Robert Spencer: the Boston jihad bombings & the war on free speech – video
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Category Archives: Culture
Sensational Speech at Prayer Breakfast
Update:Photo Contestant (Me) Needs Your Vote or Vote for My Sister
I’ve entered Landscape Dreams Photo Contest and I would appreciate your vote.
If you like my either of my entries, please do me the honor of voting for it. Clicking on the picture and sign in. When the link takes you there, it asks you to log in-you say yes-then it asks if you want to do it though facebook-yes to that-then it gives you an app for facebook-you just hit cancel on that and then -finally you get to input your login for facebook and get to the picture- there is a tab that says “vote for this entry”-, hit that and then it should work and of course the number of votes go up by 1vote by hitting the VOTE button:
OR
You might like to vote for my sister, Bernadette Buechler’s entry: Sunset Tapestry Over White Sands
Hour of Darkness
Hour of Darkness (Read by author)
To the Cross we go,
A Nation hanging,
Lifted on the wood,
Drying up, exposed,
Blood drained
In a hemorrhage
Of its young.
Did you watch?
We’re you one
To wring your hands?
Were your hearts wrenched,
Or did you party
With the crowd
As the veil
Of the Temple
Was torn in two?
Suffer the Moment
Hoping with Love,
That the curtain,
Was split
From top to bottom,
That even now,
In the darkest hour
Of choice’s choosing,
When Herod has opened
Yet another womb,
Salvation is found in Crucifixion.
God will shine through
The gaping wound in His Side,
As God is want to do.
©2012 Joann Nelander All rights reserved
Hour of Darkness (Read by author)
Reasons Why Obama Must Be Defeated
Reasons Why Obama Must Be Defeated
John D. Keisling, Ph.D.
1. He has vastly expanded Federal government power:
- Significantly increased dependency on government:
- Doubled food stamp spending: 47 million now on food stamps.
- Government takeover of healthcare: see below.
- Government takeover of General Motors.
- Unconstitutional attempt to remove welfare work requirement passed in 1996.
- Unconstitutional recess appointments with Senate still in session.
- Unconstitutional ignoring of laws: Defense of Marriage Act.
- Unconstitutional executive orders: Amnesty for younger illegal immigrants (DREAM Act—could not pass Congress).
- War in Libya without Congressional authorization.
- National debt up from $10 trillion to $16 trillion in 4 years. Increasing debt twice as fast as Bush. Now $50,000 for every American man, woman, and child.
- Supports “spreading wealth around.”
- Insulted small-business owners: “You didn’t build that!”
2. He wants to radically redefine marriage and family:
- Supports defining homosexual relationships as “marriage.” See Romans 1:18-32.
- By extension, supports homosexual indoctrination in public schools (Massachussetts, second grade—court ruled parents have no right to opt out or be notified)
- By extension, supports forcing Christian businesses to promote homosexuality:
- New Mexico, Elaine Photography—fined $6,500 for refusing to photograph lesbian “wedding.”
- Vermont innkeepers who refused a lesbian “wedding” forced to pay $10,000 fine and $20,000 to the lesbians’ favorite charity.
- Churches will not remain exempt for long.
3. He fully supports abortion:
- Supports Roe v. Wade: unlimited abortion, all 9 months.
- As an Illinois state senator, voted 4 times to deny basic Constitutional protection to babies who survive abortions.
- Co-sponsored the federal Freedom of Choice Act, which would overturn all state restrictions on abortion and therefore allow it in all cases.
- Appointed pro-abortion radical Kathleen Sebelius as Secretary of Health and Human Services.
- HHS now forcing religious organizations to pay for birth control and abortion.
4. He has made unprecedented attacks on religious freedom:
- Supports HHS mandate forcing religious organizations to pay for birth control and abortion. Never before in our history—government now says it can define what religion is.
- His Sec. of State says “freedom of worship” instead of “freedom of religion.” “Worship” is what you do in church Sunday morning; “religion” encompasses your entire life. Major difference.
- Refuses to allow conscience protection—pro-life doctors and nurses forced to perform abortions.
- Redefining marriage: see above.
5. He supports Obamacare:
- Massive expansion of government power. 2700 pages—no one knew what was in it.
- Barney Frank called it the best path to single-payer healthcare—illegal for anyone but government to pay for health care.
- Forces Americans to buy a product. Never before in our history.
- Sets up unelected board (IPAB) with authority to ration health care.
- Rammed through Congress against people’s opposition, without a single Republican vote.
- Recess appointment of Donald Berwick as Medicare administrator, who said, “The decision is not whether or not we will ration care. The decision is whether we will ration with our eyes open.”
- Many doctors say they will not accept Medicare patients anymore.
- Takes $719 billion from Medicare to pay for Obamacare
6. He has broken major promises:
- Promised to cut deficit in half in 4 years. Deficit was $1.2 trillion in 2008; now $1.17 trillion. Democrats controlled House and Senate for two years.
- Promised not to raise taxes on middle class: Bush tax cuts about to expire—largest tax hike in American history. The Supreme Court ruled that Obamacare’s individual mandate is a tax.
- Promised unemployment would stay below 8%. Still around 10%.
- “If you like your current health plan, you can keep it:” 5-20 million Americans likely to lose employer plans under Obamacare.
- No budget passed in 3 years: Obama’s budget failed in Senate 97-0!
- Was against homosexual “marriage”; now for it.
- In 2006, stated on Senate floor, “The fact that we are here today to debate raising America ’s debt limit is a sign of leadership failure. It is a sign that the US Government cannot pay its own bills… Washington is shifting the burden of bad choices today onto the backs of our children and grandchildren.” In 2011, he strongly advocated raising the debt ceiling again.
7. He has weakened America in the world:
- Disrespectful to America : worldwide apology tour for America , bowing to the Saudi king and Japanese emperor.
- Michelle Obama: “For the first time in my adult life, I am proud of my country.”
- Has done nothing to stop Iran from building nuclear weapons. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has repeatedly vowed to destroy Israel .
- Recently refused to meet with Benjamin Netanyahu, Prime Minister of Israel.
- Supported “Arab Spring.” Now embassies are attacked in North Africa and Middle East . 4 Americans murdered in attack on Libyan Embassy.
- Attacks free speech of Americans: blamed above attacks on an obscure film criticizing Islam.
- Told an envoy to Vladimir Putin, “After my election, I’ll have more flexibility.”
Argument From Size
When we step on an ant,
An ant smaller than a fetus,
We acknowledge killing an ant.
We may not fret about it,
After-all, it’s an ant!
We have the right
To kill an ant.
When a mother, a doctor,
A nurse, a bio-scientist,
Or technician trained in the art,
When a society and a nation,
Curtails the life of a fetus,
All deny killing a human person.
“It’s too small to matter”,
Do we really believe,
We are doing good?
Do we care beyond
Convenience and profit,
Are we in the right?
Do we have the right?
How big does Truth have to be?
©2012 Joann Nelander
All rights reserved
My Shalom
My Shalom, My Shalom,
Reigning over the waters,
Conquering the watery depths,
Making clear,
Revealing by discernment
Benevolence or maleficence.
Quieted soul,
Ever vigilant heart,
Desirous of My holy treasures,
Gazing through the fiery flame
Serene against the tumult,
Drinking from the Chalice of My Blood,
Covenanted through my Sacred Cross,
Lifted high above the world
As I, Myself, pass as flaming brazier,
Between the broken pieces of your life.
My Shalom, My Shalom,
I call you
By My All Holy Name,
To dwell secure in Love.
Cost counted, chosen,
And placed in the balance.
Infinity pays the price
And tips the scale of Life to
Favor a son of God Most High.
© 2012. Joann Nelander
A Walk With Obama
Assumption of Mary – Scott Hahn Video
Fully Human, Fully Alive!
This is what we all looked like at 12 weeks in the womb. Legal to kill in all 50 states. Anyone think its not a person?
Photography by Joann Nelander
Click for My Photo Gallery
Obama’s Not So Secret Plan
Test of Fire Election Video
Golgotha of Jasna Gora – Passion Art
H/T Julia : Golgotha of Jasna Gora – Artist: Jerzy Duda Gracz
Here a bit more information about the images.
In the shrine at Czestochowa, upstairs from the famous icon of the Black Madonna, a 21st-century Way of the Cross reminds us that our real enemy is not the evil outside of us but the sin within us. In March 2001, the late Polish painter Jerzy Duda Gracz presented the monastery at Jasna Gora, one of the most popular pilgrimage sites in the world, with new Stations of the Cross. Gracz named these paintings after Golgotha, the mountain where Jesus was crucified, but many of the landscapes and faces he included in them are eerily recognizable to present-day viewers.
Christmas Blessing
“Pius XII a gift for the 20th Century”- Benedict XVI
Hell
Eternity without You is Hell.
Christmas Food Court Flash Mob-Hallelujah
The Pope’s Own Words -Condom Stance
The headlines read:
“Pope Benedict says that condoms can be used to stop the spread of HIV? “
“Pope signals historic leap in fight against Aids: Condoms can be justified”
“Pope says some condom use ‘first step’ of morality”
Read the Pope actual statement here and here, in a note issued by Holy See Press Office Director Fr. Federico Lombardi S.J. concerning certain remarks by the Pope on the use of condoms, which appear the new book “Light of the World”.
Opera Company of Philadelphia “Hallelujah!” Random Act of Culture
China’s Nobel Anger
by k-ideas via Flickr
BBC News reporting on Liu Xiaobo (pronounced Liew Sheeow-boh)
China has angrily condemned the decision to award the Nobel Peace Prize to jailed Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo.
The Beijing government summoned the Norwegian ambassador in protest. It called Mr Liu a “criminal”, saying the award violated Nobel principles and could damage relations with Norway.
The Norwegian Nobel committee said Mr Liu was “the foremost symbol” of the struggle for human rights in China.
Continue reading the main storyUS President Barack Obama called for Mr Liu’s immediate release.
“We call on the Chinese government to release Mr Liu as soon as possible,” Mr Obama, last year’s Nobel Peace Prize winner, said in a statement.
“Over the last 30 years, China has made dramatic progress in economic reform and improving the lives of its people, lifting hundreds of millions out of poverty.
“But this award reminds us that political reform has not kept pace, and that the basic human rights of every man, woman and child must be respected,” Mr Obama said.
Other Western countries have also urged China to release Mr Liu.
‘Insult’Mr Liu, 54, was a key leader in the Tiananmen Square protests in 1989.
Last year he received an 11-year sentence for “inciting subversion” after drafting Charter 08 – which called for multi-party democracy and respect for human rights in China.
Announcing its 2010 peace prize in Oslo, the Nobel Foundation said: “Liu has consistently maintained that the sentence violates both China’s own constitution and fundamental human rights.”
Rap Sermon
Divine Mercy – Proof vs. Faith – A Study in Contrast
In life God gives us time to probe the wounds:
H/T Julia : Golgotha of Jasna Gora – Artist: Jerzy Duda Gracz
Pride, the one man Magisterium speaking for this Age:
(Speaking of Santa Claus) as unbelievable as those tales are from the north pole, the tales from Jerusalem leave it in the dust. Snakes that can talk, the Universe built from nothing in 7 days flat, procreation without copulation, walking on water, building a single ship to accommodate 3 million animals (1,589,361 species times two), turning water into wine, feeding 5000 people with a couple small fish a few loaves of bread, rising from the dead, etc… It certainly flies in the face of reason based on everything I’ve seen in this world, but it is firmly believed by at least a billion big humans on the planet tonight. Just because it is the person’s will and desire to make it true, sadly does not make it truth. I don’t doubt there is much more to this world than what we can see, hear, smell, feel, etc…. Quantum physics has gone much further and deeper than regular old atoms/matter… There are most likely many more dimensions than the four that we experience. I don’t even doubt the power of prayer or other group-think exercises.. I wholeheartedly support many of the values espoused by many of the religions of the world. I just am not buying the unbelievable stories sans proof and with so much proof against.
As to the four last things…
death — empirically it’s looming for all of us, no way around it.. is it final? not too sure — if consciousness survives to go another round, it probably has a more scientific multi-dimensional explanation.
judgment / heaven / hell — empirically haven’t seen any evidence of these, but it sure sounds like a good concept for a king to control a kingdom in the here and now. If I were the man behind the curtain, I’d be telling my subjects all about the this stuff to make sure they didn’t cause too many problems for me.”
A Voice of Faith speaks:
“There is no soul more wretched than I am, as I truly know myself, and I am astounded that divine Majesty stoops so low. O eternity, it seems to me that you are too short to extol the infinite mercy of the Lord!
Once, the image was being exhibited over the altar during the Corpus Christi procession (June 20, 1935). When the priest exposed the Blessed Sacrament, another choir began to sing, the rays from the image pierced the Sacred Host and spread out all over the world. The I heard these words: These rays of mercy will pass through you, just as they have passed through this Host, and they will go out through all the world. At these words, profound joy invaded my soul. (Sr. M. Faustina Kowalska – St. Faustina canonized April 30, 2000, Divine Mercy Sunday, the Sunday after Easter 2000)
Happy Didgeridoo to You!
A didgeridoo has entered the life of the Anchoress by way of her son. She may never get the rest she craves. Here’s why!
Life After Death: The Evidence
Happy Easter! In Appreciation “Take & Eat”
Happy Easter Everyone!
This glorious morning, we will celebrate the Mass of Easter. After hearing the sermons and summonings of Lent, after fulfilling our “Easter Duty,”and after a week of holy preparation and solemn Liturgies, Easter is splendidly here. It is Jesus , Who has been at the center of our preparation. Jesus, the Christ, our Lord!
Throughout this time,who else has enabled us to fulfill the mandate of Christ, “Take and eat!” Who is it that have heard our confessions and blessed us in His Name, and in His Person? It is those upon whom He breathed His peace, empowered to forgive and sent forth with His authority, His holy priests, ministering His holy sacraments.
Thank you holy Fathers, faithful Fathers, faith-filled Fathers! It is into your care that Jesus entrusted His flock. We. a flawed People, yet a royal priesthood, a kingly, and prophetic People, thank you, our flawed in your humanity, and yet gloriously appointed and anointed Priesthood. Happy, holy Easter, dear Fathers. May you be forever blessed!
Judge Speaks on Murphy Case – Shame on NY Times
Thank you Anchoress: Murphy Case – NY Times Never Talked to Judge
Thank You Fr. THOMAS BRUNDAGE, JL
Setting the record straight in the case of abusive Milwaukee priest Father Lawrence Murphy
Then-presiding judge for the Archdiocese of Milwaukee gives first-person account of church trial
By Fr. THOMAS BRUNDAGE, JLC
For CatholicAnchor.org
To provide context to this article, I was the Judicial Vicar for the Archdiocese of Milwaukee from 1995-2003. During those years, I presided over four canonical criminal cases, one of which involved Father Lawrence Murphy. Two of the four men died during the process. God alone will judge these men.
To put some parameters on the following remarks, I am writing this article with the express knowledge and consent of Archbishop Roger Schwietz, OMI, the Archbishop of Anchorage, where I currently serve. Archbishop Schwietz is also the publisher of the Catholic Anchor newspaper.
I will limit my comments, because of judicial oaths I have taken as a canon lawyer and as an ecclesiastical judge. However, since my name and comments in the matter of the Father Murphy case have been liberally and often inaccurately quoted in the New York Times and in more than 100 other newspapers and on-line periodicals, I feel a freedom to tell part of the story of Father Murphy’s trial from ground zero. Continue reading
Taking the Church Down – A Story of Disception
The secular agenda has at its core a hatred for the Catholic Church. The Church speaks with the authority of its God-given mandate and the Enemy uses his peons in the world to strike at its heel in anticipation of the moment that its Founder will crush his head. Until then, no holds are barred in this open aggression. A world under the influence of sin and license falls easy prey to the secular media, a favorite arm for deception and bias.
George Weigel writing for First Things: Scoundrel Time(s)
The sexual and physical abuse of children and young people is a global plague; its manifestations run the gamut from fondling by teachers to rape by uncles to kidnapping-and-sex-trafficking. In the United States alone, there are reportedly some 39 million victims of childhood sexual abuse. Forty to sixty percent were abused by family members, including stepfathers and live-in boyfriends of a child’s mother—thus suggesting that abused children are the principal victims of the sexual revolution, the breakdown of marriage, and the hook-up culture. Hofstra University professor Charol Shakeshaft reports that 6-10 percent of public school students have been molested in recent years—some 290,000 between 1991 and 2000. According to other recent studies, 2 percent of sex abuse offenders were Catholic priests—a phenomenon that spiked between the mid-1960s and the mid-1980s but seems to have virtually disappeared (six credible cases of clerical sexual abuse in 2009 were reported in the U.S. bishops’ annual audit, in a Church of some 65,000,000 members).
Yet in a pattern exemplifying the dog’s behavior in Proverbs 26:11, the sexual abuse story in the global media is almost entirely a Catholic story, in which the Catholic Church is portrayed as the epicenter of the sexual abuse of the young, with hints of an ecclesiastical criminal conspiracy involving sexual predators whose predations continue today. That the vast majority of the abuse cases in the United States took place decades ago is of no consequence to this story line. For the narrative that has been constructed is often less about the protection of the young (for whom the Catholic Church is, by empirical measure, the safest environment for young people in America today) than it is about taking the Church down—and, eventually, out, both financially and as a credible voice in the public debate over public policy. For if the Church is a global criminal conspiracy of sexual abusers and their protectors, then the Catholic Church has no claim to a place at the table of public moral argument.
Read the rest here.
Palm Sunday and Political Correctness Run Amuck
The young maker of this video has been taught well. He bends over backwards not to offend anyone of any other religion who might happen upon this video instruction. He says at the beginning (profusely), “It’s pure entertainment; nothing else!” After transforming the palm frond into a cross, he ends with, ” Don’t take this as anything against your religion; just pure entertainment; no stuff like that.”
Not that it is this young man’s intention, but now that this symbol of the Faith and the palm (distributed to the faithful as a reminder of our fickleness and unfaithfulness) have been devalued to the level of a pass-time, society must be all the better for it; right? The “entertainment” value of the Cross having been established, actually, does emphasize how quickly nice people forget and dissimilate. Little chance here that this young man will die a martyr. Little does he know what he’s missing. Jesus and the message the Cross, does offend and divide.
War of Words – What's In A Name?
NPR staff memo quoted by La Shawn Barber in NPR Drops ‘Pro-Life for’”Abortion Rights Opponents’:
NPR News is revising the terms we use to describe people and groups involved in the abortion debate.
This updated policy is aimed at ensuring the words we speak and write are as clear, consistent and neutral as possible. This is important given that written text is such an integral part of our work.
On the air, we should use “abortion rights supporter(s)/advocate(s)” and “abortion rights opponent(s)” or derivations thereof (for example: “advocates of abortion rights”). It is acceptable to use the phrase “anti-abortion”, but do not use the term “pro-abortion rights”.
What’s in a name? Barber points us to: “How the Public is Manipulated” which gives us a heads up and out of the sand noting:
It Makes a Pro-Abortion Assumption that the Debate is About Abortion Rights, Not Abortion It Plays Word Games with the Word “Rights” It Ignores the Fact That Abortion Can Exist Without Abortion Rights It Assumes the Negative It Ignores the Concept of a Right to Life It Affirms the Concept of a Right to an Abortion
Barber makes some points of her own for the mainstream media:
- Refer to abortion supporters as “right to life opponents”
- Refer to gun control supporters as “gun rights opponents”
- Refer to “hate speech” backers as “speech rights opponents”
- Refer to racial preferences advocates as “constitutional rights opponents”
Write me if she missed any.
