Brown Pelican Society of Louisiana

“I don’t think you can lead out of fear.”

The service employee union (SEIU) has joined the administration’s attack on Arizona’s anti-illegal immigration law by using fear tactics, casting supporters of the law as totalitarians.

By Patrick Goodenough, International Editor, CNSNews, July 29, 2010

This screenshot from a video clip shows President Obama speaking about Hiroshima and Nagasaki during a joint press conference with then Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama, in Tokyo on November 13, 2009. (Image: White House video)

(CNSNews.com) – The Japanese government on Thursday welcomed news that the a U.S. ambassador will for the first time attend the annual commemoration of the U.S. dropping an atomic bomb on Hiroshima in 1945.

The State Department announced that Ambassador John Roos would represent the U.S. at the August 6 event at the Hiroshima Peace Memorial, “to express respect for all of the victims of World War II.”

Asked why the gesture was being made at this time, spokesman Philip Crowley said, “At this particular point, we thought it was the right thing to do.”

Japanese media attributed the decision to President Obama’s agenda of pursuing “a world without nuclear weapons,” outlined in a speech in Prague last year.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshito Sengoku said Thursday it was the first time a U.S. government representative would attend the annual event. The Japanese government hoped the occasion will would provide the opportunity for the U.S. to deepen its understanding of Japan’s pledge to prevent another atomic catastrophe from taking place, he said.

According to Japanese media, Hiroshima city authorities, since the late 1990s, have invited all nuclear weapons powers to participate in the annual commemoration. While Russia, China, India and Pakistan had done so, the U.S., Britain and France had not.

This year marks the 65th anniversary of the dropping by the U.S. of atom bombs on Hiroshima on August 6, 1945 and on Nagasaki three days later. An estimated 140,000 were killed in Hiroshima and about 80,000 in Nagasaki. Imperial Japan surrendered on Aug. 15, and with the formal signing on Sept. 2 the war was over.

Scholars and others have debated the decision since then, with supporters arguing that the devastating bombing pre-empted a greater loss of life on both sides which the continuing war and planned invasion of Japan would have entailed. Opponents regard it as an immoral act and a major war crime.

The Asahi Shimbun daily quoted Kota Kiya, a member of a Hiroshima victims group, as saying that because of public opinion in the U.S., an American apology for the bombing would be too difficult to achieve, but it was hoped the U.S. would attend the ceremony each year.

The Kyodo news agency said the head of a Hiroshima victims organization, Kazushi Kaneko, called for a U.S. apology.

“I want the U.S. representative to feel the realities of the atomic bombing in Hiroshima and correct the U.S. perception that the bombing was the right choice,” the 84-year-old was quoted as saying.

Ahead of a trip by Obama to Japan last November, invitations to the president from the mayors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki prompted speculation that he might offer an apology for the bombings.

Obama did not visit the two cities, citing time constraints, but said he would like to do so during his presidency. He plans to visit Japan again later this year, for an Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit.

During last November’s visit, Obama was confronted by the issue in Tokyo, where during a joint press conference with then Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama a Japanese television reporter asked him if he would visit the two cities, adding, “What is your understanding of the historical meaning of the A-bombing in Hiroshima and Nagasaki?  Do you think it was the right decision?”

Obama sidestepped the nub of the question, saying, “Obviously Japan has unique perspective on the issue of nuclear weapons as a consequence of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. And that I’m sure helps to motivate the prime minister’s deep interest in this issue.  I certainly would be honored, it would be meaningful for me to visit those two cities in the future.”

The reporter then asked, again, if the president believed the dropping of the bombs had been “right.”

Obama did not answer her, turning instead to another issue she had raised, relating to North Korea’s nuclear ambitions.

Roos, the U.S. ambassador, visited Hiroshima last year as did U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi in 2008. Former President Jimmy Carter paid a visit to the Hiroshima memorial in 1984, three years after leaving the White House.

http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/70168

…“This entire episode demonstrates what National Right to Life said in March – there is no language in the new health care law, and no language in Obama’s politically contrived March 24 executive order, that effectively prevents federal subsidies for abortion on demand,” Johnson asserted…..

Catholic News Agency, July 29, 2010

NRLC’s legislative director Doug Johnson.

Washington D.C. (CNA/EWTN News).- After reports recently surfaced that some of the new federally-funded high risk pool insurance programs in states across the U.S. were covering elective abortion, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) issued a statement today, prohibiting the plans from covering the procedure.

The insurance pool programs for high-risk patients are part of a $5 billion federal funding program set up under the Affordable Health Care Act that was signed into law this March.

When states began to roll out their plans for the federal funds, the National Right to Life Committee (NRLC) investigated plans in Pennsylvania, New Mexico and Maryland, all of which the pro-life group accused of funding abortion. Following the passage of the health care overhaul in March, President Obama signed an executive order which purported to ban federal funding of abortion.

Following media scrutiny, the HHS issued a new regulation on July 29, clarifying that the pool programs are prohibited from covering the procedure.

“The (high-risk pool) program,” the regulation states, “is Federally-created, funded, and administered (whether directly or through contract); it is a temporary Federal insurance program in which the risk is borne by the Federal government up to a fixed appropriation. As such, the services covered by the PCIP (Pre-existing Condition Insurance Plan) program shall not include abortion services except in the case of rape or incest, or where the life of the woman would be endangered.”

“Much has been made of this policy by both sides of the debate,” White House Office of Health Reform Director Nancy-Ann DeParle commented today on the White House blog. “But, in reality, no new ground has been broken.” Continue reading →

“The operations of the federal government will be most extensive and important in times of war and danger; those of the State governments, in times of peace and security.”

—James Madison, Federalist No. 45

July 30, 2010
Friday of the Seventeenth Week in Ordinary Time
Father Ernest Daly, LC

Matthew 13:54-58

Jesus came to his native place and taught the people in their synagogue. They were astonished and said, “Where did this man get such wisdom and mighty deeds? Is he not the carpenter´s son? Is not his mother named Mary and his brothers James, Joseph, Simon, and Judas? Are not his sisters all with us? Where did this man get all this?” And they took offense at him. But Jesus said to them, “A prophet is not without honor except in his native place and in his own house.” And he did not work many mighty deeds there because of their lack of faith.

Introductory Prayer: Lord, I believe in your power. I know that you are the Lord of all history. I trust that you are guiding my life. Thank you for showing me that you will triumph. Thank you for the triumph you have already achieved in my heart and in the hearts of so many people. I want to allow you to have total control over my life.

Petition: Lord, increase my faith in you.

1. Too Familiar with Jesus The people of Nazareth thought they knew all about Jesus. He had grown up among them. Apparently they had not seen anything extraordinary about him before he started his public ministry. They thought he was just like everyone else. So when they hear that he is doing miracles and teaching with authority, they do not believe it. Sometimes I also run the danger of putting limits on Christ’s power in my life. I see the unimpressive circumstances of my life and the recurrence of the same old problems. I do not believe that Christ can do something supernatural in the midst of an ordinary situation. Today I am receiving an invitation to step beyond the routine and believe more deeply in the power of Christ.

2. In My Own Backyard The solution to their deepest problems was in their own backyard. Yet, the people of Nazareth felt that such a familiar figure could not bring anything extraordinary. When the Church sometimes challenges me with some of her teachings – on charity, on family life, on the need to be a courageous witness –, do I sometimes find excuses, like saying that my circumstances are too difficult, or the Church does not understand my situation? Do I sometimes let the prophetic voice of the Church die in my heart? When I feel challenged by the Gospel and by the Church I should be thankful. Christ is inviting me to discover the deepest meaning of my life. He is giving me a chance to allow his presence to make a deep change in my life. He is allowing me to discover him in faith and is taking me beyond my comfort zone to the level of the coming of his Kingdom.

