Brown Pelican Society of Louisiana

President Obama Stars in Instructional Video for HealthCare.gov

Apparently, the “Sham-Wow” guy was not available.

. . . . . Brings back memories of Jackson Five’s

“Abc Easy as 123″ baby, you and me!

Michael Ramirez

Biden Claims $600 Billion In Stimulus Funds Spent –

‘We’re Building a Government That Delivers More Bang for the Buck Than Ever Before’

CNSNews, Wednesday, July 28, 2010

Vice President Joe Biden spoke to attendees at a Center for American Progress event on July 27 in Washington, D.C. about how the Obama administration is building a federal government that Americans can rely on and trust. (CNSNews.com/Penny Starr)

Vice President Joe Biden says ‘Americans deserve a government that actually works,’ and on Tuesday he assured a gathering of liberals that the Obama administration  is ‘trying to build a government that delivers much more bang for the buck than it ever has before.’

http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/70065

…Until recently, there was a semisecret, off-the-record organization called Journolist. It was a listserv, which is a bunch of people who sign up (if allowed) and then get the same e-mails and can reply to everybody on the list…..

By ROGER SIMON, Politico, “Journolist veers out of bounds”, 7/28/10

Ezra Klein founded Journolist in 2007.

This may be the most embarrassing thing I have ever written — and looking back on my writing, there is a lot of competition for that dubious distinction — but when I became a reporter, it was almost a holy calling.

We really believed we were doing good. We informed the public and helped make democracy work. We exposed wrongdoing wherever we found it. We reported without fear or favor. As a columnist, I tried to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable.

I warned you that this would be embarrassing.

We loved what we did, and we did it with passion. We were proud. We felt — I am just going to go ahead and say it — honorable.

There were wrongdoers. Fakers, plagiarists, those with private agendas who wished to slant the news. When found, they were often fired. Even when they were subjected to a lesser punishment, their sins were made clear as a lesson to the rest of us. (At a few papers, those who wished to slant the news were publishers or editors who wished to please their publishers. They were rarely fired. But their numbers were few.)

The lines were not muddy. You played it straight. Even if you were a columnist and allowed to publish your opinions, you were expected to be fair and accurate.

At the end of the day, you often went home feeling good. And when people asked what you did, you replied with pride, not shame.

It was, as I said, almost a holy calling. (And often accompanied by a vow of poverty.)

Somewhere along the way, things have gone terribly wrong. Journalism has become a toy, an electronic plaything. I do not blame technology. The giant megaphone of technology has been coupled with a new, angrier, more destructive age. (Yes, you can find extremely angry, extremely partisan times in our past, but I always thought the goal was to progress over the centuries, not regress.)

Until recently, there was a semisecret, off-the-record organization called Journolist. It was a listserv, which is a bunch of people who sign up (if allowed) and then get the same e-mails and can reply to everybody on the list.

Journolist was founded by Ezra Klein in early 2007, when he was 22 and working for the liberal publication The American Prospect. Klein continued running it when he went to The Washington Post in 2009. The Post is a mainstream publication, but Journolist was limited to those “from nonpartisan to liberal, center to left.”

Klein determined who would get on Journolist — political reporters, academics, think tank members, left-wing bloggers — and it grew from a manageable 30 members to a pretty unmanageable 400. There was no censorship, but if Klein felt you had gone too far, he would tell you to stop it. You could be threatened with expulsion, but nobody was ever expelled.

The first story revealing the existence of Journolist was printed by POLITICO in March 2009, but while the names of a few members (including three people at POLITICO) were revealed, and some talked about it, most would not. (I was never a member and learned about it when the public did.) No actual e-mails were printed.

Recently, however, the conservative website The Daily Caller, run by Tucker Carlson, got hold of many Journolist e-mails and printed the most provocative, which to some gave every appearance of a left-wing conspiracy to slant news coverage in favor of Barack Obama. Journolist posts by Washington Post blogger Dave Weigel, who was helping cover the conservative movement, that were critical of conservative icons, including Matt Drudge, prompted Weigel to resign.

