Vatican exhibit in Jackson MS and other items of local interest 

Art from Vatican lands in Mississippi

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PE teacher worked in BR

This has been all over the news here. A quick summary is that this guy was taking pictures of young girls in bikinis in a public place. He gave the police permission to search his home computer and they found 13,000 pictures of girls in bikinis and the like however they claim they found nothing pornographic. I had an urge like all men around here to rub mud on their faces, hoist torches high and head towards the jail house hollering all manner of unintelligible obscenity like calls.

Come to find out he works at a Catholic school in Lafayette and used to work at one in Baton Rouge. *sarcasm* Allow your inner conspiracy free to tie all of that together ... I am sure the Pope knew as well. Its an institutional problem you know. *sarcasm*

Finally parents have been complaining on local radio that they cannot find modest swim wear for their young girls.

Try the Internet folks - Modest Swimwear - I know you cannot try it on but I promise you can find someone who will let you return it if it doesn't fit. Time consuming yes but don't say that there isn't an option.

Speaking of local news ...

New Orleanians March On Baton Rouge

These headline writers have got to be more careful. I was ready to pull out the rations, overturn the tables, don the protective head gear and pull out the weapons. I know there has been a rival between certain factions in each town but this is rediculous ...
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Working on an essay 

Time has been limited for regular posting. I am working on an essay that I hope to post here in the coming weeks. Also, I may be crossposting my articles from CatholicDaily.org in the near future.
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My contact me page is acting up apparently 

If you are trying to contact me find a comment by Ggoose on here. The email address is available there.

-- May try to post about St. John Bosco tonight
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The greatest gift you can give your child 

"The greatest gift you can give your child is another sibling." Pope John Paul II

Which brings me to this ad for a candy bar ...


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Man in Wheelchair Pushed Four Miles by Semi-Truck 

Saw this in the local news ... in a place called Paw Paw. Had visions of a terrified old man with his hands over his eyes bulleting down the Interstate on the grill of a big rig ...

Man in Wheelchair Pushed Four Miles by Semi-Truck
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Theologian Barbie 

Supermodel Gisele Bundchen Attacks Catholic Church or as Mark Shea calls her "Theologian Barbie" - further says "nobody is a virgin" these days.

Then again Brazilian soccer star: I married as a virgin

A Brazilian soccer star has contradicted a public statement by supermodel Gisele Bundchen, announcing that he and his wife were virgins when they married. ROCK ON MAN -- ROCK ON

Brazilian super model answers colleague: abortion is never justified
“At one month the baby’s heartbeat can be heard.” “It’s absurd for any woman, no matter how independent she is, to defend abortion,” Tavares said. “We’re talking about another life,” she added.


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Prominent professor of philosophy swims the Tiber 

Robert C. Koons, professor of philosophy at the University of Texas swims the Tiber.
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St. Audrey 

Thieved from Roving Medievalist



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More on "socialization" 



HT Steve Ray for referring to this at Just Being Plain -- full sized image at bottom
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Are you Joost? (revised with review) 

PLEASE NO MORE REQUESTS FOR INVITES. I HAVE UNINSTALLED THE PROGRAM UNTIL THEY SOLVE THE ROUTER ISSUE

From their web site
What's Joost?

Joost is a new way of watching TV on the internet. With Joost, you get all the things you love about TV, including a high-quality full-screen picture, hundreds of full-length shows and easy channel-flipping.

Inside the box

You get great internet features too, such as search, chat and instant messaging, built right into the program - so you find shows quickly and talk to your friends while you watch. And with no schedules to worry about, you can watch whatever you want, whenever you like - as often as you want. Joost is completely free, and works with most modern PCs and Intel Mac-based computers with a broadband connection. Get Joost today!


Joost

I have had a little time to play with Joost tonight. As far as I am concerned this (or something similar) is the future of television. The channel I added that I am most pumped about?

Classica - I cannot wait to WATCH The Planets - Gustav Holst -- watched it last night

Here is my basic review now that I have had a few days to play with it.

THE GOOD

First off I want to start this off by saying that the code is beta code. They have released it for public testing for the reason of resolving some of the issues I will point out below. The software is stable. I think the program selection is better than others have stated. I like Rocky and Bullwinkle. I like Classica. I like Ren and Stimpy (at least the first season gems they have up right now). You cannot beat Transformers and GI Joe. I am enjoying the selections.

THE NOT SO GOOD

The channel selection and navigation is a little clunky. You have to select channels from the list and then look at what the channel offers to select a program. Its a somewhat intuitive interface. It even looks really nice but it is a TIME CONSUMING menu system. It also has a bad habit of adding new channels to your "My Channels" list. I really do not want MTV or adult swim on my channels. The video quality overall is marginal although at times it really does look spectacular. The audio quality is not getting me too excited. I don't know if it improves with a better connection to the Internet but I would hope it does. I have a 3.0 Mbps connection at home which should be sufficient.

THE BAD

The ad placement is terrible. I saw 4 ads during The Planets. They were all the same ad. Rewind a little ... I saw 4 ads DURING The Planets. That means in the middle of Jupiter, or Saturn (most irritating as that is my favorite piece) .. That is not going to cut it for a channel that shows classical music performances.

THE REALLY UGLY

This program uses WAY too many network resources. In fact, it crashed my router at home and then when I left it running in the task bar at work it crashed our router there. This is a major problem that will need to be resolved or users will exit the scene entirely.

CONCLUSION

I think Joost shows promise but it really needs to hammer through the issues above before I think it is ready for prime time. For people like me the novelty is going to keep me reviewing it and hopefully helping them resolve these issues. Don't buy into the hype ... yet.

Finally, I have unlimited invites and there are others on the Internet giving them away. Just keep in mind it is beta software and care needs to be taken with its use ... If anyone is interested post a comment here and I will forward you an invite.

PLEASE NO MORE REQUESTS FOR INVITES. I HAVE UNINSTALLED THE PROGRAM UNTIL THEY SOLVE THE ROUTER ISSUE
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Are there any useful Widgets? 

OK, I signed up at Widgetbox. I thought about adding my favorite videos from YouTube. Interesting widget but in reality I don't keep up with my favorites all that much so you would get to see a bunch of VW ads for the next 3 years. Then I figured I would switch to the last.fm widget they have. Cool but not as cool as the one available on their site (which I have to the right and happens currently to NOT be showing my recent tracks - Bela Fleck right now) ...

The most useful one I have found reads in RSS feeds but it has ads ... and the other most useful one allows you to place any HTML in it, which is useful if you are managing lots of items from it BUT I have complete control of the blocks in this blog and I know HTML well enough to get away with doing it here. I am not saving any time managing widgets elsewhere. There are too many good widgets external to Widgetbox for it to be worth my time. Besides, if I want you to play PacMan I am not adding it to my blog. I am sending you to an arcade.

I'll dig through it again in a few days .. for now though, I am finding it hard to sift through the majority of the lame widgets to find the useful ones.
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The Catholic Summer Reading Program 

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He Could No Longer Explain Why He Wasn’t Catholic 

He Could No Longer Explain Why He Wasn’t Catholic

Fascinating interview with Francis Beckwith.
Catholicism does not teach “works righteousness.” It teaches faith in action as a manifestation of God’s grace in one’s life. That’s why Abraham’s faith results in righteousness only when he attempts to offer his son Isaac as a sacrifice to God.

Then I read the Council of Trent, which some Protestant friends had suggested I do. What I found was shocking. I found a document that had been nearly universally misrepresented by many Protestants, including some friends.

I do not believe, however, that the misrepresentation is the result of purposeful deception. But rather, it is the result of reading Trent with Protestant assumptions and without a charitable disposition.

For example, Trent talks about the four causes of justification, which correspond somewhat to Aristotle’s four causes. None of these causes is the work of the individual Christian. For, according to Trent, God’s grace does all the work. However, Trent does condemn “faith alone,” but what it means is mere intellectual assent without allowing God’s grace to be manifested in one’s actions and communion with the Church. This is why Trent also condemns justification by works.

