prayer Prayer and action are intimately tied together.  Jesus was right in driving the moneychangers and animals from the Temple. Certainly we’re not supposed to busy ourselves with worldly affairs while we’re in church. But it’s very proper to bring our worries and concerns, our joys, successes and failures to Christ in prayer. It’s good for us to ask Our Lord his viewpoint about our concerns and ask for his grace to continue on.  And when we do set aside time specifically for prayer to encounter Christ, then we find the strength and desire to spread his message to others.  It’s through prayer that we’re filled with apostolic zeal.  When we dedicate our day to loving service of God, our day itself becomes a prayer.  Is my prayer the source of interior strength, and is my action a loving prayer?

Conversation with Christ: My Jesus, you ask much of me, but you are always at my side assisting me with your grace and presence. Help me to use my time wisely on behalf of your Kingdom.

Resolution: I will program in five extra minutes of prayer today for the sake of serving Christ better.

http://meditation.regnumchristi.org/

CATHOLIC NEWS AGECNY, MAY 28, 2010

Archbishop Antoni Julian Nowowiejski was beatified by Pope John Paul II June 13, 1999, along with another 107 Poles who were martyred during World War II.

He was born in 1858. The late archbishop of Plock, Poland, was arrested by the occupying Germans in 1940. He refused the chance to escape, saying he wouldn’t desert his flock. He also refused to profane Christian symbols. He died, after countless beatings, at the Nazi’s Dzialdowo death camp in 1941.

http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/saint.php?n=480

Frankendodd’s Financial Reform

Glenn Beck, May 26, 2010

We’ve got another major reform about to get jammed down our throats! Are you excited? It’s the financial reform bill, because those greedy Wall Street fat cats need to be stopped. And this will stop them, because Barney Frank is putting the final touches on this bill.

I have complete confidence that Chris Dodd and Barney Frank have finally ensured there will never be a recession ever again. The Frakendodd monster is at it again and they’re throwing our children in a well.

They’ve got a great track record, especially when it comes to knowing what’s wrong with the financial sector. Remember when Dodd said: “Fannie and Freddie are very, very liquid; they’re in good shape, in my view.” Or when Barney Frank said this:

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. BARNEY FRANK, D-MASS.: I think this is a case where Fannie and Freddie are fundamentally sound, that they are not in danger of going under. They’re not the best investments these days from the long-term standpoint going back. I think they are in good shape going forward.

They’re in a housing market. I do think their prospects going forward are very solid.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

We’re in trouble, gang. We’re in big trouble. Last time they did this was with health care and you know what happened? Oh no, you don’t. Well, here’s a couple of things about the law that you may not know:

• Free rider provision: If a company offers coverage, but the premiums are above 9.5 percent of an employee’s household income, the coverage is “deemed” unaffordable and the employer gets slapped with a penalty and the worker may then qualify for (say it with me) federal subsidies. The penalty is $3,000 a year for each employee. Hmm, I wonder who does the “deeming”?

As health care costs go up, dropping coverage likely will be the cheaper option. And then more people will end up having their health care subsidized by the government.

• Deficit neutral: Remember when the CBO came out with the “low cost” estimate below $1 trillion? And Democrats couldn’t stop saying, yeah well the CBO says it’s deficit neutral? I haven’t heard any Democrats talking about how the CBO has now come out and said yeah, about those health care costs. We were off by $115 billion. It’s more expensive than we thought. Oh, and the “doc fix” just cost you $65 billion in a bill they just passed in the middle of the night.

• Major companies talked about the hit they were about to take from the bill: AT&T said the health care law’s tax increase alone would cost them $1 billion. Do you think they will pass the savings on to you? John Deere’s director of labor relations said they were considering denying employees coverage and paying the penalty.

• Small businesses are required to provide insurance, supposedly offset by a tax credit. But that tax credit arbitrarily shrinks as the company grows, resulting in a likely hiring freeze.

Those are great surprises, thanks. And this is nothing compared to what’s coming in the financial bill.