The result was explosive, and Klein closed down Journolist, while denying there was anything evil about it. “If people had been getting together and deciding on a message and then publishing that message, that would have been clearly unethical, and I would not have allowed it, and it didn’t happen,” Klein told me Tuesday.

Tucker Carlson e-mailed me: “What they did discredits journalism in general, and honorable liberal journalists in particular. I know plenty of progressives who have a healthy skepticism even of candidates they voted for. Most of the members of Journolist didn’t.”

In any case, the hubbub is now virtually over. The buzz is done buzzing, and the media have moved on from Journolist to WikiLeaks.

And yet some are still troubled.

Chuck Todd, political director and chief White House correspondent for NBC News, who was not part of Journolist, told me this:

“I am sure Ezra had good intentions when he created it, but I am offended the right is using this as a sledgehammer against those of us who don’t practice activist journalism.

“Journolist was pretty offensive. Those of us who are mainstream journalists got mixed in with journalists with an agenda. Those folks who thought they were improving journalism are destroying the credibility of journalism.

“This has kept me up nights. I try to be fair. It’s very depressing.”

I know how he feels. Klein appears to be a very honorable guy, but I think he created a Frankenstein monster without meaning to do so. I vowed I would never pine for the Good Old Days — I believe the Good Old Days are ahead of us — but let me end with the words of Stanley Walker. He was a famous newspaper editor in the 1920s and ’30s and wrote the following, which I have edited for space. (And if he were writing today, I am reasonably sure he would have included women.)

“What makes a good newspaperman? The answer is easy. He knows everything. He is aware not only of what goes on in the world today, but his brain is a repository of the accumulated wisdom of the ages.

“He hates lies and meanness and sham, but keeps his temper. He is loyal to his paper and to what he looks upon as his profession; whether it is a profession or merely a craft, he resents attempts to debase it.

“When he dies, a lot of people are sorry, and some of them remember him for several days.”

Or at least for several news cycles.

Roger Simon is POLITICO’s chief political columnist.

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0710/40308.html

“Abortion – It is poverty to decide that a child must die so that you may live as you wish.”

…Too many on the Left think that if they simply support Obama, they’re exempt from the rules of civility . . . Race-baiting, assassinations, journalists conspiring to rig an election. As a psychotherapist, I try to recall when I’ve seen such pathology….

Robin of Berkeley, American Thinker, July 28, 2010

I recently received an e-mail that made my skin crawl. It was in response to a spiritually oriented article.

The e-mailer, Carl, penned the following, which was short, but not sweet:

After opening this mail, I sat frozen in my seat for several minutes. I felt like I had seen something that human eyes shouldn’t behold, like I had happened upon a gruesome crime scene.

There’s Obama ordering assassinations of American citizens. I repeat: That peacenik, Barack, orders Americans to be killed far from the battlefield. While George W. Bush was raked over the coals for detaining alleged terrorists, Obama appears to be having them snuffed out, to almost no outrage.

Next up, we have JournoList — hundreds of journalists conspiring to elect Obama. This is proof positive that reporters behaved unethically during the election and beyond.

And what has been Obama’s most notable accomplishment since assuming the presidency? Steering us toward a race war.

The constant cries of racism are designed to inflame and agitate. And talk about projection: Has there ever been a more racially biased administration? An inspector general reveals bias in the closure of some auto dealerships.

And even though I’ve worked with some serious lowlifes, I have to wrack my brains. Because I have even known crack addicts and child abusers with more of a conscience than some in the Ruling Class.

Conscience has nothing to do with money or status or Ph.D.s.  Being a decent human being requires character. Too many on the Left think that if they simply support Obama, they’re exempt from the rules of civility.

The language of psychiatric diagnosis doesn’t explain the insanity. For me, there is only word that fits: evil.

