Like something from out of the Twilight Zone, I came up a belief that can only be classified as bizarre. Someone happened to be complaining about a couple they knew, one an ex-atheist, who are planning on going to do missionary work with a small offshoot church. The problem is that they had once presented themselves for communion in the Church, and the person in question had issues with this.

So far, so good. Now where this gets weird is that the objection didn't arise from any particular beliefs in the Eucharist per se, only that they weren't presently Catholic. One of the pair was also excused because they'd been born Catholic, so that wasn't so bad. Already veering off into unknown territory, more comments were made scorning this couple's picking and choosing of their church based on personal beliefs. Normally, I'd be inclined to agree, except that in this case, the criticism was coming from a Catholic who does exactly the same thing, rendering the statement hypocritical. When this was pointed out, it was asserted that Catholics picking and choosing what doctrines they'll accept is not the same as non-denominational Christians making their own buffet. The only discernible difference I'm aware of would be the defiance of authority on the part of the Catholic, made worse since they should know better. The attitude is the same.

From what I could gather, it seems that being born Catholic or just being Catholic entitles one to certain doctrinal leeway (sex was the upshot of it all, it seemed) not available to those who prefer the non-denominational route. For all the errant opinions I've heard in my time, this is one of the few I just don't comprehend. And unfortunately enough, this person happens to be a catechist.

Memo to Bishop Kmiec - as part of your mission formulation, include something about catechists believing what the Church believes. The flock aborts enough potential vocations, you can't afford to have your catechists strangle those who make it into their hands.

Posted by Justice at 10:51 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

The Procession advertised in the bulletin the last couple weeks turned out to be a bit of a letdown, as all that was meant by that was simply walking up and down the three aisles of the church for a few minutes. It reminded me of sticking a candle under a barrel, but I suppose trying to process at 8 in the evening isn't the best time for it.

Turnout was also pretty pathetic, given this has been mentioned for several weeks now. My guess is about 60 to 100 people were onhand for the Mass, only about two dozen for benediction. Not exactly a stellar turnout for the special Year of the Eucharist event at a fairly large parish. Then again, this is also the folly of only doing special things like this on occasion - it's a pebble tossed into a lake that makes a few small waves and quickly fades into nothing. It needs to be far more consistent and sustained to have an impact, like most other things in life.

Oh well, at least an effort was made. Hopefully one of these days, they'll march that monstrance right down Main Street.

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

Unfortunately, nothing much to say today, the heat has left my connection notoriously unreliable, I suspect from the cable modem or router overheating, as the heat and humidity outside are largely the heat and humidity inside, and it's now been three days in a row of 90 degree weather, something not seen in nearly a decade in these parts.

We're currently replacing the railings on our main steps, as they were raised - somewhat poorly by the contractor - last year, thus making the original cast iron set no longer fit. Today saw the right side railings finished, oddly enough pitched at 26 degrees, a number which is a particular favorite of mine. Tomorrow should see the completion of the left set of railings, taking care of one more project around here. Three other painting projects should round out this year's slate of repairs.

Future wish list projects, which as far as I know have always been on the wish list but never realized, include driveway repair, basement pipe coverings, and attic finishing. None is likely to be done anytime soon unless the Lord sends a sizeable unexpected windfall, since it would take a lot to do them. But it's always possible to dream of what things would look like finished, if it ever got there.

Posted by Justice at 11:40 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

And shoots itself in the foot at the same time. The Buffalo Teachers Federation recently won a court case which stopped the Buffalo School Board's attempt to save 300 jobs by switching to one health care provider, a savings of some $12 million to the District. Those jobs are now on the cutting block, along with other non-mandated programs. On the TV news, the union's president said that they were "willing to negotiate with the district" over this. My read of that is that the union won't agree to the money-saving plan unless they get some other benefit which reduces the amount of the savings and hence leads to more job cuts on top of several years of heavy staff and program reductions.

Exactly why the union would be opposed is beyond me. Their health insurance coverage is among the most generous out there, and I'd hardly think having it all provided by one company as opposed to several is much of a sacrifice, especially when it saves hundreds of their own jobs. But then, unions aren't much about saving the jobs of their junior members these days so much as they are about looking out for the senior members on top and funneling money into politics.

Posted by Justice at 11:10 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

A little walk through a cemetery makes for good reflection on death. I paid a visit to one this past weekend on my way home, paying a visit to a grave I hadn't visited in several years. As with any large cemetery, 99% of the names are unknown to me, nothing more than a name on a stone. Obviously, many of those other names have friends and family who still remember them, but in time, as those who knew them pass on, the grave eventually might as well say Jane or John Doe. Most of us perish into obscurity as time passes, to be remembered only at the end of all things.

The unfortunate side of this is that many of the dead are left waiting in purgatory for prayers from this side, prayers which these days have to be long in coming, given the increasing belief that there is no Hell, let alone that there's a Purgatory. It might be a good exercise now and then to take a stroll down to a graveyard, pick out a row of graves, and pray for the people in that row. Odds are, there'll be someone there who will be thankful for the effort.

Nothing illustrates the disconnect about death more than reading some of the reasons for and against the death penalty. To begin with, although I have reservations about the death penalty, I don't see where the total opposition to it comes in from the Christian side of the aisle. That little matter of the Resurrection was brought about through the death penalty's use.

In the gospels themselves, three different scenarios of the condemned are presented - one man guilty but repentant for his crime, another guilty but unrepentant for his crime, and one innocent but accepting of his fate. Things may be best summed up by the good thief, who says "Do you not fear God, since you are under the same sentence of condemnation? And we indeed justly; for we are receiving the due reward of our deeds; but this man has done nothing wrong." (Luke 23:40-41) In that, there is an acceptance of the justice of the death penalty by the thief, although at the same time an acknowledgment that it is being inflicted unjustly on another.

One thing anti-death penalty groups forget is that death is, by its very nature, a significant penance for one's crimes, assuming one is repentant. And, indeed, given the fixed date of death, it gives the condemned the great chance of being able to get their soul ready just before they are executed. Strident opposition to the death penalty almost seems to fall into the error of thinking this life is the only thing there is (on the more liberal/atheist side, this would be more true than on the genuinely pro-life side).

Meanwhile, the opposition seems to want the death penalty for the wrong reasons as well. Justice is certainly a noble cause, but more often, those pushing for the execution seem to have a vindictive streak, as if they want the condemned to burn in Hell and would like to speed them along the way to doing that. That makes the opposite error of implicitly rejecting the possibility of Divine Mercy, as nothing suggests that there is any care for the soul going on. God doesn't desire to send anybody to Hell, and the justice system shouldn't be predicated on the desire to send people there, however much victims may mistakenly desire it.