I am convinced that the typical “Council of Trent” rant found on anti-Catholic websites is the Protestant equivalent of the secular urban legend that everyone prior to Columbus believed in a flat earth.

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The Holy Spirit isn't good enough 

Vatican doctrine office overhaul

Its censure in March of Father Jon Sobrino, a leading liberation theology proponent, prompted an appeal for a thorough overhaul of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the modern-day successor of the Inquisition.

“The structure of the CDF must be reformed,” said Peter Huenermann from Tuebingen, Germany.

“It still operates just like the censorship bureaus most European countries had until the end of the 19th century,” Huenermann, the appeal’s author and a retired theology professor from Tuebingen University, said.

Other gems include:
He said the CDF should work like an academic review board, using modern methods such as peer review for publications to allow theologians to test out new ideas. He said he and some colleagues were considering drawing up a proposal for reforms.

and a supposed need for
“modern quality control” for Church theology.

I guess the Holy Spirit isn't good enough to lead the Church into all truth.
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Vatican Goes Solar 

Vatican Goes Solar
... meanwhile ...
Other Christians criticize move

I am not sure I understand how adding solar panels at the Vatican and suggesting that people do their part to frugally use resources that are available to us isn't simply supporting good stewardship. Also, to criticize the Vatican for failing to mention the evils of population control in the same breath with climate change simply means the Vatican sees them as two separate issues. It doesn't follow that the Vatican will throw its weight towards supporting Kyoto just because they like solar panels. Besides, I have a feeling the whole world knows how the Vatican stands on population control. After all, that teaching on contraception has been kind of controversial in recent decades.
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Blog maintenance ...  

Along with the "live" blogroll, which I am pleased with, I added the following images to my sidebar ... My wife has a degree in graphic design and she says she always likes to know why people make certain design decisions. I just like pictures ... really ...

Here is why I chose each


Because this blogroll is supposed to be "fresh" I wanted to choose a scene outdoors.
BlogROLL - waterfall
get it ... I know ... not funny ... but there is your reason.


I love electronic music. This is a shot of a famous synthesizer from years past.


I was originally looking for a map of the London Undeground but I wanted one with a black background and was too lazy to do the work myself to make it that way.

This is better IMHO. All roads lead to Rome. Fitting for a Catholic blog. Almost all of my links lead to Rome.


I specifically chose older books because the things I have listed in this section are pretty old works. The historical nature of my faith is really what I wanted to convey here.


I really just wanted one of those signposts with the 5000 arrows pointing to different cities within 5000 miles of a location. This one with the natural scenic beauty just fit the bill better than others that I found.
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CatholicDaily latest: Balancing Technology with the Spiritual Life 

In subsequent Digital Catholic articles I have indulged in the glory of reading numerous blogs and surfing through the near endless Catholic content on YouTube. In a perfect world each of us would schedule a sliver of time per day aimed at satisfying a positive spiritual need of learning something new about our faith. In reality though, we all know that a fine line can be crossed that sends us on a downward spiral. Tools that we once used to strengthen our faith can become a constant distraction standing between us and our families, employers and worst of all, God.(more)

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More on Youtube Catholics 

In light of my recent article on CatholicDaily and Tim Drakes recent article in the National Catholic Register I wanted to take the time to point out an effort being made by Nicholas Hardesty over at the phatcatholic apologetics blog ...

YouTube Summer Project
This post will be home base for the YouTube Summer Project. As you find good, solid, orthodox, Catholic videos on YouTube or Google Videos, leave a comment providing the title of the video and a link to it. As new videos are provided, I will add them to the list. Before you submit your video, check the list and make sure it has not already been submitted.

Amy Welborn also comments on Tim's article.
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Our deep love for felt banners 

The Seventies Are Over, Burn The Bloody Things
As sovereign autocrat of this miserable blog and all its lands ( It doesn't have any, so forget that part. ) I have decided to found an Order of Chivalry. The Militant and Just Bloody Rotten Order of the Torch begins. What, you ask, is the purpose of the Order? Simple, really. We're going to declare war. On what? That disgusting relic of the fraudulant, defunct and stinking "spirit of Vatican II"....

....those friggin felt banners.
Back when I was Protestant I used to attend a church that had a felt banner ministry. They would make them and take them to other Evangelical churches in the region. I didn't like them then and I still don't ... hand me a torch.


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Right on Rich ... The apologetics we need 

The apologetics we need

Countless books have been written to counter the claims of Protestants against the Catholic faith. But
what's needed is a book of apologetics that corrects the catechetical canards that are passed on to unsuspecting Catholics in places like RCIA.
I have a few suggested titles based on current popular apologetics works

Catholicism vs. Indifferentism
Feelings Are Not Enough
Born Affirmed, Born Again Catholic
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National Catholic Register - YouTube Catholics 

YouTube Catholics

Read this ... and not just because I am quoted in it :) ...more later

That Catholic Show
'That Catholic Show' Video Series Launches
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Bishops Conference Responds To 18 Democrats Critical Of Pope 

Bishops’ Conference Responds To 18 Democrats Critical Of Pope

Short. To the point. Absolutely correct. Bravo Bishops.
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Pro-abort politicians and The Lord's Supper, prayer and homeschooling 

Haven't been able to post but I have collected some reading over the past few weeks ...

(+)Augustine on "The Lord's Supper"

First off, I found a blog on the Theology of the Body which I am interested in following. What drew my attention however was this post regarding Augustine's beliefs regarding the Eucharist. I need to review these.

Augustine on "The Lord's Supper"

... and continuing on that theme ...

(+)Experience of Lord's Supper in Protestant Churches

This is a discussion my wife and I have on occasion. The PhatCatholic apologetics blog is outstanding BTW.

The Experience and Reality of the Lord's Supper in Protestant Churches

(+)Canon law and pro-abortion politicians

Canonical consequences for supporting pro-abortion legislation

Ed Peters, canon lawyer reviews the pertinent canons regarding pro-abortion politicians.

(+)A couple items from the Pope while in Brazil

Church grows by attraction, not proselytism, Pope says
Parents, pray with your children, Pope says

(+)10 Prayers God always says YES to

Go check them out at Happy Catholic. Short read. Very edifying.

(+)Homeschooling Corner

Since homeschooling is back on the front burner in our lives, a couple of interesting short reads ...

Home school kids learn socialization "Far from being a drawback to home schooling, as the myth would have it, socialization is actually one of home schooling's greatest virtues."
Homeschooling and Freedom of Thought - profiling a case of an extraordinary example of a scientist who was homeschooled in an unbelieving household.

Also, my thoughts on socialization - Homeschooling: So what about socialization?
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The devil as an apostate angel 

... is not an invention of Milton

It may not be explicit in the Old Testament; but the idea of fallen angels is a part of Jewish rabbinic tradition. Stories of fallen angels exist in the Talmud.


I found this reading a post on spiritual attacks ... It includes references to the ECFs on the matter. May add it to my chart although it is not a particularly controversial doctrine so it might be more a clutter than not.

Irenaeus writes:

"The devil, however, since he is an apostate angel, is able, as he was in the beginning, to lead astray and to deceive the mind of man for the transgressing of God's commands. Little by little he can darken the hearts of those who would try to serve him, to the point that, forgetting the true God, they adore him as if he were God" (Against Heresies 5:24:3 [inter A.D. 180-199]).

Origen writes:

"In regard to the devil and his angels and opposing powers, the ecclesiastical teaching maintains that these beings do indeed exist, but what they are or how they exist is not explained with sufficient clarity. This opinion, however, is held by most: that the devil was an angel and, having apostatized, he persuaded as many angels as possible to fall away with himself; and these, even to the present time, are called his angels" (Fundamental Doctrines 1:Preface:6 [inter A.D. 220-230]).
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Two things: Article up and I'm taking a break 

Check out my latest on CatholicDaily - YouTube Evangelists

Also, I am likely going to take a break. My son is two months old and it has proven difficult to get to my computer for anything other than work. I expect that will last another month or two.
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