I want you to think about something for a second. Think of how much this health care bill was debated: town halls, protests, rallies, talk radio, cable news — you knew more about doc fixes and HMOs and PPOs than you ever could have imagined. And guess what? There are still surprises popping up.

How much debate has their been on this financial bill? Not much. Does anyone really believe that this 1,500 page bill is merely a benevolent, powerless, meaningless stack of paper? Where is the outrage? Did the health care bill fight wear you out? Are you tired? I know the president isn’t tired:

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: Those folks who are trying to stand in the way of progress, they’re all — let me tell you, I’m just getting started. I don’t quit. I’m not tired, I’m just getting started.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

What about you? Are you quitting? We told you before they are trying to overwhelm the system and wear you out: health care; cap-and-trade; financial reform; immigration bill; regulations. It’s not going to stop and neither should you. Because this financial bill is gigantic; it’s even worse than the health care bill. I’ll show you why.

The United Nations in their Human Development Report says: “Governance is not government — it is the framework of rules, institutions and practices that set limits on behavior of individuals, organizations and companies.”

Wow, let that one sink in. The basic progressive agenda is always the same: They know better than you, so they have to control what you do. Look at how they’re controlling health care.

And here’s what is coming in the House’s financial bill:

• First and foremost, it does nothing to address the problems with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Those two helped create the housing mess and then needed a $125 billion bailout, which they haven’t even scratched the surface on a payback.

• It creates a special protected class of “too big to fail” firms. In section 113, a “Financial Stability Oversight Council” is established, which will choose the firms deemed too big to fail. Hmm, can you think of any other massive financial institutions that don’t care if they fail because they know they will be bailed out by the government? Fannie and Freddie. So not only is this bill not doing anything to stop Fannie and Freddie, as they continue to lose hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars, this bill will create more of them.

• Provides for seizure of private property without meaningful judicial review. The secretary of the treasury can order the seizure of any financial firm that he finds “in danger of default.” Again, a bureaucrat arbitrarily getting to make the distinction to just take over a financial firm whenever they feel like it. And, once the decision is approved, it’s nearly impossible to reverse.

• This Financial Stability Oversight Council, they’ve got nine regulatory authorities out there and this expands the reach outside of just financial firms. They can declare if a non-bank financial firm (insurance, finance companies, hedge funds) are “in trouble.” And guess what? They can turn it over to the treasury for regulation. Again, this distinction is completely arbitrary and comes from bureaucrats.

• Opens a line of credit to the treasury for additional government funding. Guess who’s irrelevant? You are, Congress! No more begging those pesky politicians for billions of dollars, like with TARP. No, we’ll just skip that and tap the ATM.

• Regulators can guarantee the debt of solvent banks as well. If there is a ‘liquidity crisis’ …

• The bill creates a new “Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection.” They just want to “protect” consumers. Uh-huh. This bureau will have broad powers to limit what financial products and services can be offered to consumers.

(This is so weird, as I was reading that sentence I couldn’t help but think of Congressman Anthony Weiner trying to “protect consumers” from Goldline. You can go to weinerfacts.com for more on that.)

It’s supposed to help, but it will only reduce choices and likely make credit more expensive and harder to get. It also allows them to track all of your financial transactions, just to “protect you.”

• Non-financial firms would be subject to financial regulations. Listen to how broad this is: Section 102 defines a “non-bank financial company” as a company “substantially engaged in activities… that are financial in nature.” Aren’t all companies financial in nature? Sure, bakeries are making cupcakes and bread, but isn’t that financial in nature?

And they’re making sure this bill is jammed down America’s throat by, I’m not kidding, July 4th.

So here is the Frankendodd monster giving us our independence by chaining our children and our freedoms by snooping through our credit cards.

This fits the progressive agenda to a T: Power and control. These guys are power hungry. This financial bill is the biggest reform since FDR. We’re making the same mistakes we make in the 1930s, except the first time we made these mistakes, the American people didn’t know what progressives were really about and there was no global structure in place. When FDR died in office, we could still reverse many of the things he tried to do. But this time, we won’t be able to, because your representatives won’t have any control.

Again: “Governance is not government — it is the framework of rules, institutions and practices that set limits on behavior of individuals, organizations and companies.”

