One thing I hate receiving in any e-mails is shameless promotion of things which I don't like. And the guy who sends out the College Republican e-mails from the University has twice this week been literally fawning about Clint Eastwood's Million Dollar Baby.

Granted, he's entitled to his opinion, but twice now, e-mails have been sent from the club list for the main purpose of saying people had no excuse not to see the film and that it was hands down the best movie of 2004. Excuse me? I definitely think Passion and Team America were better films, as far as I was concerned. I definitely think the guy sending these missives hasn't heard the outcry against the euthanasia aspect of the film's end, particularly from the handicapped angle, which is quite personal.

Hint guys - don't piss people off over issues which have absolutely nothing to do with the club, particularly people like me who are here more for social/religious/moral reasons and who will bolt the minute those positions are no longer upheld.

Addendum: I did forget to mention, but might as well due to an away message of one of the board members which incensed me - the leadership sets a poor example as far as I'm concerned for good behavior. Corrigite aut cum aliis concidite!

Posted by Justice at 12:08 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

I would just like to remind you that I am the only one in the area offering lifetime employment.

- Fr. Leon Biernat, vocations director, following a speaker who had spoken of being unemployed for 3 years.

The diocese has also come up with those rubber wrist bracelets that have been in vogue the last year - they're green, and say "Pray for Vocations" - on which Fr. Leon's number can be found, "for some reason", as he says. We are apparently the only diocese to hop on board this bandwagon as yet.

It might be working, he had one guy decide to go for it yesterday.

Posted by Justice at 7:56 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

Yesterday was the 3rd annual Catholic Men's Conference in the diocese, which featured Steve Ruda - LAFD, Fr. Dino - an elderly priest and my old pastor from many years ago, Gerry Faust - Notre Dame's coach from the mid 1980s, and Fr. Leon - vocations director of the diocese. We also had the benefit of having Bishop Kmiec preside at Mass.

In order to get there, I had to set up a carpool with some guys down at the John Paul II Residence, which also necessitated my staying the night, since we had to be on the road by 7am, which wouldn't have left time for trying to find me on the sometimes confusing North campus. That made for a nice, quiet, productive night.

Steve Ruda was probably the most quotable speaker, and his two most memorable lines were these:

- Be ye fishers of men - you catch 'em, God'll clean 'em.

- Read the Bible - it'll scare the hell out of you.

There was also the fortunate presence of the local Catholic bookstore again, which predictably drew me like a magnet draws iron. It also predictably left me considerably lighter in the wallet, which is something that really needs to get checked until I read some of these books.

Overall, it was a very good day and all the speakers were quite good. As a little aside, the driver of the carpool decided to enter the seminary in this diocese, which is a little ironic since his home diocese is Syracuse. But, since he's found the diocesan people here more helpful, as he put it, he wants to go here instead. Syracuse's loss is our gain.

Posted by Justice at 2:47 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Lots to blog about, but unfortunately, it's been an extremely long night. At this point, I've been up about 24 hours straight. I've just finished watching The Bells of St. Mary's through for the first time. A most enjoyable film. But now it's time to collapse.

Posted by Justice at 11:32 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

Nothing is ever so much fun as a nice spate of unexpected expenses suddenly cropping up in my path. First, the textbook for the voting class finally came in, 6 weeks into the term, and that set me back $60. Then there was some senior memory book photo thing I didn't know about, which necessitated some last minute shopping for a black dress shirt and also funds to pay for the picture.

I'm going off to that now and then to the bank to help my wallet recover from shock.

Posted by Justice at 12:59 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

In the never-ending drama that is the Erie County Budget, the four county departments run by elected officials - Clerk, Sheriff, DA, and Comptroller - have temporarily succeeded in winning an injunction against any cuts in their departments. Three of the departments are run by Republicans, and one by a Democrat. This creates a potential $8 million further gap in the budget, which at this point would look rather difficult to bridge.

In another bit of wackiness, the Comptroller dug up a potential $3 million hidden in the budget which was allocated in the last minute rush last year to pass a budget to a company to try and run an alternative program to incarceration. Something certainly sounds fishy there, and if it's there, it might possibly help mollify those 4 department heads enough to make a budget...this year, anyway. Next year, barring a miracle or serious state aid/reform, I expect Erie County to have to raise taxes by a hefty margin to balance the books, unless it wishes to go insolvent.

Posted by Justice at 11:03 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Peter Kreeft has something of a way with words. In a selection of two chapters from his book How to Win the Culture War come two rather harsh, concise indictments which are right on the mark. The first is a citation from William Law and is against me and is painful because it's so true:

"If you will look into your own heart in utter honesty, you must admit that there is one and only one reason why you are not, even now, as saintly as the primitive Christians: you do not wholly want to be." (p. 103)

Ouch. Guilty as charged, that's for sure.

The second item, taken from a conversation he had with a homosexual activist professor at Boston College. In summing up this professor's position on homosexuality:

"You've said to me that sodomy is your religion." (p. 94)

The professor allowed that, in a sense, this assessment was correct. The entire meaning can't really be grasped without reading the entire exchange, which covers several pages. But in many ways, the assessment stands on its own. The homosexual position takes it as an article of faith that homosexuality is an essential part of one's nature that is perfectly normal and unchangable. The main moral doctrines are almost unlimited sexual license.

To that extent, it sets up the new religious war of our times, because there is no way this position is in any way compatible with orthodox Christianity of any stripe, besides several other major religions. And just as the religious wars of old could be vicious and nasty, this one is liable to be the most vicious of all, because there is very little in common between the sparring parties. One side has some vestigial trappings of religion masking what's essentially the "do what you want" materialistic version of Gnosticism, the other side retains the traditional model of religion - militant, devotional, and obedient to their God.

Posted by Justice at 8:59 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Now that I'm graduating, the University is starting to look for those alumni dollars out of me. It would be funny in a way if I had a chance to talk to Dennis Black, the VP of students, to tell him just how much the university can expect back from me.

