Living Easter

Who's up to the challenge? It's from Sherry Weddell. Read the whole post.

What if the Catholic blogosphere was filled primarily with stories of awe, conversion, and transformation, healing and resurrection, joy, hope, the Presence of Christ and the power of the Holy Spirit for the next 50 days? Not to hide from our challenges but to remind ourselves of how the story ends: that in a truly Christian worldview, the Resurrection is the final word on human sin, corruption, and stupidity.

Would our problems magically go away? No but we would be different and our readers would be different and the conversation would have changed significantly. And I am certain that we’d be astonished at what God would do through our communal act of faith, hope, and obedience.

When does a 2 year old know more than a pro-abortion zealot?

When the 2 year old looks at an ultrasound (sonogram) and sees a baby, and the zealot can only say, "Gee--that mass of cells looks vaguely like a baby."

Jill Stanek.

h/t Shea
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If you didn't already love Ezra Levant like the eighth brother you never had,

 
you will now.

Stop (motion) in the name of freedom!

It's a bird, it's a plane, it's Super(natural) Man!

Do you know how to identify your local super hero?

He often dresses in black.

He sometimes wears a cape.

He knows the value of a secret identity.

He has been given amazing powers.

He is called to a sometimes lonely road - he's married to his job.

He's on the front lines in the fight against evil.

He deserves your thanks, especially in times when he might be maligned because others with similar callings have chosen to use their powers for evil instead of good.

So, to review:

He often dresses in black.

He sometimes wears a cape.

He knows the value of a secret identity.

He has been given amazing powers.

He is called to a sometimes lonely road - he's married to his job.

He's on the front lines in the fight against evil.

He deserves your thanks, especially when his kind are maligned because others with similar callings have chosen to use their powers for evil instead of good.

Say a prayer for him today.
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Dear readers

Please join me in praying this novena to St. Gerard for the unborn baby girls of my brother and his wife. They have been diagnosed with Twin to Twin Transfusion Syndrome at 20 weeks gestation. Thanks.

Most Blessed Trinity, I, Your child, thank You for all the gifts and privileges which You granted to St. Gerard, especially for those virtues with which You adorned him on earth and the glory which You now impart to him in heaven. Accomplish Your work, Oh Lord, so that Your kingdom may come about on earth. Through his merits, in union with those of Jesus and Mary, grant me the grace for which I ask.... (Mention your request)

And you, my powerful intercessor, St. Gerard, always so ready to help those who have recourse to you, pray for me. Come before the throne of Divine Mercy and do not leave without being heard. To you I confide this important and urgent affair.... Graciously take my cause in hand and do not let me end this novena without having experienced in some way the effects of your intercession. Amen.

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I think that if you look like Kate Middleton

you've already won the prize!

These contestants had better make sure they're not actually being recruited as decoys and royal tasters.

Mystery and Marriage

Mr. O'Brien has a new post on the occasion of his wedding anniversary.

Mr. Beazly and I used to play a lot of Scrabble, too, but Boggle is his game of choice now.  Ah, that's the way of the world, isn't it? In courtship it's hours of eight letter words, but after marriage you're lucky to get three minutes of monosyllables.

Government to regulate electronic cigarettes as tobacco

The electronic cigarette is 14,000 times less harmful than a regular cigarette and does not alter mind or body functions, said Ray Story, chief executive of TVECA.

I don't get this. Sure, I know that fake cigarettes deliver nicotine and four other "ingredients". But what's to regulate if they are 14,000 times less harmful than a real smoke? (What am I saying? The U.S. government even regulates Kindersurprise eggs!)

Perhaps the FDA (and the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids) are afraid that people "smoking" plastic cigarettes may indoctrinate children with Second Hand Enjoyment of Simulated Inhaling? If people start pretending to smoke with pencils or candy cigarettes, will the government regulate them too?  Let's face it: what self-respecting rebellious kid is going to be seen smoking a fake cigarette? (And by the way, kids aleady come Tobacco-Free; it's usually their parents that determine otherwise.) If you want to stamp out smoking, you'll have to alter fallen human nature. Good luck with that.
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Sunlight is the best disinfectant.

Sun News is now over a week old. What do you think of it, DOH readers? So far I've only seen clips; I can't say whether it's living up to its supposed reputation as "Fox News North" because aside from a few brief clips I haven't seen much Fox News, either.   I still use rabbit ears, so if a channel doesn't come free out of the sky...or subsidized by my tax dollars out of the sky...I can't watch it on my TV. Incidentally, did you know that manufacturers no longer provide a special little socket on the top of your TV for holding rabbit ears? Here's what I think of the guy who did away with that cutting edge innovation:




 I already spend enough time every day hearing insistent voices telling terrible truths, and that's when everything in the house is turned off.  But Sun News seems quite intriguing so far. It may just bring me back to the world of cable/satellite TV. Say, wouldn't it be great if Steyn had a show?

