Why is it

That when you go to the hairstylists, you ask for this:

But you end up with something like this:

Eeeeeeeeeeeek!!

or this:

...which is totally cute on David Cassidy... in 1974, but on a 40-something (extremely 40-something) mother of 7 in 2012, not so much.


(UPDATE)
Or this, which is kinda what it looked like after I tried styling it at home:

Hey, maybe if I wore a gold jumpsuit, no one would notice my hair!

Oy vay. Looks like I'm going to have to wear a ponytail till July (and thank the Lord that I still have enough to put into a ponytail). Or get it cut super-short, which (as Daria attests) makes husband sad. 

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Because every once in a while

You want to read something by someone who loves Mark Steyn as much as you do.

I, along with many others, almost died listening to Mark Steyn — from laughter. It’s rare to hear somebody make so much sense in such an entertaining fashion, although his cover of 1970s disco hit ‘Kung Fu Fighting’ probably won’t trouble the YouTube hit parade. But then again, you never know. Particularly if he sticks to that dazzling tie and ‘kerchief combo.

"Silence this Infidel" by Rowan Dean, The Spectator, Australia.

Mrs. B, next time he comes to Ottawa, we're going, even if we have to panhandle outside the basilica to afford our tickets.
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An uplifting celebrity story

Yes, you read that correctly. In a culture where marriage is sometimes non-existent, or some marriages last only 23 minutes, Jon and Dorothea Bon Jovi (yes, she took his surname--isn't that quaint!) celebrate a whopping 23 (twenty-three) YEARS of marriage this year. And they have 4 (count them, FOUR) children, who by appearance, seem to be their own flesh and blood. (Adoption is wonderful, BTW, as long as it's done for love of the child, and not to get onto the front page of People magazine).

I wish them well, and pray for another 23 years...

Read more: my latest post at "Family Edge" on MercatorNet. (Mr. Blurn will appreciate this story, because "You Give Love a Bad Name" is one of his favourite hymns.)
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An amusing snippet

...today on a quick car trip to Saskatoon for some tedious government business, followed by too many stops for other things. This was on the freeway en route to a mall, after having just bought a bunch of groceries in a horrible warehouse style store:

Mrs. Pinkerton (to Miss P #4): Do you remember that Jane Eyre series that we started watching on Netflix?
Miss P: Yes
Mrs. P: Well, I just saw a DVD of it in the grocery store--for $5!
Miss P: Did you buy it?
Mrs. P: No, Dad wouldn't let me.
Mr. P (indignantly): What?! That's not true! I never said a word about it!
Mrs. P (calmly): I can read your mind.
Mr. P (defiantly): Then what am I thinking right now?
Mrs. P (confidently): You are wishing you could just go home because you're tired and you hate shopping.
Mr. P (sheepishly): OK

End of conversation.

I had an unfair advantage. It's pretty easy to know what the average man in thinking when he's been up since 6 a.m. and he is smack in the middle of a multi-mall shopping jaunt with his wife and teenage daughter.
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Hola!

Oh, if only DOH had a category for "Shameless self-promotion --in Spanish." I was googling for an online article about a talk I'd given at a conference a few years ago, and came across this Spanish translation of one of my MercatorNet posts from last year, "Guys vs Men". But here it's "Hombres vs Chicos". Heh.
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Six little words

Explain SO much.

found at American Papist. H/t Deborah Gyapong on FB.

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Where has Gloria Purvis been all my life?

Not yet born, in all likelihood, since she's a couple of decades younger than I am. I was blown away by this video, which I watched at Deborah Gyapong's blog. May God send scores more like her!



Ok, after a little more digging, I found out she's co-hosting a new show on EWTN: "Authentically Free at Last." Sounds fantasic, and very timely.

Just in case your brain doesn’t hurt enough this morning

Seen recently in a nearby city, printed on a van belonging to a professional janitorial service:

“Business co-operation with us guarantees a professional attitude towards the duties you have entrusted us.”

I can think of a shorter motto: “We do cleaning, not grammar.”

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Out of the mouths of babes

Why I am a Mother

(A list compiled for me by Miss Pinkerton #2, when she was between the ages of  3 and 4. She is now 20.)

I am a mother because:

*I wash people’s bums

*I cook meals

*I have a fat tummy

*I do laundry

*I pick up things around the house

*I read to my children

*my face looks like a mother

*I smell like a mother (hand lotion)

*God saved me for a mother

That about covers it!

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I thought a week-long labour was tough!

Not that I ever had one (my personal record is a wimpy 18 hours), but I know someone who did. But this mom's ordeal tops them all:

A Polish woman endured what's being called "the longest labour ever" to ensure that her premature babies would survive. And they did.Joanna Krzysztonek spent 75 days in labour lying nearly upside down in an effort to save her two unborn children after the third, born at 22 weeks, died.

