Speaking of Smoking (NOW UPDATED WITH SHOCKING, GRAPHIC PHOTO!)

Cartoon characters lighting up really burns some people's butts. My 12 year old son suggested this post. He thought this story was ridiculous. I agree.

"A lot of kids are going to start smoking because of this movie," said Stanton Glantz, director of the Center for Tobacco Control Research and Education at the University of California-San Francisco. Youths who frequently see smoking onscreen are two to three times more likely to begin smoking than peers who rarely see it depicted, he said.

By what methodology did they arrive at these statistics? Are there many smoking youths who have meticulously kept track of how often they've seen someone smoking onscreen? When kids see Cruella DeVil puffing away, won't that make them less likely to want to smoke? Or kidnap dogs? 

Don't let's be silly now, anti-smokers.

UPDATE:
Whoops, looks like I spoke too soon. Maybe the kids are being led down the tobacco garden path by ciggy-sporting cartoon animals....

Grace Abounds

Here is an inspiring piece on grace by Mr. Shea. I hope it will be for you, as it is for me, a healthy dose of Pepto Verbal.

Mrs. P's two cents: My fave quot. from this piece:  "the principal way that grace seems to stick to the soul is via personal encounter." It's all about forming relationships. Which is another reason why bureacracy (and most "programs") are evil. Just sayin.

"But we can not fight the Culture of Death with a Culture of Deceit."

Kevin O'Brien on the "lying for Jesus" controversy. It's a long post, and well worth your time.

This makes good sense to me. The more I think about this, the sorrier I am that I posted Lila Rose's video on this blog.

Mrs. P. weighs in: I am grateful to Kevin, Mark Shea, et al. for courageously taking and defending this stand. It hasn't been easy. I agree with them (not that it matters. Truth can stand on its own, thank you). As to posting the vid... I supposed like Pilate, we all (O'Keefe, Rose, too) have only now to say, "What's done is done." It was not done in the correct way, but it's done. God can bring good out of evil--all kinds of evil. And he will. I think we've all learned valuable lessons along the way. 

From our 'beyond satire' files

I don't approve of cruelty to animals (whatever the Spirit of Journalism Past might say), but just as an intellectual and moral exercise, read this story and substitute the words "unborn baby" for "hamster," "animal," or "pet".

Brooklyn teen faces felony charge in death of family hamster

"Sadly, very often, **** find themselves in the middle of these situations," said Pentangelo.
"A family will have a disagreement and unfortunately the ****** is the recipient of misdirected or redirected rage."
The ****** died from blunt force trauma, liver damage and a brain hemorrhage, he said.

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Lent has begun

I love this season.

Source of image:
http://www.byzantineholyicons.com/icons-300_1.html
  

'I became a better mom by leaving my children'

It would be laughable if it weren't so tragic. My latest post on MercatorNet.

Mrs. Beazly says...

As Andrea at PWPL wrote, "That's some redefinition of motherhood."

Or to put it another way,

'When I use a word,' Humpty Dumpty said, in rather a scornful tone, 'it means just what I choose it to mean — neither more nor less.'

Only in 2011 could this be headline material

Fashion model smokes on runway. (She could have chosen a more tasteful and politically correct accessory, like an aborted baby in a jar, or something. But that would not have garnered her any media attention.)

 WE always knew Kate Moss was one of THE biggest supermodels on the planet, but we didn't think anyone could get away with having a fag on the runway.

Wow. I'm not gonna touch that quotation with a 40-foot pole. (Note to CHRC: This is an actual excerpt from OK's website and NOT hate speech on my part.) Tolerate EVERYTHING...except Christianity and smoking. (I don't like smoking, but I like fascism even less.) I do like humour though...



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International Women's Day

Yawn. When was it? Did I miss it? Don't even care enough to google the answer. Brilliant essay by Carolyn Moynihan, MercatorNet.

It’s thanks to this ideological stance that we still have Ministers of Women’s Affairs, their bureaucracies and their international Big Sisters pushing for gender equality policies which assume that husbands and wives -- or domestic partners -- should each do exactly half of both childcare and domestic chores and half of the paid work to support a household. Research has shown that this is not what women with young children want.


If women want to have the choice to be wives and mothers in anything more than a nominal sense, it is time to knock this sort of nonsense on the head. Whatever good feminism was going to do has been done; now it is time to tidy up the house and start living again.

SK still in the deep freeze

This morning, Mr. Pinkerton stood in the kitchen looking befuddled. "It's got to start warming up sooner or later! I thought I saw a zero in the forecast."
I was tempted to reply, "You probably did, but it had a -3 right in front of it."
Al Gore, where are you when we need you?
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A tiny bit of advice for the Conservative Government

Mr. Pinkerton recently informed me that, as part of an attempt to cut costs, the federal government plans to slash Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada's budget by a whopping 20%. (AAFC is Mr. Pinkerton's employer)

That makes sense in these desperate economic times, doesn't it? Get rid of funding for peripheral  things like, oh, research into having a better FOOD SUPPLY, but leave the following untouched:

Funding for feminist groups
The CBC
The freakin bunch of Nazi kanagroos that are the Canadian Human Rights Commission
Generous pay and benefits for senators-for-life, most of whom don't show up for work. Ever.

I could go on, but I won't.

The taxpayers of Canada will bless you for it. You just know that when the governement downsizes its civil service, the only ones to lose their jobs are the folks who get paid relatively little and do real work. The brain dead bureaucratic sort who make six figures, but can't actually tell you in plain words what they do for a living will continue to slurp at the public trough.

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Jillian Michaels is not the boss of me

Though I must admit that I love her in my own special way (I think she's alternately scary and goofy, but, as she claims in her promotional material, she does get results). I have been joking for some time (mostly in private) about blogging my way through her exercise videos, and yes, I do own some of them. I know that some church ladies don't approve of exercise. As one puritan soul once scolded: "That's just vanity." Well, maybe so. On the other hand, one woman's vanity is another woman's aversion to atrophied muscles or the premature fracturing of bones from osteoporosis--that sort of thing. Exercise does make one healthier, and it certainly allows you to keep up with your kids.

A reader writes...

(My comments in red).

"Just wondering if you know anything about Fr. **** ******, a Redemptorist priest who worked at ******  hospital in ********  for several years?  Just had a bad experience with him on the weekend at a talk he gave in ******** *****.  I have been asked to write my synopsis of his talk after I complained about him to the Archdiocese.  His talk was not taped.

Ha! Are they ever? Clever, that. Leave no evidence...

 I have suggested that all such talks be taped in the future.

I have a better idea. Video, then straight to YouTube. Maybe that would stop some of these folks from undermining church teaching, or at least expose and embarrass them a bit.

His talk was advertised as 'Reality Check - What the Catholic Church Really Teaches about moral issues such as Homosexuality, Euthanasia, Stem-cell research, Abortion, etc."  There were no handouts or outlines,

as I said, no paper trail, no evidence...

he didn't quote the Catechism once,

Really? No, REALLY? After all, the Catechism is, as one heretic nun put it, "just a springboard" for discussion. You know, like those two styrofoam swim-aid flutterboards that Moses brought down from Mt. Sinai, with the Ten Suggestions scratched into them.

he had not a set agenda.

well, that's debatable. (Though I know I'm using agenda in the figurative sense, and you meant the literal.)