An open letter to Theo Caldwell and SUN TV

Dang you, Theo and SUN News TV! You’re making me lose way too much sleep. I can’t watch my new favourite shows during the day or early evening because I’m either homeschooling my children, or preparing dinner (we say supper here in the civilized parts of the nation) or doing other stuff with my family. So I tend to watch from about ten at night until the wee wee hours.

I have long admired the writing and various other antics of the likes of Ezra Levant, Charles Adler, John Robson, and Brian Lilley –what a treat to see them on TV. But Theo Caldwell! Having never before heard of him (sorry, I don’t get out much), I was impressed by his dazzling smile and witty repartee. He won me over completely by the third show (April 20), when he shrugged and said: “We are no longer lovers” (he was mocking Bob Rae—don’t ask, just watch the video). I think I laughed for two minutes straight.

And that’s such a refreshing change. The CBC news never makes me laugh, not even when the studio lights glare with extra brilliance off Peter Mansbridge’s advancing forehead (hey, if the left-lib wingnuts can diss the SUN ladies for being too beautiful, I can diss the billion dollar Mansbridge for being too bald). Theo Caldwell is not bald, and he winks at the audience. It’s been a long time since a nice young man winked at me. It’s been a long time since any man winked at me. Peter Mansbridge never winks (nor would I wish him to), but he does smirk occasionally. I don’t like smirking, especially when it accompanies values I don’t hold… and I’m paying a billion dollars for it.

I was very impressed by the Caldwell Account’s Good Friday show. As one other viewer said in his fan email, I couldn’t believe I was watching Canadian TV. Theo acknowledged--nay, dare I say, almost celebrated the fact of Canada’s having been founded on Judeo-Christian principles.

Mr. Caldwell is charming, intelligent, hilarious, and so cuuuuute! (I can say that with no hint of self-interest, since I’m happily married, and old enough to be his mom’s much younger sister.) Oh, and great start to the playoff beard.

As much as I love Ezra, Brian and company, it’s The Caldwell Account that I just can’t miss. I sure hope SUN TV isn’t just a really long, good dream I’m having, and I’ll wake up one day to find myself watching CBC reruns of Return (Yet Again, Once More) to Avonlea Meets Little Mosque on the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal’s Ode to Pierre Trudeau…In A Canoe.

After such a long, cold winter, what a joy it is to see the SUN! Now if we could only do something about the even longer Winter of our Discontent and find a way to end taxpayer funding of the CBC. If that broadcaster wants to stay on the air, it should be required to do so with PBS telethon-style fundraising. How I should like to see Peter Mansbridge come cap in hand before Joe and Sally Lunchbucket and have to smirk for his supper.
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Cleanup in the Education Aisle

When people learn that I home school my children, they often express surprise that Ontario does not "oversee" home educators. However, I have always thought that notifying Ontario Education that I am home schooling would make just as much sense as notifying Wal-Mart that I intend to shop at The Bay. The government provides a product in which I am not interested; I see no reason why I should account for not using it.

Here is another who thinks about education in a similar way.

h/t Sobering Thoughts

Mrs. Pinkerton weighs in: Isn't it ironic that ever since schools stopped "failing" children, it's done nothing but?
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"You're a shallow man, John Robson, and you won't be getting any tax breaks."

'Naggy state' vs Nanny state : Prime time : SunNews Video Gallery

Let the Sun shine in.

Mrs.P's two cents: my fave quote from that video: "You can buy more Boxcar Willie CDs."
CURSE YOU, BRIAN LILLEY!  When you uttered those words to John Robson, you almost made me choke on the malted milk Easter egg I was eating.
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It can't be put any plainer.

Mark Steyn on the latest joke ruling from a "human rights" commission.

Actually, "dude", it is "government action". At my "trial", the troika of judges sat in front of the Royal Coat of Arms - that's the government, the state. And in my case the statutory penalty would have been a de facto publication ban with the force of a Supreme Court decision preventing me from writing on Islam, Europe, demography, immigration and multiple other issues for the rest of my life. Maybe not a problem for you. Maybe a guy who thinks "edginess" and "dangerous" "envelope-pushing" can be confined to using words like "dude" can live within such a system. On the other hand, that's what Guy Earle thought, too. 

