(Note: How tired was I? I actually thought it was Thursday night when I wrote this, but turns out it was only Wednesday. I hit "publish" and then pulled it back, but not before it went out to all the email subscribers, ha ha! I did add a couple more links since then, on #2 and #3.)
1) This pretty much sums it up, no?
"The whole course of Christianity from the first ... is but one series of troubles and disorders. Every century is like every other, and to those who live in it seems worse than all times before it. The Church is ever ailing …. Religion seems ever expiring, schisms dominant, the light of truth dim, its adherents scattered. The cause of Christ is ever in its last agony."
-- Blessed John Henry Cardinal Newman
2) Mmm-hmmm. Yep. Some things must be defied. Some things actually do transcend government.
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| Bishop James Conley of Nebraska |
Oh, and here is a sobering overview of what Catholic face, from Msgr. Pope:
3) We've had this discussion on the blog:
An unborn baby is always exactly where he is supposed to be (at least up until the point where he is ripped out of exactly where he is supposed to be, then he is no longer where he is supposed to be).
And on the unspeakably sad subject of Savita Halappanavar's death in Ireland, I offer Elizabeth Scalia's take:
The comment from a critical care physician, "MRD", is also of note.
4) JoAnna had a great blog post the other day:
The logic makes me giddy, but the most illuminating part was the comment by Rebecca at the end. Don't miss it!
5) Oh, boy, I can't wait for Obamacare to become a reality! We'll be just like Quebec! No "war on women" there! Wait…what?
Surgery wait times for deadly ovarian, cervical and breast cancers in Quebec are three times longer than government benchmarks, leading some desperate patients to shop around for an operating room.
But that’s a waste of time, doctors say, since the problem is spread across Quebec hospitals. And doctors are refusing to accept new patients quickly because they can’t treat them, health advocates say.
A leading Montreal gynecologist said that these days, she cannot look her patients in the eye because the wait times are so shocking. Lack of resources, including nursing staff and budget compressions, are driving a backlog of surgeries while operating rooms stand empty. The latest figures from the provincial government show that over a span of nearly 11 months, 7,780 patients in the Montreal area waited six months or longer for day surgeries, while another 2,957 waited for six months or longer for operations that required hospitalization.
The worst cases are gynecological cancers, experts say, because usually such a cancer has already spread by the time it is detected.
Emphasis mine. Read the rest, here.
6) How come no one talks about the grave immorality of folks who spend other people's money to the extent that they put everyone else into massive (literally unfathomable) debt, and then expect that all those other people (the ones who didn't do the wasteful spending) are the ones who are mean and greedy leeches because they actually resist having to pay the price for the other guys' insane, immoral spending? It just seems so twisted to me. Am I the only one?
It's like a foolhardy teenager who takes his father's credit card and charges a Ferrari to it and then gets super ticked when the dad says, "Hey kid, that was totally irresponsible, and I am not paying for that!" Then the teen spits in the dad's eye and says, "You cheap jerk! You owe this to me! We're all in this together!" and then goes and picks the dad's wallet for good measure, while feeling completely righteous and utterly justified, especially as the other juveniles in the neighborhood cheer him on for making his stingy, nasty, selfish father pay his fair share.
By the way, I am alluding to Congress (both parties) as well as the Teenager-in-chief. I have a huge pet peeve with people spending beyond their means and then expecting others to bail them out. It's immoral.
7) I have an Orphan Report FULL of cool stuff today, so please go and check it out! You will find many good things and great updates there, including new photos, new auctions, and old, vintage aprons from the 1950s (my grandma's!):
Potpourri of orphan info!! So much going on!
Yep, that is a car there for sale thanks to Life Choice's Women's Clinics, and if it sells, the thousands of dollars will go, 100%, to the families trying to bring these orphans home!
In the meantime, I am sorry to say that gentle and shy Nanette has been transferred from her baby house. :(
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| Click my photo for more information! |
This is very sad news, and you can read more about it, here.
Nanette can still be saved, but the need for her to find a family is much more urgent. Please consider her for your own daughter, or consider sharing her photo and info with others.
God bless, and have a great weekend! Thanks to Jen for hosting!
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As to the Quebec wait times for vital cancer surgeries may I offer my bitter opinion, but sadly TRUE statement (I am a Canadian who lives in Alberta)....the hospitals are too busy with the money making $urgerie$ to take care of the sick :-(
ReplyDeleteHere in Alberta there are so many "dermatology and cosmetic" surgery clinics.
That's so sad about Nanette. How can the words "baby house" and "institution" be used in the same sentence?
ReplyDeleteSo sad about Nannette. :( I'm just baffled as to how human beings can treat their children that way. Are the people who live in those countries just ignorant of what's going on, or do they just not care...?
ReplyDeleteHmm, "illuminating" - Leila, you always choose your words carefully and I'm not sure how to take this word choice. I do hope my comment was encouraging - as that was my goal :).
ReplyDeleteRebecca, I meant that it was awesome and gave me much hope!!!! :) Yes, it was VERY encouraging!!
ReplyDelete:) Oh good! These conversations are so exhuasting, no matter which side you're on, but I do believe they change hearts and open minds, even if it takes a lot longer than we'd like.
ReplyDeleteRebecca, I have to believe that, or I would quit right now. That's why it was so good to see your comment.
ReplyDeleteI've been thinking about the Church's steady, unbroken, unchanging truth lately: It would be so much easier to be the "fun parent" who gives her kids cakes and cookies and ice cream all day, rather than the one who makes them eat their veggies and teaches them that self-sacrifice and living the virtues and seeking truth above appetites really does have its rewards! Even if it takes a long time to appreciate that! That's what the Church is… a loving Mother. But not a placating one. And it can be so exhausting to restate the truth of virtue (which is its own reward) to people who want to "feel good" and avoid all suffering. I am not slamming anyone, because that's how I was (and still am to a degree -- I'm soft in a lot of ways), and it's the culture we live in. But for those who "get it", what a joy!
“I tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous person who do not need to repent.” --Luke 15
In the past weeks, I've heard in different places that
ReplyDeleteA. The percentage of Americans identifying as pro-choice is low and getting lower, and those identifying as pro-life is growing
and
B. The majority of Americans believe abortion should be legal in "all or most" circumstances.
Is someone lying? Are different polls showing vastly different results, due to sampling errors or push polling? Are both statistics true, and the definition of "pro-life" is being diluted? Is everyone working with the same numbers and the left and right are framing them differently?
Chris, it's a great question and it's one I've asked myself lately, since I saw that new Rasmussen poll. I've always understood that the pro-life movement is young, demographically, and growing (note the sheer numbers of young people who march in the hundreds of thousands, in DC and SF and points in between, every January vs. the aging, gray-haired pro-abortion gatherings). And the polls have always seemed to reflect that Americans are more pro-life, until this one latest poll. I think the wording of the poll is always important. I would have to know more about how the polling was done. But it does seem odd.
ReplyDeleteRegarding #6. Dh and I were watching "Rock Center" last night (w/Brian Williams), and they did this "class warfare" story on this poor, poor average citizen who lied about his income to get approved for two huge mortgages he couldn't pay for and ended up in jail. The story was questioning why so many rich, greedy Wall Street bankers aren't in jail but this "average citizen" was so unfairly targeted by the IRS and thrown in the slammer.
ReplyDeleteI was just stunned. Seriously?? Brian Williams considers grossly inflating your income on a mortgage application (fraud) to be consistent with "average American behavior"??? I am supposed to "connect" with this guy and feel sorry for him and hate the big, bad bank??? Is it considered "normal" to commit fraud now? Or is okay to commit fraud if you're middle America, but still not okay if you're rich?? Have we lost all sense of responsibility and morality? It's as if being rich is the biggest, baddest mortal sin and everyone else gets a pass. Newsflash: Anyone who lied on a mortgage app contributed to our financial crisis; I don't care what their income was. It's mot just Wall Street's fault.
sorry for typos...
ReplyDeleteSarah, I couldn't agree more! You are exactly right. I don't get this demonizing of the rich. Even the mildly successful seem to be demonized these days. Is this still America? I never heard crap like this growing up. I think anyone who breaks the law, rich or not, should be accountable. Maybe Brian Williams should do a story on this guy instead:
ReplyDeletehttp://shovedtothem.blogspot.com/2012/11/free-money.html
And really… how come to the left it's okay to be a Hollywood multi-millionaire (singer/actor, oftentimes corrupting our kids and the culture), or a sports multi-millionaire, but not a businessman multimillionaire (you know, the ones who actually hire people in actual jobs and who actually build businesses and create wealth)?
Frankly, I don't begrudge anyone (even the sleazy Hollywood folks and the sports figures) their millions. This is America, people! When it's gone, there is no place else like it! It's not like we can get it back. But I guess people don't like the America I know and love. Sad to watch.
Something I read from a leftist really struck me. He was commiserating with conservatives about how badly we feel after the election. He said that he remembers 2004, after Bush won, looking down at his baby in the crib and his toddler nearby, and weeping for them and their futures. And it's true that we conservatives did that too, when Obama was re-elected.
ReplyDeleteBut here's the kicker. We wept for our children because the America we've always known, the promise of the world, the city set on a hill, was dying, and our children would never know the freedom, pride and prosperity that we had known. America and its ideals were dying. We wept.
You know why this guy was weeping when Bush won??? Because his children would have to pretend to be Canadians when they traveled in their lives, because the rest of the world wouldn't like America!! I kid you not!! He was weeping because he cared what other folks thought of Americans! Do you know… I don't give a rip what the rest of the world thinks of America, and neither do my kids. I cannot believe that this was the source of his consternation -- that we might not be popular!
UGH!!!
That sort of encapsulated for me the difference between the left and the rest of us. Sigh.
Leila... baby in arms so can't type much but wow...crying over having to pretend to be Canadian? You are right... we are not crying b/c our egos are hurt. We're crying b/c the America we love is dying.
ReplyDeleteSarah, bingo!
ReplyDelete