Don't get me wrong, my individual departments have been nothing but excellent, but the university as a whole is a rather morally bankrupt institution. Granted, due to a scholarship, I technically haven't paid the University any money over the last 4 years, but I know that if I had, some would have gone to fund things like 25-cent condoms, x-rated movie week, the various "diversity" and sex programs that are always being advertised in my face on the bulletin boards and room doors, the "sexual harassment" training about which several faculty have complained that it's an utter joke designed more to tell them what they could get away with (sort of a federally mandated CYA), and other such things. Sorry guys, but I refuse to give one dime to this university unless I know for sure it's not going to put any of it to supporting this filth.

There are a few places where I could see giving money though, should the opportunity arise. The math department has been extremely solid, and honestly has the most engaging, witty, and sensible faculty I've ever had the pleasure to work with anywhere. If I have the opportunity to give strictly within the department, I may do so.

Other than that, I don't think they could convince me to donate.

Posted by Justice at 8:31 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

Carcassonne is a delightful card game which has become quite popular in the Math Department's common lounge. I've already gotten caught up in 2 games this week, which each took around 2 hours.

The game's concept is relatively simple. There's about seventy game tiles, which are placed one by one on the game board. The strategy involves placing your own pieces on land features to score the most points. Owing to the restriction of lining up the tiles so that their edges match, the game often involves a lot of haggling, back-stabbing, and alliances.

The game can be reviewed here.

Posted by Justice at 11:57 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

One of the less fun parts of reading good historical books is that they tend to shatter a lot of popular myths. In the latest instance, I've been slowly reading The Compleat Gentleman, available from Spence Publishing - click the logo on my sidebar if you're interested. Anyway, the book has gone through the history of chivalry, and particularly some of its most popular elements.

I've always kind of liked Arthurian legend - well, the ones minus all of the pagan/druid drudgery that's crept into the more recent versions. But like most things, it turns out most of what I've read is pure historical fiction, and not even the good sort. Arthur's placed in the 5th century AD, as a Christian king temporarily halting the invading Anglo-Saxons, first mentioned not long after by a monk, who gave a mix of praise and criticism.

But the majority of the legend was commissioned by King Henry II - of Magna Carta and St. Thomas Becket martyrdom fame - and his wife Eleanor of Aquitaine for the purpose of solidifying their own power by claiming to be descendants of the legendary king. The glaring historical mistake is that the knights of the Round Table use spurs in jousting matches, which were unknown in Western Europe until at least the reign of Charles the Great some 3 centuries later.

At any rate, it's still been a great honest read about the period, while trying to reclaim the lost ideal, while not the historical period in which it had its heyday.

Posted by Justice at 11:22 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Taken from the 1962 Marian Missal:

Confession being one of the most efficacious means of advancing in virtue, you should resolve to approach the sacred tribunal at regular, stated times. The longer you delay going to confession, the more difficulty you will feel in doing so. You will, besides, forfeit the interior happiness of a good conscience; you will lose the habit of attention to the presence of God; your customary exercises of piety will become irksome; the duties of your state will be discharged negligently, and at last be totally disregarded. Delay not, then, to return to your merciful Redeemer, Whose heart is open to receive you; seek Him in the holy tribunal, and you will assuredly find Him; consider in Him the future Judge of the living and the dead; Who at the end of ages will come in terrible majesty to require an account of His Blood and His graces. Adore His infinite goodness, which will embrace you, heal your wounds and forgive your sins, if you truly repent.

I have always liked the description of confession as a tribunal, where instead of being hauled in to give an account, one is able to go in and voluntarily convict oneself. The sentencing is certainly much lighter than what it would be at the end of things, and since God works with something like a double jeopardy system, previously admitted crimes aren't brought up again.

Posted by Justice at 9:58 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

In regards to the title of this post, the computer has become something of a time liability of late, and it's gotten really noticeable the past 2 weeks. So, in an effort to get out of the habit of wasting so much time on this thing, I'm going to be on much less frequently for the next several weeks.

For the forseeable future, I plan on using my computer from 9 to 11 at night on weeknights, and 9 to 1 at night on weekends, in general. So anyone who wants to get in touch with me - points to blog AIM account on the sidebar - should look for me then. I might be on a bit longer if projects require the computer, but probably not. I will also be on periodically during the day at school terminals, as the situation permits.

Blogging will continue, though it may be a bit lighter for a while.

Posted by Justice at 11:38 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Many blogs have written about Terri Schiavo's impending date with Judge Dread - aka Greer - tomorrow, and the possibility that she could again have her feeding tube pulled and be allowed to die slowly over the course of several days. I think the specifics of the case are covered much better elsewhere, like here and here, so I'm going to write about the answers society is giving to questions regarding euthanasia.

One of the main reasons given for allowing Terri Schiavo to die is that it will end her suffering. In other words, what those advocating it are saying, albeit veiled, is that death is in her best interest. If that concept sounds uncomfortably familiar, it should - it has been made all throughout history, though usually not in this particular context.

The argument has been made many other times - for babies who have genetic defects, for the mentally retarded, for the severely injured, for the shamed, for religious infidels (in several religions at various points), and for various crimes.

But the big question, which nobody is bothering to ask in all of this, is what gives anyone the right to judge that a person should be left to die, particularly when they have done no crime to deserve it? The slew of liberals screaming "judge not, lest ye be judged" at the orthodox of us trying to fight gay marriage are strangely silent over the far weightier matter of judging that a suffering woman should be left to die because her unfaithful husband says that's what she wanted. Or perhaps it's not weighty to them because this woman is presently incapable of speaking out for herself, and doesn't have the fortune of knowing any of them personally.

It's not a great road to start travelling down, because there are many people in our society who are incapable of defending themselves against those who would wish to be rid of them. The mentally challenged, severely physically handicapped, and elderly are the most vulnerable groups I can think of. Do we really want to get into the business of judging without the input of the party in question what their fate ought to be? That sounds far more like the arbitrary justice of the Dark Ages than anything a principled society should be doing.

I fear the implications this has on the handicapped. As someone rather close to me has been so from birth, I have to wonder if society is headed for a place in which it will no longer want them. The problem is that, given the present selective abortions to kill children with birth defects, fewer and fewer people will be born with these conditions, which means that fewer and fewer people will be directly touched by their lives, which will in the end mean a general callousness by society. And in a society which increasingly does not hold life sacred, but merely measures its comfort and material value, this probably will lead to worse abuses down the road in short order. See my post about the friends speaking of having children as organ farms or clones for the same purpose.

Anyone reading this, consider offering extra prayers or a day of fasting on Terri's behalf. She will need them regardless of which way the judge decides.

Posted by Justice at 10:58 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

One place you never expect to see a priest is sitting in a pew in the middle of the church a few rows ahead of you, pretty much indistinguishable from the laity except for the Roman collar on his neck.

Today one of the parish's more elderly priests walked in, and sat just beyond the middle row of pews. I had been expecting him to go up to the sanctuary at some point, but he stayed right there and blended right in, even going up to receive communion in line with everyone else. I hadn't thought priests were allowed to do that ordinarily, but then again, I have no knowledge about this. It just seemed odd to have a priest on the other side of the altar.

He hasn't celebrated at any Mass I've been at recently. In fact, out of the 9 priests in residence, there are two that I have never seen offer a Mass at all in over a year of attendance, and possibly as many as four who fit this description.

Posted by Justice at 10:50 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

The Bible Reading has gotten somewhat backlogged due to studies and procrastination, but I've made a significant stab at it tonight, and have gotten caught up as far as last Thursday. The backlog should be cleared by midweek, as I plan on making changes to greatly free my schedule up.

Posted by Justice at 10:48 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Num 13:17 - Joshua's original name was Osee. The name is very similar to Jesus in meaning.

Num 13:31-34 - Ten of Israel's spies lie to the people to get them to decide against taking the land. Caleb tries to turn things around, but he and Joshua against the rest fail to sway them.

Num 14:22-30 - As per their own rash wish, those who revolted against God's plans are condemned to die wandering in the desert. Their children will then inherit in their place. Only Joshua and Caleb are spared from among the twelve spies.

Num 14:40-45 - In a continued display of cluelessness, a sizable number of people decide to fight the Canaanites after God has already decreed that they will be going back to the desert.

Num 15:15 - An important principle is that God maintains just one law for both strangers and the people themselves. All people are in the end judged by one Judge with one set of laws.

Num 16:1-3 - Core takes on the stand of some modern day fools, claiming that all of Israel is holy and so he and his followers should be allowed to minister as priests, even though God has limited it to the Levites.

Num 16:13-15 - Dathan and Abiram refuse to so much as show up, choosing to make a mockery instead of God's promises given through Moses, since they have not yet been realized.

Num 16:41-49 - As if God's signs in having the ground devour some of the rebellious crowd and killing those who tried to break in on the priesthood weren't enough, the people blame Moses for all of it. These people really don't understand God's power at all here. What part of the Lord and God part was being missed? In a second revolt, God ends up visiting some serious destruction on them, from which Aaron has to hurridly deliver them.

Posted by Justice at 11:03 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

I'd remarked last week that the priest at the city parish I attend omitted the shaking of hands at the sign of peace, as is permitted in the rubrics. Given the priest is rather up there in age, I thought this might just be a slip, since they occasionally happen elsewhere. But this week, the same thing happened - no shaking of hands, and this time, nobody turned around in confusion to anybody else, wondering what had happened.

Is anyone aware of some important commentary on this issue that came out recently? I can't easily imagine a 70-something year old man making this change unless he had some fairly solid reasons given to him to omit it. I doubt it would have come from the Jesuits, though there is the possibility it came from the Diocese. Or, now that I think about it, perhaps it's just a Lenten refrain from the practice, though I would hope it carries on permanently.

Not to complain, after all, since I find this immediate procession to the Agnus Dei far preferable to the raised open palm which is usually waved all over the church - more like a mass exchange of greetings than any sign of peace.

Posted by Justice at 4:08 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

Num 11:4 - The Israelites had come with some outsiders, and they were the ones behind this complaint of no meat. The notes indicate these worldly strangers had much to do with teaching Israel bad habits, which remains true even today.

Num 11:19-33 - God's response to the meat desire is to send it in abundance, which leads to the demise of those seeking it.

Posted by Justice at 9:45 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

The title of this post was a joke I wrote on my philosophy of religion exam aimed at the instructor, who had previously mentioned he was a little bit rusty in the language, because he tends to write hard first exams in an effort to weed out the slackers. As expected, when I met him later in the day, he hadn't yet figured it out, and a friend of his who knew Latin also didn't get it.

Since I did end up with an A on the exam, I qualified the statement by sticking in "Non enim" off to the side. For many however, this apparently was no joke, as I'm told the failure rate was about 1/3 of the class, despite all the answers having been given in class on Tuesday, although we weren't told that at the time.

For those who haven't grasped the meaning of the Latin, the title translates to "you are worse than Satan" and the qualifier after it would translate to "not truly" or, more realistically "not really."

Posted by Justice at 12:40 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Well, the legislature succeeded in getting the books balanced by tonight's deadline. How all of this will effect things here is unknown, but here's how things shook out in the end:

- County Parks will be closed for the rest of the year. This includes the very popular Chestnut Ridge near my hometown.

- The sheriff will have to roughly halve road patrols. It's not known how much of an impact this will have, since local and state police are expected to handle much of the difference.

- The three suburban auto bureaus will be shut down. That might make getting my license more bothersome in time, but I really never saw the need to have 4 auto bureaus in the county.

- 2000 county employees, roughly a quarter of those on payroll, will be axed. The numbers aren't known, since the departments have just been given dollar totals to lop off.