 It was like a glorified, obfuscatory liberal homily.  In one word, Yuck.  Actually it was worse than that because he said at one point that he agreed with everything the Church teaches.

That's a sure sign that he doesn't. If he did, he wouldn't have to explicitly claim it--it would have been evident in his presentation.

Half truths and opposition posing as adherance to Church teaching.  Yuck, yuck again.  We were told that he did not want us to come to any conclusions

Riiiiiiiiight. After all, Jesus is the Way, the Truth, and the Wishy-Washy Noncommittal Opinion

Just like it says in the bible: "How I wish that you were either hot or cold. But because you do not come to any conclusions, I will spew you out of my mouth."

 but just to think as Jesus would think.

Oh wow. Did he hand out some post-consumer biodegradable hypoallergenic WWJT wristbands for everyone to wear home? Where does he think we find out "how Jesus thinks"?

  Crap like that.

Hey, that sounds like a good title for the next left-lib workshop in your parish:


"Guest speaker Fr. W. Washy presents: Crap Like That: How we can call ourselves Catholic, ignore what the Church teaches, and feel all Squishy and Affirmed inside. Small group sharing. Lunch provided."
 
Wish you could have been there.

Yah, so my head could explode.

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Are you starting a weight loss program today?

Nothing like a good belly laugh to burn a few calories.

Out like a lion

Or perhaps a six-headed gargoyle from hell? After enduring a blustery blizzard all day yesterday that buried part of the hedge in the front yard (it's about four feet tall), we woke up to -33 C temps this morning. Here's the weather report on the Environment Canada website for our area:

Wind Chill Warning in Effect


Wind chills of minus 40 to minus 45 this morning.


This is a warning that extreme wind chill conditions are imminent or occurring in these regions. Monitor weather conditions..Listen for updated statements.


Cold northerly winds have ushered in cold Arctic air over the province. Temperatures near minus 30 along with wind speeds of 15 to 20 km/h are producing wind chill values near or below minus 40 across Western Saskatchewan this morning. These will moderate above warning criteria this morning as temperatures rise and winds diminish.


At these wind chill values frostbite on exposed skin is possible within 10 minutes.

Come on, weather man! It's MARCH!! Gotta get me some of that there global warming.

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Guys v. Men

My newest post on MercatorNet, based on this Wall Street Journal essay, and John C. Wright's response to it.

It’s a matter of simple justice for women to have political, financial and educational freedom and equality: but feminism goes well beyond this, to the detriment of both sexes. Feminism has not only emasculated men, but (ironically) denigrated women -- by attacking marriage and motherhood, and by making sexual license a keystone of equality and liberation (something our Suffragette foremothers could never have imagined in their wildest dreams).

I like Mark Shea's thoughts on the matter:

The phenomenon of boys who linger on as "guys" rather than becoming men is endemic in our culture. It's also very very unhealthy. Note to guys: Women like men. Note to men: Guys need mentors and fathers, cuz they often have no idea how to become men.

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Funny, yet completely discouraging

It's not DOH's anniversary, but I read this today, and I can't wait till November of 2013 to post it. From Creative Minority Report, which is a great blog, which I don't have to promote, cuz it has more readers than we do. Here and there I added my own comments in red. And I was just kidding. I am not discouraged.

Reflections On 4 Years Of Blogging


Wow. I can't believe that Matthew and I started this thing four years ago. Them's lotsa blog posts between then and now.


So, anniversaries are natural times to reflect upon how you may have grown and what you may have learned over the years. So, what have I learned? Not much. But I have learned a few things about blogging and these have been codified in some personal guidelines. Further, there some things I have realized which I will now share.


Realization: After four years of writing whatever pops into my head, I can never ever run for elected office. The interwebs has a long memory.


Guideline: Don't fall in love with your posts, because if others don't, you will get bitter. If you write something you are proud of, good, now start writing your next stupid post immediately. Why because....


Realization: The attention your post will garner is inversely proportional to the actual thought you put into it. The posts of which I am most proud have disappeared quicker than cocaine at Charlie Sheen's house.


Guideline: Never ever take yourself seriously. It will show in your writing and always-serious people are boring people. People don't read boring people. Conversely...


Realization: If you don't take your blog seriously, why should other people?


Guideline: No matter what you write, no matter how trivial, seemingly inoffensive, silly, or inconsequential, somebody will call you out in the combox. Typically they will scold you for something you didn't even say. So let it go. Ignore the combox crazies that are just there to cause trouble. [Ted Blurn, that means YOU] Let it go.


Realization: You know that saying "there are no stupid ideas?" That's not true.


Guideline: Blogging after 3 drinks is fine. Four, not so much. [Agreed]


Realization: Blog hits are like love. They are only useful if you spread them around.


Realization: Write about what you care about. Don't try to write what you think people want to read. Be yourself. Don't try to write like anybody else. If you're a sarcastic jerk, be a sarcastic jerk. [Validation/Affirmation at last! I feel a Carey Landry song coming on...] Nobody will buy it if you pretend to be somebody else.


Guideline: Don't argue in your own combox. But if you do, don't write more than two comments arguing the same point or you're now part of the problem.

Realization: If you quote GK Chesterton more than twice a month, you're probably mailing it in. [Rats! Memo to self: strike 'Chesterton Quote of the Day' from list of Ideas For Increasing Frequency and Quality of Posts]

Guideline: Bloggers (in particular Catholic bloggers) are a subset of a subset of a subset. It doesn't matter what Statcounter says, it's just a blog dude. Even if you manage tens of thousands of readers a day, 99.999999999% of the world will never know your name. It's just a blog. Get over yourself.
[Realization: Sarcastic Homeschooling Catholic Mom Bloggers are a subset of a subset of a subset of a subset of a subset. Guideline: Spend less time blogging, and more time planning healthy meals.]

Mrs. Beazly, you are welcome to weigh in with your own comments and musings, in the color of your choice.
 
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Thanks, Mrs. Beazly

For posting on Baby Joseph, because it inspired me to write my latest Mercator post, and I even quoted you.

Heh--this is unrelated but funny. The very first comment on my Merc post contains a link to some propaganda from the London Health Sciences Centre. What--do they have some state-paid flunky trolling the net for stories on this topic in order to do damage control? Your "health care" tax dollars at work, Ontario!

The comment is posted under the name of "Concerned". Pardon me--don't you mean "Ruthless Blood-sucking Prevaricating Socialist Healthcare Bureaucrat" (or Blood-sucking Lawyer Thereof)? They even have the gall to state that the parents are not acting in the best interest of their own child--but the bureaucracy is? Oh please.

Indeed, this is what the (bureaucratically-appointed) "lawyer for Baby Joseph" has written:

He is a baby and for all of these reasons he needs and deserves to have his parents make decisions that put his best interests ahead of their own. As he has no values and beliefs they cannot base a decision, for him, based on theirs. But, in my opinion, that is what they are doing. I do not believe they are assessing what is in his best interest. If they were, I believe the result would be different and their decision would align with the hospital."

Euphemisms are amusing: "their decision would align with the hospital." ie. they would be OK with their baby suffocating to death after the removal of his breathing tube.

Bureaucracy is evil. I'm almost beginning to think we need a category. Or the Second Coming. Or something.

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And the Oscar goes to...

Mistah Dahhcy, of all men!!

