Dear Iowa and Other States That Matter

To my fellow republicans in states that matter:  Please do not force me to vote for Mitt Romney.  It will make me cringe if I have to pull the lever for that guy.  He reminds me too much of John Kerry.  He is very smooth and polished but I worry when it rains that his hair will form cracks and break apart.  In order to get Obama out I will do the deed but please don't make me.

I would enjoy voting for Gingrich a great deal if it means getting to see him pown Obama in a debate.  He is a convert to the faith as am I and frankly his past sins are not a concern to me.  

Bachmann is the real deal, better than Romney, and I would be ok voting for her as well..  I don't think her "attacks" have been all that honest, however.  She loves her talking points too much at times.

The only guy who at the end of the day would allow me to vote with a clear conscience, the guy who I know would always do the right thing (or at least try to) is Rick Santorum.  Voting for him would actually make me feel good.  I am convinced he is the best man in the field.  He is a true Catholic gentleman and I believe he will govern according to his well formed conscience.  I am not sure he can win because he might be too much of a boy scout.  We can always hope.

I have heard some folks say that Romney is the only one who can win.  Hogwash.  I think he could lose big time because he is so incredibly uninspiring.

Well, we won.

Well we won, I guess. I now have a pro-life congressman, a pro-life governor, and a new pro-life senator.

I predict shortly after the new congress gets sworn in their poll numbers will drop because a lot of Americans are just angry at congress. They'll have to figure out a way to keep them above water.

Disgruntlement at the Post Office

Yesterday I sent a package to two good friends who moved away. I went to the post office and this was waiting to greet me:



I don't like the President either, but not knowing this group at all I was a little standoffish. I spoke with them briefly after I left. They wanted money which I don't give unless I've checked out the group.

When I got into the post office all I had was my package and the outgoing address on a piece of paper. I got to the counter and said "I need to ship this media mail, its books." They always ask "what is it?" so I beat them to it.

"We don't provide labels. Do you have a label?" the lady said.

I've been to the post office many times and thought I'd seen them slap labels on before. So maybe this is new?

"No, I don't have a label, " I said.

"We sell labels over there," as she pointed to the rack against the doorway. I guess this government run agency which is payed for with our tax dollars and is owned by an entity that can print money (and does to our detriment) needs more of mine to keep going.

Seeing that I was not agreeable to buy one of their labels she said "Or you can tape the paper with the address to the package and just use that."

"Ok I'll do that, do you have any tape?" I said.

"You can use this scotch tape," (which was next to her on the counter) "and maybe it'll work. But we don't provide tape - we sell it, " she pointed to the rack again. I looked at her with disbelief. We had passed from an understandable inconvenience to ridiculous. The irony of the anti-Obama protesters was not lost on me because right around that time an angry woman came into the post office and began banging on the post master door. It took two sets of bangs for the postal lady to respond.

"The post master isn't in," she said.

"Well I want to speak with him!" the middle aged woman barked.

"He's not in." The lady at the counter was strangely very calm about this. It was like working for the government had removed her to a state of serene apathy.

"Who's in charge here then?!"

"Nobody, its just me here. Sorry."

I have a feeling she was angry with the protesters right outside the post office, but I could be wrong. She was really irritated. But hey, its a free country. Liberals are all about getting rid of free speech.

At any rate, the counter lady had just made the poor girl in front of me buy a roll of tape who, seeing my similar plight, kindly offered it to me. I taped it right in front of the counter lady so she could watch me use the free tape and my free makeshift label.

And so, Peter and Audrey, when you get your package in the mail you will now know the story behind it.

Best Ever Litter Pan Liner

Only the best for my cats! Can you think of a better use for Monday morning's paper? I can't.

OFFENSIVE: Pelosi Prays to St. Joseph for Health Bill

WOW.

This is an in-your-face to the Church. How offensive is this?!?!

Not Leaving

In the normal order of things, I agree with most everything Glenn Beck says about our economic and political woes. I agree with him on the issues of Progressivism, Socialism, and Communism but he has now crossed a line I cannot follow.

I’m begging you, your right to religion and freedom to exercise religion and read all of the passages of the Bible as you want to read them and as your church wants to preach them . . . are going to come under the ropes in the next year. If it lasts that long it will be the next year. I beg you, look for the words ’social justice’ or ‘economic justice’ on your church Web site. If you find it, run as fast as you can. Social justice and economic justice, they are code words. Now, am I advising people to leave their church? Yes” (Glenn Beck, as quoted in First Things here )

Evil isn't it? Over my dead martyred body will I leave the Church that Christ founded due to a wrong headed notion of Social Justice by some in the fold. This is akin to encouraging people to leave the Church during the Reformation because of the practice of indulgences.

"The whole modern world has divided itself into Conservatives and Progressives. The business of Progressives is to go on making mistakes. The business of the Conservatives is to prevent the mistakes from being corrected." - G.K. Chesterton

Why our system is faltering.

Watching the townhalls on TV, listening to the news coverage, and talking with fellow citizens had led me to believe that our system of government is failing. The United States isn't going to collapse. It is morphing. The reason isn't because people refuse to follow the Constitution. The reason is the premise of the Constitution.

The United States system is a wonderful, noble idea. Our nation has done many wonderful things. Nowhere else have people been more free to do what is right than here. It has largely been our system that has enabled that freedom. But the system is now faltering.

America is based on the fact that we have this document, called the Consitution, which sets up rules protecting people from tryanny and is supposed to keep everyone inside the bounds. It is expected, and was expected, that the document would be followed - that its interpretation would be given to a Supreme Court to figure out ambiguities in the law. Yes, the Constitution would keep the nation on a steady course.

But there is a flaw. The Supreme Court is able to overturn itself. What was right 30 years ago could be wrong tomorrow. Things can even be removed from the Constitution. A system like this can last for a while...maybe...500 years? But eventually it begins to break down. A system based on the letter of the law, which can be interpreted be elected people (or those appointed by those elected) will sway with the culture instead of sticking to eternal truths.

A system like this will become more and more totalitarian as it evolves. That seems like quite a jump, but let me explain my view. Eventually the people become demanding of the government because politicians use causes and promises to give things to constituents. Then, over time, they expect the freebies. This is because rather than unchanging truth, rather than praying for what is necessary, they "pray their Senators" for what they want.

And government becomes God. That god, which is nothing other than a system of the changing winds of culture, is a farce. Our country was based on a sort of humanism with God still in mind. But its end is a humanism in which we have replaced God with the mind. Those unchanging truths which the Founders believed in are no longer considered unchanging.

Its amazing that as the culture rots, the unchanging Truth of Original Sin makes itself ever more present. Man is still trying to make himself like a God, eating of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil.

But this system, which bases itself on a document that needs to be interpreted rings in my as something all too familiar. We have a system which will eventually break down, splinter, and cause all kinds of confusion. Eventually it is replaced by a new one...a dictatorship of whatever. There is no idea what is actually right or wrong and thousands of different interpretations that can change with the culture. Now where have we encountered this before?

I'm not here trying to criticize our Protestant brethren. This is about our government. Think about the general religious opinion of the country at the time of its founding. Would they have ever considered our nation would be where it is today? Would Calvin, Henry VIII, Zwingly, Luther or any of the other Protestant reformers ever have considered the state of Protestantism in our time? Would Washington, Jefferson, or Adams forseen the massive near-totalitarian state we have today?*

Probably not. But the Church saw it. The Church saw the flaws in the liberal republicanism of the new age. That system has its base in a religious opinion that the truth of a written document would be followed and interpreted properly by committees of elected men and guided by the hand of God. The system failed the first time a decision was overturned.

I love America and am a patriot. But we need Truth to rule us. We cannot rule the Truth. Our Lady of Guadalupe, pray for us!

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* They may have warned about the state becoming totalitarian, but I don't believe they actually saw it coming to the United States.

No. Mr. President

This is floating around the blogosphere today.



An example of good ecumenism.

Pro-Life Ad during Obama Inaugural

This ad is running during Obama's inaugural in some places. I found this on CNA

Fight! Fight!

Can you hear the playground chants? They are echoing through the Catholic blogosphere halls now. Fr. Tom Euteneuer, president of Human Life International – a trusted, tried, and true priest - has denounced the NCRegister for its quasi-pro-Obama editorial. You might remember if you have a REALLY good memory that I posted a measly little blurb here too.

I read last night via Pewsitter.com this statement from the NCRegister wondering who and what they had to respond to. Now we know…

P.S. (added at a reader’s request on Dec. 1): Please do explore the rest of this site, especially the Hot Topics links at the bottom of the home page. We are 100% pro-life and pro-marriage, and we spent the months before the election educating readers about Obama’s pro-abortion positions. My only point in this post, nearly a month ago, was that many pro-life voters voted for Obama and are excited by him. Those are our voters, and we should win them back. We can’t win them back if we are polarized by rage. Our job now is to watch the Obama administration and relentlessly oppose what we must, and in the meanwhile shore up the pro-life and pro-family majorities in America.

Here is the editorial proof of our pro-life position on the election, for the unconvinced (click on the “abortion” or “obama” tags in red below to see post-election Daily Blog coverage):

“Catholics and Obama”

“Obama vs. the Right to Life”

“We’re Waiting, Barack”

“Obama’s Abortion Extremism” by Princeton’s Robert George.

I believe the following lines are what caused this dust up: (From the original post)

We at the Register were very focused on the life issue, and will remain so. But we always knew John McCain was no pro-life hero (he supports using taxpayer money to fund fatal experiments on embryos) and though we disagree on much, I, for one, always liked Obama.

He is a civil, decent man. His historic election is exciting in that it hails, we hope, the end of an era when race was factored into decisions it had nothing to do with.

Now I read this from the American Papist blog:

Fr. Tom Euteneuer, president of Human Life International, has gone so far as to claim that the Legionariest of Christ are "now officially part of the problem, not part of the solution" and have "lost it on this one" because of a supposedly "pro-Obama" editorial penned by National Catholic Register editor Tom Hoopes, a layman employed by the Legionaries. Fr. Euteneuer even goes so far as to claim that the Register editorial at issue reminded him of a National Catholic Reporter editorial, and as a result he has cancelled his subscription and urged others to do this same. Now these are very serious accusations and actions taken. And I think they are misguided.

Personally, I think the editorial is poor, and I ndicated as such after I read it. To say you’ve always liked Obama and not clarify that statement is simply imprudent and I cannot fathom that a professional editor would not have seen black lash coming. But apparently that is what happened.

But is the NCRegister a faithful Catholic newspaper? From what I saw during my trial subscription it is and a few lines in one editorial shouldn’t sway people from keeping theirs going.

Report: Earth Still here, Sun came up

On day 2 after the election of Barrack Hussein Obama, the earth is still here and the sun came up. Things may be a little dimmer for the outlook of the "shining city on the hill" but it still stands. It will do us good for the second time this year (in some cases, like mine) to celebrate the feast of Christ the King at the end of the month.

It will be yet another reminder for the reeling and recovering Pro-Life community that no matter who occupies the White House he is temporarily in charge.

I think it is also a good time for everyone to calm down. Barrack Obama is child of God who happens to be exceptionally wrong in seriously grave matter. But God loves us all and we need to keep that in mind.

Yesterday, even though I fought it with some difficulty, I was seething. I probably made comments I shouldn't have regarding some people, especially in my head. Many of us have a tendency to get pretty upset when it comes to this sort of thing. I know I do.

There is now a great need to pray for the Catholics who voted in favor of pro-abortion candidates while not bullying them out of the pews. Along with that goes the need to pray for the Candidates themselves because Judgment Day is a reality. We don't want anyone, ourselves included, to suffer the consequences of our sins when the debt has already been paid.

Amen? Amen.

If you were really Pro-Life...

Excuse me, Mr. President. But I am really Pro-Life and I know a lot of other people who are. I don't know one pro-life person who is vengeful or hateful. But I do know a lot of them who are prayerful, calm, but immovable. What you and those in your audience need to understand is that we pro-lifers exactly don't want to put every woman and doctor who has had or has performed an abortion in jail. We recognize that the term "Pro-Choice" is a false name. Most women have abortions because they have no choice. Many women have serious trauma after their abortions, as well they should. Guilt is not always a bad thing. Sometimes it is your conscience waking you up. We want it illegal going forward but to embrace those who in the past may have taken part in abortions under the assumption they were moral and legal, and especially those who were forced against their will.

Just a side note. I'm not so sure those protesters did more good than harm. We need to pick our battles wisely.