Wow. That's dedication. Good on her--and good on her doctors for supporting her and helping save her children. Some doctors would have told her it wasn't worth it, and she should just "start over". May she and her family thrive.
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Simple but true

Written on one of those generic inspirational posters in a sports facility:


A leader is one who knows the way, goes the way, and shows the way.

It's true for everything, especially evangelization and life in Christ.
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"When even casual sex requires a state welfare program, you're pretty much done for"

No one can say it like The Steyn. Miss Fluke goes to Washington, at the OCR.

Where was I? Oh, yes. The brave middle-age schoolgirl had the courage to stand up in public and demand that someone else pay for her sex life.

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Media War

"My goal is to destroy the mainstream media as we currently know it." 

Breitbart interviewed by the Hoover Institution. Worth the 33:36 minutes of your life, especially if you are interested in media's centrality in the culture war.



Godspeed every man, woman and child who takes up the cause.

Now heading directly to Amazon.ca to purchase Righetous Indignation.
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I won a huge lottery prize of charity bonanza!

For which I did not even buy a ticket! Imagine my excitement when I opened my email and read THIS:


We are please to infom you that you have been selected to receive a United Nations
special compensation prize of 2,500,000 dollars as charity bonanza. This is part of the
United Nations program to alleviate poverty from the grass root. to claim your prize
contact our claims officer Mr.Patrick Collins With the informations below:

1.) Full Names...
2.) Home Address..
3.) Home/Mobile Phone...
4.) Sex...
5.) Occupation....
6.) Age...
7.) State of Origen......

Sir.Jan Kubis
(Executive Secretary UN Economic Commission)

No wonder the UN is going broke! Giving out random prizes of  $2.5 million to every Tom, Dick and Harry will certainly relieve the recipients' poverty, but it won't do much to eliminate that "grass root" (hint: try Roundup--generic name glyphosate). And compensation for what? Oh, this is the UN, where you can get money for nothing. 

And does item 7.) mean the (U.S.) State of Oregon, or are they inquiring after the state of Origen, as in the early Christian Alexandrian scholar and theologian? I regret to infom you of this, Sir.Jan, but Origen's current state is, well, dead. 

Sometimes spam can be fun, and this one was certainly a change from "Max Enlargement Pills." 

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"We believe in Contraception..."

"all the livelong daaaaay" ...sung to the tune of "I've Been Working on the Railroad". (God forgive me-- it gives Dinah won't you blow a whole new meaning...)

Quite beyond satire. Breitbart TV




More lyrics: "Keep the government out of my uterus."

Oh yes! Um, EXCEPT for forcing other people, especially the Catholic Church, to pay for all my contraceptives and abortions! Then the government can come on in a have a big old field day!

And I know it's not just my imagination, because Ann Coulter also mentioned it in her speech at CPAC, but why are these lefty wimmin always so frumpy, dumpy and homely looking?

This does give one hope, in a strange sort of way, however. If this is typical of what the Left produces, intellectually and aesthetically, it makes our job just a wee bit easier.
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Is the Church relevant?

A great article at Crisis Magazine about the 'relevance' of the Church in general and Pope Benedict in particular.

Which brings us to another great “relevance” of Benedict’s pontificate: his desire to ensure that more Catholics understand the actual content of what they profess to believe.
It’s no great secret that Catholic catechesis went into freefall after Vatican II. It’s true that much pre-Vatican II catechesis was characterized by rote-learning rather than substantive engagement with the truths of the Faith. But as early as 1983, Joseph Ratzinger signaled his awareness of the lamentable post-Vatican II catechetical state of affairs in two speeches he gave in Paris and Lyons. Much to the professional catechists’ displeasure — but to the delight of Cardinal Jean-Marie Lustiger and every young priest present — Ratzinger zeroed in on the huge gaps in the catechetical text-books then in vogue.

We've been battling this for 30 years but things have still not changed significantly on the ground (or in the pew). That's sad, but we are going in the right direction.

Hence, as one French commentator recently observed, at least one sub-text of Benedict’s Year of Faith is that “doctrinal break-time” for the Church is over. This point was underscored by the recent Note issued by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. Along the other practical suggestions it gives for furthering the Year of Faith, the Note emphasizes “a profound bond between the lived faith and its contents” (i.e., true ortho-praxis can only be based on ortho-doxy). It also stresses that Catholics need to know the content of the Catechism and the actual documents of Vatican II (rather than, sotto voce, the ever-nebulous “spirit of Vatican II” that seems indistinguishable from whatever’s preoccupying secular liberals at any given moment in time).