Simple narcissism does not explain my e-mailer Carl, who wants to destroy Jesus and his followers; or Sara Spitz of NPR, who gleefully fantasizes about watching Rush’s “eyes bug out” while he dies in agony; or King of the New Black Panthers, screaming expletives about killing cracker babies.

Evil’s only power is through destruction. Evil has no ability to create. It survives by siphoning off the vitality of robust others.

What liberals in the Church pass off as “social justice” has nothing to do with the Church . . . . Pope Paul VI said those within the Church bent on bowing down before the altar of social justice can trade the spiritual for the earthly and thus abandon the Church’s true mission despite their warm and fuzzy attentions.

VIEW ONLINE: http://www.realcatholictv.com/free/index.php?vidID=vort-2010-02-19&ssnID=19

This program is from RealCatholicTV.com

SOURCE:  SPIRIT DAILY, JULY 28, 2010

Does it strike anyone as interesting that what we are doing to God’s Creation is most directly harming places linked with Christ?

Due to excessive uncontrolled use of water, the Sea of Galilee is drying up. It has bounced back a bit of late, but during the past few years it has often reached a crisis point — with some concerned about its very future existence.

This is of course where Jesus recruited His first apostles. It is a place of His miracles. It is where He multiplied the loaves. Now, overfishing and overuse has depleted the water. At one point the biblical body of water was 16.2 feet below its lower “red line,” which marks the point at which it is ecologically inadvisable to draw water.

Meanwhile, the River Jordan — where Jesus was baptized (and where the Ark of the Covenant was once brought) — has been turned into a cesspool: so sullied by sewage and agricultural chemicals that conservationists urge against its use. (“A popular baptism site on the river Jordan is facing closure after Israel’s ministry of health warned that it was dangerously polluted,” was a recent headline.)

In Louisiana — long one of the most devout states — the symbol of the oil disaster has been the oily pelican — a bird that early Christians took as a symbol of the Lord (legend is that at time of famine, a pelican mother struck its own breast with her beak and fed her young with the blood to prevent their starvation, while losing her own life. This tradition and others is found in the Physiologus, an early Christian work which appeared in the second century in Alexandria, Egypt.) The pelican is also the state’s official bird. In the hymn “Adoro te devote,” St. Thomas Aquinas wrote: “Like what tender tales tell of the Pelican, Bathe me, Jesus Lord, in what Thy Bosom ran, Blood that but one drop of has the pow’r to win, All the world forgiveness of its world of sin.”

What are we being told when our holiest resources have been severely sullied? Even Hindus are lamenting that their “holy” river, the Ganges, is too polluted to bathe in, as the faithful there do each year in a massive ritual. (This is hardly to equate Hinduism but to point out an irony.)

Moreover, many don’t realize how the very names of waterways have been changed. Lake George in New York (thank God relatively clean) was once the “Lake of the Blessed Sacrament.” The Chesapeake (everyone knows the huge pollution issues here, and decimation of crabs) was once “The Bay of St. Mary.” And the Mississippi (which runs into the Gulf, and which has endured its own share of severe abuse) was once known as “The River of the Immaculate Conception.”

The Pelican opening her heart to feed to her child. A symbol of Christ who offered His Body as a Sacrifice for our sake.

http://brownpelicanla.com/wp-admin/post-new.php

By  Major Gen. Jerry Curry, Human Events, 07/27/2010

My mother believed in “common sense” testing. She said if it looks like a duck, quacks like a duck, waddles like a duck and acts like a duck; it’s a duck. She believed that actions speak louder than words and that only a liar said one thing and then did the opposite.

Would President Obama pass my mother’s “is he a Muslim” test? Let’s see.

President Obama says there is nothing more beautiful than the Muslim call to prayer in the evening. He says that the United States was not founded as a Christian nation.

Obama’s father and step-father were Muslims and he spent his childhood living in a Muslim country where his school enrollment records say his religion is Islam. As President of the United States he genuflects to the Muslim King of Saudi Arabia but not the Christian Queen of England. He thumbs his nose at America’s friends and bows to its enemies. In short, Obama quacks like a Muslim, waddles like a Muslim and acts like a Muslim, so is he a Muslim? My mother would say, “Yes! He’s a Muslim through and through.”