3. A Miracle Worker in Waiting What sort of miracles does Christ want to do in my life? Christ has a plan to make my life a luminous witness to the power of his grace. He wants to fill my life with his holiness and help me be a light for others. If I can shake off my superficiality and lack of faith, I will discover the powerful presence of the Savior who helps me live each moment with depth and love. He can do miracles in my life. He can help me live the virtues which are most costly for me. Am I willing to take a risk for Christ and trust him totally?

Conversation with Christ: Lord, I know you want to do great things in my life. Help me to see how you can transform the ordinary, seemingly unimportant circumstances of my day into moments when your grace triumphs. Enable me to be docile to your Holy Spirit, so he can do miracles in my life.

Resolution: I will increase my faith in Christ by taking a risk for him in some aspect of my spiritual or apostolic life.

CATHOLIC NEWS AGENCY, JULY 30, 2010

St. Peter Chrysologus is a Doctor of the Church. He was born in Italy around 406 and was named archbishop of Ravenna in 439. There he encountered a strong pagan influence and many lapsed faithful. Through his efforts, many people returned to the faith and paganism was eradicated in Ravenna.

St. Peter was a very caring pastor and an excellent preacher. Due to his excellent homilies, the people gave him the name “Chrysologus” (of golden words). Many of these texts still exist. He died at the age of 44 in the year 450.

Babies Go To Congress…

Pregnancy care centers across this country are a real, living threat to Planned Parenthood clinics because they offer women something other than a dead baby.  They offer women actual help – material, emotional, practical, medical and even financial help when they need it most.  They offer life and hope, and naturally, Planned Parenthood hates that because it means fewer clients, fewer abortions, less money for them.
Full Story

…Obamacare offers no statutory protection against taxpayer funding of abortions . . . for now, we must fight for permanent legislative language to prevent taxpayers from funding elective abortions.  When it comes to protecting the unborn, there is no room for compromise…

By Rep. Doug Lambor, Human Events, 07/29/2010

As states roll out their newly mandated high-risk pools under Obamacare, a troubling trend is emerging.  Pennsylvania and Maryland initially announced on their websites that their plans would cover elective abortions. Additionally, New Mexico posted a draft summary of its high-risk pool services that listed elective abortion as a part of its covered services.

The reaction from the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the White House was complete silence.  It was not until the National Right to Life Committee (NRLC) called out those states that a spokesperson for the HHS announced that abortions will not be covered in the federally funded high-risk pools, except in the cases of rape or incest, or where the life of the mother would be endangered.

It’s entirely possible that if the NRLC had not blown the whistle, HHS could have let states get by with federal funding of abortion.  However, HHS has not issued any written guidelines in regard to abortion funding and this statement is not backed by permanent legislative language. A mere verbal directive from a bureaucrat is currently the only protection we have to protect taxpayers from paying for elective abortions under this portion of Obamacare.

Obama’s Weak Executive Order

This is the nightmare scenario that I and many of my colleagues in the House and Senate warned of during the healthcare debate.  While states offering taxpayer-funded abortions may be compelled for now to back away from their initial proposals, the fact remains:  Obamacare offers no statutory protection against taxpayer funding of abortions. This highlights the fragile nature of Obama’s executive order prohibiting abortion coverage under Obamacare.  And you can be certain that this is just the first of many such “surprises” that will emerge from the bureaucratic quagmire that is Obamacare.

In an effort to ensure that Colorado does not try to follow the lead of some of these other states, I have sent a letter to the governor of Colorado and the state’s plan administrator asking to see the proposed healthcare policies.  Though the plan is scheduled to begin coverage on September 1, they have yet to provide even a draft of the plan for public viewing.  Given the problems in other states, Colorado should reassure its taxpayers that public money will not fund elective abortions.