Should there be a use for the death penalty? I think so, although on a different philosophy than that now in place. There are certain crimes on which I think there can be general agreement that death is an appropriate penalty, but the aim should be on trying to salvage their soul at the very least instead of simply eliminating trash. This is of course hard in a secular state, as it cannot help but turn the death penalty into a rather cold process without religion's tempering influence, which is probably why it has declined in the West besides also becoming rather problematic in being used judiciously.

Posted by Justice at 9:25 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Dear China:

Love, Justice

As might be inferred from the letter, I was involved with assembling a piece of furniture made in China today. There is a sliding shelf unit which was held in place only by 4 plastic brackets, with little plastic pegs to stick them in. These are designed in such a way as to make changing the height of the shelf very difficult and naturally one broke in the process of doing so. No spares in the bag, and no documentation of any kind to help out. We ended up buying metal pegs from Home Depot to replace them.

Forget good help being hard to find. Nowadays, good workmanship is hard to find.

Posted by Justice at 11:32 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

A reader asks me if Father Corapi would ever come to a major city in Canada, how it would be arranged, and how they could find out about it. I don't know his policies about traveling to Canada, or much about how to invite him to preach.

The best thing to do would be to ask Fr. Corapi about a Canadian appearance through his website. Through 2006, he hasn't got any scheduled appearances, but maybe someday one will appear on his events list. These sorts of things usually get planned by a lay group (e.g. Holy Family Communications up here) or a parish individually.

Posted by Justice at 11:29 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Merlin, one of our two cats, caught his first mouse today, and apparently also killed it in the process while managing not to spill any blood. His reward was a slice of turkey.

In other news, it's been a tiring day for me, so there won't be much until tomorrow. On the bright side, I have figured out a writing topic for the blog during my vacation.

Posted by Justice at 11:32 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

The Supreme Court decided to dabble again in supreme idiocy, deciding today that some Connecticut homeowners can be evicted by eminent domain by their government, with the property to then be turned over to a private developer for commercial redevelopment.

The key quote from the majority opinion, by John Paul Stevens:

"The city has carefully formulated an economic development that it believes will provide appreciable benefits to the community, including - but by no means limited to - new jobs and increased tax revenue."

Translating Justice Stevens into layman's terms, the government is the one who has the final authority over how to utilize land within its jurisdiction. All any government has to do to trounce on private property rights is propose a plan which it thinks will either add more tax money or jobs, or any other thing, tangible or not, which it believes falls under the "by no means limited to" part.

That sort of power has all sorts of applications for abuse. I can imagine small towns deciding to plan a commercial center on the land of someone the people at large dislike, powerful politicians exacting revenge on opponents' homes or businesses, or, mirroring a local case, a developer deciding that a current low-income neighborhood sits on valuable land and lobbying to be given the land to knock it all down and build a new upper-income subdivision or gated community while kicking out the poor folks.

Churches and NGOs, particularly the non-profits, will also face problems. Churches don't pay any taxes, so even a flat-surface parking lot would generate more tax revenue. I doubt governments will try moving against any of the major churches at present, given the outcry that would result, but one can imagine more marginal groups, e.g. Branch Davidians, finding themselves getting eviction notices. In more conservative towns, Planned Parenthood and the ACLU may find their offices under the gun, while in more liberal areas, crisis pregnancy centers and the Boy Scouts may face the same troubles.

This really isn't surprising coming from the Court's liberal wing, who all voted in favor of this nonsense. The left has long felt that the government is the best determiner of how to run our lives, and extending it to private property is only the latest move in that direction. It might be useful to remember what happened in Communist states when the government eliminated private property rights and redistributed things according to its desire - common devastation except to those in power.

Hopefully Congress or the states will take action against this soon. A word to the wise to Republicans - do so now while the opportunity presents itself, since you can bet the Democrats will exploit it to the full if they ever get the chance to further their social re-engineering projects.

Posted by Justice at 11:19 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

Bishop Edward Kmiec is going to appoint a commission which, among other things, is supposed to define the mission of the diocese. Um, is there something wrong with the old mission of spreading the teaching of Jesus, conversion, the call to repentance and saving souls? Or has it been lost somewhere down the line?

Either way, it shouldn't take a commission to figure out what the Church is supposed to be about. If there's some confusion, a careful reading of the Bible and Catechism, or a call to Rome would be able to set things straight. I'm sure the Bishop was just trying to be with the times with the popularity of "mission statements" but in the case of a church, it's poor word choice and a bad idea.

Posted by Justice at 11:50 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

The county has gotten a control board for its finances, and it's scheduled to be around until 2039. It's designed to be a "soft" or advisory one unless the county fails at any one of four things - getting shut out of the bond market, failing to pass a balanced budget on time, running a deficit of more than 1% (approximately $10 million per year), or defaulting on its debt service.

Tomorrow there's a vote on a sales tax hike which may not pass, as one of the retiring legislators has suddenly come out swinging with a plan to cut 25% across the board from all departments and wants it seriously considered before he'll approve an increase. Part of it sounds like sour grapes over not being party to a very small cut package being proposed by the majority leader. Wall Street has more or less warned the county that a failure to pass this measure will lead to junk bond status, which would trigger the "hard" board before we've even got it started. A hard board can cancel union contracts and would have much more control over the purse strings.

Giambra meanwhile seems more deluded than certain idiots comparing Guantanamo Bay to gulags. Wall Street has joined the chorus of people differing with his view of reality, joining a long list of county and state politicians. Joel really is a uniter - he may be the only politician around who can successfully get everyone to unite against him. Now all we need is an anti-Joel and things would be great.

In a way, it's almost too bad the taxpayers get sentenced to up to 34 years of this, with the possibility of parole at some later point, instead of the people in charge.

Posted by Justice at 11:16 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Well, if Pope Benedict XVI has it in mind to do what this article says, it would be some very sweet music indeed. It would also be nice if, after that, the entire Catholic world had a good reason to watch one of the Pope's Masses. There's a possibility I might have the chance to do so in person in 2006 or 2007, which would be awesome, so hopefully that comes to fruition.

Whether or not this brings back the St. Pius X people and others of their kind is another matter. As the East found out in the wake of Photius, and the West in the wake of Luther, levelling charges of heresy against Rome, even if not true, makes maintaining communion far more difficult, since once the charge has been made, some will always maintain that the heresy persists. Except for the few times where Rome was in a position to quash the heresy outright with the help of Christian rulers (Arianism, Albigensianism, and Jansenism) false ideas have generally persisted with their factions for generations.