 DOH readers, have you seen any of the Oscar nominated films? 
What did you think of them?

Hilarious essay

By John C. Wright. It's funny because it's true.

Obviously, a girl cannot yield to any man who is only as strong as a girl: he has to be strong enough to protect her, and, in adventure stories, to save her. The idea of romance as a commercial exchange between cautious equals is one I find repugnant, rather than as a knight on a white charger sweeping the fair princess off her feet, slaying her dragons for her.

Women who are normal and healthy want a man stronger and taller than she, and she wants the man to lead when they waltz.

Is this merely some odd minority of women, closet masochists, or submissive and fertile Catholic girls from Ireland and Italy? I think the number of women fascinated with romance, though lower than it was before the de-naturing and de-femininizing programs of the feminists won popular appeal, is still very high.

h/t Mark Shea

Unions are Evil

The Steyn explains why.

That's what "collective bargaining" is about: It enables unions rather than citizens to set the price of government. It is, thus, a direct assault on republican democracy, and it needs to be destroyed. Unlovely as they are, the Greek rioters and the snarling thugs of Madison are the logical end point of the advanced social democratic state: not an oppressed underclass, but a spoiled overclass, rioting in defense of its privileges and insisting on more subsidy, more benefits, more featherbedding, more government.

Latest post at Mercator

But it's not on Family Edge. This one is on Reading Matters, a blog dedicated to reviewing literature for children. Do have a look.

From our "Euphemisms are Amusing" file:

Is that what they call it now?

The boss testified he was a qualified Reiki practitioner, which he described as a "vibrational healing modality" involving the transfer of universal life-force energy to the recipient.


He was found guilty of sexual harassment anyway.

h/t BCF

"...I don’t feel I’m in Canada, I feel I’m in some country with no human rights.”

The sad story of Baby Joseph continues.

One wonders about the hospital's aim. They are reportedly threatening to remove Joseph's breathing tube even if another hospital agrees to admit him. The doctors want to let him suffocate, and his parents, who just want to take him home to die in peace, are the ones under surveillance. Behold our superior health care system in action. Now we know that the final days of a little boy's life are worth less than the cost of a tracheotomy, and compassion cannot be had for any price.

Hey, Canada Winter Games Biathlon Team Saskatchewan Fans!

Go here for exciting footage of the action.

O hard condition

Upon the king! let us our lives, our souls,
Our debts, our careful wives,
Our children and our sins lay on the king!
We must bear all. O hard condition,
Twin-born with greatness, subject to the breath
Of every fool, whose sense no more can feel
But his own wringing! What infinite heart's-ease
Must kings neglect, that private men enjoy!
And what have kings, that privates have not too,
Save ceremony, save general ceremony?
And what art thou, thou idle ceremony?
What kind of god art thou, that suffer'st more
Of mortal griefs than do thy worshippers?
What are thy rents? what are thy comings in?
O ceremony, show me but thy worth!
What is thy soul of adoration?
Art thou aught else but place, degree and form,
Creating awe and fear in other men?
Wherein thou art less happy being fear'd
Than they in fearing.
What drink'st thou oft, instead of homage sweet,
But poison'd flattery? O, be sick, great greatness,
And bid thy ceremony give thee cure!
Think'st thou the fiery fever will go out
With titles blown from adulation?
Will it give place to flexure and low bending?
Canst thou, when thou command'st the beggar's knee,
Command the health of it? No, thou proud dream,
That play'st so subtly with a king's repose;
I am a king that find thee, and I know
'Tis not the balm, the sceptre and the ball,
The sword, the mace, the crown imperial,
The intertissued robe of gold and pearl,
The farced title running 'fore the king,
The throne he sits on, nor the tide of pomp
That beats upon the high shore of this world,
No, not all these, thrice-gorgeous ceremony,
Not all these, laid in bed majestical,
Can sleep so soundly as the wretched slave,
Who with a body fill'd and vacant mind
Gets him to rest, cramm'd with distressful bread;
Never sees horrid night, the child of hell,
But, like a lackey, from the rise to set
Sweats in the eye of Phoebus and all night
Sleeps in Elysium; next day after dawn,
Doth rise and help Hyperion to his horse,
And follows so the ever-running year,
With profitable labour, to his grave:
And, but for ceremony, such a wretch,
Winding up days with toil and nights with sleep,
Had the fore-hand and vantage of a king.
The slave, a member of the country's peace,
Enjoys it; but in gross brain little wots
What watch the king keeps to maintain the peace,
Whose hours the peasant best advantages.

In other words, even Kate and William have to put up with Uncle Gary doing the Drunk Uncle Dance at their wedding, and they won't get to complain about it after.

Added by Mrs. P:   ha ha... CakeWrecks mentions variation of  D.U.D
...and tell Uncle Randall to ease up on the Jägerbombs. Or at least stop dancing.

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No, sorry...

She sings like a little girl with talent and potential. This is singing "about eating ice cream with the voice and wisdom of a 40-year-old.":

Let's go get some ice cream
Make it the low-fat kind,
Napkins, yeah, we'll take a ream,
Oops -  left my lactose pills behind.


Chocolate cookie dough?
That'll go straight to my thighs,
The menu font is too small, you know -
Can't possibly be my eyes.


Ow, pecans make my molars hurt!
I think I need a root canal.
Hey, don't wipe your hands on your sister's shirt,
...uh, that rule included her pants as well.


Is there Blueberry Blizzard on my nose?
Time to go home, let's get in the car,
Napkins? Pfft! We could use a hose,
Aaugh - don't let the dog share your Dilly Bar!
No, don't let the dog share your Dilly Bar....

Permanent Quebec Corruption Squad to the Rescue!

Oh, sorry, anti-corruption squad.

Hey, wait...what  corruption?

The Roots of Their Unhappiness

Via SteynOnline: professional grievance mongers file grievances against fellow professionals. ( I think that's a palindrome.)

It couldn't happen to nicer guy...er, PERSONS, sorry, I meant persons.  This reminds me of the excellent Simpsons episode ("There's No Disgrace Like Home") where Homer and family seek the help of Dr. Marvin Monroe in an effort to discover the "roots of their unhappiness". As an exercise in controlling their hurtful behavior they are given the capability to electrically shock one another, and, what do you know, that's exactly what they do.

I wonder if the tribunal employees will sit around fining, censoring and sensitivity-training one another into getting along? Maybe they should be issued Dr. Monroe's patented Aggression Therapy Mallets.  (Why do they keep popping into the news around Valentine's Day, anyway? It must be all the love that exists in that industry.)

I and Love and The Avetts

Who knew that anything good could ever come from watching the Grammies?

Canada Winter Games

GO SASKATCHEWAN!

From our "Absolutely Beyond Satire" files

Schools in Oz seeking non-religious chaplains.

 Mr Garrett's review of the $437 million federally funded National School Chaplaincy Program confirms that the vast majority of chaplains - 98.52 per cent - are Christian even though only 64 per cent of Australians identify as Christian.

[...]
A discussion paper, released on Friday, confirms that a ''large number of stakeholders'' wanted non-faith-based chaplains because they could help non-religious children and enlarge the available talent pool.

Why, pray tell, do non-religious children need "help"? Their parents have already liberated them from the tyranny and superstition of religious faith.