To hold my state accountable, I am asking my constituents and all other interested citizens to contact the governor’s office to express their views on the matter.  I am hoping that as more pro-life groups catch wind of this, our efforts will grow nationally. For now, this is all we can do.

The real solution must come from Congress.

Since 1976, the Hyde Amendment, a legislative provision prohibiting the use of federal funds for abortion, has been attached to appropriations bills that fund HHS.  Although the Hyde Amendment is not permanent law, it does reflect the will of Congress on the issue of federal funding of abortion. However, the Hyde Amendment does not apply directly to Obamacare and its massive bureaucracy.

Protect Life Act

Rep. Joe Pitts (R.-Pa.) has introduced the Protect Life Act (H.R. 5111), which would offer permanent restrictions on federal funding of abortion by guaranteeing that no tax subsidies can flow to plans that cover elective abortion. I am one of 119 co-sponsors of this legislation.  Additionally, Rep. Chris Smith (R.-N.J.) has just introduced a bill, similar to the Protect Life Act, that would go one step further and offer protections to healthcare providers.  The conscience clause would ensure that local, state, and federal agencies that receive federal healthcare dollars do not discriminate against healthcare providers, including doctors, nurses and hospitals, because these providers do not provide abortions.

While I am hopeful we will prevail on this occasion in protecting taxpayers from funding elective abortions, this debate underscores the larger problems with Obamacare.  The bill is riddled with undisclosed costs and hidden problems, many that have yet to surface. For that reason, I have pledged to repeal and defund this government takeover of healthcare. But, for now, we must fight for permanent legislative language to prevent taxpayers from funding elective abortions.  When it comes to protecting the unborn, there is no room for compromise.

Mr. Lamborn, a Republican, represents Colorado’s 5th Congressional District.

http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=38291

________________________________________________________________

Let’s be clear!  It’s no secret where Obama & other government officials stand on abortion!

Kathleen Sebelius, Secretary, Department of Health and Human Services.  Pictured: Sec. Sebelius and late-term Wichita abortionist George Tiller together at a party she hosted for him at the mansion in 2007.

Heritage Foundation, Posted July 29th, 2010

Hours after yesterday’s decision by President Bill Clinton judicial appointee Susan Bolton to preemptively stop enforcement of Arizona’s immigration enforcement law, Thomas A. Saenz, president of the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund (MALDEF), told The New York Times: “This is a warning to any other jurisdiction.” Just in case the message from the Obama administration and its leftist allies was not clear, Obama appointee U.S. Attorney Dennis Burke told The Associated Press: “Surely it’s going to make states pause and consider how they’re drafting legislation and how it fits in a constitutional framework.”

But no amount of pause by states and localities could ever possibly satisfy the Obama administration, its amnesty allies, and activist judges like Bolton. In a textbook case of judicial activism, Judge Bolton rewrote the Arizona law to her own needs, invented her own facts and ignored clear federal law.

President Jimmy Carter appointee and immigration law professor at Yale Law School Peter Schuck told The New York Times: “She rushed to judgment in a way I can only assume reflects a lot of pressure from the federal government to get this case resolved quickly.”

The Obama administration’s case against Arizona sought to preemptively stop enforcement of Arizona’s new immigration law. The legal term for this is a “facial challenge,” and federal precedent is clear that facial challenges “must be careful not to go beyond the statute’s facial requirements and speculate about ‘hypothetical’ or imaginary cases.” But that is exactly what Judge Bolton did. First, she ignored Section 2(B) of the law as written and completely ignored the section’s first sentence that required an officer to have “reasonable suspicion” that a person was in the country illegally before their immigration status should be checked. Then, she invented a completely hypothetical case about a Chilean dog walker detained by a completely fictional Sheriff Smith. Finally, despite the fact that 8 U.S.C. §1373 clearly requires the federal government to “respond to an inquiry by a…State, or local government agency, seeking to verify or ascertain the citizenship or immigration status of any individual,” Judge Bolton concluded that the Obama administration’s decision not to enforce this provision was as good as rewriting the law itself.