Again, I ask you to call your representative at the IMF and complain if you don’t like that fact that America spent $50 billion in tax money to bail out Greece. Call your representative at the U.N. and say you won’t vote for him next time. Contact the World Bank and let them know that you’ll close your bank account with them if you have to.

This is why all of this matters: You have no representation. It’s just the way the world is now. It’s a global community.

Another thing FDR did not have, but Woodrow Wilson did, was Cass Sunstein.

He’s the regulatory czar, the head of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs. He controls everything — he nudges you. He never tells you what to do — he nudges you. Remember “The Truman show”? Sunstein is the director up there in the control room. You still have his “freedoms.” Sunstein is just using a lot of “choice architecture” around you.

Cass Sunstein has wanted that job in the control room his whole life — his whole life! In 2008, on the campaign trail, he went on a date with his soon to be wife, Samantha Power. She asked him what his dream job was. She said, “I expected him to say he dreamed of playing for the Red Sox… his eyes got real big and he said, ‘Ooh! OIRA!’”

Most people will say what’s the big deal with that job? Here’s a guy who’s wanted this job. What kind of geek wants this job? Well, any geek who knows history knows that’s one of the most powerful jobs in the world. You are looking at the power of the Fed and more.

Oh, by the way, if this financial regulation bill passes, how much control does government have over the economy? Twenty percent? Forty-eight percent? No — 60 percent.

— Watch Glenn Beck weekdays at 5p & 2a ET on Fox News Channel

http://www.glennbeck.com/content/articles/article/198/41169/

With help from conservative Democrats and emphatic shareholders, the Louisiana Family Forum is advancing its policy agenda beyond the usual slaying of pro-choice advocates and undermining of same-sex couples — but not too much.

Photos by Robin May

By Jeremy Alford, May 26, 2010

EXCERPTS:   …Its tactics are unconventional, if not brutally effective. Bottom line: It may just be the most influential lobby in Louisiana that you know the least about. What exactly is the group up to? Well, on its Web site and in its promotional literature, LFF proclaims that it’s already “writing the next chapter in Louisiana history.” While that might be a stretch for God’s favorite Bayou State advocacy group, Mills and his troops sure seem hellbent on trying….

…It’s a simple enough formula and similar to how candidates are put to the test. It’s anchored by four themes: “traditional values,” “limited government,” “free enterprise” and “taxes.”….

….On the horizon, don’t expect Team Mills to stray too far from the bread-and-butter issues of same-sex marriage and abortion. But you can anticipate hearing them on non-traditional matters like the budget. For instance, Mills says he has serious concerns about lawmakers raiding the so-called rainy day fund to balance the forecasted two-year, $3 billion shortfall. He says LFFA is also ready to rumble to keep the Legislature from calling a constitutional convention. At the end of the day, though, what business does a Christian-conservative advocacy group have with these topics? “We have a moral responsibility,” Mills says. “Our founders believed in limited government because you had to covet something that was not yours to grow government.”..………Read Entire Article…..

http://www.theind.com/cover-story/6289-holy-warriors?tmpl=component&print=1&layout=default&page

As frustration grows with the ongoing oil spill, some people have criticized the Obama administration for not taking a larger role in the efforts to stop the leak. But as Good Morning America‘s George Stephanopoulos wondered today, is there anything the government could actually be doing right now that they aren’t? Is Obama supposed to summon the federal government’s secret oil-leak team that we didn’t realize existed? James “Ragin’ Cajun” Carville, a Democratic strategist and supporter of President Obama, has plenty of suggestions, actually. As is his wont, he expressed them with certain amount of rage.

New York Magazine, 5/26/10

http://nymag.com/daily/intel/2010/05/james_carville_is_raging_about.html

Victor Davis Hanson, Townhall.com, May 27, 2010

The first duty of national leaders is to worry about the self-interest of their own countries; utopian internationalism can come later. German Chancellor Angela Merkel, despite her soaring European Union rhetoric, is relearning that lesson.

German voters in a recent parliamentary election rebuked her for bailing out the spendthrift Greeks with hard-earned German money.