Posted by Justice at 10:41 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

The university finally mailed off my bachelor's degrees. Unlike most degrees I've ever seen, however, these don't bother to list what the degree was issued for. They say only, respectively, that I was granted a Bachelor of Science and a Bachelor of Arts, summa cum laude.

The woman on the phone explained that these were merely ceremonial pieces of paper and that the transcript would indicate the appropriate degree. That's all well and good, but I expect if I put these in a frame and posted it somewhere, anyone looking at it would have no clue what they were for unless they asked me, which defeats the purpose of displaying them in the first place. If I wanted to be ceremonially showy, that's information I'd want to be putting on display, not leaving as a giant mystery.

This represents a change in philosophy somewhere down the line, since even though my degrees are much larger and fancier than the one my dad has hanging on the wall from the same university, his at least lists the major on the degree. For as much money as the university nailed everybody to buy frames for these suckers, the least they could do is find a little space to print the major. Or is the message supposed to be that the major is utterly unimportant?

Posted by Justice at 2:22 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Sundays often end up being days of rest, now that I begin the day running up and down a field trying to referee a soccer game solo. For whatever reason, I have rather nasty shin splints, which haven't had the time to heal in between the 4 days a week I referee. I've had the problem in some way or other all 8 years I've been doing this, though this year, at least, the ankle stress seems to have gone away.

At any rate, I usually don't feel like being on my feet much after a game due to the shin splints, although strangely, a nap that turned into 4 hours in the middle of the day was enough to eliminate that feeling today. Just in time to go to a birthday cookout, which was quite enjoyable.

Posted by Justice at 11:09 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Cue the dream sequence music and the wavy picture that usually follows it:

In the office of Steve Barnes, a prominent local injury attorney...

TAXPAYER: I'd like to sue the County executive and legislature.

BARNES: What for?

T: Mismanaging my money and putting me millions in debt.

B: I don't think I can do that.

T: What? I thought this was the place to come for multi-million dollar settlements!

B: Well, that's for injury lawsuits.

T: Oh, no problem. They're a toxic waste hazard, let's get em on that.

B: Excuse me?

T: Sure, you heard Alan Hevesi. He said they were toxic. They're a hazard in public buildings.

B: He was speaking metaphorically...

T: So what?

B: Politicians aren't a recognized source of toxic waste so...

T: I want them declared mentally incompetent to hold office.

B: There's no precedent for that unless they're actually mentally incompetent.

T: You don't think there's enough evidence to make the case?

B: Clinically, I don't think so. Sorry you...

T: Well, how about a personal injury suit?

B: They've injured you?

T: Sure! Assault and battery!

B: Really? Tell me more.

T: Look at this!

B: ...Your wallet?!

T: Yep. They snuck up behind me and started beating and clubbing the poor thing. Beat it so bad it started bleeding twenties with no end in sight.

B: I'm sorry...

T: So am I. It's been bled dry, see? Think we have a case?

B: I'm afraid not, you see, you've not been assaulted...

T: What do you mean I've not been assaulted? My wallet's a part of me!

B: There's no precedent for that...

T: There's a first time for everything!

B: I don't think I want to make that argument.

T: What? I thought you guys were on the cutting edge of law practice!

B: That's over the edge.

T: Oh come on, you've been over the edge before! Didn't you just get reprimanded for being too edgy?

B: I think we're done here.

T: What a fraud! I'm going to Andrew Cappoccia's law office. I'm sure he'll take my case and get me out of debt. He said so on TV!

End dream sequence.

This dream was inspired by the news that once again, a legislator might throw a wrench into a tax increase by voting against it when it comes up for the crucial third vote next week. If that happens, I fully expect the county's bond rating to be downgraded to junk and the state to step in faster than you can swat a fly.

As far as mental incompetence to hold office goes, I'm not entirely joking there. One way or another, revenues need to be raised and expenses cut if there's to be any hope of balancing the budget in the near future. Somehow, that fact has yet to sink in to these dummies in office, since it's now been roughly 8 months since this crisis first broke on them.

Posted by Justice at 1:08 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Via Buffalopundit comes word that the city school district is spending some $697 million this upcoming year to educate 38,000 kids, a cost of over $18,000 per child. The cost of a university education at the University at Buffalo is currently $6,750 per year, and roughly $16,000 per year if an in-state student uses university room and board, plus costs for books, transportation, and their estimate of personal expenses.

There's something a little bit fishy in the works when it would cost the state less money to cover the cost of sending the average city school kid to a state college with full room and board plus some expenses than it does to send them to a city high school.

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

Here, for your mouthwatering delight, is a look at the area's major festivals and gastric treats. All of these make for some good eating besides being rather inexpensive. I'll link this one to the blog's main page soon.

- Taste of Buffalo, July 9 and 10

Located at Niagara Square in front of City Hall, approximately 50 restaurants will be participating, based on last year's turnout. The Taste keeps a very diverse menu.

- Burgerfest, July 16

Hamburg's annual celebration of the naming of the hamburger by the Menches Brothers at the Erie County Fair in 1885. Located on Main and Buffalo Streets, the main fare consists of burgers, pizza, ice cream, and beer, along with other local food.

- Erie County Fair, August 10-21

This year is the 166th fair, which involves all the standard things like rides, games, tasty food, vendors, shows, and a display of local agriculture, arts (including woodworking), and other talents. The fairgrounds are located in Hamburg. Besides the fair, the grounds play host to the Buffalo Raceway and its accompanying slots.

- National Buffalo Wing Festival, September 2-4

Dunn Tire Park will be hosting the fourth annual celebration of Buffalo's famous wings. Wings comprise the main fare here, although they can be obtained in a myriad of different flavors and styles from roughly 25 restaurants both local and national. Special events will include a Miss Buffalo Wing Contest, a .5k run, a Car Show, a Wing Sauce competition, and the US Chicken Wing Eating competition.

This is all I have for now, but people are free to let me know of any other major events in the Western New York Area I haven't got up here yet.

NB: Justice will most likely be perusing the Taste and the Fair this year.

Posted by Justice at 11:44 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

I dislike the term "handball" in soccer, because it really fails to describe the nature of the foul and has the extremely annoying habit of drawing coaches to complain (to put it nicely) anytime the ball hits anyone's hand and no whistle goes.