Taken alone, the White House’s behavior on this issue is troubling enough. But put into the broader context of the first 18 months of this Administration, a truly pernicious pattern emerges.

First, there was the Obama Justice Department’s decision to dismiss voter intimidation charges against the New Black Panther Party. Then there was the Obama administration’s use of TARP to bail out its union allies in what bankruptcy law scholars have called “so outrageous and illegal that until March of this year [2009], nobody even conceptualized it.” Then there was the Obama administration’s shakedown of BP in the White House’s Roosevelt Room. Less than a week later after a federal court found its first oil drilling ban to be “arbitrary and capricious,” the Obama administration issued a second oil drilling ban that was wider and killed even more jobs than the first.

Americans cannot be cowed by the Obama administration and its La Raza and MALDEF allies. Giving into bullies only encourages their behavior. Finally this lawsuit should be a permanent reminder to everyone who wants to call themselves a conservative that any and all claims about an amnesty deal are complete fiction. La Raza and MALDEF will fight every enforcement measure in any such deal tooth and nail while administrations like this one will simply choose not to enforce them. Meanwhile, the amnesty provisions would be instantaneous and permanent.

Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer (R) has vowed to fight this decision all the way to the Supreme Court, and she deserves support.

http://paracom.paramountcommunication.com/hostedemail/email.htm?h=055896173ca0bdb049af7c59a16f53f2&CID=6668200092&ch=7CA8AF1C8E4C25500FE71FB364764AB7

Behind DISCLOSEd Doors

To the surprise of few, the Democrats’ DISCLOSE Act failed to proceed in the Senate, falling short of the needed 60 votes.  Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) knew the effort to influence this year’s elections would fail, but brought it up anyway to further appease the liberal base that the Democratic Leadership has been trying to keep in line since they took over Congress four years ago.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), who has become an unmatched champion of free speech in the Senate, put it best when he pointed out,

“A yes vote on this bill will send a clear message to the American people that their jobs aren’t as important as the jobs of embattled Democrat politicians… If the Founding Fathers were here, they’d remind us. They’d hold up the Constitution and remind us of the oath we took to support and defend it.”

While last night was a victory for those who believe in the First Amendment, there is little doubt that President Obama and Sen. Reid will try to bring up the legislation again and again before the November elections in their attempt to silence their opponents.  One day they may finally learn–the more they try to shut us up, the louder those of us who believe in democracy will get.

Defense Authorization Bill: Question of the Day

If Congress acts to overturn the ban on open homosexuals serving in the military, how could this impact recruitment?  Watch today’s video clip with Sergeant First Class Benjamin Ratcliff (U.S. Army, Ret.) for his first-hand experience as a recruiter and his discussion of the challenges this policy change may create.

Q: “What might be the impact on recruiting should Congress overturn the current ban on open homosexuals serving in the military?”

The all-volunteer force will likely face tougher recruiting. Last year, the Pentagon met 103 percent of its fiscal year recruiting goal in part because of high unemployment and generous enlistment bonuses.   But the pool of eligible candidates is shrinking, because nearly three-quarters of today’s high school graduates go on to college, compared to 50 percent in the 1980s. Other factors such as obesity, which affects one-in-four American youth, make finding fully qualified recruits difficult.   Repeal the homosexual ban and there will be some candidates, with the encouragement of significant others like parents, who remove themselves from the military’s pool of eligible candidates. Conversely, there is no evidence that qualified homosexuals–a fraction, barely two percent of the American public–will flood into the military to make up any shortfall.

Judge Deserves a Doctorate in Indoctrination

Yesterday we wrote about a lawsuit filed against Georgia’s Augusta State University by a counseling student, who was told she must submit to a program of indoctrination to change her disapproval of homosexual conduct.   The piece was written before we received word that a decision had been handed down in a similar case in Michigan, Ward v. Wilbanks, about a student who was dismissed from the counseling program at Eastern Michigan University for attempting to refer a homosexual client to another counselor because she could not affirm the client’s homosexual behavior.