Read it all. The conclusion is particularly uplifting.

h/t Deborah Gyapong, link on Facebook.

Read Pope Benedict's apostolic letter Porta Fidei here.
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I assume this involves moving to Toronto

Which is partly why I won't be applying for the job. Oh, and also because I'm not qualified. But since my soon-to-be retiring editor sent this to all contributors and subscribers,  I'm posting it here, doing my bit.

Job Opportunity


Catholic Insight is seeking a full-time editor for its monthly magazine. Reporting to the board of directors, the editor will direct, manage and co-ordinate all the writing, supervisory, production and administrative duties. 


Catholic Insight  magazine seeks to enlighten hearts and minds by proclaiming the splendour of truth and the sanctity of life. 


Qualifications:

• Demonstrated competence in writing and editing
• In-depth knowledge of Catholic theology
• Commitment to the Magisterium of the Catholic Church
• Knowledge of historical and current social and political issues in Canada
• Experience in working co-operatively with others
• Experience in supervising staff

To apply, please send a cover letter which includes salary expectations and detailed resume, with references, to:


HRLifeEthics@gmail.com


or by surface mail to:


(Private and Confidential)
Board President,
Life Ethics Information Centre,
P.O. Box 625 Adelaide Station, 31 Adelaide Street East,
Toronto, Ontario, M5C 2J8


Deadline for submissions April 18, 2012


(I was sorely tempted to add "Willingness to keep Mrs. Pinkerton on as a columnist" to the list of qualifications, but I forbore.)
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It's Friday

In fact, the third Friday of Lent. For those who observe it, a day of fasting and abstinence from meat (or anything else you find inordinately enjoyable, such as too many hours online *cough*)

To inspire you, a hymn found here (iBreviary, an easy and painless way to pray the Liturgy of the Hours), linked here, Coffee and Canticles, one of my favourite sites.

HYMN

Thank you, God, for giving us US!
Thank you, God, for giving us US!
Thank you, God, for giving us US!
Riiiiiii-ight where we are!





Kidding! (as you can see, I'm not fasting from sarcasm today)

Here's the actual hymn.


The fast, as taught by holy lore,
We keep in solemn course once more:
The fast to all men known, and bound
In forty days of yearly round.

The law and seers that were of old
In divers ways this Lent foretold,
Which Christ, all seasons’ King and guide,
In after ages sanctified.

More sparing therefore let us make
The words we speak, the food we take,
Our sleep and mirth, and closer barred
Be every sense in holy guard:

Avoid the evil thoughts that roll
Like waters o’er the heedless soul;
Nor let the foe occasion find
Our souls in slavery to bind.


Melody: Schütz’ Psalm 66 L.M.
Music: Heinrich Schütz, 1585-1672 
Text: Ex more docti mystico, attributed to Saint Gregory the Great, 540-604
Translation: John M. Neale, 1818-1866
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Pundette told me to read this

and so I did. It's been far too long since I've visited the American Spectator. Here is  George Neumayr's takedown of the HHS mandate and the flukes flakes who want to benefit from it.

Far more troubling than Rush Limbaugh's comment about Sandra Fluke is the cowardice of country club Republicans who refuse to join the talk show host in denouncing Obama for his war on religion. If anybody deserves an apology from Rush, it is prostitutes. They pay for their birth control themselves, and, unlike Fluke, they don't demand that the clergy underwrite their carnal activities.

Let's cut the PC crap: college and law school students who demand that priests and nuns finance their fornication deserve searing satirical treatment. This is the sorriest collection of arrogant snots in the history of academia. 

He doesn't spare the Jesuits of Georgetown U. either:

In other words, the flaky modern Jesuits DeGioia represents stand ready to give Fluke an allowance for her pre-marital sex. Somehow I can't imagine the Jesuit founder, St. Ignatius of Loyola, describing a demand from one of his students for subsidized sin as an "expression of conscience."

No indeed, but we live in strange, strange times.
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The Dumb Old Housewife's Good Wife's Guide

This is apparently a fake, but if you've ever perused an etiquette or home economics book from the same era, you know it's not too highly exaggerated. Ladies, how do you measure up? 