H/T Mark Steyn

Just one more Valentine's Day treat for the ones I love

To all the probability and statistics experts I've loved before

You know who you are. Happy Valentine's Day!

Get me rewrite.

 I have an idea even better than this : let's randomly choose one word from every language spoken in Canada and sing them to the tune of our national anthem. Of course, we'll have to weed out all the words that refer to any kind of deity or have any gender associated with them...so that leaves out all French nouns...and we'll have to make sure we don't sing a word from one language directly before or after a word from a language used by people that the user of the first language don't get along with...and we'll have to leave moments of silence in the song for people whose religion forbids music...and we should probably not use that touchy word, "Canada", since that might be offensive to MPs whose sole purpose in being in parliament is to break away from Canada....

And voila! Here is our new, "reasonably coherent" national anthem - close your mouth and hum along:

Hmmmmmmmmm hmmmmmmmmm hmmmmm hmmmmmmm,
Hmmmmmm hmmmmmmm hmmmmmm hmmmmmm hmmmmmmmm hmmmmmmm,
Hmmmmmm, hmmmmmm hmmm  hmmmm,
Hmmmmmm hmmmmm (silence)  hmmmmmm hmmmmmmhmmmm!

That's just a start, you understand. I'll post the rest once I've written it. Or maybe everyone could just sing whatever they feel they want to sing when it's national anthem time, as some of our politicians plan to do:

Bennett said she has no intention to officially alter the lyrics of ‘O Canada’, but that she will continue to sing her version when Parliamentarians sing the anthem each Wednesday.

How very fitting.

Did they check for any sign of a brain while they were at it?

I never look back, darling! It distracts from the now.
                                           
                                                                -Edna Mode


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"A debate no one wants"

At least, no one at the Globe and Mail. But that covers everyone, right? Except for many of the 787 people who had left comments as of this writing....

Though we should always be free to talk about everything – the public square is, after all, the essence of democracy – some debates are healthier than others.

I thought that debate by its nature was healthy. Even if someone advocates something extremely unhealthy, like legalizing pedophilia, debate would allow for a robust assertion of the dangerous immorality of that idea. When we deem it "less healthy" even to discuss some subjects, then we are in real trouble. (And we are in real trouble.)

Mrs. P updates: over 1200 comments now. 1200 "no-ones" who don't want a debate.

I got a charge out of this paragraph:

Debating multiculturalism gives a voice to the angry, the frustrated and yes, the bigoted. It makes newer Canadians feel less welcome. It has the best walking on egg shells and the worst throwing eggs.

Throwing eggs? If only that was the "worst" thing resulting from multiculturalism. What about segregation, gang warfare, mutilation of girls, honour killing? Give me egg yolk any day.  Since when, pray tell, is it not OK to "give a voice to the angry"? Was the NYTimes happy about clerical sexual abuse? Oh wait, never mind...

But bring on the debate.

Update II: over 1500 comments/no-ones
Update III: over 2200 comments

Christianity Lite

We're doing some renovations, so Mr. Pinkerton has been taking stuff off the walls (since said walls are soon to be demolished--callooh callay!). The youngest Miss Pinkerton (6) was examining at close quarters one of our crucifixes, noting how the corpus was attached to the cross, and the relative size/weight of each. Suddenly she looked up and said, "Jesus would be a lot lighter without the cross!" And there, in a nutshell, you have the theology of many a Church du Jour denomination in North America and Europe today. Out of the mouths of babes...

"Jesus in Jeans" by Peter Royle. As I commented on another website last year, it rather looks as though he's just hurled himself from the parapet of the temple, no? And here, indeed is the proof:

The saddest part is that this is a Catholic church.

Something you don't see every day

An Agnostic's Prayer. Posted at Kevin O'Brien's blog. Kevin writes, in the prayer's preface:

A Christian friend of mine requested that I write a prayer she could pray with her agnostic husband. He is, like almost everyone we meet in the world today, turned off by the self-righteousness of many Christians who see Faith as an elite club they've joined, a club they can use to beat other people over the head with. He is, like almost everyone we meet in the world today, pretty sure that "something's out there" but not sure what that something is or if anyone has figured that something out fully.
This is a very reasonable and potentially responsive position and one that calls for prayer; a prayer whose effectiveness Our Lord has guaranteed.

"Crazy Heart" is a great movie.

Read Greydanus's review while you listen to one of the tunes from the soundtrack (on which every single song is a winner). I think Colin Farell and Jeff Bridges should start touring.

Schools are George Costanza

Part Two. (Part One here, in case you're just tuning in.)

A teacher from the school expressed surprise that the assignment had upset parents, claiming that most students appreciated the exercise, which was part of a cooperative effort between the biology, sex and well being, and Swedish-language departments.

(Hey, that sounds like the movie Mark Steyn describes here.)

Must-read Steyn

On "Big Government's Back Alley":

America should be at the very minimum deeply disquieted by these revelations. That it is not - that it is dismissed as a "little thing" - is even more disquieting.  

Just so - a pack of dead sled dogs never leaves the headlines, but this horrific exposure of the truth about abortion doesn't even seem to register.  As I commented on another blog, the same thing that was happening at Kermit Gosnell's clinic is happening in every abortion clinic in the country - it's just that most other places wipe up the blood after a child is slaughtered.

If you make killing pre-born children your occupation, I don't think it is any stretch to slap around a few "customers" or to take it all in stride when someone tells you he's pimping children and wonders if you can help him out with any required abortions. Indifference to human life at one stage breeds indifference to human life at all stages.

I guess this is a good thing...

My latest Mercator post "Should dads lay off baby care?" has been picked up by Washington, DC's Family Research Council's blog "Social Conservative Review." (If only cash could come along with links and endorsement...)

Pizza parties, bowling and laser tag

Sham Christ, part II.

In other words, why 99.9% of church programs dreamed up by bureaucrats are hopelessly... well, hopeless.


Brilliant piece by Fr. Damian J. Ference Why Vocation Programs Don't Work

For a parish youth group to be what it is supposed to be, the first priority of the group must be to make disciples of young people who do not know Jesus, and to make stronger disciples of the ones who already know him. Such a suggestion seems quite basic and even simplistic at first glance, but this is precisely the point. Far too often we as a Church have failed with the most basic principle of discipleship while loading up on service projects and social activities, and the parish youth group becomes just one more line on a young person’s college résumé, without ever calling that young person to real conversion.
[...]
Over and over again we as a Church have fallen into the subtle trap of settling for results that can be easily calculated, photographed, and documented in a parish bulletin or website, rather than getting down to the basics of discipleship.

The new guy on my Must-Read blog list.

You know and love him as Stanford Nutting but he also writes stuff in his normal incarnation, Kevin O'Brien. Here's a quotation from his "Sham Christ" post:

The problem with “Jesus is nice; you be nice, too” is twofold. First, Jesus was not nice. You don’t get crucified for being nice. He loves us, and love is a much more troubling thing than “being nice”.

[...]
If all the Christian faith is is “be nice and tolerant and feel good about yourself and others” then let me be the first to say – and I meant this quite literally – to hell with it.

[...] God reads our hearts; we cannot read one another’s hearts. But at the same time we are to know the true from the false among us by their fruit, and when a Church retains only one out of six, and when probably more than half of those one out of six have any serious understanding of who Christ is and what He taught, and when the best among us, our young people who have a desire to love and serve Christ, are not loving or serving Him in any way that can be distinguished from the well-intentioned secularists who surround them, then something is very very wrong.

