Tuesday, April 23, 2013

It's only "common sense."

From dedham.patch.com:


Williams-Sonoma Pulls Pressure Cookers Off Shelves in Massachusetts

Following the Boston Marathon bombing last Monday in which pressure cookers were used for the explosion, the cookware giant has decided to temporarily stop selling the items in their Massachusetts stores.

Williams-Sonoma, the specialty retailer of home furnishings and gourmet cookware with over 250 stores in the United States, has pulled pressure cookers from their shelves following the Boston Marathon bombing.

It's only "common sense."

From dedham.patch.com:


Williams-Sonoma Pulls Pressure Cookers Off Shelves in Massachusetts

Following the Boston Marathon bombing last Monday in which pressure cookers were used for the explosion, the cookware giant has decided to temporarily stop selling the items in their Massachusetts stores.

Williams-Sonoma, the specialty retailer of home furnishings and gourmet cookware with over 250 stores in the United States, has pulled pressure cookers from their shelves following the Boston Marathon bombing.

Thursday, April 18, 2013

Reforming the Reform: Why Correct Liturgy Should Come First

Never have I read a more cogent explanation (from Corpus Christi Watershed). The money quote (but read it all):


The lack of a spirit of reverent adoration at so many liturgies, together with the countless ways we have abandoned our holy tradition, is the root cause of why Catholics believe so little nowadays, have so little reverence for the Eucharist, and dissent so blithely from Church teaching, especially in matters of morality. Indeed, what we have done to our Church in the past five decades deserves to be punished with loss of faith, desecration, scandal, and moral confusion. The Lord will not be mocked: those who repudiate His gifts will be repudiated, until and unless they repent.
 A bishop might also be tempted to think: “Summorum Pontificum is a nice idea, in and of itself, and the enthusiasm among some young people for Latin, chant, and what have you is all fine and good, but we have to concentrate on the basics of faith and morals—we can’t waste precious time and energy promoting such exotic causes.” But this is exactly wrong. The liturgy is the tip of the spear. If you sharpen it, you succeed in your hunting. Once the right priorities are set in the sanctuary, the right priorities begin to be set elsewhere, too. First things first. The Church is mainly about the business of worshiping God and sanctifying souls, and this takes place above all in the sacred liturgy.
(Thanks to Augustine) 

Reforming the Reform: Why Correct Liturgy Should Come First

Never have I read a more cogent explanation (from Corpus Christi Watershed). The money quote (but read it all):


The lack of a spirit of reverent adoration at so many liturgies, together with the countless ways we have abandoned our holy tradition, is the root cause of why Catholics believe so little nowadays, have so little reverence for the Eucharist, and dissent so blithely from Church teaching, especially in matters of morality. Indeed, what we have done to our Church in the past five decades deserves to be punished with loss of faith, desecration, scandal, and moral confusion. The Lord will not be mocked: those who repudiate His gifts will be repudiated, until and unless they repent.
 A bishop might also be tempted to think: “Summorum Pontificum is a nice idea, in and of itself, and the enthusiasm among some young people for Latin, chant, and what have you is all fine and good, but we have to concentrate on the basics of faith and morals—we can’t waste precious time and energy promoting such exotic causes.” But this is exactly wrong. The liturgy is the tip of the spear. If you sharpen it, you succeed in your hunting. Once the right priorities are set in the sanctuary, the right priorities begin to be set elsewhere, too. First things first. The Church is mainly about the business of worshiping God and sanctifying souls, and this takes place above all in the sacred liturgy.
(Thanks to Augustine) 

Saturday, April 13, 2013

Good question

And one you won't find the answer to in the New York Times, nor any other mainstream media (Elizabeth Scalia in First Things):
So, allow me to ask the impolitic question I have hinted at elsewhere: in choosing to look away, in choosing to under-report, in choosing to spin, minimize, excuse, and move-along when it comes to Kermit Gosnell—and to this whole subject of under-regulated abortion clinics, the debasement of women and the slaughter of living children—how are the press and those they protect by their silence any better than the Catholic bishops who, in decades past, looked away, under-reported, spun, minimized, excused, moved-along, and protected the repulsive predator-priests who have stolen innocence and roiled the community of faith?
Scalia writes further:
The press was quite right (and duty-bound) to report on the shameful failures of our bishops and the sins of our priests. They reported; they followed up. They dug through records. They sought out histories. They looked for more, because they understood that if filth existed in one diocese, it likely existed in others. They courageously did their jobs, unworried about fallout or repercussions; they were looking at a big issue, and were thus unintimidated by big names, and rightly unreserved in their outrage.
Here, I believe, Scalia missteps. The reason the media was "unworried about fallout or repercussions" from reporting on predator priests and the bishops' cover-ups has less to do with any courageousness on their part than confidence there would not be any fallout, of significance at least, from their reporting on it (which, however, in no way reduces the value of those reports). The sad truth is mainstream media fears far less the outrage of officialdom in the Catholic Church than same from the liberal-feminist cultural elite, who over the past decades have made it crystal clear that for them abortion is nothing less than a sacrament, that blaspheming or even questioning it to the slightest degree is subjecting yourself to considerable peril in the public square.

Empty reserved press seats at the Gosnell trial.

Good question

And one you won't find the answer to in the New York Times, nor any other mainstream media (Elizabeth Scalia in First Things):
So, allow me to ask the impolitic question I have hinted at elsewhere: in choosing to look away, in choosing to under-report, in choosing to spin, minimize, excuse, and move-along when it comes to Kermit Gosnell—and to this whole subject of under-regulated abortion clinics, the debasement of women and the slaughter of living children—how are the press and those they protect by their silence any better than the Catholic bishops who, in decades past, looked away, under-reported, spun, minimized, excused, moved-along, and protected the repulsive predator-priests who have stolen innocence and roiled the community of faith?
Scalia writes further:
The press was quite right (and duty-bound) to report on the shameful failures of our bishops and the sins of our priests. They reported; they followed up. They dug through records. They sought out histories. They looked for more, because they understood that if filth existed in one diocese, it likely existed in others. They courageously did their jobs, unworried about fallout or repercussions; they were looking at a big issue, and were thus unintimidated by big names, and rightly unreserved in their outrage.
Here, I believe, Scalia missteps. The reason the media was "unworried about fallout or repercussions" from reporting on predator priests and the bishops' cover-ups has less to do with any courageousness on their part than confidence there would not be any fallout, of significance at least, from their reporting on it (which, however, in no way reduces the value of those reports). The sad truth is mainstream media fears far less the outrage of officialdom in the Catholic Church than same from the liberal-feminist cultural elite, who over the past decades have made it crystal clear that for them abortion is nothing less than a sacrament, that blaspheming or even questioning it to the slightest degree is subjecting yourself to considerable peril in the public square.

Empty reserved press seats at the Gosnell trial.

Wednesday, April 10, 2013

Going gentle into the good night

Benedict XVI is fading.


My decision to embrace Catholicism was based on many things and resulted after much discernment. Nevertheless, it was the election of Joseph Ratzinger to the papacy, and my subsequently learning of him and his writings, that provided me with that gentle but necessary final push toward Rome. Thanks be to God and his noble servant Benedict.

Going gentle into the good night

Benedict XVI is fading.


My decision to embrace Catholicism was based on many things and resulted after much discernment. Nevertheless, it was the election of Joseph Ratzinger to the papacy, and my subsequently learning of him and his writings, that provided me with that gentle but necessary final push toward Rome. Thanks be to God and his noble servant Benedict.

Tuesday, April 09, 2013

Now this is low

From Instapundit:


  • 8 April 2013, 11:54

Fluffed up ferrets sold as toy poodles


Scam /YouTube
Dog lovers paid out hundreds of pounds for fashionable 'toy poodles' - only to discover they were fluffed-up ferrets on steroids. 
One pensioner was duped into buying two of the "pedigree" pets from a market in the Argentine capital Buenos Aires. 
But when he took the animals to a vet for their vaccinations he was told he had bought two ferrets which are known in Argentine as 'Brazilian rats'.
It's not hard to guess the motive for this deplorable deceit.
Toy poodle puppies can cost as much as £700 while ferrets can be had for as little as £50.
Personally, I'd take a ferret anyday over toy poodle, which to my observation appear to be the pet accessory of choice among the chain-wearing set in Gotham's rougher neighborhoods.






Now this is low

From Instapundit:


  • 8 April 2013, 11:54

Fluffed up ferrets sold as toy poodles


Scam /YouTube
Dog lovers paid out hundreds of pounds for fashionable 'toy poodles' - only to discover they were fluffed-up ferrets on steroids. 
One pensioner was duped into buying two of the "pedigree" pets from a market in the Argentine capital Buenos Aires. 
But when he took the animals to a vet for their vaccinations he was told he had bought two ferrets which are known in Argentine as 'Brazilian rats'.
It's not hard to guess the motive for this deplorable deceit.
Toy poodle puppies can cost as much as £700 while ferrets can be had for as little as £50.
Personally, I'd take a ferret anyday over toy poodle, which to my observation appear to be the pet accessory of choice among the chain-wearing set in Gotham's rougher neighborhoods.






You just can't make this stuff up

Now that we have a Jebbie pope, perhaps the extent of that formerly mighty order's sad decay into utter insanity will become better known.

Catholic University Bans Catholic Group over CatholicismPosted in Top Stories | 0 commentsCatholic University Bans Catholic Group over Catholicism
Apr 8, 2013By Todd Starnes
 Gonzaga University will not allow students to organize a Knights of Columbus chapter because the group only admits Catholics – a violation of the school’s non-discrimination policy.

Gonzaga, a Roman Catholic university in  Spokane, Wash., had concerns over a requirement that “all members of a student Knights of Columbus group must be Catholic.”
“These criteria are inconsistent with the policy and practice of student organization recognition at Gonzaga University, as well as the University’s commitment to non-discrimination based on certain characteristics, one of which is religion,” wrote Sue Weitz, the university’s vice president for student life – in a letter obtained by The Cardinal Newman Society.

You just can't make this stuff up

Now that we have a Jebbie pope, perhaps the extent of that formerly mighty order's sad decay into utter insanity will become better known.

Catholic University Bans Catholic Group over CatholicismPosted in Top Stories | 0 commentsCatholic University Bans Catholic Group over Catholicism
Apr 8, 2013By Todd Starnes
 Gonzaga University will not allow students to organize a Knights of Columbus chapter because the group only admits Catholics – a violation of the school’s non-discrimination policy.

Gonzaga, a Roman Catholic university in  Spokane, Wash., had concerns over a requirement that “all members of a student Knights of Columbus group must be Catholic.”
“These criteria are inconsistent with the policy and practice of student organization recognition at Gonzaga University, as well as the University’s commitment to non-discrimination based on certain characteristics, one of which is religion,” wrote Sue Weitz, the university’s vice president for student life – in a letter obtained by The Cardinal Newman Society.