Predictably, all the union heads interviewed by any of the local media outlets said their workers had already given up plenty and that enough was enough. I suppose that's why we employ more workers per capita than almost any other county in the state. The gem from tonight's reports was the waste in the public works department. Even though the county's new plows only require one driver, every last one of them always has two people inside, because the union refused to even consider cutting down to one unless they had guarantees that no workers would be fired. The estimated cost of this idiocy is $1.2 million.

It's rather hard to have any sympathy for the unions when they willfully obstruct any efforts to make the county run more cheaply and efficiently just because they want to protect all of their jobs. Vengeance is now being visited upon them by a taxpayer base who have reached their limit. They still don't seem to get it, as evidenced by a union sign at a protest rally which had this brilliant claim on it: "Cutting real jobs won't save tax $$. It's a LIE."

I'm not sure if these people have any clue how this works, but generally speaking, payroll costs money. The public payroll is financed through tax dollars. Their salaries don't grow on trees, or for that matter, out of the politicians' rear ends. Cutting jobs therefore saves tax money - if it didn't, we obviously couldn't balance squat by firing them. Come on folks, get your heads out of the clouds, because like with the city of Buffalo and the Buffalo schools, you can expect this same problem to recur every year, because long-term budgeting is not a strong suit of this region's government.

WGRZ, the local NBC affiliate, has several good video and print articles available on its website, including this and this.

UPDATE: PoliticsWNY has much more coverage on this stuff. Look quick though, because I don't spot any archives on their site.

Posted by Justice at 11:13 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Num 5:14-31 - Although this procedure seems pretty humiliating, the notes say this was mainly used to protect the innocent, since the water ordinarily wouldn't do anything harmful.

Posted by Justice at 10:40 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Well, I've been interested in rechargeable batteries for years, ever since seeing ads for them after the Saturday Morning Cartoons - darn marketing campaigns.

But anyway, since most new technology items suck the life out of double A's faster than lemonade disappears in the August heat waves up here, I finally decided to invest in a charger, since the cost was down to $20. The batteries the system came with charge in just 15 minutes, and have an easy indicator they're done - the fairly loud fan slows down. The batteries will also be pretty toasty when done.

Posted by Justice at 9:36 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Mk 14:7 - The comment that the poor will always remain is essentially saying that there will always be a disparity, and some people on the lower end of society who need to be helped. Trying to eliminate the problem entirely is doomed to fail, so the better course is doing what is possible.

Mk 14:10-11 - It's thought that Judas was among those who was grumbling about the perfume, possibly due to greed and thievery, and after the rebuke in verse 7, left to betray Jesus.

Mk 14:25 - In Numbers, it says that the Nazarite shall offer the basket of unleavened bread and the required libations, and shall not be permitted to drink wine until he has elevated them and they have been sanctified.

Mk 14:51-52 - The inclusion of this man dressed in a white robe who was stripped sounds like an odd thing to include, unless this man later had some important role to play. I'll have to check into it.

Mk 14:63 - Leviticus 21:10 forbids the high priest to do this, even though nothing is said against it here.

Mk 15:15 - Caving to the mob usually doesn't produce the most just of results.

Mk 15:32 - This is the opening verse of Psalm 21(22), the innocent victim's cry to God.

Mk 16:9-14 - Throughout the first few hours after the Resurrection, everybody thinks their eyes are lying to them, which is pretty amazing, given Christ kept telling them this was going to happen.

Mk 16:15-18 - The commission to evangelize the world, along with the signs which will go with the Church in general. Those who do not believe will be condemned, while those who believe may be saved.

Posted by Justice at 10:21 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Well, it's official, there's going to be no extra sales tax. So the $108 million gap needs to be plugged by the end of Thursday, otherwise a judge is going to do it for us. So far, they've apparently agreed on the first $54 million of it.

However, they've cheated somewhat in draining $14 million from the county's reserves, which once stood in the hundreds of millions, effectively leaving a $14 million operating deficit which will need to be dealt with next year, along with all the other increases in costs. Haven't we been hypocritical of Giambra for balancing his last several budgets by dipping into the reserves?

Moody's meanwhile has put the county's bond rating on a watch list for further downgrades. That's pretty much to be expected - the county is essentially out of cash, is 6 weeks late on the budget, and has little hope for any real improvement in the near term. Given the size of the hole we've dug, I wouldn't be surprised if junk status or suspension results.

County Executive Giambra's written a little letter to the community which isn't terribly impressive, particularly given his failure to assume any responsiblity for the mess. Joel, if your approval rating really is down to 3% on this mess, quit trying to sound virtuous. With numbers like that, virtually everyone in this region regardless of ideology or party is placing responsibility squarely on you, so face the music and quit whining about how everyone else in the government is responsible for this mess. Have you not been the driving force behind the last 5 budgets? Have you not had competent people looking at the numbers who could have forseen how incredibly idiotic it was to burn reserves and the tobacco settlement faster than a chain-smoker his cigarette? Have you not realized along the way that alienating virtually everyone doesn't produce results? I mean come on, I could cram the people who back what you've done into one of the small rural towns and still have room left over. It's hard to even call you a polarizing force anymore because you happen to be uniting everyone else at the opposite pole.

About the only people as clueless as Giambra at this point are the unions, who feel they shouldn't have to give up any more. Right. Like foregoing raises is going to solve the problem. County workers get paid more on average, and have rather expensive benefits packages, all of which can't be subsidized any more. Personally, I don't see why union leadership wouldn't entertain cutting salaries to keep more of its members on the job. But then again, unions here also thought it was better to shutter a steel plant permanently and lose all their jobs for good rather than allow a new owner to buy it and keep it running a few years back, just because they refused to make any concessions on their labor contract, which the new owner said was a deal-killer.