And yet more, from another post:

And when people in their hearts really don’t believe, then at Mass you find bad music, insipid homilies, desecration of the Eucharist, and priests devoted to the sin of sodomy. You find Catholic Schools run by female principals who have no principles and who bully parents to shut up about their kids being taught to love the great Earth Goddess in “faith” class. You find normal people avoiding church and power-hungry volunteers with miserable home lives trying to take over the lay council and run things for their own agendas.

Side aching with laughter...

But changing diapers is your job, Honey

"Should dads lay off baby care?" The answer is no.  And that doesn't make me a feminist. My latest post at Mercator Net.

Conformity is in the bag.

The enviro-freak's answer to the stock and pillory.

I only have one point to add - according to the article, it was actually a ham sandwich. If it had really been the widely banned PB&J, the poor kid probably would have been expelled instead of just losing out on a teddy bear.

Via SDA

Candlemas

Now Thou dost dismiss Thy servant, O Lord, according to Thy word in peace;

Because my eyes have seen Thy salvation,

Which Thou hast prepared before the face of all peoples:

A light to the revelation of the Gentiles, and the glory of Thy people Israel.

Groundhog Day!

I once heard a priest give a homily in which he referenced the movie "Groundhog Day". It was near the beginning of Lent, and he posed this question: are we content to 'live the same day' over and over, committing the same sins, or are we resolved to use the penitential season to effect real change in our lives - to wake up to a really new day?

Everyone loves a good story of redemption. Here are some of my favorite scenes (and my favorite Ray Charles song) from one of my favorite movies.



Mrs. P. weighs in: I love this movie too. Here's an interesting tidbit of info (or geeky trivia, as the case may be). It's been estimated that in order to learn everything he had to learn in the film, Bill Murray's character would have been stuck in the repeating Groundhog Day loop for (wait for it) about 34 years. No wonder he tried to kill himself so many times. It should give those of us who believe in Purgatory food for thought...

I think they've got it! Or at least, they had it, for a second.

Finally, via SteynOnline's "Ports of Call", the last word on What You Can Do About Being Too Fat. You really must read the whole thing so that you'll know the following gems are actually in the article and not lines from the SNL skit, "Don't Eat Stuff Your Body Does Not Need".

“For them to have said ‘eat less’ is really new. Who would have thought?” said Margo G. Wootan, director of nutrition policy at the Center for Science in the Public Interest. “We should have been saying ‘eat less’ for a decade.” 

I am so thankful there are governments in this world who will unwrap for us such mysteries wrapped in enigmas wrapped in tacos.

“If companies don’t change their practices and reformulate their products, people don’t have a chance of following the dietary guidelines,” Ms. Wootan said.

...

...the government needed to help consumers, particularly those on food stamps, get access to fruits, vegetables and other foods recommended in the guidelines.

So true - it's not like the raw ingredients of food are readily available in some kind of large building where you could just go and pick them out yourself, for less than a dollar a pound in some cases, and then take them home and prepare them in a way that allows you to control the amount of sugar, fat and salt you are eating. No, we must have a government body help us "get access to" carrots. Even as they blunder toward common sense, someone is thinking hard about how to delegate the application of said common sense to a government body.

Next I hope we can get some government guidelines on whether we should buy stuff we cannot afford - 'cause I hear they're real good with money. It probably won't go anything like this.

Planned Parenthood shows good business sense.

Because after all, if you can "streamline" the processing of a whole stable of prostitutes, imagine how lucrative that could be for your clinic! And if some of them are a little on the underage side, well...they're just products of conception that happened 13 or 14 years ago, right? And obviously they're unwanted, or they'd be living happily with their parents instead of being forced to have sex with strangers for someone else's profit. And we can always treat unwanted products of conception in any way that is most convenient to us. 

The manager in this video has been fired for her "repugnant" behaviour. Callooh, Callay. Now that that's taken care of, PP can get back to the much less repugnant business of destroying the lives of pre-born babies and their parents.

via LifeSite News

Good News

Say good-bye to obesity!

Because remember, "...cheaper food leads to more eating...."

Overweight? It may be your furnace's fault

More brilliance from the New York Times, and some British researchers with too much time and money on their hands.

The newer paper, published this week in the journal Obesity Reviews, looked specifically at indoor temperatures. The researchers found that since central heating became commonplace in the 1960s, room temperatures have increased slowly but steadily in both the United States and Britain. In both countries, obesity has also been on the rise.

To be or not to be...that is the question

...for Western civilzation. Mark Steyn (yay, new content on his site!) discusses the latest Dane to be put on trial for daring to whisper ...well, anything about Islam.

In their folly, the multiculti enforcers are setting the stage for great violence, and a descent into barbarism.

"Even nail salons... are monitored more closely"

There was blood on the floor and urine was splattered on the walls. A flea-infested cat was prowling around, and there were cat faeces on the stairs. Semi-conscious women scheduled for abortions were moaning in the waiting room or the recovery room, where they sat on dirty recliners covered with blood-stained blankets. [...]

What this case shows is that supporters of abortion rights are far, far, more interested in defending an ideology than protecting women.

Michael Cook, MercatorNet. Read it and weep.

Go, Eduardo!

The world needs more like him.

Well, I declare!

This is what you get when you don't read your headline out loud before you print it.

Yet another response

...to the "don't have children because it will ruin your life" meme.

Are new mothers happy? My answer on MercatorNet's "Family Edge".

I thought it was the fault of Buy 'n' Large!

Nope. Turns out Walmart makes you fat.

While the most obvious explanation is that cheaper food leads to more eating, Courtemanche said further research is needed to determine the exact connection between Walmart supercentres and obesity.

Yeah, more research just like this is exactly what is needed. If they could only uncover these sinister Walmart operatives who are forcing people's mouths open and cramming the food in, I'm sure that would go a long way toward breaking the Walmart supercentre-supersize customer link.

If people overindulge because food is cheap, how come you don't hear of anyone gorging themselves on carrots?

Not for the faint of heart.

God bless the men and women who work against this horror, and who give the bodies of these (mostly girl) children the dignity of a decent burial.

Naturally, others see the problem in a different light: it's not that babies are being killed, it's that they're being killed slightly later than they ought to be:

Abortion is prohibited in Pakistan, except when the mother's life is at risk from her pregnancy, but advocates say that legalisation would reduce infanticide and save mothers from potentially fatal back-street terminations.

They just don't get it.

h/t Small Dead Animals (where several commenters make the same connection between abortion and infanticide)

Ricky Gervais channels his "Office" character

Hilarity The withering of the delicate flower that is the Hollywood actor ensues.

But I thought Hollywood loved everything that is tasteless, daring and irreverent!

And now, the nominees in the category of, "No Sh*t, Sherlock"...

Mountie-killer's guns not registered, inquiry hears

"I think it's fair to say James Roszko had a wanton disregard for any (firearm) legislation," said RCMP Sgt. Dale Baumgartner, a gun-tracing expert.

I wonder what the implication is here? That opposition to the gun registry puts you in the same category as this psycho cop-killer?

Or could it possibly be that criminals tend not to obligingly register their weapon of choice with the government?  Better form a federal commission to study that.