Barack Obama should take note.

Last year, Obama won a Nobel Peace Prize not for what he did, but for what he represented — to the European judges a new post-national American president. His subsequent apology tours abroad have emphasized American sins without much discussion of the context of the times.

In Cairo last year, the president inaccurately claimed that Islam helped to foster Western achievements like the Renaissance and Enlightenment.

In such moments, Obama sounds as if he thinks America has to be perfect to be good, while other nations merely need to be OK.

Even though Obama apparently has no intention of closing down Guantanamo Bay as he promised — or ending tribunals, renditions, Predator targeted assassinations, wiretaps and intercepts — he continues to fault former President Bush’s war on terror and promises the world that he will reset American foreign policy.

Consequently, the mixed message goes out abroad that if you were anti-American from 2001 to 2008, you probably had reasonable complaints; and if you were friendly back then, you may now seem a little suspect.

Obama’s new outreach to Iran, Syria and Venezuela tells the world, fairly or not, that the United States — not these anti-American authoritarians — was responsible for tense relations in the past. Meanwhile, the old special relationship with democratic Britain, the once unquestioned support for democratic Israel, and missile defense for democratic Eastern Europe all seem passé.

Recently, Obama went too far when he invited Mexican President Felipe Calderon to the White House to address the Arizona immigration law. Side by side with Obama, Calderon summarily trashed the voters of Arizona for demanding enforcement of their nation’s immigration laws: “It is a law that not only ignores a reality … but also introduces a terrible idea, using racial profiling as the basis for law enforcement.”

Wrong. In truth, the law prohibits racial profiling. The new Arizona statute allows law enforcement to request proof of citizenship of only those detained for other reasons — and only if there is sufficient reason to doubt their citizenship.

Obama right there should have corrected Calderon’s unfair caricatures — and a foreign head of state’s inappropriate and disingenuous intrusion into American politics. The Mexican government treats illegal immigrants from Central America far less sympathetically. And not long ago, Mexico printed a comic book instructing its own citizens how to break American law — cynically assuming its own fleeing citizens were both illiterate and without worry about illegally entering Mexico’s northern neighbor.

Obama, however, in response to Calderon, mentioned the growing irrelevance of borders themselves. He cited his own worry about the propriety of an Arizona law that currently receives a 70 percent approval rating among Americans. Even if Obama in the past has remarked that he thinks America is not necessarily an exceptional nation, the president still should side with states that want to enforce federal laws rather than with foreign nations that seek to circumvent them.

The Obama-Calderon criticism of Arizona came after Assistant Secretary of State Michael Posner, in a meeting with Chinese envoys, on his own initiative raised the issue of Arizona’s immigration law “early and often.” Posner wanted to offer his own example of America’s morally equivalent problems with issues of human rights. He forgot, however, to actually read the Arizona law — and that he was discussing human rights with a regime that routinely denies its citizens rights of free speech and due process, and not all that long ago killed millions of its own citizens and swallowed Tibet.

Instead of seeing his nation or its states as the problem, our president would do better to focus on the woes of the European Union, North Korea’s sinking of a South Korean ship, Iran’s plans to get the bomb, continued terrorist attacks in the U.S., wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, and Mexico’s encouragement of its own citizens to violate American immigration law.

Right now there are quite enough foreign felonies in the world without dwelling on American misdemeanors.

http://townhall.com/columnists/VictorDavisHanson/2010/05/27/our_chief_confessor

Prayers to Blessed Francis Xavier Seelos, C.Ss.R.

O My God, I truly believe You are present with me.  I adore Your limitless perfections.  I thank You for the graces and gifts You gave to Blessed Francis Xavier Seelos.  If it is Your holy will, please let him be declared a saint of the Church so that others may know and imitate his holy life.  Through his prayers please give me this favor … (HERE MENTION YOUR SPECIAL INTENTIONS)

The Life of Francis Xavier Seelos

Kids Say The Darndest Things Art Linkletter 1959

O loving Pelican! O Jesu Lord! Unclean I am but cleanse me in Thy Blood; Of which a single drop, for sinners spilt, Can purge the entire world from all its guilt . (St. Thomas Aquinas)

St Thomas: Adoro Te Devote–From Ave Maria Meditations, by JosephMary

0 loving Pelican! 0 Jesu Lord! In Holy Communion, Our Lord does not offer us only spiritual nourishment, but gives himself to us as Food. The Ancients thought that when the chicks of a pelican died, the pelican opened his breast and with his blood fed his dead young, in this way bringing them back to life.

Christ with His own Blood gives us eternal life. When we receive Holy Communion with the right dispositions, it rouses in our soul fervent acts of love, transforms us, and identifies us with Christ. The Master comes to each one of His disciples with His love, which is at one and the same time effective, creative and redemptive. He presents him?self to us as the Savior of our lives, offering us His friend?ship. This Sacrament is the food of all intimacy with Christ, for which there is no substitute.

SACRAMENTAL COMMUNION

Jesus Christ himself waits for us each day in the Blessed Eucharist. There He is really, truly and substantially present, with his Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity. There He is to be found with all the splendor of His glory, for Christ being raised from the dead will never die again. The Body and Soul remain inseparably united forever to the Person of the Word. The whole mystery of the Incarnation of the Son of God is contained in the Sacred Host, together with the profound richness of His most Sacred Humanity and the infinite grandeur of His Divinity, both of them veiled and hidden.

In the Blessed Eucharist we find Our Lord himself. ‘This is the very same Lord whom the angels and saints contemplate and praise for all eternity. Whenever we go to the Tabernacle, we find Him there.

Perhaps we have often repeated in his presence the hymn in which Saint Thomas Aquinas expressed the faith and piety of the Church, and which so many Christians have turned into their own personal prayer:

O Godhead hid, devoutly I adore thee, Who truly art within the forms before me;

To thee my heart I bow with bended knee, As failing quite in contemplating Thee.

Sight, touch and taste in Thee are each deceived; The ear alone most safely is believed.

I believe all the Son of God has spoken: Than Truth’s own word there is no truer token.

God only on the Cross lay hid from view, But here too lies hid at once the manhood too:

And I, in both professing my belief, Make the same prayer as the repentant thief.

Thy wounds, as Thomas saw, I do not see; Yet Thee confess my Lord and God to be.

Make me believe Thee ever more and more, In Thee my hope, in Thee my love to store.

This marvelous presence of Jesus among us should give us new life each day. When we receive Him, when we visit Him, we can say in the strictest sense: Today I have been with God. He makes us like the Apostles and like His disciples, like the holy women who accompanied Our Lord throughout Judea and Galilee.  He is here with us, in every city and town. With how much faith do we pay Him a visit? With how much love do we receive Him? How do we prepare ourselves in body and soul to receive Holy Communion?

Saint Thomas Aquinas teaches that the Body of Christ is present in the Blessed Eucharist just as it is in Himself, as is also the Soul of Christ, together with His intellect and will. Only those relations are excluded that refer to quantity, for Christ is not present in the Sacred Host in the way of a quantity localized in space. He is there with his glorious Body in a real, though mysterious and ineffable way.

The Second Person of the Blessed Trinity is there, in the Tabernacle that we visit each day, the Tabernacle which is perhaps very near to our home, or very close to the office where we work. Perhaps it is in the chaplaincy of the University, or in an oratory or a chapel at a hospital or at an airport. He is there with the sovereign power of His uncreated Divinity. He, the only Son of God, before whom the Thrones and Dominations tremble, by whom all things were made, equal in power and wisdom and mercy to the other Persons of the Blessed Trinity, remains perpetually with us, like one of us, without ever ceasing to be God. Truly is He there: “Among you stands one whom you do not know”.

As we go about, fully involved in our normal business, our customary work, our daily concerns, do we frequently consider that our merciful and omnipotent God is really living along there, very near us, next door to our home? Our great failure, the greatest mistake of our lives, would be if they could say of us at some stage those words with which the Holy Spirit inspired the pen of Saint John: “He came to His own home, and His own people received him not”.

St Thomas Aquinas wrote:

O Thou, memorial of Our Lord’s own dying! O Living Bread, to mortals life supplying!

Make Thou my soul henceforth on Thee to live; Ever a taste of heavenly sweetness give.

O loving Pelican! O Jesu Lord! Unclean I am but cleanse me in Thy Blood;

Of which a single drop, for sinners spilt, Can purge the entire world from all its guilt .

Jesu! Whom for the present veiled I see, What I so thirst for, oh, vouchsafe to me:

That I may see Thy countenance unfolding, And may be blest Thy glory in beholding.

Amen. Continue reading →

OBAMA ADMIN MAY HAVE ILLEGALLY SPENT $10 MILLION PROMOTING ABORTION IN KENYA
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) – New information obtained by a member of Congress makes it appear the Obama administration has spent $10 million potentially illegally promoting a pro-abortion constitution in Kenya. Obama officials were thought to have spent $2 million but Rep. Christ Smith says that figure could exceed $10 million.

VOTERS OPPOSE PRO-ABORTION KAGAN NOMINATION, SAY CONFIRMATION LIKELY
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) – More American voters say they have an unfavorable view of pro-abortion Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan than a favorable one. But a new Rasmussen Reports poll shows they also believe it likely that the Senate will vote to confirm President Barack Obama’s second pro-abortion pick for the high court.

PLANNED PARENTHOOD RESPONSE TO BOTCHED ABORTION SHOWS LITTLE CARE FOR WOMEN
Naples, FL (LifeNews.com) – A pro-life group that monitors problems at abortion centers says the response by Planned Parenthood to what appears to be a botched abortion shows little care for women. Operation Rescue is weighing in on the recent incident at a Planned Parenthood facility in Naples, Florida.

LOUISIANA SENATE PANEL OKS BILL TO STOP ABORTION FUNDING IN HEALTH CARE
Baton Rouge, LA (LifeNews.com) – Louisiana lawmakers today moved a bill forward that would have the state become the next to opt out of at least some of the abortion funding in the health care bill President Barack Obama signed into law. Three states have turned their bills into law and three other states have passed them.

PRO-LIFE STUDENTS RECEIVE AWARD FROM CATHOLIC BISHOPS FOR CAMPUS LEADERSHIP
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) – Two Catholic University of America students received the first ever “People of Life”Student Leader Award at the Office of Campus Ministry Appreciation Dinner last week. Lauren Roselli, a senior, and Thomas Nellson, a junior, were recognized for their continuous pro-life commitment and witness to fellow students and to the D.C. community.

OBAMA APPROVAL RATING REACHES NEW LOW AT 42 PERCENT WITH PRO-ABORTION RECORD
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) – A new poll today from Rasmussen Reports showed there is more room for pro-abortion President Barack Obama’s approval rating to drop. Its new daily presidential tracking poll finds Obama has reached a historic low with just 42 percent of likely voters saying they approve of his job performance.

It’s a Saturday afternoon in Anchorage, and the only sign of spring is the gentle drip of melting snowdrifts. Parked under leafless trees behind Bristol Palin’s three-story gray townhouse is a cluster of giant SUVs and pickup trucks. I didn’t vote for this Obamanation, reads one bumper sticker. Another features a photo of the former Alaskan governor: Don’t blame me, I voted for Sarah Palin.

Inside, the real live Sarah Palin is taking a break from her Tea Partying tour of the country to celebrate the second birthday of her son Trig, who has Down syndrome, with the entire extended Palin clan. She’s just jetted in from Minnesota and is wearing an ensemble that reads off-duty celebrity — all black with an army-green newsboy cap pulled low over her eyes. Under her makeup, she looks a little tired, but her Alaskan charm is in full effect.

“Have some cake,” she trills, standing next to a happy-birthday sign hand-lettered by Bristol, who is watching her 15-month-old son, Tripp, play with Trig, his two-year-old uncle. We have entrée into this cozy family scene because Bristol herself texted an invite. No flacks, no lawyers, no managers — it’s a world away from the media glare of the 2008 presidential campaign, when the McCain-Palin ticket dropped the bombshell that the then high school senior was five months pregnant…………

…………..In May of 2009, she began working with the Candie’s Foundation, which approached her after her frank interview with Fox News’s Greta Van Susteren. Bristol now preaches abstinence as “the only 100 percent foolproof way you can prevent pregnancy.”