It ought to be required reading for the confused fellow quoted in this article, as well as anyone else who's furrowing his brow in a vain attempt to understand the situation:

The response online was fast. Sun TV and Levant himself became trending topics on Twitter, with some questioning why Levant chose to air the controversial cartoons.

"It's hard to understand why it's important," said Chris Waddell, director of the school of journalism at Carleton University.

Waddell said there was no reason to air the cartoons on television except to appeal to sensationalism.

"What can you say? It's like recycling a very old story," Waddell said.

What can you say, indeed?

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Five Great Foreign Language Films

In no particular order:

1. Hawaii, Oslo

2. Zelary

3. Kolya

4. Brodre

5. The Vanishing

Speaking of foreign films, no matter how good they are, they always make me think of this very special beer commercial from days of yore:

The unKinderest cut of all.

We are very near the end of civilization.

Christ is Risen! Alleluia, Alleluia!

He is risen indeed!

Even if you have not walked one step with Him this Holy Week, or this Lent, or this lifetime, He still waits, with His hand extended, to lead you out of the tomb. Give Him your hand. You can never love Him too much, trust Him too much, or hope in Him too much. 

Have a happy and blessed Easter!

It's Holy Thursday

Last post of the day (I hope). Have a blessed Triduum.

CBC poll

Should the Tories defund Planned Parenthood? Vote now. Vote yes. (Not that they're likely to publish any results other than the one they want. I don't trust them one iota). The CBC should be defunded too, come to think of it. And I do. Often.
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Dear Mr. Harper:

For the love of all that's sane and holy (or even just Canadian, which is sometimes neither): get our pilots the hell out of Libya! David Warren.
 

My point then was to make the reader aware that, while few wars meet all the requirements, this, if it is a war, meets none of them -- not even one. [....] 

[T]he more one considers the bellum iustum, the better one sees that the Libyan intervention is morally and intellectually incoherent. That is, completely senseless. Nuts. [...]

President Obama is arguably doing no more than Bill Clinton did over Serbia in 1999. Twelve years ago, I went splenetic in print against what Clinton was doing then. But Obama has taken the United States one step further: He has put American forces under foreign command, at least nominally. He has tipped Uncle Sam's hat to a "new world order" in which wars are begun by bureaucratic and diplomatic consensus, and the United Nations (with its plurality of rogue state members) is recognized as the supreme arbiter of right and wrong, in which national sovereignty is itself conceded as an unfortunate legacy of Western Civ, for which apologies and restitution may be required.


America is now pretending not to be a superpower, not to be the leader of the Western alliance, not to have national and international interests that trump those of other nations. "American exceptionalism" has been purposefully surrendered, as part of what I diagnose as a narcissistic pose. You are a team player now, in a kind of Special Olympics for the morally and intellectually impaired.

h/t Mark Shea


Added: SDA  links to a story about those lovable rebels we seem to be supporting.
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Who could have predicted this?

Liberals and liberal media frothing at the collective mouth about the possible defunding of Planned Parenthood.

Apparently it is scandalous for people with pro-life convictions to have political opinions and aspirations. Aren't we supposed to put up, shut up and enjoy our "social peace" on abortion? After all isn't this North Korea where there is only one official way to think? Sadly, the Conservatives are caving and distancing themselves from Brad Trost (MP spearheading the initiative to de-fund PP)


I don't want my tax dollars supporting Planned Parenthood! Email Mr. Trost and PM Harper (and your own MP) NOW!


I DON'T WANT TO PAY FOR SOMEONE ELSE'S CONDOMS OR THEIR ELECTIVE "IT'S MY PRIVATE CHOICE" SURGERY TO KILL THEIR UNBORN CHILD.

Stephen Harper's email: pm@pm.gc.ca

Brad Trost (MP for Saskatoon Humboldt): Trost.B@parl.gc.ca

Your MP
 
Oh, and for some balance on this issue, WATCH SUN TV NEWS!
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Can't...blog...

Too busy watching Sun TV News. Actually, I'm too busy right now to watch TV too. But I watched it Monday night (debut) and thoroughly enjoyed myself, and I'm so glad the commies in CanLit. and CanCon. Land and the CBC and the CRCT could not keep them off the air. All hail Fox News North!
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Ah, sweet innocence

Mr. Witko would appreciate this one. The Misses Pinkerton were looking out the front window where the bird feeder used to hang--there are lots of sunflower seed shells on the ground, as well as a few intact seeds. A little mouse had discovered them and was feeding. The girls were all remarking on its presence, some saying how cute he was (mice are a lot cuter outside than in). The youngest Miss Pinkerton (6) suddenly pipes up: "Kill him!"
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Rise up!