The Good Wife's Guide
A good wife always knows her place...
Let him talk first and cater to your husband's comfort for immense personal satisfaction!
Extract from a May 13, 1955 Housekeeping Monthly article

• Have dinner ready. Plan ahead, (STRIKE ONE!) even the night before, to have a delicious(STRIKE TWO!) meal ready, on time(STRIKE THREE! YERRR OUT!) for his return. This is a way of letting him know that you have been thinking about him and are concerned about his needs. Most men are hungry when they come home and the prospect of a good meal (especially his favourite dish)(Mr. B's is blue with squares on it. Tellingly, it's a cereal bowl.) is part of the warm welcome needed.
• Prepare yourself. Take 15 minutes to rest(In what alternate universe is this compatible with point #1?) so you'll be refreshed when he arrives. Touch up your make-up, put a ribbon  (satin, lace, or dried pancake batter?) in your hair and be fresh-looking. He has just been with a lot of work-weary people.(Not like you, who has been immersed in an uplifting exchange with a poopy toddler who's 2 hours past his nap time.)
• Be a little gay and a little more interesting(than what?) for him. His boring day may need a lift and one of your duties is to provide it.
• Clear away the clutter.(Sorry, did I miss the point where I rent a backhoe?) Make one last trip through the main part of the house just before your husband arrives.
• Gather up schoolbooks, toys, paper etc. and then run a dustcloth over the tables.(Oh, okay, I don't need a backhoe; I need that thing the Cat in the Hat uses.)
• Over the cooler months of the year you should prepare and light a fire for him to unwind by.(Does it count if it's in the bottom of the oven?) Your husband will feel he has reached a haven of rest and order,(Whoa, exactly what kind of smoke is coming off this 'fire'?) and it will give you a lift too. After all, catering for his comfort will provide you with immense personal satisfaction.
• Prepare the children. Take a few minutes to wash the children's hands and faces (if they are small), comb their hair and, if necessary, change their clothes.(You may actually need the assistance of the Cat in the Hat himself to accomplish this in time.) They are little treasures and he would like to see them playing the part. Minimise all noise. At the time of his arrival, eliminate all noise of the washer, dryer or vacuum. Try to encourage the children to be quiet.(They will have a hard time with this as they giggle hysterically at the sight of you frantically running around the house turning off all the appliances you're supposed to be using to get the house ready for their dad's arrival.)
• Be happy to see him.
• Greet him with a warm smile and show sincerity in your desire to please him.(Done and done. Mr. B. is a pretty nice guy.)
• Listen to him. You may have a dozen important things to tell him,(like, "I JUST STARTED A FIRE!!") but the moment of his arrival is not the time. Let him talk first - remember, his topics of conversation are more important than yours.
• Make the evening his. Never complain if he comes home late or goes out to dinner, or other places of entertainment without you. Instead, try to understand his world of strain and pressure and his very real need to be at home and relax.(...except when he'd rather go to 'other places of entertainment without you'.)
• Your goal: Try to make sure your home is a place of peace, order and tranquility(See baseball allusion above.) where your husband can renew himself in body and spirit.
• Don't greet him with complaints and problems.
• Don't complain if he's late home for dinner or even if he stays out all night.(Yes, until you actually find his abandoned car with "HELP ME" written in blood on his gray flannel suit coat, you're just cramping his style, Toots!) Count this as minor compared to what he might have gone through that day.
• Make him comfortable. Have him lean back in a comfortable chair or have him lie down in the bedroom. Have a cool or warm drink ready for him.(And a cozy strait jacket ready for you.)
• Arrange his pillow and offer to take off his shoes. Speak in a low, soothing and pleasant voice.(Is dissatisfied muttering about leaky eavestroughs okay?)
• Don't ask him questions about his actions or question his judgment or integrity. Remember, he is the master of the house and as such will always exercise his will with fairness and truthfulness. You have no right to question him.(Although he may have a couple of questions for you, like, 'What's that thing in your hair?' and 'Why are you pulling my footwear off while you growl at me?' and 'WHERE'S THE FIRE EXTINGUISHER!?")
• A good wife always knows her place.(and that's how she avoids tripping on anything in the dark.)

Well, some things never do change. As it says in the Snopes article, linked above:

 "Certainly, the tribulations of running a home were never to be openly compared with a man's daily travails. He earned money, she didn't; thus his work was important."

In our enlightened modern times, we dumb old housewives are privileged to have men and women tell us our work is unimportant.
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In honour of International Women's Day, Part II

Something that makes me darn glad to BE one:

From our Killer Headlines AND Beyond Satire files

California school district mulls fate of teacher believed to have appeared in porn video

"Mulls"?

"We're trying to determine if there's a nexus on what she does on her own time and what she does in the classroom," [School District Superintendent Jeff Chancer] said.

[...] On Tuesday, the district sent a letter to parents of students at all three of its junior high schools, asking that their children not search Internet sex sites for the teacher's image.

Good luck with that. Basic math:

Anything-goes Sex-Ed + Moral relativism + Kids more tech/internet savvy than their parents + adolescent hormones = Everyone in school has already seen the videos

No child left behind.