Detractors have been quick to pounce, but “I don’t think it’s hypocritical at all,” Bristol responds. “Like, if you get lung cancer from smoking, why wouldn’t you want to tell people, ‘Hey, look, don’t smoke.’ Why wouldn’t you want to be productive and share your story and do something positive with it?”

She’s not worried that Tripp himself might one day read her words and take them the wrong way. “He knows that I love him,” she says, shaking her head. There’s no doubt that he is a happy baby, making a few cooing complaints only when it nears nap time. He is learning basic sign language to communicate with Trig, including stop, which Trig signs when Tripp tackles him.

Bristol says that as the oldest girl in a family of three sisters and two brothers, maternal instincts came easily to her. Both parents gave advice, including her father, Todd, who used to braid her hair every morning before school. “He taught me how to swaddle, which is the best trick in the world. I swaddled Tripp for like the first eight months.” In a community-college speech class she took as part of the business degree she’s chipping away at, she did a PowerPoint presentation titled “How to Swaddle a Baby.”……. http://www.harpersbazaar.com/magazine/feature-articles/bristol-palin-interview-0610?click=pp

Just as it is more than appropriate, even necessary in the classical understanding of piety, to give thanks to parents on one’s own birthday, so the Church worships the Holy Spirit on the Feast of Pentecost for giving it birth.

FATHER GEORGE W. RUTLER, CATHOLIC EDUCATIONS RESOURCE CENTER

By a united action with the Eternal Father and Eternal Son, the Eternal Love between them gave life to the Church. Of course, like an ungrateful child who thinks only of himself, it is possible, but fatally so, to think of the Church as only a human institution. Christ was not unaware of the frailty of humans, and his crucifixion was not an understated commentary on the defects of this world. He prayed that Peter’s faith might not be shaken when Satan would try to “sift” him, and told the Prince of the Apostles that he must then strengthen frail believers.

The divine architecture of the Church is in four dimensions: unity, holiness, catholicity and apostolicity. That holy genius Saint Robert Bellarmine (I picture him courteously discussing the sun with Galileo and teasing King James of England for his weak Latin) expanded on those marks of the Church.

Catholic: a universal reality.
Antiquity : established by Christ himself.
Durability : perduring in essence through the changes of time.
Extensiveness : encompassing a vast number of loyal members.
Apostolic Succession : an unbroken witness to the Resurrection from the first apostles.
Doctrinal Agreement : consistent teaching from the ancient proclamation of the Resurrection.
Unity : an organic bond of believers with the Roman Pontiff as their visible head.
Holiness : purity of doctrine reflecting the glory of God.
Efficacy : the ability to change lives.
Heroism : virtue lived to a supernatural degree by the saints.
Miracles : outward signs of supernatural encouragement and consolation.
Prophecy : infallible warnings, encouragements and instructions.
Opposition : hostility to the Church today for the same reasons enemies opposed Christ in his time.
Unhappy End : the inevitable sorrow of those who fight against Christ in his Church.
Temporal Peace and Happiness : the serenity of those who love the Church even in the midst of this world’s difficulties.

All this was in the Divine Mind before Pentecost: “I have much more to tell you, but you cannot bear it now. But when he comes, the Spirit of truth, he will guide you to all truth” (John 16: 12). In the latest chapter of the Church’s life, Pope Benedict XVI, confirming the brethren in the Faith, preached on May 13 to half a million pilgrims at Fatima in Portugal, recalling how the same Mother given to us from the Cross helps all the faithful of the Church, as she did when she gave joyful promises and solemn warnings in 1917: “May the seven years which separate us from the centenary of the apparitions hasten the fulfillment of the prophecy of the triumph of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, to the glory of the Most Holy Trinity.”

ACKNOWLEDGEMEN: Father George William Rutler. “The Marks of the Church.” From the Pastor (May 22, 2010).

http://www.catholiceducation.org/articles/religion/re0987.htm