Growing up as a Muslim, Obama must have learned that according to the Qur’an it is acceptable to lie, deceive and live by a double standard provided in so doing one advances Islamic goals. Muslims only pretend to trust and be friends with non-Muslims; in the deepest of their Muslim hearts they have been taught that all non-Muslims are infidels.

Speaking of double standards, Saudi Arabia is building mosques all over the world and Muslims are hoping to build a 13 story mosque at “Ground Zero” in New York City. At the same time, Islam’s double standard mandates that no non-Muslim churches be built in Saudi Arabia or other Islamic countries.

A good example of this double standard principle in action was Yasser Arafat. He could seemingly enter into genuine peace negotiations with the United States and Israel and, at the same time; lie about it with complete sincerity. Routinely he made all sorts of promises and pronouncements in English, and the very next day said the exact opposite to an Arabic audience — perhaps to him it wasn’t really lying, just being faithful to the teachings of the Qur’an.

Is it because President Obama is secretly a Muslim that he can so sincerely pretend, like Arafat, that his actions and policies have never put a strain on U.S. Israeli relations? “If you look at every public statement I have made it has been a constant reaffirmation of the special relationship between the United States and Israel.” This is like President Clinton saying that it depends on what the meaning of is is.

In 2005 the U.S. promised Israel, in writing, that in future negotiations with the Palestinians we would not insist that Israel withdraw to its pre-1967 borders. But last year the Obama Administration said that that promise would no longer be honored.
In the past, both Democrat and Republican Administrations have insisted that negotiations be based on a two-state solution, which means that for Palestinian refugees there can be no open “right of return” to Israel.

With open immigration the number of Palestinians living in Israel would quickly overwhelm the number of Jews, and soon the Jewish state would cease to exist. Candidate Obama, while running for president, made it clear that he did not support a “right of return” for Palestinian refugees. But now that he’s president, he has reneged on that promise.

Months ago Obama promised to send 1,500 National Guard troops to the Arizona border and to spend at least $500 million on border security. Gov. Brewer is still waiting for the troops and money to arrive.

In a recent Muslim-double-standard speech, President Obama bragged that the southwest American border is as safe as it has ever been. But at the same time his Administration was putting up signs warning American citizens to stay away from the Arizona border area because, “SMUGGLING AND ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION MAY BE ENCOUNTERED IN THIS AREA.”

Is Obama a Muslim? You make the call.

http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=38217

OBAMA the Muslim – HIS OWN WORDS

He’s a “sick puppy” with less self-control than Mel Gibson.

By A.W.R. Hawkin, Human Events, 07/28/2010

Keith Olbermann is a goon, a serial embellisher, and an attack dog for the Left. He is devoid of civility and decorum, and lacks even the restraint that most parents hope to have instilled in their children by age five. He is ruled by illogical passions (leftist ideology is, by its very nature, illogical), and apparently lacks a strong enough grasp of the differences between right and wrong to correct his course.

Dissenters Will Be Punished!

Homosexual activists are no longer content to try to end “discrimination” against homosexuals–they are now trying to impose discrimination on anyone who dissents from their views. The most recent evidence comes from Georgia, where Augusta State University counseling student Jennifer Keeton has had to file a federal lawsuit, with the help of our friends at Alliance Defense Fund, to defend her rights. When Jen expressed her Christian view that homosexual conduct is morally wrong in class and in private conversation with other students, the faculty responded by insisting that she participate in a “remediation plan”–essentially, a year-long program of intensive pro-homosexual indoctrination that would only be considered successful if she abandoned her moral values.

Unfortunately, this is not the first such story of political correctness in the counseling profession reaching totalitarian levels. ADF is representing a student who was already kicked out of a similar program at Eastern Michigan University, and another woman who was fired as a counselor for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, her story appears on our video “ENDA: The End of Religious Freedom in America?.” This radical agenda–not just to officially affirm homosexuality, but to forcefully crush any dissent–is exactly what Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan has endorsed. When will they learn that we have no intention of forfeiting our constitutional right to free speech and freedom of religion?

Defense Authorization Bill: Question of the Day

If the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy is revoked, what would the medical implications be? Dr. Robert Labutta (U.S. Army, Colonel, Ret.) addresses those concerns in today’s video clip.

Q: “What are the health implications if the law is changed to allow open homosexuality in the military?”

Homosexuals are identified by the U.S. government as a cohort at high risk for sexually transmitted diseases like HIV/AIDS. At the National HIV Prevention Conference in August 2009, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported that AIDS is 50 times more common in men who have sex with men (homosexuals and bisexuals) than in other populations. HIV is already a threat to military readiness–although HIV-positive recruits are excluded from the military, those who become HIV-positive while serving cannot be discharged, but they also cannot be deployed overseas. However, this is far from the only health risk to homosexuals. One of the nation’s leading AIDS researchers, Ronald Stall, has declared, “It may be a fallacy to say that HIV is the dominant, most dangerous and most damaging epidemic among gay men in the United States today. There are at least four other epidemics occurring among gay men that are intertwining and making each other worse. This is called a syndemic.” The “four other epidemics” are “substance abuse, partner violence, depression and childhood sexual abuse.”

Pruning “Marriage” Rights in the Garden State

New Jersey is enjoying something of a conservative Renaissance. Gov. Chris Christie’s (R) strong defense of fiscal and social conservatism is being augmented by the work of New Jersey’s Supreme Court, which has now stated it will not review litigation that threatens to make homosexual “marriage” legal. The decision in the Garden State’s highest court was 3-3, in itself a tie, but for a motion to proceed four affirmative votes are required.

As noted by the Philadelphia Enquirer, Chief Justice Stuart Rabner and two colleagues stated that the case “cannot be decided without the development of an appropriate trial-like record,” and denied the plaintiffs’ motion without prejudice. This means, in essence, that proponents of “gay marriage” will have to begin in a lower court before their case reaches the state’s highest bench.

This follows legislative action earlier this year in which the New Jersey State Senate voted down a bill to legalize homosexual “marriage.” Gov. Christie has said he would support an amendment to the New Jersey Constitution, as 30 states have already done, prohibiting same-sex “marriage.” Although New Jersey recognizes “civil unions,” it is clear that the state’s governor, elected representatives, and leading judges are not willing to be bullied by the activist homosexual lobby into circumventing the processes by which the ridiculous notion of homosexual “marriage” can even be considered. For that, they deserve the gratitude of those of us who believe not just in marriage as it was designed by God but who also respect the rule of law.

http://www.frc.org/get.cfm?i=WU10G18&f=PG07J01

… The bill has been condemned by National Right to Life Committee…

By Peter J. Smith, 7/27/2010, LifeSiteNews

SEE HOW THEY VOTED: http://www.govtrack.us/congress/vote.xpd?vote=s2010-220

Democrats in the Senate could not muster all 60 “yes” votes they needed to break the GOP’s filibuster on the “Democracy is Strengthened by Casting Light on Spending in Elections (DISCLOSE) Act” (S.3628). The Senate voted 57 – 41 for cloture, giving the bill its first defeat and making it very unlikely the measure will be resurrected before the Senate goes into recess. The bill has been condemned by National Right to Life Committee.

WASHINGTON, D.C. (LifeSiteNews.com) – Democrat leaders in the U.S. Senate failed Tuesday afternoon to overcome a Republican filibuster on a campaign finance disclosure bill that critics say threatens the ability of grassroots political organizations, and the pro-life movement, to communicate effectively with voters during election cycles.

