Michael Hirsh

A Good Shepherd is skilled with both.

2010-06-18T17:36:00Z

I just wonder if the Vatican is accepting nominations for receiving the rod. I want to make sure I spell "Pelosi" right.

Rorate Caeli reports:

"Your rod and your staff – they comfort me": the shepherd needs the rod as protection against savage beasts ready to pounce on the flock; against robbers looking for prey. Along with the rod there is the staff which gives support and helps to make difficult crossings. Both of these are likewise part of the Church’s ministry, of the priest’s ministry. The Church too must use the shepherd’s rod, the rod with which he protects the faith against those who falsify it, against currents which lead the flock astray. The use of the rod can actually be a service of love. Today we can see that it has nothing to do with love when conduct unworthy of the priestly life is tolerated. Nor does it have to do with love if heresy is allowed to spread and the faith twisted and chipped away, as if it were something that we ourselves had invented. As if it were no longer God’s gift, the precious pearl which we cannot let be taken from us. Even so, the rod must always become once again the shepherd’s staff –a staff which helps men and women to tread difficult paths and to follow the Lord.

Benedict XVI

Out of an abundance of caution, I'm also sending the Vatican all the names on the USCCB.

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Oh, Zone 51!

2010-06-17T19:48:00Z

The year is 1947.

Some of you will recall that on July 8, 1947, a little over 60years ago, witnesses claim that an unidentified flying object (UFO)with five aliens aboard crashed onto a sheep and mule ranch just outside Roswell, New Mexico. This is a well known incident that many say has long been covered up by the U.S. Air Force and other federal agencies and organizations.

However, what you may NOT know is that in the month of April 1948,nine months after that historic day, the following people were born:

Albert A. Gore, Jr..
Hillary Rodham
John F. Kerry
William J. Clinton
Howard Dean
Nancy Pelosi
Dianne Feinstein
Charles E. Schumer
Barbara Boxer

See what happens when aliens breed with sheep and jackasses?

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Congressional Assault

2010-06-14T12:47:00Z

WHOA!

Question: if it had been the other way around, how long would it take for the student to get arrested?

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Aborting Andrea Bocelli

2010-06-12T13:52:00Z

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Apologetics, Class VI - Me thinks thou dost protest too much.

2010-06-10T19:32:00Z

The last of the series of six classes. If you'd like the outline, you can find it here.

If you'd like to give a listen, just press "play" below.

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Kickin' Ass and taking blame . . . not.

2010-06-08T20:19:00Z

Continuing his Chicago mafia style of governance, President Barack Obama said about the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, "I don't sit around just talking to experts because this is a college seminar, we talk to these folks because they potentially have the best answers, so I know whose ass to kick."

Which caused CNBC to comment that he wasn't being very "presidential." The good news is, it only took them a little more than a year to notice.

While the Ass-Kicker-in-Chief doing his best Mr. T. impression on the Today show, he continues to blame others for the lack of responsiveness and, as Fred Barnes writing in the Weekly Standard points out, that everything - I mean everything - is really George Bush's fault:

While insisting "we need to focus on the future," President Obama devoted much of his speech on terrorist detainees today to denouncing the policies of President Bush's administration. He faulted everyone in Washington for "pointing fingers at one another," yet pointed his own finger frequently, and critically, at the Bush administration. Obama said America's problems won't be solved "unless we solve them together"--in a divisive and partisan speech certain to alienate Republicans and conservatives.

If any president has gone to such lengths to attack his White House predecessor as Obama did today, I don't recall it. True,presidents have blamed the prior administration for problems they inherit, but I can't think of a president who did so as aggressively and with such moral preening as Obama.

Continuing with the "Mr. T." theme (as in Teleprompter), between his tough talk and his blame shifting, Obama is keeping them on the edge of their sleeping bags with his fabled rhetorical skills:

Notwithstanding CNBC's startling revelation to the contrary, I think the President's recent comments are about the only presidential thing he's done to date.

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Future, Interrupted.

2010-06-08T14:59:00Z

Pelosi heckled at progressive conference

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's (D-Calif.) remarks to a gathering of progressive activists at the America's Future Now conference on Tuesday were greeted by screaming protesters, forcing Pelosi to literally yell parts of her speech. Here's some video of the scene:

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I Census Fun, Part V

2010-06-07T12:16:00Z

You've read the books . . . now here's the movie.

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Apologetics Class V - There's something about Mary.

2010-06-04T05:48:00Z

If you would like to use the outline, you can find it here.

If you want to listen, click "Play" below

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Is this right?

2010-06-03T12:43:00Z

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Don't feed the animals

2010-06-03T12:18:00Z

But I do think the species is endangered.

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I Census Danger, Part V

2010-06-03T02:30:00Z

Finally, an appropriate use for the Census form.

Furious with a Census worker on his son, a Deltona man has been charged with a felony after angrily confronting a 69 year-old Census worker and snatching the Census form from the worker's hands.

The argument took place shortly before 5:30 p.m. on Tuesday, after the worker went to a house at 479 Chestnut Court in Deltona to access Census information. A boy answered the door and confirmed he lived there, so the worker began to ask him for household information needed to fill out the Census form.

Later, the victim was sitting in his car in the area filling out forms, and said he was confronted by the defendant,30year-old Carlos Rivera who demanded that he give him the Census form. Rivera began yelling at the victim and telling him that he had no right to question his son. He then reached into the window of the victim's vehicle and tried to swipe the Census form.

It then triggered into a physical struggle between the two men, during which Rivera managed to rip the Census form out of the victim's hands and then went back to his house.

The victim wasn't injured during the confrontation. Deputies went to Rivera's house,listened to his side of the story and then arrested him for burglary with an assault or battery. Rivera was booked into the Volusia County Branch Jail in Daytona Beach on $5,000 bond.

The Census form was found in a toilet at Rivera's house.

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Romophobia run amok.

2010-06-02T11:24:00Z

Come join Mary and the whole gang.

A federal judge in Albany, New York has ordered a local government re-education camp to reinstate a 13-year-old boy that was suspended for wearing a rosary around his neck:

Oneida Middle School officials contend Raymond Hosier violated a policy banning gang-related clothing, as rosary beads are sometimes worn as gang symbols. But the seventh-grader, who initially was suspended two weeks ago, says he wears the purple rosary in memory of his younger brother, who died while clutching it after a bicycle accident.

Read the rest of the article here.

We know how pernicious any potential prayer activity might be to the overall educational mission of the state.

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I Census Danger, Part IV

2010-06-01T19:27:00Z

It just keeps getting better and better . . .

A Census taker in Puna, Hawaii was arrested and charged with trespassing. He was arrested March 10 at 12:30 p.m. in in Hawaiian Acres, after a resident Haas says was an off-duty police officer allegedly refused to cooperate with the Census and called Puna police.

"When I opened his gate and walked in ... he stepped out of his garage and said, 'Please get off my property,'" Haas said Friday. Haas said he identified himself as a Census worker, and the man again requested for him to leave.
"I said, 'Can I please just give you the Census (form)?' And he didn't want it," Haas said. "He said he was going to call the cops, so I said, 'OK, fine.' We'd been trained to wait by the gate for the cops to get there and hand them the forms that we would have handed to the guy. The police then hand it to them and tell them, 'It's the law, do it.' Then everybody would walk away and it would be fine. That was what I expected.

Haas, who is a former New Jersey police officer, said while he and the man were talking across the gate, police "pulled up behind me, suddenly." "I handed them the Census and expected them to hand them to this guy and say, 'That's it,'" Haas said. "They walked over and talked to him for a minute or two, then walked back to me ... and then stuffed it into my chest, and said, 'He doesn't have to enter your Census. He doesn't have to enter any Census. He doesn't have to fill out any of your forms or answer any of your questions. And if I were you, I'd get into my car and get the hell outta here, right now.'

"I turned to him and said, 'Or what?' And he said, 'I'll lock you up.'" And I turned back and said, 'So make your case.' They threw the cuffs on me, took me down to Keaau Police Station and I waited there until my daughter bailed me out." Haas' bail was $25.

Read the rest of the article here.

Conservative muckraker James O'Keefe (no relation to this blogger) is raising questions about hiring and payment policies at the U.S. Census Bureau, saying he was hired in late April and overpaid for completing training courses.

O'Keefe first earned national attention last year for exposing Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now housing counselors, who appeared to encourage him to conceal a purported illegal prostitution business in order to get housing help. He also pleaded guilty last week to a misdemeanor charge of entering the New Orleans offices of Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.) under false pretenses. Speaking Tuesday on ABC's "Good Morning America," O'Keefe said that he would do it again.
Read the rest of the article here and watch the video below.

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When you mix Government Education with . . .

2010-06-01T14:34:00Z

. . . The Printing Press:

(Headlines that defy comment; H/T to Cheryl)

Man Kills Self Before Shooting Wife and Daughter
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Something Went Wrong in Jet Crash, Expert Says
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Police Begin Campaign to Run Down Jaywalkers
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Panda Mating Fails;Veterinarian Takes Over
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Miners Refuse to Work after Death
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Juvenile Court to Try Shooting Defendant
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War Dims Hope for Peace
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If Strike Isn't Settled Quickly, It May Last Awhile
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Cold Wave Linked to Temperatures
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Enfield (London ) Couple Slain; Police Suspect Homicide
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Red Tape Holds Up New Bridges
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Man Struck By Lightning:Faces Battery Charge
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New Study of Obesity Looks for Larger Test Group
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Astronaut Takes Blame for Gas in Spacecraft

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Kids Make Nutritious Snacks
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Local High School Dropouts Cut in Half
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Hospitals are Sued by 7 Foot Doctors
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Typhoon Rips Through Cemetery; Hundreds Dead

. . . A Truck and a Boat

(Rear window sticker speaks volumes; H/T to G. Polk)

This was this guy's first boat, but he wasn't quite sure of the correct procedure for launching a boat at the ramp. However, he figured it couldn't be that difficult to do, so he stopped by his Union office for advice, and they just told him...

"Don't let the trailer get too deep in the water when you're launching your boat."

He couldn't understand what they meant by that, as he just could barely get his trailer in the water.

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No looting during the Nashville flood

2010-06-01T14:15:00Z

Because an armed society is a polite society.

H/T to G. Polk

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Even a Blind Pig finds an acorn now and then.

2010-06-01T13:58:00Z

By her words she will be justified . . .

CNSNews.com reports:

Pelosi Says She Has a Duty to Pursue Policies in Keeping With The Values of Jesus, 'The Word Made Flesh'

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) says she believes she must pursue public policies "in keeping with the values" of Jesus Christ, "The Word made Flesh." Pelosi, who is a Catholic and who favors legalized abortion, voted against the ban on partial-birth abortion that was enacted into law in 2003.

“Fill it in with anything you want. But, of course, we know it means:‘The Word was made flesh and dwelt amongst us.’ And that’s the great mystery of our faith. He will come again. He will come again. So, we have to make sure we’re prepared to answer in this life, or otherwise,as to how we have measured up.”

Read the rest of the article here.

. . . And by her words she will be condemned.

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Boehner sums it up.

2010-05-30T00:58:00Z

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North Korea says the same thing about them.

2010-05-28T14:44:00Z

May the better despot win.

South Korea's Constitutional Court has ruled that human embryos left over from fertility treatment are not life forms and can be used for research or destroyed, a court spokesman said Friday.

In its ruling Thursday the court upheld an existing law allowing the use of leftover embryos for research. The law also allows fertility clinics to dispose of frozen embryos five years after fertilisation treatment is completed.

"The ruling means that human embryos that are in their early stage and are not implanted into a mother's womb cannot be seen as human lifeforms," the spokesman, NohHui-Beom, told AFP.

The ruling came after a group of 13 people including pro-life activists filed a petition with the court against the current bioethics law, which allows the use of leftover embryos for research.

Following the ruling, shares related to stem-cell research surged on the local market.

Read the article here.

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Eucharistic Reverence.

2010-05-28T13:44:00Z

In a world of wolves in sheep's clothing, this is refreshing. Bishop Morlino of Madison preached in a parish inviting people to kneel to receive Communion. The bishop hedges too much, but his message is excellent.

Thanks to Culture War Notes and Father Z.

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