If pattern holds, the unions will essentially push for the maximum number of firings for the sake of keeping salaries as high as possible, and will likely push for raises when new contracts come due. Sounds much more like an old boys' network designed to protect the higher ups than the rank and file, but then again, my personal theory is that unions have mutated into what the robber barons of the late 19th and early 20th century were - greedy, uncompromising, and possessing a vice grip on the government and media.

More at the end of the week, when the final damage should be known.

Posted by Justice at 2:31 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Num 3:10 - God has only deigned to let certain people be priests. The penalty of death given here incidates the gravity of trying to minister when one hasn't been called to do so. The same principle remains, though it is no longer passed on by families, but by the laying on of hands. As women have been excluded from the ordained ministry by God, they put themselves in serious trouble by trying to do so anyway.

Num 3:41-51 - God uses a type here to show that certain men can be given to the Lord in place of others. Here the sons of Levi take the place of the firstborn of the children of Israel. Though they are not as large in number, the balance is made up with a modest sacrifice. Later, Christ will take the place of everyone in taking on the sins of the world.

Posted by Justice at 10:06 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

In response to hearing the Philosophy of Religion instructor randomly spout off "Verbum Domini" in something closely approximating its Mass chant, I had to stifle trying to give back the reply "Deo Gratias".

Tomorrow will be spent busting my butt off to re-read the material and take good notes on it. There's about 110 pages in total to re-read, since Fides et Ratio was cut back to just its first 3 chapters, and another reading was also thrown out.

Posted by Justice at 9:19 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Erie County Executive, Republican Joel Giambra, who may go down in the poli-sci for the budget blunder he pulled, has fallen from being reelected in 2003 to now having a 3% approval rating on his handling of the budget, a news-dominating item here for the last 3 months, according to Survey USA. Just how bad is the 3%? More respondents were unsure of how to answer than were willing to approve - 4% were undecided. A whopping 93%, virtually uniform across all demographic groups, disapproved.

Proving once again that local politics around here has gotten thrown into chaos, regardless of party label, today witnessed Democrat Weird Al making up with Giambra to propose a new compromise budget with a sales tax increase. The effort was for naught, however, as the only two Republicans heretofore supporting a tax increase, bolted in the wake of seeing 71% of county residents disapproving of any tax increase, along with two Democrats. So, by ironic coincidence, the tax vote again failed, having now 5 flips on the issue since just last week, and now being 4 votes short of passage. It also marks a nadir for Giambra, who now has not one single member of his own party backing his compromise plan. Without them, no such increase can be passed, and that's looking to be the way things will stand.

So, $108 million must be sliced by Thursday, or a judge is going to make the cuts unilaterally. So far, they've agreed on cuts which will slice most departments by an average of 10%, with a bit less in the DA's office (5%), and more in the legislature and county executive staff (25%). This only makes up about half, so deeper cuts are going to be needed elsewhere.

The bigger items to look out for are going to be the zoo, which has already dropped some capital plans, and which may be unable to keep operating; ECMC, the county's hospital; social services; most other cultural organizations; the county parks, all of which are currently closed; and, in a snow belt region like this, the road plowing crews.

More to come by the end of the week. One thing's for sure, the public is in full revolt against the county government this time. Michael Moore has higher approval ratings than these guys do right now. I hope this translates into some major turnover the next election.

Posted by Justice at 11:53 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Lev 24:2-4 - The candle kept by the tabernacle is a continuation of this practice.

Lev 26:14-45 - The consequences for failing to abide by God's commandments results will be even worse than what has befallen those who went before and sinned in like manner. This seems consistent with a work I read a while ago which proposed that fallen away Catholics end up worse in hell than any others.

Posted by Justice at 9:50 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Mk 11:15-18 - In the typical response of ruling elites everywhere, when Jesus comes in and starts shaking up their way of things and winning the hearts of the people, the Jewish leaders wanted to get rid of the threat to their power.

Mk 12:41-44 - The proportion of the gift in relation to our ability to give is more important than the mere quantity of the gift.

Mk 13:32-37 - The most important thing about the instruction to watch is that God is not going to give the time of the second coming. As the rest of the chapter suggests, these false prophets should not be listened to.

Posted by Justice at 11:33 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

So, in the last couple days, some issues have come up regarding some weighty life issues. One came from the campus's Catholic Philosophers Group - bet you never thought you'd find one of those on a SUNY campus - and another comes from the blogosphere's reigning titan, Glenn Reynolds.

First, to the philosophers, since they were wrestling with an interesting philosophical question. They were discussing brain transplants, and whether or not the performance of one might possibly lead to one body with two different souls inhabiting it, or, to put it another way, whether or not the person who gave the one part of their brain would experience instantiation in two different locations.

Now, from what I've read of theology, this doesn't seem like a terribly difficult question. The soul is immaterial, so it can't be said to reside in the brain, per se. Likewise, rationality, intellect, and free-will are characteristics of human souls, not the bodies. This isn't too hard to realize if you consider that once we die, the Catholic/Christian position maintains that one's individuality remains intact, regardless of where you go. That requires retention of memory and intellect.

But if the soul is where memory, intellect, and rationality originate, what is the brain's function? The question is difficult to answer, since much of the details of the brain's functions are unknown. My personal theory is that all physical operations, that is, everything necessary to the body, is run via the brain. I think that memory and intellect operate through it - that is, the brain functions as a relay, taking what it can from the soul, and then working on it.

As the brain degrades over time or is damaged, this capacity is diminished. The soul still attempts to exercise its faculties through the brain, but meets with less success. In the extreme, with things like brain death and Alzheimer's, the soul is unable to succeed at all, resulting in the body "winging" things as best it can with regard to memory and intellect. The soul, however, has not suffered any loss of its powers or memory, it's just unable to send them along to the body. Occasionally, this is demonstrated by the miraculous recoveries some people have from brain damage, or the lucidity which sometimes returns briefly before death.

So as a result, the whole idea of two souls inhabiting one body or one soul divided among two bodies is simply absurd. The soul does indeed animate the brain, but like with any other transplant, if the brain was successfully able to be transplanted, the recipient's soul would become the force animating it. This would more than likely bring about some changes in physical operations or skills, and possibly intellectual capacities and dispositions to certain habits, but a person's personality and memories would not carry over. Similarly, if the donor lived, as was the case here with the idea of a half-brain transplant, they would continue to experience things only in their body and have no knowledge of what was going on in the recipient's body.

That's my theory of brain function and relation to the soul, at any rate, which will more than likely never find any application in science.

Over to the what Glenn Reynolds posed on the subject of life, he writes:

I really do think that aging is a disease, and I wish we could do something about it. Everybody in that place used to be healthy and strong; even the best of them now are sadly declined from their previous state. Yeah, it's "natural" -- but so is smallpox.

Well, in a sense, aging is a disease only if it is thought of in context of a disease brought on by the fallen nature of mankind, acquired through the first sin in the garden. Nothing we do is going to ever cure that sickness, because it's not something that can be healed in this world. Sure, we can waste a lot of time and money trying, but God will always find another way to take us down if we succeed in cutting off the natural causes avenue, because death has been written into the natural order by God. God might even, in an ironic outcome, choose to end the world right when something like this occurs, just to emphasize the utter folly of this kind of stuff.

It should be evident enough, looking at the way nature operates, that there is something of an anomaly in the order of life. After all, assuming a Darwinian system of life in which all things came from one original one-celled organism, all living cells today are directly descended in an unbroken chain to that one cell. In other words, we could trace the life function of that original cell down through time, and discover that the life processes of that one cell have never ceased, continuing on through all its descendants. The same is true of an Adam and Eve beginning. From egg and sperm to a new person to more sperm or eggs, to new people, and so forth.

So even though essentially life has continued on, depending on your view, for either tens of millions or thousands of years, no individual creature lasts longer than a few centuries, most only a few years. There is something about reproduction which seems to reenergize the durability of cells.

We can try messing around with biology all we like, but one way or another, God - or nature for the atheistic crowd - is going to confound all plans to eliminate aging, and probably won't be too pleased that we were trying to weasel out of a judgment which is almost as old as humanity and which applies to every living thing. And as with most things, the new way of dying is likely to be even less palatable than the old way.

Curing diseases, in so far as they are disorders of the body or infections, is fine, so long as the research is done in a moral way, which unfortunately is not the way the field is going. Embryonic stem cells and human cloning are both troubling developments. I've already heard talk, whether serious or not, of growing potential organ farms out of cloned versions of ourselves or out of frozen embryonic children. That concept absolutely terrifies me in regard to the dignity of the human person.

But trying to get rid of aging is not a smart idea. That's natural in the sense of the natural biological process, not natural as in a parasitic infection.

Posted by Justice at 11:23 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

Beating my expectations for anything sweetened with aspartame, the new Diet Cherry Vanilla Dr. Pepper actually doesn't taste that much like a diet pop, and is therefore reasonably good. That makes it the first diet pop that I've ever had that I didn't want to spit out as soon as I tasted it.

Posted by Justice at 8:40 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

Lev 20:2-5 - Moloch was the deity of Carthage, among other places in the ancient world. Since his worshippers often made sacrifices of small children, this is what the warning about giving of one's seed means.

Lev 20:6 - The prohibition against fortune-tellers, wizards, and other diviners comes up pretty frequently in the Old Testament. The penalty is strict since their powers come from Satan.

Lev 20:9-21 - A series of serious crimes, most involving sexual abominations. The importance God places on the marital and sexual act can be inferred from the amount of time and regulations given regarding them.

Lev 21:10 - This passage is interesting, because Caiphas, the high priest, is specifically mentioned as rending his garments, something he was forbidden to do according to this verse.

Posted by Justice at 11:00 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

This began with an initial search for more about the vacant AM&A's building sitting on Main Street, since the Buffalo News reported that on a prior inspection, the building had 30 feet of water which had completely submerged its basement and sub-basement.

In the course of searching, I tried typing out the company's actual name, which was Adam, Meldrum, and Anderson. Which lead me to a site called DeadMalls.com, which just happens to have the Main Place Mall listed (it's still open for business, however).

The site itself is a collection of stories about failed malls, and includes some pictures. The most interesting of the bunch are the ones from the Dixie Square Mall, which was trashed in the Blues Brothers film in 1980, soon after it closed. After 25 years of sitting vacant, it seems likely to be demolished sometime soon, as redevelopment plans have finally begun.

Posted by Justice at 5:38 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

For the first time I can remember, at Mass today, the priest actually skipped over the whole exchanging the sign of peace thing. I've seen the practice before, over on EWTN, but never really thought I'd see that happen anywhere locally.

The response was largely as I would have guessed - without the prompting, only one or two people exchanged a quick hand wave and we proceeded on without having things descend into a noisy show. I say noisy show because, given the church is rather large and weekday attendance more spotty, nobody is ever really sitting close enough to anyone else to shake hands. So in place, everyone just holds up their palms while spinning about and trying to say peace to their distant neighbors.

Hopefully this practice will continue to occur, since I have never seen the sign of peace not manage to end up as some sort of chatty social event. Social events come after (or before, as the case may be), not during.

Then again, perhaps the priest had a little coaching help. As I left today, I saw an interesting sight. Two signs in my line of sight combined to create the phrase "Coach St. Michael" - Coach from a Dipson Theatres sign, and "St. Michael" from the street sign along the side road flanking the church. As an interesting aside, there are actually no addresses on St. Michael Place. It's just a 1-block connector between Washington and Ellicott Streets, flanked on one side by the church and on the other by a parking lot.

Posted by Justice at 5:17 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Lev 16:20-22 - I wonder what the symbolism would be if this goat bearing the people's sins ever wandered back into the camp?

Lev 18:6-23 - A long list of the various types of sexual relations which were sinful, including all those among closely related families, those between the same sex, and those with animals.

Lev 19:15 - Although the advice is no longer followed so much, the people are told not to favor a man because he is poor, nor to honor the weatlhy and powerful, but to judge based on the merits.

Lev 19:16-17 - The prohibition of gossip and the command to rebuke openly and not let hate fester inside in secret are both related. In each case, the right thing to do, if anything is to be done, is to speak openly. Otherwise, in secret, things often end up getting warped to something quite different from what actually took place.

Posted by Justice at 10:58 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Lev 15:2-33 - This entire chapter is about the uncleanliness caused from the men issuing seed and having sex with women. God was trying to make the point that there was impurity involved with carnal pleasures. That also explains why later, a virgin birth was part of the plan.

Posted by Justice at 10:22 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

The trouble with a lot of the social-liberal agenda is that the more scientific research is done on its policies, the worse they look as time passes.

Lifesite News reports that a new study is being published in the journal Human Genetics, done at the University of Illinois at Chicago, which reports that there is no gay gene. As its strongest finding, the study found three different regions of three different chromosomes which appeared to have some relation, but which all fall below a threshold of statistical significance common to genetic research, besides seeming to be contributed equally by both parents.

As the research continues to suggest there is no genetic link behind homosexuality, those pushing "gay rights" really need to pause and consider the implications of establishing rights based on a behavior which is the result of environmental factors and not genetically inherent. The entire movement is essentially making a rash judgment based on rather poorly informed common wisdom about the behavior. History should provide ample evidence that when this happens, inevitably poor policy decisions are made which do more harm than good.

The Salem Witch Hunts are more alike in this regard to the present movement than would seem apparent. It's essentially a group of influential people pushing an extreme point of view to the masses and winning support based on the ignorance of the people. With the media sympathetic, negative studies like this one aren't given much press. And then, eventually there comes a time when people are convinced what these people are saying is the truth and that's when things like laws, traditions, and common sense are stampeded in a rush to judgment. Later it turns out that the entire thing was based on evidence as flimsy as a house of cards, and sanity returns, though not without having wrought significant damage.

The basic point is that there is no definitive proof that homosexuality is anything other than a behavior which some people practice as a result of their upbringing and experiences. I don't think it's genetic at all and that no evidence will ever confirm this, but those who think it is should solidly establish their case before pressing ahead on little more than emotion. Basing rights on behaviors acquired in the course of life is a very flimsy basis that can lead to all sorts of trouble.

Posted by Justice at 8:16 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Having a homework assignment turn out to be due when you didn't know about it sucks, particularly when it means doubling up on math work tonight, without the benefit of certain helpful aids like pop and snacks which I gave up for the day. I've sort of been in a haze all day long, which is not good for solving problems.

Tomorrow I'll try and play catchup on my ever growing backlog.

Posted by Justice at 10:36 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Mk 8:31-33 - This could almost be a case with the bishops today. One of them speaks openly in strong terms, and along come those who rebuke such strong language. This attitude is rebuked because it focuses on worldly considerations while ignoring God.

Mk 8:36-38 - The world is essentially a giant bunch of fool's gold, worth nothing, though it deceives a lot of people into thinking the things of the world are the real thing.

Mk 9:8-9 - All of Jesus's references to His impending death and resurrection fell on dense skulls among the apostles. Either He kept speaking in parables they didn't understand, or they were pretty blinded.

Mk 9:22-23 - This is a curious though deep reply to the question of belief. In the same breath, the father cries out that he believes, but asks Jesus to help his unbelief. This might either be due to a heat of the moment acceptance, coupled with pre-existing doubts, or it could also refer to a firm belief, but a lack of understanding. Most people have a point where they believe, but there are doubts or points which they need some help accepting.

Mk 9:37-39 - The legitimate form of ecumenism is something more like this, I think.

Mk 10:6-9 - The permanence of marriage is quite plain, but so many modern disciples of Christ have much the same problem of blindness the original ones had which kept them from seeing what Christ was actually talking about in the teaching.

Mk 10:29-31 - The caveat to this, of course, is that one has to remain faithful to the end. Judas is not thought to have ended up so well, despite the fact he did leave everything behind to follow Jesus before the betrayal.

Posted by Justice at 10:08 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

The 2005 Catholic Blog Awards are up. I've gone and voted, though I had to abstain from 5 of the categories because I wasn't familiar with enough of the blogs to make a vote in them. As it is, it looks like I'm missing out on at least half of the cream of the crop. Time to get around to some more of them.

My own selections for 5 best Catholic blogs, in no particular order, from my roll are:

The Curt Jester
SoDakMonk
Happy Catholic
The Old Oligarch
Shrine of the Holy Whapping

The monk who hunts with bishops isn't up for any nominations, but I encourage anyone who hasn't voted to vote for the other 4 blogs in their respective categories.

Posted by Justice at 2:02 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

Lev 10:1-2 - This would be one quick way to end liturgical abuses. God really does take these sorts of things seriously.

Lev 11:2-47 - The notes indicate the laws of clean and unclean animals existed for reasons of fostering obedience, avoiding symbolic vice, and also because they tended to either be unfit to eat or physically unclean.

Posted by Justice at 11:35 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

It is terrible to contemplate how few politicians are hanged.

So spoke G.K. Chesterton more than 80 years ago. Right now, the sentiment is directly applicable to the utter childishness and incompetence of the Erie County County Executive and Legislature.

Last fall, county executive Joel Giambra, facing a sizable budget deficit, basically handed the legislature two options for making a budget - a so-called "scorched-earth" red budget which slashed deeply into everything while holding taxes, and a green budget which raised the sales tax by a penny.

Now, legally, the legislature could not pursue any plan other than one of these two, which setup the budget debate as basically a game of chicken - raises taxes or else. The trouble for Giambra was that he faced a lack of support in his own party in the legislature, save one, was willing to back the tax increase. Giambra is a Republican, though he switched parties in 1999 for political advantage. All of the bitterness he's fostered through the years finally blew up in his face this year. This was driven in no small part by Giambra's adamant refusal to share any sales tax revenue with the city of Buffalo, both in the new tax and in previous years when the county was fiscally healthier and the city was reeling. A cave was forced by the legislature when it initially approved the tax increase.

Originally, there was a rallying cry against the red budget, since it would have shuttered the county library system. At the last minute, a Republican from my district switched, saving it and initially passing the green budget. In a sane government, that would have been the end of it.

Then, however, came the loose cannon legislator. Weird Al, as I like to call him, took the county to court, claiming the legislature had violated its own charter in passing the budget - and, per any honest reading, he's right, even though the court ruled it was okay for the legislature to ignore its own rules. The ironic part of all this, however, is that Al voted FOR the tax increase and budget in the first place, before filing a lawsuit claiming it was illegal just days later.

That bullet dodged, there was still a roadblock. Al had to get back on board in support of the tax - or one of the other opponents of the tax had to do so - in order for the state legislature to approve the increase. On Tuesday, that finally happened, and the state immediately held up its end. All that had to happen was for the legislature to simply re-approve the measure one last time, as required by law. The state set a deadline of last Friday for the legislature to complete this three-step process. Incredibly, Weird Al balked again less than 2 days after supporting the tax. The man flip-flops with more frequency and annoyance than John Kerry ever did.

Throughout, the Republicans and Al objected that not enough pork was being cut out for them to support the tax increase. Giambra refused to budge, and in a game of chicken that no one thought would end with both parties driving off a cliff, well, there's a wreck at the base of the cliff now. There's nothing that can be done to avert disaster, barring an extraordinary intervention by the state, since the earliest the tax can be enacted now is June 1, three months after the budget called for it, according to the state agency in charge of taxation.

So now, we're in deep trouble, facing a $108 million budget deficit, no funds to pay employees, and having kept all the employees on the payroll 45 days longer than the original red budget, which is going to devastate services even worse. Even this process is not going to happen smoothly.

Giambra tried to issue layoffs last week. He got sued, with the argument made that he has no authority to lay people off. Sure enough, a judge signed off on that, kicking the layoff decision to the legislature. Memo to the judge - a legislature that couldn't solve the question of the tax increase in 2 months isn't liable to be able to solve the question of who to fire before we run out of money to pay people. Predictably, in session today, nobody was able to come up with any significant cuts that could be made - the Sheriff's Office did the best, offering up just over a third of his $11 million budget. The comptroller's suggestions totaled less than $1 million.

One way or another, the layoffs will be made. Hopefully, they'll avoid the original plan, which according to the local news, would have left nobody in payroll to pay either the fired employees or those left on staff.

So what's being cut, you might wonder? Pretty much everything that's not either state or federally mandated. Among the casualties:

- Most county parks will close.
- The Bio Defense lab will close.
- Parole officers will be significantly scaled back.
- Health inspection will be far more sporadic.
- All maintainence and janitorial services will end, except for occasional restroom cleaning and emergency repairs.
- The zoo's funding will be eliminated.
- Public works, including snowplowing, will be deeply cut. Plowing of some roads may now take days. For this region, that's not good.
- Most health clinics and health services will be ended.
- The county hospital may lose funding.
- The medical examiner's office will cease performing crime scene investigations.
- The county's Public Safety office will close.
- All computer and e-mail support will end.

In addition, some other cuts have been mentioned, including:

- Deep cuts to the county District Attorney's Office
- Significant cuts to the county Sheriff's Office
- Possible loss of funding to the community college
- Further loss of federal funds from projects and services which can no longer be staffed or completed.

Unlike the last time around, the library looks to be safe, and is likely to be the only county service which isn't completely decimated except for the stuffed suits running the show.

In a sign of the times, apparently people around here prefer that this scorched-earth budget go into effect than pay extra taxes. It's a horrible way to cut bloat, but the opinion seems to be that so long as they aren't touching the libraries, to heck with everything else.

Further resources available at WIVB, WGRZ, and WKBW.

All linked materials are time sensitive. Lexis will be needed to access Buffalo News materials 14 days after their publication date.

Posted by Justice at 11:13 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Lent officially begins tomorrow. Last year's Lent was a good time for me, other than being afflicted with the worst cold in my life during Holy Week. This year, the approach to Lent has been very good, momentum I hope carries through the entire Lenten and Easter season.

St. Michael's was nice enough to post the Lenten Regulations, so I'll post them here:

- FASTING: Everyone from age 18 to 60 is bound to fast on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday. This involves eating just one main meal and two pretty small meals with no snacks in between.

- ABSTINENCE: Everyone over age 14 can't eat meat on Ash Wednesday, Good Friday, and all other Fridays of Lent.

- EASTER DUTY: Communion needs to be received once during the Easter season. Normally, this would be preceded by the required once yearly Confession.

- PENITENTIAL DAYS: The Diocese encourages everyone, along with the rest of the US Bishops, to practice Friday fasting outside of the Fridays of Lent to fulfill the required penitential nature of all Fridays.

Continuing last year's effort, I plan on applying fasting to the entire Lenten season, since temperance is generally not my thing when it comes to food, as my gut can attest. Pop probably isn't something I can cut out entirely, but I'll do my best to keep it low and out of Fridays. Going to Mass on Fridays is also planned.

May it be a blessed Lent to all.

Posted by Justice at 12:57 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

One of my former high school classmates hung himself this past Friday. I don't know all the details at this point, though more will probably be forthcoming.

This makes at least the third member of my graduating class to pass away, and it was only a class of about 270. The other two did not live to see graduation. It's depressing.

Posted by Justice at 10:31 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

Lev 7:14-21 - This passage is related to Christ's teaching that His flesh would have to be eaten, since that is what was done with the victim offered as a sacrifice. As with the Eucharist, anyone defiled who ate of the flesh of the sacrificial animal was cut off from the people by sin.

Posted by Justice at 9:54 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack