Archives for 2014

This week: Nancy Pelosi presents the hard-hitting facts of the Hobby Lobby decision (and of course, gets it completely wrong). Steve Ray is asked if he is saved. The Chosen faith formation program. EWTN offers an excellent alternative to biased evening news programs. An ex-terrorist places blame for the Palestinian / Israeli conflict. Input on the administration’s carefully crafted border crisis from Chicagoans. Bill Whittle also takes a look at illegal immigrants and history.

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Nancy Pelosi speaks about the recent Supreme Court Hobby Lobby decision. As usual, few truthful words are manifested. Same ole same ole, easily addressed by Megyn Kelly:

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Last December I wrote about the question Are you saved?. Steve Ray talks about a friendly dinner party “ambush” where he is asked this.

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I recently posted one of my Resources pieces on the excellent Ascension Press Chosen faith formation courses. In future weeks, individual preview videos will be featured aspect here. To give you a flavor, here is Chris Stefanick with an overview of the program:

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I have written often about biased news reporting. It is blatantly so and frequently anti-Catholic. EWTN (with the support of the Knights of Columbus) launched News Nightly last September and it is very good. This half-hour program is broadcast weekdays (6pm, 9pm and 2am ET for me; check your local EWTN schedule).

If you still enjoy paying for cable, EWTN may be one of your channels (or at least available channels).

If you “cut the cable” like me, watch it free online or via the free EWTN mobile apps. If you use a Roku box to receive Netflix or Hulu+ (or a zillion other things) on your TV, EWTN is available as a free channel.

All of these free means of watching EWTN live also offer archived copies of the show. It is similarly available on YouTube (this link works nicely). I watch the most recent archived version on YouTube at my convenience via my Google Chromecast. For example, here is a recent show:

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Who causes the Palestinian / Jewish turmoil? Not Israel and not Palestinians (at least directly). It is Hamas. Much of the Arab world admits this. Here an Egyptian doctor (and terrorist in his youth) explains:

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Residents from the southside of Chicago weigh-in on the administration’s manufactured border crisis and the president’s related and extravagant spending proposals:

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Bill Whittle looks at that carefully engineered border crisis and finds some parallels in history:

Some random thoughts or bits of information are worthy of sharing but don’t warrant their own full post. This idea was started by Jennifer Fulwiler at Conversion Diary to address this blogging need. So, some Fridays I too participate when I have accumulated 7 worthy items. Thank you Jen for hosting this project!

This week: The latest issue of New Evangelists Monthly is ready and calling you. NOW adds The Little Sisters of the Poor to their Dirty 100 list. The adult life of one downs syndrome man. A pro-abortion representative speaks frankly with those supporting life. Dinesh D’Souza’s America is in theaters now and has been very well received by audiences. Costco fashions a yarn explaining why their (solidly liberal) management initially removed the best selling (now #1) book of the same name. Costco’s executives are amateurs compared to the whale of a story being told by the IRS.

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Issue #19, July 2014, of New Evangelists Monthly is ready for your enjoyment! Scores of faithful Catholic bloggers have contributed their very best pieces from June. This month brought these great topics: seek Him, holy events, infant spirit, mystical songs, real truth, what you do, Esheth Yahil, ABC disasters, still en route, one body, several things, bird day, of the winds, discussing sex, phileo and agape, Italy lessons, love song, evolving world, make symbols, awesome stories, the path, God inside, religious liberty, evangelization, beginning again, rock and net, ember week, transitions, sharing steps, Lord’s day, procession, grieving, Ignatian way, justification, first martyrs, outward sign, Catholic sex, daily joy, perspective, prayer pillar, presence, Samson, thirst, the mandate, sacraments, lifeguard, David’s tears, piety, barnyard analogy, our heroes, lucky penny, good advice, rhythm, praying, enchanted, opening doors, Sacred Heart, silence, NABRE, miscarriage, arisen, judging, publishing, Corpus Christi, Bread of Life, ragamuffin, listen, Facebook, gay and Catholic, fully fed, parish hopping, unbelievers prayer, book reviews, Jerzy Ciesielski, Sola Scriptura, Uganda, end times, enthroning hearts, what things, treasure and heart, son Father, which religion?, salt / light, watchers, no worries and waywards.

This monthly “meta-magazine” showcases faithful Catholicism from theology to family life and “everything in between.” Enjoy it now at NewEvangelists.org.

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We learned this week that the Little Sisters of the Poor are DIRTY. I never knew that, but this is the finding of the National Organization for Women. The sisters have been named to NOW’s Dirty 100 list. Here are some of the dirty sisters, being their usual dirty selves:

Here, Patricia Ireland (former NOW president), comments on these dirty sisters:

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About 90% of women given a Down syndrome diagnosis for their baby abort that child. That child’s life has just as much value as any other (which is immense). Here is how one such fetus (clump of cells / Tim Harris) turned out:

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Yet despite the irrefutable science of when life begins and the equal human dignity of every person, many people staunchly support abortion. Here, one representative of that position eloquently offers carefully reasoned arguments in support of her side.

(FAIR WARNING: language that would make a sailor blush is liberally used. I am not kidding. BE FORWARNED.)

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Dinesh D’Souza’s new patriotic film America has opened (in time for Independence Day) and been extremely well received by viewers:

“True patriotism is not loving your country just because it is yours, but because it is good.” The film refutes, point by point, the liberal contention that America is a society based on theft.

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Speaking of the new America film, it was based on a best selling book of the same name (currently #1 on the Times best-seller list). The book was being sold by Costco until their management (huge Democratic supporters, BTW) had it pulled. After public outcry, they reversed course claiming it was all just an innocent mistake.

The facts, told well by Bob Adelmann in Costco Pulls, Then Restores “America” to Its Bookshelves tell a somewhat different story. Why couldn’t Costco just be honest? They didn’t have to go into detail, but could have said “we made a mistake, have corrected it and are sorry.” Instead, they fashioned this story, much as the IRS fashioned their lost e-mail story. You just have to be really gullible to believe some of this stuff.

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Speaking of IRS lost e-mail brings us to the topic of joint probabilities. That is, what are the odds all 7 hard drives of key IRS leadership failing in the same month? Answer: if they are very unreliable drives with an average failure rate of 36 months, then the answer is 1 in 78 BILLION (36**7). Let’s compare these odds to other possibilities:

• 1 in       22,957,480 – odds of winning the Florida state lottery
• 1 in     175,223,510 – odds of winning the Powerball
• 1 in     258,890,850 – odds of winning Mega Millions
• 1 in 78,364,164,096 – odds 7 critical IRS hard drives failed the same month

Put another way, what is more likely than this Obama administration fabrication:

•    300 times more likely to win Mega Millions with 1 ticket
•    450 times more likely to win the Powerball with 1 ticket
• 3,400 times more likely to win the Florida lottery with 1 ticket

Not only must the gullible accept this happened, but they must also believe (1) the failures were a complete and total loss with no chance of any data recovery whatsoever (the “failed” drives were quickly recycled so we have to take their word on this) and (2) that the IRS does not backup their data.

This is not politics. This is a criminal conspiracy and an insult to intelligence. I remember a time when political criminals at least worked for plausible deniability.

Some random thoughts or bits of information are worthy of sharing but don’t warrant their own full post. This idea was started by Jennifer Fulwiler at Conversion Diary to address this blogging need. So, some Fridays I too participate when I have accumulated 7 worthy items. Thank you Jen for hosting this project!