The record clearly showed that such referrals based on “value conflicts” are a legitimate part of counseling practice.   Yet U.S. District Court Judge George Carem Steeh ruled that the blatant violation of Julea Ward’s freedom of speech and of religion constituted “an integral part of the curriculum.” Alliance Defense Fund has announced their intention to appeal this misguided ruling.

http://www.frc.org/get.cfm?i=WU10G19&f=PG07J01

Galatians  Chapter 6: 7-8

Make no mistake: God is not mocked, for a person will reap only what he sows, because the one who sows for his flesh will reap corruption from the flesh, but the one who sows for the spirit will reap eternal life from the spirit.

The Archdiocese of New York’s answer to the gay goings-on at St. Francis Xavier parish stretches belief.

In a time when Catholics want and need clear and unambiguous statements from their leaders, artfully crafted “official responses” only serve to hurt the Church.  Please watch this episode of the Vortex and pass it along to as many friends and family as possible.

WATCH ONLINE:  http://www.realcatholictv.com/free/index.php?vidID=vort-2010-07-28

This program is from RealCatholicTV.com

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New York:  Jesuit Run St. Francis Xavier Parish; Their Website

Groups and activites Latest News

Zen Meditation Group

Meets every Monday at 7 pm. Newcomers are welcome. Introductory instruction available.
Contact Peggy & Paul Schubert at 212-260-2486 or schubertnyc@gmail.com

LGBT Pride March

Each year a group of us gather to March in the Parade. We join in that section of the parade reserved for religious congregations. Through our efforts at handing out flyers about our welcoming parish, a number of people find their way to St. Francis Xavier and back to the Catholic Church.

If you have any questions, please contact us using the contact information above. We look forward to spending this day of celebration together as a parish.

Women in the church

This archaeological photograph of a mosaic in the Church of St. Praxedis in Rome shows, in the blue mantle, the Virgin Mary, foremother of women leaders in the Church. On her left is St. Pudentiana and on her right St. Praxedis, both leaders of house churches in early Christian Rome. Episcopa Theodora, “Bishop Theodora” is the bishop of the Church of St. Praxedis in AD 820.

Gay Ministries

Gov. Brewer: Judge Told Feds They Don’t Have to Do Their Job

Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer makes a statement to the press after a temporary injunction against part of the anti-illegal immigration law in her state.

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Ariz. Catholic bishops praise ruling against immigration law measures

PHOENIX, ARIZ., Jul 28, 2010 (CNA).- After a federal judge blocked certain parts of the controversial Arizona immigration law – which is slated to go into effect tomorrow – the Catholic bishops of Arizona lauded the move, saying they “commend” the judge for prohibiting the “more problematic provisions” of the law……….

http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/ariz.-catholic-bishops-praise-ruling-against-immigration-law-measures/

Sessions argued that Ms. Kagan is a legal progressive and stated that the American people do not want Senators to confirm a Supreme Court nominee who would impose their own social or political views from the bench, and that such a philosophy is contrary to our legal heritage.

Patriot Post, Chronicle, Wednesday, July 28, 2010

“From Karl Marx to today, the Left has always hated people on the Right, not merely differed or been angry with them. The question is: why? Here are three possible answers. First, the left thinks the right is evil. … Second, when you don’t confront real evil, you hate those who do. … Third, the left’s utopian vision is prevented only by the right. … Hatred of conservatives is so much part of the left that the day the left stops hating conservatives will mark the beginning of the end of the left as we know it.”

–columnist Dennis Prager

http://patriotpost.us/edition/2010/07/28/chronicle/

SOURCE: A Good Choice Blog…..

People are often unreasonable, irrational, and self-centered. Forgive them anyway.

If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives. Be kind anyway.

If you are successful, you will win some unfaithful friends and some genuine enemies. Succeed anyway.

If you are honest and sincere people may deceive you.  Be honest and sincere anyway.

What you spend years creating, others could destroy overnight.  Create anyway.

If you find serenity and happiness, some may be jealous.  Be happy anyway.

The good you do today, will often be forgotten.  Do good anyway.

Give the best you have, and it will never be enough.  Give your best anyway.

In the final analysis, it is between you and God.  It was never between you and them anyway.

-this version is credited to Mother Teresa

President Ronald Reagan and Mother Teresa each embodied and lived out much of this poem. He was optimistic and persevered despite great obstacles. She was totally dedicated to helping the poor despite or in spite of apparently insurmountable obstacles.

http://agoodchoice.blogspot.com/2007_05_01_archive.html

Patriot Post, Chronicle, Wednesday, July 28, 2010

Nancy Pelosi has it backward on deficits

Nancy Pelosi has it backward on deficits “A major poll just gave Congress a favorability rating of 11% — lowest in history. Never, it seems, have our representatives in Washington been so disconnected from the people they purport to serve. The disconnect was most evident in separate comments made by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid at a conference of the far-left group Netroots Nation last weekend in Las Vegas. Both weighed in on vital topics. Both revealed why they’re so out of touch with reality. Pelosi told the audience she adamantly opposes raising the retirement age for Social Security and said the Depression-era program shouldn’t be cut to help reduce the deficit. ‘When you talk about reducing the deficit and Social Security, you’re talking about apples and oranges,’ she said. She has it exactly backward. The No. 1 problem facing this nation is the massive deficit we face over the next 75 years, due almost entirely to the expansion of Social Security and Medicare. The only way to address the deficit is to address entitlements. …

Meanwhile, the speaker had the chutzpah — or maybe it was twisted humor — to tell the Netroot folks that Democrats are ‘moving on all fronts to reduce the deficit.’ …

Reid’s comments, made to the same Netroot group, were equally absurd — and no doubt offensive to voters. After his party insisted during more than a year of debate over the health care overhaul that they did not want a single-payer public option, Reid gloated to the Netroot gathering: ‘We’re going to have a public option.It’s just a question of when.’ …

Nor does Reid, like Pelosi, get that Social Security is in a deep crisis. He called it ‘the most successful social program in the history of the world.’ Successful? A program that socks future generations with trillions in higher taxes and lower standards of living? A program that’s already running in the red and whose unsustainable finances promise to push the U.S. to the verge of bankruptcy? The arrogance of Reid’s and Pelosi’s remarks underscore the problems that the Democrats have with the electorate. They promised moderation and fiscal responsibility. Instead, we got a radical expansion of government power.”

–Investor’s Business Daily

http://patriotpost.us/edition/2010/07/28/chronicle/

“[T]he States can best govern our home concerns and the general government our foreign ones. I wish, therefore … never to see all offices transferred to Washington, where, further withdrawn from the eyes of the people, they may more secretly be bought and sold at market.”

—Thomas Jefferson, letter to Judge William Johnson, 1823

July 29, 2010
Saint Martha
Father Alex Yeung, LC

John 11: 19-27

And many of the Jews had come to Martha and Mary to comfort them about their brother. When Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went to meet him; but Mary sat at home. Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. But even now I know that whatever you ask of God, God will give you.” Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise.” Martha said to him, “I know he will rise, in the resurrection on the last day.” Jesus told her, “I am the resurrection and the life; whoever believes in me, even if he dies, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?” She said to him, “Yes, Lord. I have come to believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, the one who is coming into the world.”

Introductory Prayer: Heavenly Father, once again I renew my faith in your plan for my life. I trust in your loving providence, and I know that no one can snatch me from your hands. You know well that I love you. I wish to be more open and docile to your plan and action in my life. Take this time that I now set aside for prayer. Take my mind, will and heart; take my gifts and talents. I lay them at your feet through this prayer. Do with me today according to your holy and loving plan. Amen.

Petition: Lord Jesus,  deepen my faith in your resurrection.

1. Do You Believe This? This is the fundamental question in our life of faith: do we, in fact, believe it all? Do we really believe that the human race was mysteriously subjected to the catastrophic consequences of our first parents’ disobedience to the divine will? Do we really believe what we say in the Creed every Sunday? Do we believe that Jesus of Nazareth died and rose from the dead to conquer sin, and now lives to draw all people to himself as their savior? The great challenge for the Christian in our thoroughly post-modern, post-Christian, technical age is to unabashedly say “Yes!”

2. Keep it Simple One of the greatest challenges in the Christian life is to keep our faith simple. Our tendency is toward sophistication and complication. While certainly the ability to think and reason well is a gift and has its place in the Christian life, we must be equally aware that the in-born tendency to rationalism can be a non-starter for a genuine life of faith. We cannot afford to fall into today’s error of trying to size God down according to our meager perceptions and self-centered attitudes. Christ is much more; God ways are far more sublime than what our limited vision can create. A simple faith is so pleasing to God because then he has leeway for his supernatural action. Then he can do something within us and through us.

3. Spiritual Finess Training This simple faith can and must launch us upward and outward in the task of bringing Christ’s love to every soul. Our simple faith can rapidly ignite and convert us into relentless apostles of the Kingdom, like St. Paul. We need to make his words our own: “What will separate us from the love of Christ? Will anguish, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or the sword? (…) No, in all these things we conquer overwhelmingly through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor present things, nor future things, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8:35-39).

Conversation with Christ: Lord Jesus, give me strength to bear the burden of drawing others closer to you. Let me feel, with St. Paul, the sting of “Woe to me if I do not preach the Gospel!” And when I do set out to give others reasons for my faith, accompany me with your Holy Spirit to give success to my poor efforts.

Resolution: For love of Jesus, I will renew, refresh and invigorate the act of faith with which I begin every day in my morning offering.

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

CATHOLIC NEWS AGENCY, JULY 29, 2010

“Jesus loved Martha, and her sister Mary, and Lazarus” (John 11:5).

Saint Martha is mentioned three Gospel passages: Luke 10:38-42, John 11:1-53, and John 12:1-9, and the friendship between her and her siblings Mary and Lazarus with the Lord Jesus is evident in these passages.

In Luke, Martha receives Jesus into her home and worries herself with serving Him, a worry that her sister Mary, who sat beside the Lord’s feet “listening to Him speak,” doesn’t share. Her complaint that her sister is not helping her serve draws a reply from the Lord who says to her, “Martha, Martha, you are anxious and worried about many things. There is need of only one thing. Mary has chosen the better part and it will not be taken from her.”

The overanxiousness she displays in serving is put into the right context by Jesus who emphasizes the importance of contemplating Him before all things.

Yet she is seen next in John, outside the tomb of her brother Lazarus who had died four days earlier, as the one who receives the Revelation from the Lord that “I am the resurrection and the life; whoever believes in me, even if he dies, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die.”

When asked by the Lord if she believed this she said to Him, “Yes, Lord. I have come to believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, the one who is coming into the world,” displaying her great faith which is confirmed by Jesus’ subsequent raising of her brother Lazarus from the grave.

In the third and last instance, we see Martha, again in John, at a house in Bethany where Jesus was reclining at table with her brother Lazarus after he had raised him from the dead. During dinner, John’s Gospel tells us, “Martha served.” She is revealed here performing the same task as when we first saw her, but now her service is infused with her faith, and the brevity of the description suggests the silence and peace in which she serves as opposed to the nervous anxiety she displays earlier.  Martha, who we have seen serving, in Luke, and then believing, earlier in John, is now seen expressing her belief in the action of serving the Lord. “Martha served,” and in doing so teaches us the way of Christian life.

Saint Martha is the patron of housewives, servants, waiters and cooks.

http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/saint.php?n=528

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