U.S. passport applications go gender-neutral...sorta

Last week, I read on Fox News (story appeared Jan 7) that the U.S. State Department plans to remove the words “mother” and “father” from U.S. passport applications for children. The terms will be replaced with gender neutral terminology.

“The words in the old form were ‘mother’ and ‘father,’” said Brenda Sprague, deputy assistant Secretary of State for Passport Services. "They are now ‘parent one’ and ‘parent two.’"


Sprague said the decision to remove the traditional parenting names was not an act of political correctness.

Forgive me a Seussian chuckle. Sprague argues, somewhat disingenuously:

“We find that with changes in medical science and reproductive technology that we are confronting situations now that we would not have anticipated 10 or 15 years ago,” she said.

But why stop at medical science? The State Department should be even more inclusive, and encompass labels based on social science too. In that case, even the word “Parent” is too narrow and discriminatory. Perhaps the State Department may have to consider providing choices that take into account various pseudo-parenting sub-categories, such as "Sperm donor who maintains involvement"; "Surrogate womb who is Parent 1’s female sibling"; "Parent 1's best friend, who is actually more supportive than deadbeat biological Parent 2;" “Parent 2’s current boyfriend”(oops, sexist! Make that current partner), and so forth.

Perhaps it isn’t about medicine or science at all—maybe it's all about feelings. But whose feelings? Evidently only those of certain Americans, specifically, a tiny minority of gays, lesbians and “other-gendered” (the official acronym has grown too wieldy for memory) with children. The feelings of traditional family advocacy groups and individuals apparently don't matter one jot. Conservative groups oppose the State Department’s decision, but they are not likely to win any sympathy from the current administration.

“Only in the topsy-turvy world of left-wing political correctness could it be considered an ‘improvement’ for a birth-related document to provide less information about the circumstances of that birth,” Family Research Council president Tony Perkins wrote in a statement to Fox News Radio. “This is clearly designed to advance the causes of same-sex ‘marriage’ and homosexual parenting without statutory authority, and violates the spirit if not the letter of the Defense of Marriage Act.”

On the other hand, “Gay rights groups are applauding the decision.” And why not, since various pro-homosexual groups, the Family Equality Council among them, have been lobbying for this for some time.

“Changing the term mother and father to the more global term of parent allows many different types of families to be able to go and apply for a passport for their child without feeling like the government doesn’t recognize their family,” said Jennifer Chrisler, executive director of Family Equality Council.

(Incidentally, I don’t know what makes the word parent “more global”; it’s not as if the terms “mother” and “father” were some sort of xenophobic American inventions, but that is neither here nor there.) Chrisler claims that the old passport form made her female partner feel like a 'second class citizen' when it required her to fill in the 'father' field on an application. It felt "discriminatory."

Sprague said she would not use the word discriminatory to describe the old passport form. “I would prefer to use the word imprecise,” she said.

Ah, yes, if you're looking for precision (that is, accuracy, exactitude), the labels "Parent 1 and Parent 2" make everything a whole lot clearer, do they not?

But if you think this is extreme (or just plain silly), brace yourself. It could get much worse, and eventually, I'm sure it will. Just wait until the polygamy crowd (no pun intended) joins the fun. There are no hurt feelings like radical Islamist hurt feelings.

UPDATE: Wonder of wonders! The State Dept. won't go entirely neutral after all...as reported on Mercator Net.

Seek and ye shall find.

Instead of referring to honor killing like it is a recurring bedbug infestation, how about we treat it like we do other killing? In other words, put the 'murderers' who 'commit' 'honor killings' into 'the slammer' and 'throw away the key'. I'll bet the immigrants who came here to get away from such barbaric practices would think it's a good idea - especially the ones whose lives could be spared as a result. Newspapers could also stop putting the phrase 'honor killing' in quotation marks as though it's a fabricated term that they reluctantly use for the sake of people who don't understand the cultural nuances of the practice.

In July, Ambrose hinted that the Conservatives wanted to draw more attention to the growing issue and were looking at making honour killings a separate indictable offence under the Criminal Code. A Justice Department official quickly refuted the claim, though.

If by "draw more attention to the growing issue" you mean "stamp out the practice of murdering your own family members", then go to it!  As a psychiatrist in the story goes on to say,  “Honour killings should be treated as first-degree murder,”  He seems to get a little loopy after that, though:

“The public should be aware of the sensitivity and we should recognize it as an honour-based crime, but there should be no separate law.”

I agree, there should be no separate law. But what does it mean for the public to be "aware of the sensitivity"? Does he mean that the people who commit honor killings are sensitive about admitting that it's connected to their culture or religion?

Muhammad said the issue is not necessarily cultural, but another example of domestic violence. If it were made a separate offence, it would make it easier for defendants to argue that they themselves are victims of a “cultural trend,” wrongly paving the way for more lenient sentences, he said. It may also perpetuate stereotypes that honour killings only occur in certain cultures or religions.
“We should not be focusing on any particular group or culture,” he said. “Honour killings can happen to anybody in Canada.”

 If this guy studies honour killings, he must not study them too closely. I wonder if he has noticed any commonalities in these random acts which occur in every "group" and "culture" in Canada? I can't wait for the government leaflets which will be dutifully distributed to ALL Canadians, urging us ALL not to kill our daughters if they, for example, decide to date men from a lower caste. Because Presbyterians are always pulling crap like that.

Of course, the government sees things so much more clearly, and has the Unified Answer for Everything: apply for government funding to start a project to explore the issue. That'll do the trick!

“We continue to encourage women’s groups and other community-based organizations to apply . . . for support for projects that explore, expose and (contribute) to ending violence against women, including honour-motivated violence,” said the [Status of Women Minister Rona Ambrose]'s spokeswoman, Rebecca Thompson, in a recent email.

Speaking of barbaric practices, the involvement of Status of Women is horribly ironic, considering they are Canada's #1 cheerleading squad for the right to brutally dispose of an inconvenient daughter (or son) much earlier in the game.

Honor killing may not occur in every group and culture as the doctor claims, but sin is certainly present in every human heart. If the government is seeking ways to stop honor killings, then it must at the same time seek to honor all human life.

If it's a good strategy for cigarette packages...

...why not for sex-ed classes?

With memories of sex-ed classes that relied on “boring workshops” and “disgusting pictures” of sexually transmitted diseases—a strategy he characterizes as “you shouldn’t do this because you can get this”—Jones finds this new approach refreshing.

Oh, wait, I forgot - smoking is a physical pleasure which can result in a myriad of health problems, so teens shouldn't do it at all. Non-marital sex is a really intense physical pleasure which can result in a myriad of health problems, so teens should have all the help they can get if they feel like doing it. Understood.

h/t Mark Shea

Ban 'em All!

They tried to ban Mark Steyn. They're partly banning Mark Twain. They've already banned Mark Knopfler. 
Bad time to be a creative guy named "Mark"! (Even if it's a pseudonym.) Look out, Mark Shea!  

BAN 'EM ALL!

They say there's a book with a certain bad word that we shouldn't read anymore
Heavily laden, a time-expired slur, which all decent persons abhor-
There's many a comic who uses this word, how come they're allowed to go on?
It makes no commotion - what's with this odd notion? How come they don't ban 'em all?

Ban 'em all, ban 'em all, American, Briton or Gaul,
Ban all the poets, the rappers, songwriters,
Ban all the authors, 'cause they're mostly blighters,
We'll say goodbye to them all, to their dark, grotty garrets they'll crawl,
They'll get no permission for verbal emission, so shut 'em up, lads, ban 'em all!

They say if you work hard you'll get better pay - we've heard all that before
Clean up your sentences, polish your prose, rework that verse just once more.
There's many a songwriter's taken great care - his hook line and lyrics we'll maul
'Cause now it's verboten to sing what he's wroten, so ban all his songs, ban 'em all!

Ban 'em all, ban 'em all, Flannery, Twain and St. Paul,
I'll grant you there are no bad words in Ephesians,
But they have, we're certain, some very good reasons
For saying good-bye to them all, world lit'rature we'll overhaul,
You'll get no Colossians 'twixt any two oceans, so cheer up, my lads, ban 'em all!

Now they say that the censors are very nice chaps, oh, no truer tale could you tell!
Ask them for leave to speak just as you please, you'll be shown to a nice padded cell.
There's many an author has blighted his life through writing rude words on the wall
He'll get no promotion this side of the ocean when we've banned him once and for all!

Ban 'em all, ban 'em all, here's a guide to make each judgement call:
If your tone is all wrong or your meaning's abstruse,
If you're not gay enough for the phrases you use,
We'll be saying' goodbye to you all, down the memory hole you will fall,
Harper Lee, Alex Haley, the list will grow daily - but they'll stop sometime, after all -

Nobody would ban any words that we use - so cheer up, my lads! Ban them all!

Spanking revisited

I was so inspired by Mrs. Beazly's smackdown of Sen. Celine Hervieux-Payette and her ilk, that I decided to toss in my two bits.  (Mercator Net, "Family Edge" blog)

OK, so spanking is the root cause of violence; religion (Christianity) is the root cause of spanking, but who or what is the root cause of religion? Now the senator’s logic hits a snag. Who made up the rules of the Church? (The anti-religious senator dare not suggest they came directly from God.)


Religion was created by men, of course—power-hungry, violence-loving men! Wait, I’m confused. According to the senator, men are innately good. Who taught them to be violent and power hungry in the first place? Surely not the gentle apes from which we evolved.

Jeepers, do we really want government officials who aren't even capable of logical thought making laws or trying to tell us how to live and raise our families? Oh wait, we've been enduring that for several decades already...

Till "me" do us part

According to the New York Times (that beacon of sanity and correct living), the healthy marriage is the "Me Marriage". It's all about "using your partner for self-expansion." In other words, I'll love you as long as you continue to make me feel really good about myself. That sounds like a recipe for true happiness, all right. Carolyn Moynihan smartly dissects a really dumb idea.

Cash in your Club Z Points Now

No more Zellers in Canada? How can my shopping life go on?

And what is Target's policy on stealing and throwing away their shoe customers' footwear?

Weigh in, if you dare

My latest post at Mercator Net. (I wonder why I keep writing about obesity...)

Yeeeeee-haaaaw!

 Here's  a  good story that may remind some of our readers of our last family reunion and the party crashers thereof:

"We work with cattle -- it works with them so we figured it would work with him."

 Hopefully this stupid punk has been "em-bare-assed" out of thieving from now on.

"All about the anus"

Fact #1: It's where Planned Parenthood's head is firmly lodged.

Parents should give babies sense of sexuality from birth: Planned Parenthood


via LifeSite News.

In the Bleak Midwinter

This week the Christmas tree comes down. I've always found that to be the peak of "the bleak midwinter" - no more presents, Christmas music, decorations, or time off school and work. In the liturgical year of the Roman Catholic Church, the season of Christmas ends today and tomorrow we return to Ordinary Time. As I'm taking the ornaments off the tree and packing away the nativity set for another year, I'm inclined to lament, along with Elvis, "Why can't every day be like Christmas?"

Another far more beautiful song has the response. "The Three Kings", which I posted on the Feast of Epiphany, reminds us of the answer:

Thou child of man, lo, to Bethlehem
The Kings are travelling, travel with them!
The star of mercy, the star of grace,
Shall lead thy heart to its resting place.
Gold, incense, myrrh thou canst not bring;
Offer thy heart to the infant King.

Making every day like Christmas isn't merely a sentimental idea from an Elvis song - it is our calling as Christians.  That, to me, is a wonderful thought. The kings are always travelling – we can travel each and every day with them, toward the Christ child! We can allow Him to be born in our hearts every morning; we can let Him displace pride, selfishness, greed, gluttony - whatever moldy old straw is taking up room in the manger. The angels are calling us from tending the flocks in the cold darkness, toward the warm radiance of the stable, to go and worship the King so that He might permanently implant in our hearts the joy and generosity we feel on Christmas Day. That is a very comforting thought indeed, as Bleak Midwinter descends. In fact, “In the Bleak Midwinter” ends with the same exhortation as “The Three Kings”:  

What can I give Him,
Poor as I am?
If I were a shepherd
I would bring a lamb,
If I were a wise man
I would do my part,
Yet what I can I give Him,
Give my heart.

That is surely the best gift we can give, and one that will truly transform the coming weeks of Ordinary Time into something extraordinary.

Mr. Warren hits one out of the park...as usual.

"We are all wayfarers through this world; and to those who have the character and formation to know that this is so, the constant reminders of exile are useful." 

Heh. "Energy Saving" Treadmill

Is that an oxymoron, or just ironic? I was browsing through a Sears catalogue recently and a certain treadmill caught my eye, because there was an icon of a light bulb (incandescent, no less! naughty, naughty) advertising that the treadmill in question was ENERGY EFFICIENT (Sears' caps, not mine). It also has "recycled content in packaging", ha ha, but I digress. Apparently it costs less than $0.50 worth of electricity to run it for one hour.

I find it kind of amusing that the average treadmill owner would actually be concerned about wasting a bit of electricity when it came to such blatantly non-essential items as treadmills. (I own one, but I do think they are frivolous.) For pity's sake, go run or walk outside (it's free), if you care so much about the environment! It's also ironic that the average overweight person (sadly, I'm in that group too) would care whether or not his treadmill consumed too much energy, when we wouldn't be in our current state if we didn't consume too much ourselves. Pampered, frivolous, over-fed, environmentally-obsessive western society is funny, no? I think that many of us fatties have discovered an even better way for our treadmills to "save energy" --we rarely use them.

Read this column by Ezra Levant.

It's a spanker!

"Honourable senators, I will try once again to demonstrate the need to amend the Criminal Code in order to ensure that our country shows greater respect for children and does more to reduce violence in our society."

That would be a great starter for a debate about abortion. However, this is actually the beginning of one senator's argument for repealing Section 43 of the Criminal Code which reads:

Every schoolteacher, parent or person standing in the place of a parent is justified in using force by way of correction toward a pupil or child, as the case may be, who is under his care, if the force does not exceed what is reasonable under the circumstances.

Senator Celine Hervieux-Payette asks on her website:

"What if the dark side of human nature were the result of standard child-rearing violence?

What if human nature were originally good but was corrupted by totally inappropriate child-rearing techniques?"

This is apparently the basis for her desire to repeal Section 43. Violence entered the world through "totally inappropriate child-rearing techniques". It is always fun to listen to people who say they don't believe in evil try to describe it.