Democrats in the Senate could not muster all 60 “yes” votes they needed to break the GOP’s filibuster on the “Democracy is Strengthened by Casting Light on Spending in Elections (DISCLOSE) Act” (S.3628). The Senate voted 57 – 41 for cloture, giving the bill its first defeat and making it very unlikely the measure will be resurrected before the Senate goes into recess.

Democrats’ hopes were dashed earlier in the day, when they learned today that their attempt to break the filibuster was all but doomed. Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) announced that he had to attend a family member’s funeral on the day of the vote, and Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-Maine), the one member of the GOP caucus Democrats were aggressively courting to break the filibuster, announced she would vote against cloture.

According to FOX News, Snowe described current Senate routine as a “ram and jam” process, and criticized the lack of hearings and attempts at building legislative consensus on the DISCLOSE Act.

The same report also indicates that support for the DISCLOSE Act may be cracking, as the AFL-CIO, America’s largest federation of trade unions, has now sent a letter to its members “reluctantly” opposing the bill. The letter states that the bill “imposes extraordinary new, costly, and impractical record-keeping and reporting obligations on thousands of labor (and other non-profit) organizations . without any corresponding public benefit.”

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has denounced the bill as a threat to free speech and crippling to free participation in the political process.

National Right to Life Committee’s (NRLC) Legislative Director Doug Johnson told LifeSiteNews.com today that the cloture vote was “very welcome news” and that Senate Democrats would likely not bring it up again until after they go into recess. He said it is now a matter of running out the clock; given the Senate’s busy schedule in the fall, pro-life advocates will have an advantage in pressuring senators to put the legislation on the back-burner.

However, Johnson added that pro-lifers will have to remain vigilant to make sure the legislation does not get resurrected in time for the November elections.

NRLC sent a detailed letter to the Senate before the vote strongly opposing the measure, warning that a vote for cloture would count against individual senators on NRLC’s legislative scorecard.

The bill has been condemned by National Right to Life Committee as “a blatant political attack on the First Amendment rights of NRLC, our state affiliates, and our members and donors.”

The DISCLOSE Act would force grassroots organizations – including most 501(c)4, 501(c)5, 501(c)6, and 527 groups – to list all donors of $600 or more with the Federal Election Commission (FEC). Groups must also post a hyperlink on their website to the FEC, where a list of the names of their donors can be accessed. This could possibly expose donors to political retaliation by motivated groups or individuals.

In addition, the bill requires that every time an organization runs a campaign ad, its CEO must appear in the ad and twice state his name and the organization’s name. The top five funders of the organization behind the ad – even if they had nothing to do with the ad’s funding – must also have their names listed in the ad.  In addition, the most “significant” donor to the organization must list his name, rank, and organization three times in the ad.

Opponents of the bill say it would frustrate the ability of grassroots entities to communicate effectively with the public about public policy, and level criticism against incumbents. The disclaimer rule has been singled out for criticism by those who say the requirement would devour valuable airtime that would otherwise be used to inform voters about a candidate’s record.

The DISCLOSE Act exempts large 501(c)4 groups – like the 4 million strong NRA and 750,000 member Sierra Club – from having to report their donors if they have at least 500,000 members, over 10 years of existence, chapters in all 50 states, and if they receive no more than 15% of total contributions from corporations.

Should the DISCLOSE Act be approved by the Senate and signed by President Obama, it would take effect in 30 days, even if the Federal Elections Commission has not yet crafted new guidelines – just in time for the mid-term elections in November.

Other affected entities under the bill will likely include vocal liberal and conservative groups that communicate through the Internet. While traditional media organizations like newspapers and television stations are exempt from the bill, bloggers, the vanguard of the “new media,” are not.

LifeSiteNews.com is a non-profit Internet service dedicated to issues of culture, life, and family. It was launched in September 1997. LifeSiteNews Daily News reports and information pages are used by numerous organizations and publications, educators, professionals and political, religious and life and family organization leaders and grassroots people across North America and internationally.

http://www.catholiconline.com/politics/story.php?id=37576

LifeSiteNews.com, June 27, 2010

Real-Time 4D Ultrasound

ORANGE COUNTY, California - In an effort to help unborn children at risk for abortion in their area, four Knights of Columbus councils in South Orange County, California are holding a charitable drive that will help bring life-saving ultrasound technology to mothers who need it most.

Working together, the Knights of Columbus councils from St. Edward the Confessor Parish in Dana Point, Mission Basilica Parish in San Juan Capistrano, St. Timothy Parin Laguna Niguel, and Our Lady of Fatima Parish in San Clemente, have so far raised more than $100,000 in support of Birth Choice Health Clinics. The funds collected by these councils are being matched by the Knights’ Supreme Council in Connecticut to purchase new 4-D ultrasound machines for the clinics.

Birth Choice will use these ultrasound machines in five clinics and in their mobile clinic to enhance the level of counseling. According to Birth Choice and the KofC councils, women who are at risk for abortion and who receive counseling that involves viewing an ultrasound of their baby are twice as likely to choose life as women who receive counseling alone.

Thus far two machines have been funded and approved, and funding is now available for two additional machines. Now the Knights are steadfastly working to raise the funds needed to purchase a fifth machine.

“The Ultrasound project saves lives,” said Supreme Knight Carl A. Anderson in his report to the 2009 Supreme Convention in Phoenix.

Birth Choice Clinic director Jenifer Borba said that, thanks to the Knights’ generosity, the center volunteers “will be introducing our clients to their unborn child in a powerful way.” The very first 4D ultrasound was delivered to the Long Beach Clinic earlier this month.

“We had been praying for the Lord to deliver the donations to equip all six of our medical clinics with this new generation of ultrasounds,” said Borba. “The Knights of Columbus answered this call and have generously gifted us with the funds necessary to bring Birth Choice Health Clinics to that next level.” Continue reading →

Polling Data

See All President Obama Job Approval Polling Data

SOURCE: Real Clear Politics

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/other/president_obama_job_approval-1044.html

“The powers delegated by the proposed Constitution to the federal government are few and defined. Those which are to remain in the State governments are numerous and indefinite.”

—James Madison, Federalist No. 45

In days gone by, liberals and heretics controlled the means of communication and the truth was diminished.  Now, the Great Equalizer has arrived.  Please pass this Vortex episode along to as many friends and family as possible.

The liberals and heretics have met their match. The Great Equalizer has arrived.

To View Online: http://www.youtube.com/user/RealCatholicTV#p/a/u/0/KaNRoZAoGaQ

OR: http://www.realcatholictv.com/free/index.php?vidID=vort-2010-07-27

• Read the script for this program
• Get this program for mobile devices

Catholic News Agency, July 26, 2010

Vatican City (CNA).- The apostolic nuncio to Spain, Archbishop Renzo Fratini, recently sent a message on behalf of Pope Benedict XVI to those celebrating Grandparents’ Day on July 26, the feast day of Sts. Joachim and Ann.

The message is addressed to the president of the Messengers of Peace, Father Angel Garcia, and to the organizers and members of the organization, The Golden Age.

“The Holy Father, with appreciation for the religious, spiritual, human and social richness of grandparents, gladly joins in this gesture of affection and gratitude, and he encourages them to persevere in the faith, giving meaning with the light of Christ the Lord to all the moments of their lives,” the message states.

“May the Lord help them with his providence and mercy,” the message continues, “and imploring the protection of the holy grandparents Sts. Joaquin and Ann, and of their daughter, the glorious Virgin Mary, mother of Jesus Christ our Lord, the Holy Father affectionately imparts to you his apostolic blessing, which he joyfully extends to your children, grandchildren and to all those participating in the celebration.”

http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/benedict-xvi-underscores-religious-human-and-social-richness-of-grandparents/

CATHOLIC NEWS AGENCY, JULY 27, 2010

South Bend, Ind. (CNA/EWTN News).- The University of Notre Dame released a statement on July 26 saying that the campus’s Grotto of our Lady of Lourdes caught fire on Monday evening.

The university’s fire department quickly extinguished the flames when they broke out early in the evening, Notre Dame spokesman Dennis Brown told the South Bend Tribune. No injuries were reported and the cause of the fire is still under investigation, Brown said.

Notre Dame’s July 26 statement added that the “interior of the Grotto has been closed while officials determine if it is safe to enter. Visitors may still pray at the perimeter of the shrine.”

Candles are often lit in the grotto by those visiting to pray and have posed a hazard in the past with the grotto catching fire in 1985 due to the large number of lit votive candles.

Built in 1896, the Grotto of Our Lady of Lourdes  is one-seventh the size of the shrine in France where the Blessed Mother appeared to St. Bernadette numerous times in 1858.

http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/lourdes-grotto-at-notre-dame-catches-fire/

FoxNews.com, July 27, 2010

July 28, 2010
Wednesday of the Seventeenth Week in Ordinary Time
Father Ernest Daly, LC

Matthew 13: 44-46

Jesus said to his disciples: “The Kingdom of heaven is like a treasure buried in a field, which a person finds and hides again, and out of joy goes and sells all that he has and buys that field. Again, the Kingdom of heaven is like a merchant searching for fine pearls. When he finds a pearl of great price, he goes and sells all that he has and buys it.”

Introductory Prayer: Lord, you have made me for yourself, and my heart is restless until I rest in you. I want to encounter you more deeply today so that you can be my treasure. Thank you for the gift of this new day. I know you love me. I wish to discover your love more deeply and give it to others.

Petition: Lord, help me to treasure the gift of your friendship.

1. In Search of a Treasure The restlessness in our hearts can be compared to a hunt for treasure. In different ways we all experience the desire for unconditional love, true goodness, the answer to our deepest questions. In Christ, God has come to give himself to us. He is the one we truly long for; he is our greatest treasure. During this time of prayer let us deepen our awareness of the greatness of his gift of friendship, and let us strengthen this friendship by our openness to his love.

2. The Priceless Treasure In Christ we have experienced the overwhelming faithfulness of God’s love for us. In his mercy we discover that our life has infinite value in the Father’s eyes. In his teachings we discover the wisdom to build our life on solid ground. In his grace we receive the strength to grow in love and holiness. This is where we can build a true future. This is where we can live up to our calling to greatness. But we must be willing to leave aside all other concerns to really possess this treasure. We must leave aside anything that tries to give us a false sense of security outside of God. Am I making my friendship with Christ the one value that guides my heart and my decisions?

3. The Unopened Treasure Chest Unpacking this treasure is the work of our spiritual life. We need to cooperate with Christ’s grace in order to truly possess this treasure. The cultivation of faith, hope and charity helps us discover and live this treasure more fully each day. Our sacrifices and renunciations done to put on the new man help us dig this treasure out of the earthy make-up of our lives. Living generous charity helps us make this treasure truly last and enrich our lives. Am I sincerely allowing Christ’s treasure to transform me?

Conversation with Christ: Lord, thank you for the gift of your love. You are the treasure I truly long for. Help me to enter more deeply into your heart this day by doing things your way no matter what the cost. Help me to value the gift of your friendship above everything else.

Resolution: I will make a small sacrifice of my time to do something extra for someone who needs God’s love.

http://www.regnumchristi.org/english/articulos/articulo.phtml?se=363&ca=975&te=735&id=20302

CATHOLIC NEWS AGENCY, JULY 28, 2010

Date of birth unknown; pope from 189 to 199; died in 199, possibly martyrdom.

Victor was a native African and his father’s name was Felix. He is known for having obtained the release of Christians who had been deported to the mines of Sardinia and for being the first Pope to celebrate the liturgy and write Church documents in Latin rather than Greek.

He is most famous, however, for decreeing that Easter be universally celebrated on a Sunday, a practice already common in the West, but not so in the East.

http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/saint.php?n=527