Fifth Circuit Overrules Judge’s Anti-Prayer Ruling
This is an update to the story Don blogged about earlier. The Fifth Circuit has now overruled Judge Biery’s decision.
A federal appeals court ruled on Friday afternoon that students may pray and mention God at Saturday night’s graduation at a high school in a San Antonio suburb, overturning a district judge’s ruling.
“Texas will continue to fight for the rights of all those who wish to pray in our state,” Governor Rick Perry said in a statement commending the Fifth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruling.
. . . The appeals court ruled that the order restrained the free speech rights of the students, who “are in fact not school-sponsored.” The court also noted that the school had already changed the name of the name of the invocation and benediction.
A rare judicial victory for common sense.
Benedict Meets Privately With Vice President Biden
Vice President Joe Biden
Vice President Joe Biden was in Rome today to mark the 150th anniversary of Italy’s unification. While there, he met privately with Pope Benedict XVI. Biden is a Mass-attending Catholic who supports “abortion rights”. Many of the Catholic faithful have called for his excommunication due to his support for abortion. No official announcement has been made, as of this writing, in regard to this visit.
In February, 2009, pro-abortion Congresswoman and then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi met privately with Pope Benedict XVI. The Vatican issued a statement afterward that was widely considered to be a scolding.
“His Holiness took the opportunity to speak of the requirements of the natural moral law and the Church’s consistent teaching on the dignity of human life from conception to natural death which enjoin all Catholics, and especially legislators, jurists and those responsible for the common good of society, to work in co-operation with all men and women of good will in creating a just system of laws capable of protecting human life at all stages of its development.”
Official announcements from the Vatican are available at the Vatican Information Service blog.
Increasing Inequality and Winner-Take-All Economics
One of the mildly worrying economic trends of the last thirty years has been the increasing gap between rich and poor in the US. Many policy analysts conclude that this is the clear result of not following whatever policies they advocate, and thus demand quick action. However, as a recent OECD study shows, most countries have seen increases in inequality since 1980:
Given that countries as varied as Israel, Germany, New Zealand, Sweden and Finland have all seen increases in inequality of similar or greater scale (though not to the same absolute level, since they started lower) to that of the US over the last 30 years, it seems hard to imagine that it is simply a matter of US tax or social safety net policy which is the cause of the trend. Continue reading
One of Our Black Robed Masters at Work
Fred Biery, a Bill Clinton appointee, is a Federal District Judge down in Texas. In order to satisfy two village atheist parents of a student who contend that their 18 year old “child” will be irreparably damaged if any prayer escapes any lips during his high school commencement ceremony, Biery has banned all prayer at the high school commencement of the Medina Valley Independent School District on Saturday. This includes the Judge censoring the speech of the valedictorian of the graduating class, Angela Hildebrand, a Catholic, who wished to say a prayer in her speech.
At Last, a Logical Explanation for our Current Woes
From the only reliable source of news on the net, the Onion. Well, being part Cherokee I do not think that there is anything to this silly rumor. However, if any of you out there wish to make money offerings to appease the anger of my outraged ancestors, I guess I could force myself to accept the funds! 
The Beatitudes from the Gospel According to Luke, Prima Pars
My life has been insanely crazy lately as I am in the middle of a major career change. This in part explains my absence from these pages. My apologies, but hopefully the following three-part piece will be of interest to the readers of American Catholic while my work schedule settles down into something more manageable, or at least something that allows for more time dedicated to writing.
1. The text and an introduction.
Douay-Rheims
Luke 6:20-26
20. And he, lifting up his eyes on his disciples, said: Blessed are ye poor, for yours is the kingdom of God.
21. Blessed are ye that hunger now; for you shall be filled. Blessed are ye that weep now, for you shall laugh.
22. Blessed shall you be when men shall hate you, and when they shall separate you, and shall reproach you, and cast out your name as evil, for the Son of manʼs sake.
23. Be glad in that day and rejoice; for behold your reward is great in heaven. For according to these things did their fathers to the prophets.
24. But woe to you that are rich; for you have consolation.
25. Woe to you that are filled; for you shall hunger. Woe to you that now laugh; for you shall mourn and weep.
26. Woe to you when men shall bless you; for according to these things did their fathers to the false prophets.
Thus begins the greatest sermon ever composed. These blessings are commonly referred to as the Beatitudes, which stems from the Latin word beati, meaning “Blessed.” Servais Pinkares writes, “[T]he sermon on the Mount has been one of the chief sources of spiritual renewal known to the Church through the ages. Its fruitfulness is amply attested by its constant reappearance. There are few passages in Scripture that touch the Christian heart more surely and deeply, or that have a greater appeal for nonbelievers. Then Sermon on the Mount was one of Ghandiʼs favorite texts; he reproached Christians for their neglect of it” (The Sources of Christian Ethics, 135). As familiar as the words are to Christians and non-Christians alike, there is one word in particular that can very easily go unnoticed: is. In verses 21-23, every blessing promises a future reward for a present circumstance. Consider the first half of verse 21: “Blessed are ye that hunger now; for you shall be filled.” This indicates that those who experience hunger during their earthly time will be filled in the eschaton. The first beatitude (verse 20), however, seems to deliberately use the word is: “Blessed are ye poor, for yours is the kingdom of God.”
Hating Kids Because of the Parents
One of my favorite blogs on this web tubey thing called the Internetz is Unsuck DC Metro. As someone who has had to deal with Metro just about every working day of my life and then some, it’s fun to have a place to vent my frustration with its life-force sucking inefficiency. Yesterday there was a post about a woman who not only changed her child’s diaper on the bus, but also left the dirty diaper under her seat after she left. As I said in the comments the first act is somewhat forgivable, but leaving the diaper behind is both disgusting and unsanitary. As a parent I sympathize with moms who find themselves in, ahem, sticky situations and feel that they have to deal with the diaper situation immediately. Diaper rashes are no fun, and having a kid stick up the bus with its filled diaper isn’t good for anyone. The mother ought to have gotten off the bus to find a more appropriate spot to change the diaper, but sometimes we all do things without thinking. But a dirty diaper left behind on a hot bus is truly repugnant.
About ten comments down someone named “KVM” defends the decision to change the diaper on the bus while condemning the leaving behind of the diaper. What follows was one of those 30+ comment threads that makes you weep for humanity. I think that KVM is wrong, but some of the comments were truly disgusting. A sampling:
Attack of the Mombie! No one is safe except her f**k trophy!
Yes yes, you were the one who made the choice to become pregnant and now the world starts and stops for you? [In reply to KVM's complaint about people not giving up their seat to her while pregant.]
Fine fine…you say that your kids are all professionals, but what is it that YOU’VE done? Did you mary rich and then pop out a few kids? Not impressed…
Most of the comments in reply were more respectful and I think they were right in chiding the mother, yet another posted a link to this website. It’s a compilation of facebook threads involving parent comments that annoy the blogger. Some of the threads do involve rather obnoxious comments, others, though, are of a much more innocent variety. Perusing the blog a bit leaves one with the impression that the blogger just doesn’t like other people ever talking about their children.
What drew my attention to these comments was how much they bristled with hostility to children. It’s one thing to get annoyed by parents doing stupid things, but these individuals seem genuinely contemptuous of the very idea of bringing children into this world. The first comment cited above in particular is truly disgusting. From comments like that it’s easy to see why we still have a long ways to go before we fully instill a culture of life in this country. Children are seen as annoyances instead of blessings, or as a certain president once implied, punishments.
And as for the blog I just mentioned, I really don’t get it. I only joined Facebook less than a year ago, but I don’t imagine that pre-fatherhood I would have been annoyed by my friends talking about their children. First of all, if you don’t want to de-friend them you always have the option of simply clicking off their news feed so you don’t have to read any more of their status updates. More importantly, don’t you kind of want to know what’s going on with your friends’ kids?
All parents run the risk of being overly obsessive about their children to the point that they sort of blot out other considerations. I personally don’t feel the need to invoke my children* in every single discussion I have. But my kids are pretty important to me, and they’re certainly a hell of a lot more to me than some “f#$% trophy.” As a parent I do my best when out in public with my daughter to make sure she’s not a nuisance to anyone – which is pretty much why we don’t go to any public places.** All I ask is that you don’t treat their mere existence as inconvenience to your perfect little world.
*-With due date approaching for child number two I feel comfortable using the plural.
** – I once observed that people generally smile when they see small children out in public, the solitary exception being airports. There people avert their glances, presumably praying that you and your child will be on another flight.
Worse Than Murder, Inc. Can Always Depend on Obama
President Obama continues to live down to his title of most pro-abort president in our nation’s history. He is now seeking to block implementation of Indiana legislation to deny funding to Worse Than Murder, Inc., a/k/a Planned Parenthood.
The Obama administration today denied Indiana’s use of its new state law that would deny millions in taxpayer dollars to the Indiana affiliate of the nation’s largest abortion business.
Governor Mitch Daniels signed the law, which would cut off anywhere from $2 million to $3 million the Planned Parenthood abortion business receives in federal funds via the Indiana government through Medicaid.
Daniels said that “any organization affected by this provision can resume receiving taxpayer dollars immediately by ceasing or separating its operations that perform abortions.”
However, the Obama administration has told the state it can’t implement the new law, with Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Administrator Donald Berwick denying a request to deny funds saying the federal Medicaid law stipulates that states can’t exclude providers based on the services they provide. Continue reading
When Do I Get My Month?
(Cross-posted at Acts of the Apostasy)
June is Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Pride Month. It used to just be Gay and Lesbian Pride Month, initiated by former President Clinton in 2000, and then made more inclusive by President Obama in 2009. Of course, it’s not totally inclusive, because heterosexuals aren’t on the list. (So I won’t celebrate it until I’m forced to, which may happen sooner than later…)
In fact, if you read through the list of National Months, there’s no National Normal Heterosexuals Month anywhere. How come? Why the discrimination?
There’s no National Blogger Month, no Heaven-bound Catholic Pride Month, no Guys Who Love Girls and Girls Who Love Guys Month or anything like that. Where’s the justice?
There’s nothing close to a National Men’s Month, or Men’s History Month, either. Continue reading
Ambassador to San Marino?
Richard RichDoug Kmiec, who betrayed the pro-life cause in 2008 by endorsing the most pro-abort President in our nation’s history, is back in the news. Following his resignation from his Malta ambassadorship, his 30 pieces of silver from Obama for his support in 2008, after being criticized in a State Department report for spending his time on private writing instead of his ambassadorial duties, Kmiec announced yesterday that he is 98% sure he will endorse Obama next year:
He said that the State Department never really understood his mandate to promote interfaith dialogue in Malta given to him by President Obama. Continue reading
Pope Benedict on Saint Joan of Arc
Joan was a being so uplifted from the ordinary run of mankind that she finds no equal in a thousand years. She embodied the natural goodness and valour of the human race in unexampled perfection. Unconquerable courage, infinite compassion, the virtue of the simple, the wisdom of the just, shone forth in her. She glorifies as she freed the soil from which she sprang.
Sir Winston Churchill
One of the examples of the direct intervention of God in human affairs, the brief history altering life of Saint Joan of Arc has attracted the admiration of the most unlikely of men, including the Protestant Sir Winston Churchill, and the agnostic Mark Twain who called his book on Joan of Arc the finest thing he ever wrote. She was not canonized until 1920, but almost all of her contemporaries who met her had no doubt that she was a saint sent by God. Some of the English who were present as she was burned at the stake cried out that they were all damned because she was a saint. Jean Tressard, the Treasurer of Henry VI, King of England, wrote the following soon after the execution of Joan: ”We are all lost for it is a good and holy woman that has been burned. I believe her soul is in the hands of God, and I believe damned all who joined in her condemnation”. With Saint Joan humanity came into contact with a messenger from God, and the result to her was as predictable as it was lamentable. However, the outcome of her mission was exactly as she had predicted. The weak Dauphin that she had crowned would reign as Charles VII and end the Hundred Years War in victory for France, something that none of his contemporaries thought remotely possible before Joan embarked on her mission.
On January 26 of this year Pope Benedict spoke of Saint Joan: Continue reading
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