If the senator really believes that there's no such thing as original sin, and that all our aggression is imprinted upon us by way of "standard child-rearing violence", then why should we be blamed, much less held criminally responsible for, "using force by way of correction"? As Mr. Levant points out in his column, if you follow this logic, then those who grow up to spank, abuse, or even murder children are just victims of all the spanking generations before them. Even their parents can't be blamed, because they were victims, too.

But what if we were never spanked ourselves? What if we never even played an aggressive sport like football? What if it was only flag football? In that case, where did we 'learn' to be violent? Hey, I know: maybe all humans, even those who escaped the permanently damaging experience of being swatted on the bum for repeatedly pulling their sisters' hair, share some kind of tendency toward sin behavior displeasing to their Scientifically Enlightened Governing Betters, simply due to their origin!  Hmmm, I'll have to think up a clinical-sounding name for that in case I ever become a politician. How about "Original Spontaneous Involuntary Negativity"?

Okay, so children aren't ever bad - they're just "boisterous", and therefore parents must never use force to correct them. (Can we even use the word 'correct' if their behavior is not 'incorrect' in the first place?) If parents are not justified in using reasonable force to correct a child, then I don't see how the state is justified in using force, such as one might experience during arrest and incarceration, to correct citizens who spank their children. The only remedy the senator mentions is "parenting education", which is scary enough, considering it would no doubt be mandatory and administered by the government. However, since we are talking about the Criminal Code, it's not unreasonable to imagine that a parent who spanks his child could end up in jail, despite the senator's assertion that

"Those who say this provision would result in the criminalization of parents or guardians for so-called "trifling" reasons are arguing in bad faith. [...] Not one of the 26 countries that have thus far banned the use of violence in child rearing has experienced this result."

Maybe she's right. We all know that no parent has ever been unjustly interfered with by the state, so why not hand over as much power as it thinks it can handle? We can't be trusted not to beat up our children - not with that juicy Section 43 loophole to slip through - so why not let Nanny State close it up? It's not like anyone will ever really be arrested for spanking, and if they are, well, they'll only be subject to some "government education". That's probably just FedSpeak for being taken to Timmy's and reasoned with "through argument" over a double double, just as you might do when your 3 year old pours milk on his little brother for the third time in as many minutes. Heaven Our Scientifically Enlightened Governing Betters forbid that "we should submit [children] to parental authority, and...control them through authority."

I agree wholeheartedly that parents do not have "ownership" of their children. As I recall, it is more often the state which is trying to slap a "Property of..." sticker on the foreheads of human beings of  every  age, and disposing of them as it sees fit.  My children, my duty to lovingly correct them in a reasonable manner, and any (often over-stepped) authority which the state legitimately possesses all come from one source. And here's a hint, senator: it isn't the government.

Can they be angry? Or are just 'older', 'white' and 'male' allowed?

The Saturday Night Live skit that is the NDP goes on.

It gives Ham of Atonement a whole new meaning.

You won't see this guy interviewed by Oprah any time soon. Or hired as a weight-loss consultant by "The Biggest Loser." Or on the NY Times bestseller list.

Because he actually knows the cause of obesity. Zac Alstin, MercatorNet. Required reading for those of us who need to drop a kilo ...or ten.

Many people over-eat in the pursuit of pleasure for its own sake. Their actions betray a disordered motive as their consumption of food meets and then exceeds the good of nourishment, becoming instead a harm to their health and life.


[...]
This error is the essence of what we used to call "gluttony" -- the inordinate or disordered desire for food. The medieval theologian Thomas Aquinas wrote that: “The vice of gluttony does not reside in the substance of the food, but in the appetite ill-regulated by reason.”

"We are consumed by the desire for pleasure in eating."



WE are consumed. Ironic, no? And it tuns out that the answer for all our diet, weight-loss and food-obsession woes are to be found in simple religious teaching. Wonders never cease.  

Epiphany/ Merry Christmas!

A few more of my favorite Christmas carols.



What is it about "tree" carols? I love them.



And the one everybody knows:



Here's one I never heard before - "The Linden Tree Carol". So far, all I can find for audio is a sample on Amazon.

Hamming it Up

The Atonement Hams (see post below if this entry is more confusing than usual) are beginning to pour in! Well, okay, I have received only one, and it's not from the RCMP's Committee for Intercultural Group Hugs and Warm Fuzzies, but it looks like a beauty and should last us for a while.

Loyal reader Ted Blurn writes:

Mrs. Blurn made this one for me to atone for exposing her ankles and wearing slacks on consecutive days. Feel free to quote me. I want to be famous.

Done, Ted! Done like the Atonement Ham which accompanied your message. 

Fame will follow naturally - I have a feeling about 80% of DOH readers already know you personally.

Loyal readers, get in on the fun! Just so you know, I will also accept Bison Roasts of Reparation,  Turduckens of Satisfaction, and Sacrificial Scapegoat.

The Mounties Always Get Their Naan

At least, they might have got some at one of several end-of-Ramadan feasts where "outreach" officers tried to suck up to Muslims because some other Muslims had been arrested at the wrong time of year. Bending over backwards must come naturally when you have no spine. Here's hoping they all spilled tabouli on their uniforms.

Why would law-abiding Muslims care when accused terrorists are arrested? We are constantly lectured on how we should not even contemplate thinking about the merest hint of the possibility that Islam and terrorism are in any way connected, so why would the RCMP think they owe other Muslims an apology for weeding out criminals from their midst? How do officers and detectives feel about their superiors apologizing for their efforts to uphold the law and protect their fellow citizens?

I'm sure it is a stressful event when your cousin, neighbor or guy who happens to belong to the same religion as you gets arrested. It might make things easier on everyone if the RCMP (after consultations with all religious groups, of course) issued a Diversity Calendar so that not only Muslims, but Christians, Jews, Hindus, Unitarians, and Grand Poobahs of the Church of What's Happenin' Now could have a convenient heads-up as to when the Mounties would be most reluctant to arrest them, and plan their illegal activities accordingly. What is the primary goal of good police work, if not caring about the feelings of the suspect and his (or her!) community?

Just to let you know, RCMP cultural diversity consultative committee, Lent will soon be here. On the off-chance that you arrest any validly baptized persons between March 9 and April 24, I expect to receive a Vermont-style Ham of Atonement along with an apology written in fancy gold ink.

"Gold, incense, myrrh thou canst not bring; Offer thy heart to the infant King."

1. Three Kings from Persian lands afar
To Jordan follow the pointing star:
And this the quest of the travellers three,
Where the new-born King of the Jews may be.
Full royal gifts they bear for the King;
Gold, incense, myrrh are their offering.


2. The star shines out with a steadfast ray;
The kings to Bethlehem make their way,
And there in worship they bend the knee,
As Mary’s child in her lap they see;
Their royal gifts they show to the King;
Gold, incense, myrrh are their offering.


3. Thou child of man, lo, to Bethlehem
The Kings are travelling, travel with them!
The star of mercy, the star of grace,
Shall lead thy heart to its resting place.
Gold, incense, myrrh thou canst not bring;
Offer thy heart to the infant King.

Epiphany

Here is my favorite rendition of "We Three Kings". I love this carol because it tells the whole wondrous story, of which Christmas is only the beginning!

This is for everyone who is seeking the Christ child, especially those who may have felt for many years that they did not need to look for Him. The stable door is open.