Oy vay. Count Iggy strikes again. Found this on the weekend, courtesy of Randy. Too funny. One hates to give Jack Layton the last word, but dang, he's right. (er...correct)

Parents not allowed to send home-packed lunches to school

Cuz schools don't trust parents to know how to feed their kids. Chicago (Barack Obama's stomping ground). Is anyone surprised? My latest post at Mercator Net.

It’s not just ironic, but an inversion of values for schools to confiscate candy bars because they are so “unhealthy,” but they’ll hand out condoms and sexual advice, even to young children. Schools refer children to the nurse for contraceptives, STD treatment, or even abortion counselling without parental knowledge or consent. (Perhaps children could keep their candy bars if they brought a note from home stating that the bars were not meant for eating, but for practicing how to put on a condom.)

A bit too busy

...at music festival. So there will be very little blogging this week...

.Update: the girls all did really well. Scholarships and awards a-plenty. Thanks to all their wonderful music teachers.

Reason #394854737939498548 to vacation in Canada

Five-year-old Edmonton girl dies in Bahamas resort.

[An Amercian] Toni Randall — who happens to be a registered nurse — says she was trying to attend to the girl but was muscled out of the way by hotel staff.“I’m sure they had basic training,” she says. “But they never even checked to see if she had a heartbeat.”Even though a doctor and a trauma nurse were at the scene, Randall says they were told to get out of the way. “They proceeded to do CPR, which caused her to aspirate or vomit,” she says. “I told them she has a pulse, don’t do CPR, but they didn’t listen.”

Randall has been a nurse for two years and keeps her nursing certification with her at all times.
“They were saying it wasn’t valid and I didn’t know the laws there,” she says. “I didn’t understand, a trained professional should be a trained professional.”
The girl’s frantic parents yelled at the staff to let the doctor and the nurse work on their little girl."They kept saying, ‘Let them work on her!’ But they wouldn’t.” It took an ambulance 30 minutes to arrive at the scene, and Randall says they weren’t prepared either.

Parents win; ACLU loses

Good news for Arizona parents re: school choice. Maybe the tide is turning and the state monopoly on education will be broken. One can but hope. My latest on MercatorNet's Family Edge.

Yesssssssssssss

Way to go, Archbishop! Update to this post.

Prendergast has cancelled the speaking engagements of the head of one of Development and Peace’s partners, after personally investigating and finding that the actions of the partner are “incompatible with the Church’s defence of the right to life from conception to natural death.”

The archbishop has cancelled the scheduled appearances of Father Luis Arriaga, director of the Miguel Pro Centre for Human Rights (PRODH), who was to appear at the diocesan centre Saturday and at Catholic parishes in the archdiocese over the weekend.

A notice on the archdiocesan website announced that the archbishop had met with Fr. Arriaga upon his arrival in Ottawa, and “discussed with him, and with representatives of Development and Peace, the Centre’s support of groups espousing abortion.”

Just one question: why was the guy ever allowed to make it this far? The decision to "disinvite" him should have been made long ago. His travel expenses paid for by Canadian Catholics: your "Share Lent" contributions hard at work.

The confirmation by Archbishop Prendergast of PRODH’s pro-abortion activities is extremely significant for LifeSiteNews (LSN) and those who have followed the Development and Peace funding scandal over the past two years. The Miguel Pro Centre is one of the first five groups LSN identified as pro-abortion in our inaugural report on the scandal in 2009. It was also one of the five groups investigated – and cleared of any wrongdoing* - by a delegation of Canadian bishops (led by Development and Peace staff) who went to Mexico to try to determine the veracity of LSN’s reports.

(*Not unlike the result you could expect if you asked the fox to investigate why chickens are disappearing from the henhouse...)

The report on the conclusion of the investigation signed by the two investigating bishops and endorsed by Archbishop James Weisgerber, then-President of the Canadian Bishops’ Conference, stated “we believe the allegations by Lifesite News … are not founded on the facts.”

That report, never retracted or corrected despite subsequent findings of numerous other pro-abortion groups funded by Development and Peace, plus additional, highly incriminating evidence on the original groups, slammed LSN as a “counter-witness to the Gospel.”

Perhaps, like Bill Clinton, it all depends on your what your definition of "facts" is. (Not to mention your definition of "Gospel".) This just doesn't look good at all, especially in light of how ecclesiastical bureaucracy has, in the past, hushed up other sorts of scandals.

Archbishop Prendergast is the first Canadian bishop to have publicly stated that a specific Development and Peace partner group is acting in a manner incompatible with the right to life.

And so I say again, Way to go, Archbishop!!

via LSN

"Toweling too forcibly" (from our Beyond Satire files)

Al Qaeda Launches Women’s Magazine

Got the heads-up on this at Mercator Net ("Tiger Print" blog).

Who could have imagined? I'll bet the fashion editor is going to run out of ideas after, um, one issue. I mean, how many ways can you photograph a black burqa? And what's up with printing articles, containing words, when many Islamists don't actually believe in teaching women to read? 

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The Michael Ignatieff Election Sign Generator

Courtesy of the fun folks at SDA.

Make your own here.

Like this:

Almost as much fun as the Barack Obama Platitude Generator.

John Robson on...well, does it matter?

I think we have to make a category for John Robson columns, just like we have for Messrs. Steyn, Shea and Warren. How about,  "Robson's Reason" or "Rippin' Robson" or "You Said a Mouthful, J.R.!"

Here's his latest.

As for the Tories, I actually took the infamous CBC poll and they said I was closest to them. But when I looked around, the Conservative party was nowhere near me. I got this seal of grave disapproval from the public broadcaster by being pro-life, seriously pro-military and against big-spending high-taxing governments. If Stephen Harper took the poll giving answers honestly drawn from the actual performance and platform of his party, he wouldn’t get that result, I can tell you.

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Right on target, CBC! I love the way you are gunning for Sarah Palin.

Because everything really is her fault!

The threatening graffiti comes after the January shooting of U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, whose Arizona district had previously been placed in rifle-scope crosshairs on a Facebook page belonging to former Alaska governor Sarah Palin.

Don't you love this kind of (on) crack "journalism"?

Sell the CBC.

Lost in Translation

Another 14 year old girl given death penalty for "adultery", sharia style.

"Guilty, they said, of having an affair with a married man." Translation: she couldn't run away fast enough from psychotic rapist.

The rapist (ie. "married man"), incredibly enough, "escaped" after just a few lashes from his adultery punishement.

h/t Steyn

"How one man's actions in Florida sparked a mass killing in Afghanistan"

Lisa LaFlamme's words on last night's CTV newscast. Some guy burns a book, barbarians kill a dozen people over it. What is the answer? LaFlamme wonders if America can figure out how to "clamp down on this behavior" - the guy setting a match to a book, that is.  Because that's who "set off" the massacre; that's who's responsible for the barbarians having been "driven to violence", rather than continuing with their "peaceful protest."

Those are all phrases you will hear in this report, which is a sterling example of what Mark Steyn is talking about here:

What core liberties are you willing to trade for a quiet life? Because however much of the baggage you toss out the balloon, it will never be enough. Short of punitive military measures we’re not willing to take, there’s not a lot we can do about baying Afghan mobs hot for decapitating people because someone expressed an opinion. But we could at least put some clear blue water between our legal inheritance and theirs by not dragging people into Australian, Dutch, Austrian and Danish courts for the same “crime”.

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The Merits of Healthy Debate

Looks like everyone is posting an April Fool's joke today, so that kind of takes the wind out of the one I was going to post. I'll do something different, and save it for next year. What with an election coming up, there's enough foolishness to go round. Here is a prayer composed by one of Mark Shea's readers, who asks that it be distributed far and wide:

Prayer to St-Joseph
For a blessing on this year's Federal Elections

O Saint Joseph, loving father, faithful guardian of Jesus and spouse of the Mother of God, we pray you to remind God the Father of all the love He feels for us in offering up the death and resurrection of His Son to give us life.

Our beautiful country, Canada, has been consecrated to you from its very beginnings. Just as Mary and Jesus recognized in you the protector given to them by the Father, so too we are placing ourselves under your protection.

We humbly ask you to intercede through the power of Jesus, and obtain for us from the eternal Father the grace to choose the best possible team of men and women to lead our country, who will be wise stewards of its riches and concerned with the good of all its citizens, working to create a more just and equitable society in harmony with God's design.

Saint Brother André, your loving friendship with Jesus, Mary and Joseph makes you a powerful intercessor. We ask you to join your prayers to those of Saint Joseph for the best possible outcome on voting day, May 2nd 2011.
Amen

And just to finish up, please watch this. If only our leaders' debates could attain this level of civility and edification.