The foul, properly speaking, is deliberate handling of the ball with the hand. That doesn't include inadvertent contact with the hands when they're at the sides or defensive motions (which is most often the case).

You'd think coaches would manage to figure this out, since if it was really illegal for the ball to ever hit the hands of anyone but the goalie, every coach in the world would tell his players to aim at the defense's hands, since it'd be a penalty shot every time they succeeded.

I have the same problem with contact issues. One coach wanted me to watch out for inadvertent contact. Exactly how he was expecting me to penalize that, I don't know - such fouls have to be deliberate in order to be whistled in the first place, and FIFA adds the qualifier that such offenses either have to be careless, reckless, or excessive. This is why the whistle isn't blowing every 5 seconds, since someone is always jumping, sticking out a foot, using their arms for advantage, swinging legs blindly, or charging (all possible fouls). But generally, it's not deliberate, nor does it often meet any of the 3 criteria above. Granted, it's a house league so the calls need to be more stringent for player safety, but there's still not going to be a whistle every time a body goes flying.

So, coaches and parents: Take a chill pill and read the rule book. You'll make my day.

Posted by Justice at 11:45 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

The following editorial appeared in the local paper, and is pretty much proof positive that the editorial board does not have one member even able to comprehend traditional Christianity and also that it's pretty darn hostile to it. Granted, it's not like I expect anything better from a paper owned by Warren Buffett, but this isn't even trying to hide the fact.

Heaven help us if this is what religion in America is coming to, but by the lights of one nominally religious organization, Christianity is less about faith, love and forgiveness than it is about anger, fear and spite. That, at least, is the apparent position of the American Family Association, a conservative Christian group that has threatened to resume a boycott of Ford Motor Co. The reason: Ford is nice to gays.

Like General Motors and Daimler Chrysler, Ford provides benefits for same-sex partners. The Mississippi-based American Family Association saved its indignation for Ford because the automaker advertises in gay-oriented periodicals, has offered to donate $1,000 to a gay rights group for every Jaguar or Land Rover it sells and actively recruits gay employees (imagine that - giving American citizens the right to work).

Where to start with this? First, AFA's problem with Ford isn't that it's nice to gays. Their problem is with the domestic partner benefits they receive as if they were a married couple. Actively recruiting gay employees is discriminatory, since employers should NOT be making employment decisions on that basis. Imagine the outcry if Ford said it was actively recruiting heterosexuals. The donations fall into the same problem, since Ford doesn't donate $1000 to any charity of mine, like this one. Let's call a spade a spade, this is pandering. The AFA, as a Christian group, naturally opposes this special treatment, particularly the domestic benefits and charity donations to activist groups, as this promotes things objectively sinful according to Christianity.

The AFA, which claims to have about 2 million supporters, met with a group of Ford dealers this month and then suspended its boycott until at least Dec. 1. But the threat was clear: Treat gay Americans like other citizens and suffer the economic consequences.

Let's see, gay Americans get benefits for being partners while not married, even though the same is not true of heterosexual partners. They get donations to charity even though other groups don't. They're given favoritism in employment. Does that qualify as being treated like other citizens? Or is there supposed to be an implied "oppressed/disadvantaged/minority" adjective floating in there?

Let's be blunt. The AFA's problem with Ford is that it is treating homosexuals with the same respect it would offer any potential segment of the car-buying population. The company is treating them as just another group, and to the AFA, that is a threat. Why? Because it helps gays to leave the political and social isolation that has provided unchristian comfort to schemers like Donald Wildmon, chairman of the AFA.

Let's be blunt, these policies don't treat them as just another group. I doubt Ford has special deals for women, Latinos, Blacks, diabetics, or most other groups one could name that are based on a genetics. Social isolation comes only from the conscious choice to reveal to all the world something which is best kept in one's close circle of trusted friends or altogether private. As far as political isolation, since when does the News expect that a group that comprises a very small segment of the population and whose so-called leaders espouse views that the vast majority of Americans disagree with is going to be anything but isolated?

What other explanation is there? Even the country's most prominent evangelist, Billy Graham, has said that while he considers homosexuality a sin, it's no worse than idolatry or adultery. So why is the AFA so exercised about homosexuality when other "offenses" do much greater damage to families? Surely murder, which shows up in the Ten Commandments, is worth some outrage. What about corporations that avoid taxes with elaborate accounting schemes, making the rest of us shoulder an unfair burden? Surely that is better cause for a boycott than sex between consenting adults.

And we know what the News thinks of idolatry and adultery, no big deal, right? Graham's not exactly a universal spokesman on this either, as I would say idolatry is always worse than either of the other two and sodomy does have a particular distinction of crying out to Heaven for justice, a distinction adultery does not have. Also, the throwing out of murder and tax evasion are disingenious, since NO corporation officially sanctions murder and legal accounting schemes aren't exactly the crux of the country's moral problems.

We hope Ford and its dealers don't overreact to this extortion. They should recall the effect the AFA boycott had on the Walt Disney Co. The group boycotted Disney over its decision to extend benefits to same-sex couples and promote gay-related events at its theme parks. During the boycott, Disney reported higher earnings and increased attendance at its parks.

Extortion? Sorry guys, the AFA's not trying to obtain any money or benefits. What they are protesting are actions by Ford which essentially reward a group for, depending on your viewpoint, their genetically determined sexual nature or their chosen lifestyle, the latter of which is sinful to Christians and the former of which is often associated with sin, thanks to a public image the media has helped shape. I mean really, when we hear homosexual, do people ever think of a man not having sex with another man (the sinful bit) instead of a man who merely likes or is attracted to men? Nope, and the media never even begins to pretend they exist, which I know they do (I know at least 3). The only gays the media can ever seem to find are the ones who want to get married or the ones shouting the bigot label as Christians.

Ford, its dealers and all Americans should recognize the AFA threat for what it is - bald-faced prejudice, plain and simple. There was a time when some Christians claimed biblical authority for slavery and the racial bigotry that animated their lives. Today, they do the same with homosexuals, who are in the main, like anyone else: tax-paying Americans who have hopes and dreams for their own lives. We're for letting them do that, even if it means they get to drive Jaguars.

Figures the News would bring in slavery and race. Let's be honest, slavery was a fully accepted reality in much of the world for most of history, and when it finally was brought to an end, biblical Christians were behind that as well (back then, the West was populated with believing Christians whose faith informed their positions on these things). But the Bible never explicitly comes down and condemns slavery as it does homosexual sex.