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Eleven followers!

Welcome Lou! In your honour, a Flannery quotation:


"Only if we are secure in our beliefs can we see the comical side of 
the universe."


Source unknown (for now), but I found the quotation at the motherlode, If Flannery Had a Blog.
It looks as though it's not being updated (last post, 2010) but there are archives going back to 2004. So that'll keep me busy for a while...
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In honour of International Women's Day

... a very short, simple quiz.

Question 1: which of the women below are currently being helped and supported by contemporary feminism?

A. Pampered upper-middle-class law students who can afford $6.95 lattes, and well... Law School, but apparently not birth control

B. These women, who are forbidden by law to feel sunshine on their faces

Think hard. It is not a trick question.



Related. 
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Woohooo!

I'm a little late with posting this, but this year's Kinsmen Telemiracle raised $5.9 MILLION this past weekend. Not bad for a hayseed (*cough*) province of about a million souls. Saskatchewan rocks, isn't that right, uppity folks who live in some other parts of Canada? (You know who you are.)

Say what you will about Telemiracle (some people snark about their overhead, etc.),  the telethon and all who work for it (and donate to it) believe that those who are disabled or seriously ill are persons with dignity, and deserving of help in order to lead fuller lives. The telethon represents the best kind of charity: appeals to individuals and businesses, but doesn’t ask for (never mind demand!) government handouts. And it really does assist people, every day of the year. Good on ya, Kinsmen.

It would be a lot easier just to take handicapped people and gas them to death, but well, only the Third Reich did stuff like that...

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The compassionate Left

Just wow. 

When [Adam] Carolla tweeted sympathetic thoughts when news of Breitbart’s death broke (“You can question Breitbart’s politics, but never question his love for his family and his country”), he said he got swarmed with vitriolic anger in response by many.

 First Commandment of the Left:

Thou shalt not step off the Reservation
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"You're not really ... hireable"

Priceless. PJTV interview with Andrew Breitbart, on his evolution from left-liberalism to conservatism. He found, after college (where he was educated into a "cultural Marxis mindset" courtesy of --I kid you not-- his "American Studies" program):

"You don't graduate with any discernable skill sets... I had less skills and less motivation to work than I did when I graduated from high school"

Not exactly a recipe for prosperity.

His awakening began when his father cut him off financially (something he could not comprehend at the time) and had to wait tables.

Hoping this works

I am so pathetic when it comes to technology, but I will attempt to cut and paste a copy of the pdf doc page from The Record, which my editor was kind enough to send me, whereupon is printed a Lenten column I wrote.

It originally appeared a few years back in a newsletter for a wonderful local Catholic family apostolate. (It's the tiny column, to the right of the movie review.

 Since I evidently don't know how to arrange this so that the column/page can be zoomed in on, I will append the text below:

Cool

I would probably not presume to put this in our sidebar (we're far from being in his league), but it's kind of neat to see this popping up in the sidebars of various bloggers and webites:

We can certainly all use a dose of his courage and moxie.
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Life with the Pinkertons

And it's even worse now that I have my Mac, because it's smaller and more portable than my old laptop.

It's just like being forced to wear a burka.

So many human rights, so little time. There's life, and there's liberty, and now there's the right to park it where you please:

Has the City of Ottawa violated your human rights if it won't let you park in front of your house?
According to New Edinburgh resident Pamela Howson, the answer is yes - if, like her, you have three young children in car seats and your vehicle is too wide to easily negotiate the narrow laneway that leads to your backyard parking spot.
In a novel case before the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario in Ottawa Monday, Howson argued that the city discriminated against her on the grounds of family status by not letting her build a parking pad in front of her house.

 But city lawyers argued that Howson has never applied for a minor variance from the city's committee of adjustment - the body legally able to consider her request - so has never actually been denied anything.

Now, what could give someone the idea that, after freely choosing to buy this particular house and a car that can't fit in its driveway, her human rights were being violated by not being excused from parking bylaws? Let's sift through the clues:

 Two years ago, Howson - a former investigator with the Ontario Human Rights Commission - approached the city to see if it would grant an exemption based on her family's "special circumstances."

Someone who used to work for the OHRC wants to leapfrog (or should that be "kangaroojump"?) over legal processes and have her wishes granted by a rights tribunal? I'm shocked - shocked, I tell you!

 The family was willing to eliminate its parking spot in the rear, she said, if the city would permit them to park in front of their property. "We proposed a number of reasonable solutions, all of which were dismissed," Howson said.

...

Howson said city officials told her to apply to the committee of adjustment, an arms-length panel that considers minor variations to zoning bylaws.
But once she raised her human rights concerns, she said she was warned that every city department would oppose her application. Moreover, she was told the committee of adjustment wouldn't consider human rights arguments, she said.

The nerve of them.

Given that, and the $1,500 cost of an application, Howson said she concluded that going to the committee of adjustment would be a "useless but expensive and time-consuming process."

No doubt she's seen her share of those, having worked for the OHRC.

Contrary to the story, there's nothing "novel" about this. It's par for the course where Canada's "human rights" bodies are involved.
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I can see Europe fracturing from my house

Wasn't the "European Union" always an oxymoron anyway?

"Merkel and the Commission should think hard before putting their hand into the sovereignty of this country – or any other – because it will be burned and the citizens are not going to consent".

Interesting.  

h/t SDA
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Worth a read

Over at Australia's JoNova:

Free speech is the greatest of gifts for humanity. It unleashes the best of billions of brains. The internet is changing the power-structure of societies, and the ruling class don’t like it at all. The fact that their ideas are so weak and that they are so defenseless against sharp observations, is is exactly why they have to regulate it.

As an aside, I also found this amusing: 

"Some days I wonder if an audience of 5,000 readers a day matters..."

Oh, she's saying that as if it's a bad thing, and I'm thinking: Only in my most fevered dreams...

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Lilley interviews Breitbart

At CPAC, Feb. 2012. Topic: New Media and the emerging voice of conservatism.

SUN News Network video.

Breitbart: "The [liberal media] Gatekeepers want to un-ring this bell, and they can't." 
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Just say no.

Mrs. P. and I have been discussing the latest chapter in the great contraceptive dust-up, which Pundette ably summarizes here.
 We are always being urged to do with less for the greater good and for our own: eat less fat and sugar, use less gasoline, turn down your air conditioner, go without electricity for Earth Hour, have fewer children, don't smoke at all, reduce, reuse, recycle! Why do all those strictures go out the window when it comes to sex? Surely these thoroughly modern women have been enlightened by the progressive teaching that sex is no more significant than any other pleasurable activity. So why isn't it subject to the same economies?
If students can't afford contraception, perhaps it is time they tightened their belts.
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Snow Day

Memo to self: Keep repeating: "Just two more weeks still spring; just two more weeks till spri..."

This was the view out my living room window, on this grey and blustery morning. The photos don't show the wind, which is also howling and making highway visibility difficult. Photos courtesy of Miss P. #5 (Thank you, dear), who even has a folder on her thumb drive titled "Mom's blog pictures". Minions are so handy, especially the kind that know how to use digital cameras and USB drives.

Our 4-foot hedge, now nearly buried under a snow drift

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Can a printable kitchen be far behind?

If this video wasn't made by The Onion, this is incredible.
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HItting the coffin nail on the head.

Mark Steyn pulls no punches in his observation that Church and state are not separate enough.
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Billy knows.

Health Canada takes five years to decide how to tell us what the pigeons in Bolt already know.

"The result of all that work? It really came out nil...."

That could be a great government slogan. I hope they form a committee to look into it.

OK I'm going out on a limb

And assuming our new follower is a human. Welcome! And thanks for pushing our numbers into double digits! In your honour, a video of Grover and John John counting to ten (and back again, but let's not go there in terms of followers).

Steyn on Afghanistan

They can breach our security, but we cannot breach theirs – the vast impregnable psychological fortress in which what passes for the Pushtun mind resides. Someone accidentally burned a Quran your pals had already defaced with covert messages? Die, die, foreigners! The president of the United States issues a groveling and characteristically clueless apology for it? Die, die, foreigners! The American friend who has trained you and hired you and paid you has arrived for a meeting? Die, die, foreigners! And those are the Afghans who know us best. To the upcountry village headmen, the fellows descending from the skies in full body armor are as alien as were the space invaders to Americans in the film "Independence Day."
[...]
Before the election in 2010, the New York Post carried a picture of women registering to vote in Herat, all in identical top-to-toe bright blue burkas, just as they would have looked on Sept. 10, 2001. We came, we saw, we left no trace. America's longest war will leave nothing behind.

What more can I add? What are we doing there? 

Also, read David Warren's view. 

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From our "Killer Headlines" file

This one is a bit too literal. Sheesh, the things people do.

Sri Lankan man dies while attempting record for being buried alive

"The Kantale hospital said a post-mortem could not determine the cause of death"

Sorry, but I think it begins with "stu" and ends with "pidity"

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"Some naive bishops believed the President..."

A stirring homily on the HHS mandate. May God send us many more such priests and Catholic leaders.



h/t Creative Minority Report
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Are we allowed to get excited

About our followers hitting double digits if we suspect that there are spambots involved? Rats, didn't think so.
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DUH

Philosophers suprised that people react to their ideas. More proof that the uber-educated intelligentsia can be some of the biggest dumb-asses on the planet. 


 Brilliant essay by Trevor Stammers at Mercator.

A paper proposing use of the term ‘after birth abortion’ to refer to the killing of both disabled and apparently healthy new-born babies, was published recently in the Journal of Medical Ethics, arguably one of the world’s leading bioethical academic publications. As the editor of a similar (though far less prestigious) journal, I very clearly appreciate the right of the current JME editor, Professor Julian Savulescu, to publish his former colleagues’ views. Academic journals should be a place where open and robust debate on controversial issues can occur.

What has surprised me though is the apparent naiveté of both Drs Alberto Giubilini and Francesca Minerva, the young authors of the paper, who were reported as being shocked at the hostile reaction to their opinions. Whilst not in any way condoning the cheap and harmful anonymous death threats and hate mail against them both, which are indefensible and deplorable, I find it astonishing that, as philosophers, they should express bewilderment at it and protest that their paper “has no relevance outside the bioethics community” and is “pure academic discussion”.

 The idea of the internet-age philosopher being a latter-day Aristotle, musing to his disciples among the leafy colonnades of the Lyceum and isolated from the rest of the world is completely untenable -- certainly since Karl Marx’s emphasis on the sublation of philosophy from theory into practice (praxis). To put it in plain English, every social revolution begins with an idea and Giubilini and Minerva’s ideas are no exception and have every relevance in the world beyond academia. If we did not expect our ideas to be noticed and, if we believe they are good ones, to be acted upon, there would be little point in putting them in print in the first place.

Amen to that. Read the whole thing.

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I speak only for myself, of course

But if any of DOH's readers also struggle with sloth, they might want to check out this short yet inspirational item from the Hermeneutic of Continuity:

The gravity of this sin varies according to the duties that we neglect. It often affects the generosity with which people devote time to their spiritual life. For example, the Rosary takes about fifteen minutes to say, but it is seen as a great chore compared with three hours watching television or aimlessly surfing the internet. [Ouch!]
[...]
Hence the spiritual writers teach that a primary remedy for sloth is an intellectual conviction concerning the duty to use our time wisely and well. This forms a motivating foundation for that sustained and intelligent effort by which we sometimes see individuals of ordinary background, means and ability achieve so much. Overcoming sloth does not mean that we have no leisure time; in fact a well-ordered Christian diligence helps us to relax with greater profit. Again, prudence based on a sensible assessment of how we need to be refreshed can help to use that time to the greatest benefit. Undoubtedly the value of giving time generously to prayer is one of the best uses of any time that we have spare.

h/t Coffee and Canticles 

God save us from 'experts'

"Killing babies no different from abortion, experts say." 

Well DUH. But here's the horrifying part: instead of using the logic to stop abortion, they want to justify infanticide. My latest post at MercatorNet.

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Brilliant, funny and true

Jonah Goldberg's tribute to Andrew Breitbart.

He was a human run-on sentence who showed deference to no punctuation mark save the exclamation point, a conservative Tasmanian Devil from the Bugs Bunny cartoons we both grew up on, whirling and whizzing through anything in his path. [...]

He rejected in the marrow of his bones the idea that conservatives needed to apologize for being conservative or that liberals had any special authority to pronounce on the political decency and honesty of others. [...]

He believed, rightly, that much of establishment liberalism hurls such charges as a way to bully opponents into silence, and he would not be bullied.

The really crazy thing is that the Left sees Andrew's death as a victory (as only the Godless left can).  Don't they realize that millions of Breitbarts are going to rise and take up the mantle? 

Thanks to Mrs. Blurn for the FB link to Goldberg's column.

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God bless Father Z

Just the other day, I was feeling nostalgic about Easter, 2005. It was Pope John Paul II's last Easter on earth. I remember watching the Stations of the Cross on EWTN. JPII was unable, of course, to walk the Via Crucis; he prayed it in his private chapel, following the television feed from the Coliseum. Seeing him in his pain and frailty, clinging to the crucifix, still brings tears to my eyes. 

Good Friday, 2005

Now, thanks to Fr. Zuhlsdorf, you can download, listen, and pray along with the beautiful prayers of the Way of the Cross, 2005 (written by then-Cardinal Ratzinger). Fr. Z has also included on this link the Stations written by St. Alphonsus Liguori, a favourite devotion of many. May they bless and inspire you this Lent.
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An idea for meatless Fridays

If you're not allergic to nuts, I encourage you to try this tasty non-meatloaf. I made it last night for the first time and thought it was very good. My only complaint: it did not slice as neatly as I'd hoped; it crumbled a bit, even after "standing" about 10 min. after it came out of the oven. (Maybe I should have ground the nuts and oats a bit finer.) It's quite rich-tasting, so you don't need a very big slice to feel satisfied, which is about right for Fridays in Lent. 

Sandwiched Nut Loaf

from the Company's Coming "Meatless Cooking" cookery book by Jean Paré

2 Tbsp. butter or hard margarine  

2 cups chopped onion

1-1/2 cups ground walnuts

1-1/2 cups ground pecans

1 cup rolled oats (not instant), run through blender or food processor till fine

1 cup coarsely crushed bran flakes cereal (not the kind with raisins, LOL!)

1/2 tsp salt

1/8 tsp pepper

1/4 tsp whole oregano

1/4 tsp garlic powder

1/8 tsp ground thyme

1 Tbsp instant vegetable stock mix

3/4 cup boiling water

Tomato slices to cover (6-8, depending on size of tomato used)

3/4 cup grated medium cheddar cheese

3/4 cup grated mozzarella cheese

Directions: Melt butter in frying pan. Add oinion. Saute until soft. Turn into large bowl. Add next 9 ingredients; mix well. 

Stir stock into boiling water in small bowl or cup to dissolve Pour over nut mixture. Stir till well combined. Pack one-half nut mixture into a greased 8x4x3 inch loaf pan.

Layer tomato slices over top, followed by both cheeses. Cover with second half of nut mixture. Bake, uncovered, in 350 degree F oven for 30-35 minutes. Cuts into 10 slices.

The avidly carnivorous Mr. Pinkerton, for whom giving up meat is a sacrifice indeed, said it was, "O.K." (in other words, high praise!)

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Beyond the pale? The pale of what?

Perhaps hypocrisy.

An ad tells Barack Obama to go to hell. Some say it's over the top; others say it's free speech. But what if you don't believe in hell? That's like telling Obama to go to Sparkly Fairyland. Or perhaps, in this case, Stinky Ogreland (no offence, Shrek). I believe in hell, and would therefore never wish anyone to go there. But I wouldn't stop anyone else saying it, even people who really mean it.

Anyway, how come the Obama administration can tell the Catholic Church (not to mention every American who believes in First Amendment rights) to (figuratively) go to hell with its tyrranical mandates, but no one can return the sentiment? They say it's "disrespectful" to the office of POTUS? In my view nothing disses the presidency nearly so much as Obama's residence in the Oval Office. (If Americans re-elect this guy, they will see something very akin to hell, up close.)

Oh, and don't tell me that Bush's critics didn't wish the same on him. That doesn't make it right; it just goes to show. See 'hypocrisy', above. So it's not polite--it's politics; get over it.
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I'm late to the party

but Callooh Callay! Have you seen the new Catholic Digest? 

The one, the only, Danielle Bean is the new editor-in-chief! And the magazine has a whole new look. I might finally start reading it again, which I had pretty much stopped doing over the years, except for Sean Patrick. 

Just wow.

Conservative blogger and culture warrior Andrew Breitbart is dead.  He was 43. 

1. Eternal rest grant unto him, O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon him. May the souls of the faithful departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace. Please pray for his family (wife and 4 children), and also --especially-- for those on the Left who are shrieking in glee (I kid you not) at his passing. Lord have mercy. .

From our Brain-bleedingly Obvious files

From the CBC: "Hoarder habit may be enabled by families"

Gee, ya think? Especially if the other family members who live there are also hoarders.

De-cluttering is a good Lenten project, don't you think?
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An absolute must-read

By George Jonas at the National Post. Religious freedom is dead in the province of Quebec (which fancies itself a separate 'nation' but doesn't have the stones to secede). Freedom-loving parents, get out while you still can. 

Canada is turning into a theocracy with its own jealous God: The smug, self-worshipping state.  Lower-court judges are its acolytes; high-court judges its bishops. The Charter? It’s still available in courthouse washrooms for purposes of personal hygiene. No, I’m not Catholic, or even religious. Only appalled.

h/t Deborah Gyapong, linked on Facebook 


Update: and it's happening in the U.S. too. But at least you Americans can vote the bums out. We are stuck with our vile Supreme Court judges, who are appointed for life. 

Paper dolls

As the mom of seven girls, I have seen a lot of paper dolls come and go in this house. Bought lots, made lots, received lots as gifts. Among them are several sets by Tom Tierney, who, as any paper doll aficionado will tell you, is the high king of the artistic genre. If I had oodles of money, I would probaly own several hundred sets, such as the following: