Source
"While the deep concern of a woman bearing an unwanted child merits consideration and sympathy, it is my personal feeling that the legalization of abortion on demand is not in accordance with the value which our civilization places on human life. Wanted or unwanted, I believe that human life, even at its earliest stages, has certain rights which must be recognized — the right to be born, the right to love, the right to grow old.
"On the question of the individual's freedom of choice there are easily available birth control methods and information which women may employ to prevent or postpone pregnancy [editor's note: Ted already betrayed the fort with that remark]. But once life has begun, no matter at what stage of growth, it is my belief that termination should not be decided merely by desire.
"When history looks back to this era it should recognize this generation as one which cared about human beings enough to halt the practice of war, to provide a decent living for every family, and to fulfill its responsibility to its children from the very moment of conception."
- Senator Ted Kennedy of Massachusetts, August 3, 1971
Friday, December 31, 2010
Sunday, December 26, 2010
Road Trip
This week I'm wintering at my parents' house in Florida. Normally I would fly a commercial airline for this outing, but instead I drove nine hours rather than endure the TSA harassment at the airport. And I feel much safer for it.
Friday, December 24, 2010
Odin Go Home
Christmas Eve
Source
Hugo Jaeger, one of Hitler's personal photographers, took pictures of the Fuhrer, his generals, and a herd of Nazi thugs at a Christmas-time gala for SS officer cadets in Munich on December 18, 1941. Jaeger buried the images in glass jars on the outskirts of Munich; later he sold them to Life Magazine, which published many of them this week.
The mass murderers are not having a good time of it, judging by their dispirited scowls in the color prints. Small wonder, as the Russians had been knocking them about the eastern front pretty well.
The photos are interesting on multiple levels, one of them being that they help demonstrate how much the Nazis really hated Christianity.
From the article:
* Hitler believed religion had no place in his 1,000-year Reich. He replaced the Christian figure of St. Nicholas with the Norse god Odin. He directed Germans to celebrate the season as a holiday of the "winter solstice."
* The angel atop the Christmas tree in one photo has been replaced with a swastika. Many of the tree's ornaments carried runic symbols and iron cross motifs.
* A few years later, in 1944-1945, the Nazis tried to reinvent Christmas as a day to commemorate the war dead.
Points to ponder the next time someone trots out the calumny that the Third Reich was the consequence of centuries of Christian anti-Semitism.
Source
Hugo Jaeger, one of Hitler's personal photographers, took pictures of the Fuhrer, his generals, and a herd of Nazi thugs at a Christmas-time gala for SS officer cadets in Munich on December 18, 1941. Jaeger buried the images in glass jars on the outskirts of Munich; later he sold them to Life Magazine, which published many of them this week.
The mass murderers are not having a good time of it, judging by their dispirited scowls in the color prints. Small wonder, as the Russians had been knocking them about the eastern front pretty well.
The photos are interesting on multiple levels, one of them being that they help demonstrate how much the Nazis really hated Christianity.
From the article:
* Hitler believed religion had no place in his 1,000-year Reich. He replaced the Christian figure of St. Nicholas with the Norse god Odin. He directed Germans to celebrate the season as a holiday of the "winter solstice."
* The angel atop the Christmas tree in one photo has been replaced with a swastika. Many of the tree's ornaments carried runic symbols and iron cross motifs.
* A few years later, in 1944-1945, the Nazis tried to reinvent Christmas as a day to commemorate the war dead.
Points to ponder the next time someone trots out the calumny that the Third Reich was the consequence of centuries of Christian anti-Semitism.
Tuesday, December 21, 2010
Sunday, December 19, 2010
The Virgin Birth
"Before she was in labor, she brought forth; before her time came to be delivered, she brought forth a man child."
- Isaiah 66:7
This prophecy from Isaiah describes the birth of Christ: when He was born into the world, He did so in a way that left His mother's virginity intact.
Something like this miracle is repeated after the Resurrection, when Christ appears to His disciples after they have locked themselves in the upper room:
"Now when it was late the same day, the first of the week, and the doors were shut, where the disciples were gathered together, for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood in the midst..."
- John 20:19
Mary was always a Virgin -- to the ends of her days, Deo gratias.
- Isaiah 66:7
This prophecy from Isaiah describes the birth of Christ: when He was born into the world, He did so in a way that left His mother's virginity intact.
Something like this miracle is repeated after the Resurrection, when Christ appears to His disciples after they have locked themselves in the upper room:
"Now when it was late the same day, the first of the week, and the doors were shut, where the disciples were gathered together, for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood in the midst..."
- John 20:19
Mary was always a Virgin -- to the ends of her days, Deo gratias.
Thursday, December 16, 2010
By the Numbers
What's the ratio of cradle Catholics to the overall population vs. the ratio of Catholic immigrants to the overall population? The US population has skyrocketed, while the number of cradle Catholics have not kept pace. That the ratio seems comparable to what we saw 50 years ago is due largely to Catholic immigrants.
Of those who call themsleves Catholic, how many accept all the dogmas? How many accept as a matter of Faith the True Presence, Papal infallability, and the Immaculate Conception? Attend Mass every Sunday, keep their Easter duty, and refuse the use of artificial birth control? Only a minority of those who call themselves Catholic.
The problem stems from the highest levels, where Churchmen from Rome on down have parted from the faith of their fathers and embraced a new modernist creed. The children have asked for bread, and their modernist spiritual fathers have given them stones. The situation is grave indeed.
Of those who call themsleves Catholic, how many accept all the dogmas? How many accept as a matter of Faith the True Presence, Papal infallability, and the Immaculate Conception? Attend Mass every Sunday, keep their Easter duty, and refuse the use of artificial birth control? Only a minority of those who call themselves Catholic.
The problem stems from the highest levels, where Churchmen from Rome on down have parted from the faith of their fathers and embraced a new modernist creed. The children have asked for bread, and their modernist spiritual fathers have given them stones. The situation is grave indeed.
Sunday, December 12, 2010
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