Memo to the News - in your endless blind quest for diversity, try hiring, at some point, a conservative, a traditional Christian, or a gay man who isn't a supporter of gay marriage. That way, we could actually read people who understand, respectively, conservatives, Christians, and opposition to gay marriage, all 3 of which have a significant presence in the area.

Posted by Justice at 10:48 PM | Comments (3) | TrackBack

Today marks my parents' 24th wedding anniversary.

Update: I believe they enjoyed their little present of a bottle of Bully Hill's Ives, though to my chagrin, they misprinted the sweetness label on the bottle. I was aiming for a sweet red, which it was labeled, but the darn thing was on the dry side. Next time, I'll shoot for a white.

Posted by Justice at 1:15 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

It seems there will be a Eucharistic Procession from the Church of Saints Peter and Paul on their feast day, June 29, following an evening Mass.

The parish gets its newly ordained priest this upcoming Sunday.

Posted by Justice at 11:43 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

I think everyone on the field had the same opinion - beginning a soccer game on Sunday morning with a 30 minute downpour that was more drenching than taking a shower fully clothed is no fun.

It was a lousy performance from me, so I will have to do better next week.

Posted by Justice at 11:27 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

There should always be a hint of danger in the air whenever anyone trying to push a policy tries to silence the opposition by claiming that they're trying to stop the alleviation of human suffering. The fact that the Embryonic Stem Cell debate now has people playing the suffering card scares me, especially with the incredibly hideous track record that sort of argument has had.

After all, the nightmare of Communism that swallowed the East claimed that it was supposed to eliminate the suffering of the proletariat, and look how that turned out. Hitler used this ploy to strong-arm his country into going along with the Final Solution, by claiming German suffering was brought on by a certain group. Even before these examples, we have known countless claims of panaceas promised by many, often times dishonestly, to make money (remember the 19th century's tonics?) or for other less than pure motives, like fame or ego. These claims deserve to be looked at critically, not dismissed because "experts" are promising the moon with embryonic stem cells.

If these scientists turn out to be wrong, the best-case scenario is that we'll have dumped billions of dollars and time into a fruitless cause. In that particular situation, expect the truly suffering to castigate those who convinced them to support that policy in the first place, since they'll probably find out in time that other stem cells were shown effective long before the embryonic stuff ever got to human trials, but that this was conveniently swept under the rug by an agenda.

Personally, I expect (and hope) embryonic stem-cell research fails in treating anything. I say this because, as I believe killing embryos for their stem cells is immoral and immoral actions always lead to evil in the end, this is the lightest possible negative outcome for humanity. I don't even want to think about any worse evils that might be unleashed from Pandora's box, though that's certainly quite possible. I doubt most IVF backers way back when ever foresaw that this research would provide a justification for deliberate embryo destruction, just as most Christians probably never foresaw what contraception was going to bring about.

The heart of the debate, however, is not a question of religion. Nor is it a question of ethics, science, or law. The principle question here is one of metaphysics, namely, what is the criteria of personhood? And then, once we have that, do embryos fall under the definition or do they not? If they do, ethically, it's wrong to engage in this sort of research, since in no case is the killing of innocent human beings ethical, no matter how great the good, supposed or real.

However, if we are unsure, it's also ethically wrong to engage in this sort of research. This goes back to the principle that, given uncertainty over whether an action is ethical or not, the action is not done. In other words, if we aren't sure if it's a person or not, we presume that it is unless we conclude otherwise (would anyone seriously like to make the opposite assumption, that one is not a person unless it can be firmly established?) Had the Supreme Court been following this principle, Roe v Wade's outcome, given the justices' inability to determine when human life began, would have been to outlaw abortion unless it could be shown that the unborn weren't human life.

The metaphysical question, however, is not easy in the secular sense. I do not believe anyone has successfully come up with criteria that include all beings who are persons and excludes all beings who are not without somehow involving religion or philosophy. Even if someone had, I doubt it would achieve consensus without extremely vigorous arguments, since there are different preconceptions about who are persons and who are not depending on ideology.

From the Catholic perspective, the question is relatively easy - every being which has a human soul is a person, regardless of how few or how many of the powers of the human nature are wielded by said being. It is also relatively easy to determine in practice, if not by definition, who has a human soul. These are all those beings which have a human genetic structure and are maintaining their life functions.

By this I mean having at least one organic process or system maintained without technological help. If the cells in general are maintaining the process of taking in food and expelling waste, the soul's still there. Only when every last system and life process has failed can it conclusively be said the soul has departed. This rule applies to the unborn as well as those already born. No cellular life functions can be sustained without a soul of some sort, so the mere fact that an embryo performs any of them at all says it has a soul, and it's ridiculous to suggest that it's any sort other than human unless one wishes to go into the difficulty of positing some pre-human soul for human embryos along with trying to definitively pin down when this other soul is replaced by a human one. Trying to say the mother's soul initially animates the embryo introduces the same problem of when a unique soul supplants the mothers.

Thanks to the development of genetic science, Catholic metaphysics and theology in union with science can effectively determine what is a human being, and also provide a means to establish this empirically, no soul detectors required. The only problem is that we include as living people those whom others would rather not be people because it would inconvenience them somehow.

This remains the reason why there is no middle ground on abortion, and why there will not be any middle ground on embryonic stem cells. The question of personhood is central to both, and there are only two answers - yes, or no, regardless of criteria. There's no middle ground, one can't be a demi-person, unlike in sci-fi - either one meets the criteria or not. The only people in the so-called middle are those who are conveniently ignoring the question of whether embryos are persons or not. They can get away with it because a good portion of the public has been ignoring it for years, and likely will keep on doing so. Excepting those who want abortion on demand with no restrictions and those want to see all abortions banned, no IVF, and no embryonic stem cell research, the populace at large hasn't decided.

Posted by Justice at 10:40 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

The headline above would clearly be quite tantalizing if it involved Republican Congressman Tom Reynolds and Democratic Senator Chuck Schumer, both of New York. However, these two aren't duking it out in a race. Instead, this banner refers to a race for the 12th legislative district in Erie County. The candidates are Robert Reynolds and Dr. Janet Schumer. And, in a reversal, the Schumer in this race is a Republican, while Reynolds is a Democrat. Who says there's no irony in politics?

So, as odd as it may sound, this may be the one time I might have voted for Schumer and not Reynolds in a race.

Posted by Justice at 11:31 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Via the Curt Jester comes this quickie little IQ test.

Your IQ Is 135

Your Logical Intelligence is Genius Your Verbal Intelligence is Genius Your Mathematical Intelligence is Genius Your General Knowledge is Exceptional

Hmm...the GRE would definitely have nailed me on the verbal score, but I'll take the nicer questions.

Posted by Justice at 10:09 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

I have a rather long post in the works on embryonic stem cells, but it's going to take some time, as I need to find the appropriate links, and it really needs to be proof-read. If you'd like to help out with the latter, leave a comment or drop me an e-mail.

Posted by Justice at 1:32 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

A little factoid on the heat we've been having locally.

Yesterday, June 9, it hit 90 degrees in Buffalo. That makes it, officially, the hottest day we have had in just over a thousand days, as the last time that happened was September 9, 2002, when I was just beginning Sophomore year in college.

Buffalo ordinarily only gets about three 90-degree days in an average year, but we hit an odd cold spell in which, for two straight summers, we didn't get any. But it isn't necessarily a blessing that we've hit the first one so early in the year, as our summers can be quite humid, and the last thing I want to do is be sweating buckets just typing the whole summer, as I am even now at 3:30 in the morning.

I can't stand heat and humidity, and I don't understand how people down in Florida can live with it. I'd sooner be wearing my winter clothing and walking in a light snow than be in this.

On a sidenote, the wacky weather produced the most explosive sustained thunderstorms around here in a while. In this case, that meant two hours of sustained lightning blasts coupled with a very heavy downpour. Peanuts, I'm sure, to anyone who's ever been in the path of a tropical system, but it's pretty likely the worst I'll be seeing until the snow bands roll in again.

Posted by Justice at 3:29 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Related to the post below, it seems that one of Bishop William Levada's first acts when he gets to Rome to take over as prefect of the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith may be the issuance of a formal excommunication of a bunch of people who think they will be pulling off another priestly ordination of women.

The sacriligious mockery is set to take place July 25. Shortly thereafter, the Vatican will probably issue a warning to the participants, giving them a little time to repent prior to a formal excommunication. The last time around, the Vatican warning was issued 11 days after the fact, and formal excommunication occurred 37 days after the fact. 37 days after July 25 happens to be August 31, by which time Levada will be in Rome, and given he's expected to take office not long after, it's conceivable this might be one of the first actions he happens to sign.

That would sure draw wails from the American Catholic-lite, to see their possible hope of a compromising and moderate prefect go down in flames almost from the get-go by having one of their pet projects condemned - and by the highest ranking American prelate no less. Sometimes, you have to wonder how these people can have the most utterly stupid timing in the world, to schedule this farce right at almost the perfect moment to give the Vatican the chance to make the excommunications be one of the first things Levada has to do. Mark Shea's motto of "Sin Makes You Stupid" is in full play here.

Posted by Justice at 12:44 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Some women are attempting to get ordained this July by two of the excommunicated women "priestesses" that attempted it 3 years ago. They claim they've received ordination as bishops, and hence can ordain another dozen from North America. This will all be done on a river to attempt to avoid diocesan jurisdiction which could intervene to stop it.

That will be quite a ship of fools the day they try. Apart from the definitive teaching of the Catholic Church that ordaining women is an impossibility (not just something we don't feel like doing), secret ordinations, defiance of Church law, and attempting to avoid the jurisdiction of Church authority don't speak well for their cause.

Denying holy orders to women is not simply a discipline or mere rule of the Church. Rather, the sacrament itself cannot be conferred on a woman, according to sacramental theology. This goes back to the teaching on what a priest does, namely, act in the Person of Christ. For rather obvious reasons, having a woman act literally in the person of a man is problematic (and explains the desperation of some to suggest Christ was a woman), besides also missing the roles of salvation history. Eve got the ball rolling toward the fall, but Adam is the one who broke man's relation to God by his sin. Later, Mary repairs Eve's sin by getting the ball rolling toward redemption, but this is all she can do. It takes Christ to undo the sin of Adam.

But the key part is that God does not use intermediaries to say certain formulas and cast down grace as a magician would cast a spell using certain words. Rather, Christ acts directly through priests, albeit in a mysterious manner we can't detect. This is not the same as the Holy Spirit's indwelling, which anyone can experience as the Holy Spirit does not have a gender, while Christ definitely does in the incarnation. This action requires the physical body of a male, since it was as a male that Christ performed His ministry and also the great sacrifice that redeemed the world.

For most Protestants, they really have no good reason to not have women priests other than that they've never traditionally used them, but since they at the same time forsake traditions and lack a priesthood that acts "in persona Christi" or is even sacramentally set apart, most will probably give in in time.

However, as these women aren't claiming to be Protestant, but still insisting they're Catholic, they're going to be out of luck. The Church will excommunicate them all the same for the sacrilege, nobody's going to get any supernatural grace out of their ministry, and they're going to continue confusing the ignorant to their detriment. Grab your millstones, ladies.

Posted by Justice at 11:37 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Being the optimistic sort, as crusaders tend to be, I delved into a little side project of trying to revise my CSS and main index templates to split the sidebar into two pieces (one to the left, one to the right). The result is something of a joke, as the various pieces of the blog have ended up in disarray.

I don't think anyone's seen the mess since I had the foresight to test this elsewhere and not fiddle with the main page. However, since I'm a hopeless dunce when it comes to CSS, even after reading the tutorials, this project is being suspended for now.

Input would be helpful though - would you like me to put sidebars on both sides (links on the right, everything else on the left), or does the present format seem better?

Posted by Justice at 2:53 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

I hate the way the youth soccer league runs itself sometimes. The same stupid misprint the rules about the length of the quarters is in there again for what is now the 6th year in a row. We've never called 15 minute quarters, and if ever there was such a plan, it was hatched back when we used to play at a different location which did not have a horrid parking situation.

Games start at 6:00 and 7:30. In general, we're supposed to be done by 7:00 and 8:30 respectively, according to our supervisor, though there is some leeway for the late game. How anyone can possibly expect four 15 minute quarters in a 60 minute time frame is pretty fantastic, but there is still one coach who keeps insisting and keeps trying to club us all over the head with it, saying he'd gone to a long meeting where this was discussed. If such a meeting did take place, nobody apparently bothered to invite the refs to it, even though we're the people most directly involved with rules.

The man is also notorious for refusing to level off, even though this is a non-competitive house league, and refused again tonight, and even made the ludicrous argument that we should be punishing teams who don't field enough (as an aside, the team in question was given a short roster, they will only field enough if everyone they have shows up, a rarity in house - it's unfair enough to ask them to never get any rest the entire season when all the other teams do). What part of non-competitive isn't he grasping here?

On the bright side, justice was served when the short team soundly outplayed and beat his. It was one of the best passing and teamwork displays I've seen in quite some time.

Posted by Justice at 11:43 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

A book meme from Julie of Happy Catholic:

Here for your enjoyment is the list of the top 110 banned books. Bold the ones you've read. Italicize the ones you've read part of. Read more. Convince others to read some.

1. The Bible
2. Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
3. Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes
4. The Koran
5. Arabian Nights
6. Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain [school]
7. Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift
8. Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer
9. Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne
10. Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman
11. The Prince by Niccolo Machiavell
12. Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe
13. Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank
14. Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert [school]
15. Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens
16. Les Miserables by Victor Hugo
17. Dracula by Bram Stoker
18. Autobiography by Benjamin Franklin
19. Tom Jones by Henry Fielding
20. Essays by Michel de Montaigne
21. Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
22. History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire by Edward Gibbon
23. Tess of the D'Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy
24. Origin of Species by Charles Darwin
25. Ulysses by James Joyce
26. Decameron by Giovanni Boccaccio
27. Animal Farm by George Orwell
28. Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell
29. Candide by Voltaire
30. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee [school]
31. Analects by Confucius
32. Dubliners by James Joyce
33. Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck [school]
34. Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway
35. Red and the Black by Stendhal
36. Capital by Karl Marx
37. Flowers of Evil by Charles Baudelaire
38. Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
39. Lady Chatterley's Lover by D. H. Lawrence
40. Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
41. Sister Carrie by Theodore Dreiser
42. Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
43. Jungle by Upton Sinclair [school]
44. All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque
45. Communist Manifesto by Karl Marx
46. Lord of the Flies by William Golding [school]
47. Diary by Samuel Pepys
48. Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway
49. Jude the Obscure by Thomas Hardy
50. Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
51. Doctor Zhivago by Boris Pasternak
52. Critique of Pure Reason by Immanuel Kant
53. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey
54. Praise of Folly by Desiderius Erasmus
55. Catch-22 by Joseph Heller
56. Autobiography of Malcolm X by Malcolm X
57. Color Purple by Alice Walker
58. Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger
59. Essay Concerning Human Understanding by John Locke
60. Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison
61. Molly Flanders by Daniel Defoe
62. One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
63. East of Eden by John Steinbeck
64. Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison [school]
65. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou
66. Confessions by Jean Jacques Rousseau
67. Gargantua and Pantagruel by François Rabelais
68. Leviathan by Thomas Hobbes
69. The Talmud [college, selections]
70. Social Contract by Jean Jacques Rousseau
71. Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson [school]
72. Women in Love by D. H. Lawrence
73. American Tragedy by Theodore Dreiser
74. Mein Kampf by Adolf Hitler
75. Separate Peace by John Knowles
76. Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath
77. Red Pony by John Steinbeck
78. Popol Vuh
79. Affluent Society by John Kenneth Galbraith
80. Satyricon by Petronius
81. James and the Giant Peach by Roald Dahl [school]
82. Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov
83. Black Boy by Richard Wright [school]
84. Spirit of the Laws by Charles de Secondat Baron de Montesquieu
85. Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut
86. Julie of the Wolves by Jean Craighead George
87. Metaphysics by Aristotle [college]
88. Little House on the Prairie by Laura Ingalls Wilder
89. Institutes of the Christian Religion by Jean Calvin
90. Steppenwolf by Hermann Hesse
91. Power and the Glory by Graham Greene
92. Sanctuary by William Faulkner
93. As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner
94. Black Like Me by John Howard Griffin
95. Sylvester and the Magic Pebble by William Steig
96. Sorrows of Young Werther by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
97. General Introduction to Psychoanalysis by Sigmund Freud
98. Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood
99. Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee by Dee Alexander Brown
100. Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess
101. Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman by Ernest J. Gaines
102. Emile by Jean Jacques Rousseau
103. Nana by Emile Zola
104. Chocolate War by Robert Cormier
105. Go Tell It on the Mountain by James Baldwin
106. Gulag Archipelago by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
107. Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert A. Heinlein
108. Day No Pigs Would Die by Robert Peck
109. Ox-Bow Incident by Walter Van Tilburg Clark
110. Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes [school, extremely abridged]

Most of my experience with these books has been from public school, which apparently really liked to select titles from this list. I do own The Prince and Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, so they'll be added at some point. And, at some point, I will succeed in progressing beyond Isaiah and finishing the Old Testament.

Rather than specifically infect other bloggers with this meme, as that involves work, I'm just going to sneeze all over this post. If you've read this post and haven't done the meme, consider yourself tagged/infected. Happy reading.

Posted by Justice at 1:13 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

The verdict is in from the state comptroller, and Erie County is projected to have a deficit of $118 million by the end of the fiscal year based on its current budget. This isn't good news, since the fiscal year is already 5 months in progress, meaning any cuts of staff or increases in taxes won't be as effective as they would have been back at the start of the year.

The county executive's still playing Mr. Denial, trying to dispute the state's numbers. Given he has the popularity of a rotting corpse in summer, I doubt anybody's really going to buy into that claim. In somewhat good news, the state's audit was only about $5 million off of the projection of the local comptroller, so at least she wasn't using quack math, though unfortunately, her warnings about the rash fiscal policies in place the last few years have been routinely ignored. A control board is being proposed to help sort all this out, since the political situation has really become almost impossible to work with.

So, it looks like the primary solution to this mess is going to be raising the sales tax and eventually property tax, floating at least $100 million in long-term deficit financing, and probably hoping the exodus of people from the county doesn't make it impossible to rebalance the budget. The county has to move though, since the state legislature will be recessing in only 2 weeks, and their approval is required to float deficit financing bonds. I doubt the county can secure a short-term loan to avoid insolvency in July otherwise, since its bond rating was downgraded again today (now BBB-), and was warned future downgrades could occur if the financial picture doesn't improve soon.

Seriously Joel, stop digging and put down the shovel, the hole in the Rath Building is deep enough. In fact, I'm sure if you just owned up to being a lousy executive, resigned, and announced you were moving to Florida for good, you'd get the biggest going away bash ever. Heck, we might even let you take a county car and pay your chauffeur for the trip down.

Posted by Justice at 9:17 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

- The schedule page has been slightly fixed up, and I've begun a very brief attempt at a reading list (currently comprised of 2 titles), that will be extended as I take inventory over the summer.

- Pontifications has moved to a new home, and also joins the St. Blog's list as he will be joining the Church. In the few weeks since that decision, his blog has posted a treasure trove of good stuff.

- DREADNOUGHT is the only addition this month to the blogroll, an Aussie Catholic who deals with the subject of homosexuality better than most other writers I've seen, besides being pretty good with Catholic and conservative issues generally.

- The blogroll category of "Other Christian Faiths" has been temporarily suppressed, as I'm not regularly reading anyone who falls into that category. Suggestions are welcome, as I'd like to bring it back in the near future. The category of "Inactive Blogs" was created to house Mark Shea and Fr. Sibley.

- If you want to increase the number of visitors to your site, smatter Latin words through the posts. I've gotten dozens of search requests this last month where people were looking for Latin words or phrases, including a few people who were explicitly searching for the Wheelock Loci Antiqui I posted, albeit mostly untranslated.

- There have been some very odd search strings that turned up my site. Among the better:

"long ago a knight made a stand with michael the one who is like god" (sounds like an interesting epic/legend)

"capitium club"

"national catholic reporter excommunications list" (we can dream, can't we?)

"is the crusader scapular considered a brown scapular" (yes)

"china will overrun feminized america"

"why hitler was so bad" (good heavens, tell me this is rhetorical)

Posted by Justice at 2:44 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Since the month of May began, the book buying binge has taken on new heights, culminating in my eyeing Ebay to purchase a 21-book series which I found enjoyable after reading the first volume. If I do end up getting it, a friend has offered to take up what would be 3 duplicates on my end at the same nominal fee I picked them up. If that happens, in just the last 5 weeks or so, I will have bought the following:

- 7 books from a deep discount bookseller
- 7 books from TAN
- 9 books from Amazon
- 10 books from the library
- 1 book from Waldenbooks
- 21 books from Ebay?

That would make a grand total of 55, minus 3, for 52. I could make a deck of playing cards with the purchases of just over a month! That would also pretty much force me to put many of these into storage. I already don't have room for the library acquisition as it is, and once TAN and Amazon's orders arrive...yikes!

Lord, give me the grace to start reading and stop buying!

Posted by Justice at 12:46 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Oof! One of the lousiest things about being an out of shape oaf is that when I have to referee the adult league on Sunday, it's utterly draining, besides the humiliation of seeing men with graying hair running circles around me. I suppose anyone would get winded trying to referee a game single-handed over a full 90 minute game, but I'm pretty sure it would be much easier if I were in shape.

In funny news related to this, the first half was called just before the ball crossed the goal line, making it one of the only times a goal was disallowed by the buzzer I've ever seen. True, I could have extended the time by discretion, but since the team about to score was up by several goals, I decided not to.

Posted by Justice at 9:14 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

I touched on odd formulas for the General Intercessions last summer, but since then, the parish has gone from the odd to being pushy. Today's response was:

R: Lord, answer us!

The tone was demanding in nature, which is just so out of place for prayer. Intercessions are supposed to be entreaties to God, not an entitlement, though one would never know it the way we asked it today. I think the bird in the sanctuary had more of an idea of what was supposed to be the central focus when it rested on the crucifix there.

I don't understand why the intercessions have this particular problem. Even the Newman Center managed to do the versicle and response properly back when I went there. Is this supposed to be the latest version of empowerment some wacko liturgist thought up?

Posted by Justice at 7:23 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Well, I made a good decision about First Friday today by trekking off to the 9 am Mass and not waiting for the 4 pm wedding, since that got cancelled. Unfortunately, the 9 am happened to be the MUD Mass (Moving Up Day). Ordinarily, Masses aimed for kids make me cringe because they tend to have various sorts of liturgical nonsense, the worst music, and the focus on God tends to get lost in the proceedings.

Today was one of the better times, as things went more or less as they should have, only the music was lousy. No altar circling, no clapping (a first in ages at one of these sorts of Masses), and no unexpected surprises. Sending off a quick prayer that things will go well does bear fruits.

The homily was, of course, directed to the students moving up (in odd fashion, the 8th graders get to skip on a trip to the local Six Flags Darien Lake while the 7th graders get the MUD ceremonies. Don't ask me why). Largely a rehash of last year's homily (First Friday always seems to coincide with MUD), it was mainly an exhortation to set an example and follow the teachings of Jesus.

Now, I don't have anything wrong with asking them to follow the teachings of Jesus, although this can naturally lead to confusion, particularly if their catechesis has been poor.

For instance, if one were to send out an open invitation to the world, asking "What are the teachings of Jesus?" dozens of different Bibles, and the thoughts of tens of thousands of denominations, plus those of the secularists who like to stick Jesus on top of their ideas to hide the nakedness of them, would be thrown upon them as so many books, making a great pile they'd have to dig through, since it's possible to be honestly mistaken about these things. It would take a minor miracle to locate the Catechism amongst the clutter.

On the other hand, exhorting one to follow the teachings of the Church is much easier. Here, only one book, the Catechism, would be tossed, though it would be surrounded by an eerie mist, an amalgamation of the Spirit of Vatican II (so-called because it lacks substance), and other misrepresentations of the faith which no honest person can make in good faith. This mist stinks like an old fart that just won't go away (or to some people, this might be a cloud of Durian Dust), and many people are understandably turned away from the book due to the stench of this miserable mist that follows it wherever it goes. When the book is pried free from the mist though, it is found to smell quite nice.

Returning to the point, using "the teachings of Jesus" is right, but it's only useful if your audience happens to know exactly what that means. If they don't, it's best to hedge and use "the teachings of the Church" since the latter is not, however much some may insist it is, open to interpretation as the former is.

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

The Niagara Air Reserve Base is currently scheduled for closure under the Pentagon's current plans. Local leaders have been working pretty hard to change that outcome, and have wondered why this base is scheduled for closure even though it ranked higher than some bases which will be staying open. Well, it turns out there's a perfectly rational reason - most of the aircraft we have here are flown exclusively by reservists, and since they're needed a lot, there's been a bit too much of a callup of the Reserves. So the military's idea is to reduce this problem of overusing the Reserves.

I find this highly ironic because many people locally have been expressing concerns about the overuse of the Reserves. Now that the military has actually heeded that criticism and might close our base to solve that problem, well, now there's an outcry. Since these decisions are usually political, I doubt much capital is available to help here. This state always goes for the Dems, and the only Republican House member whom this really impacts is Tom Reynolds.

Interesting sidenote - this base was also on the 1995 closing list, but I recall that there were some rumors in the Buffalo News that this was in part based on the false premise that the base was in a Republican district when it was really in Democrat John LaFalce's. As the Buffalo News archive is not available online, I really don't know for sure.

Posted by Justice at 9:43 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack