An Army Chaplain Thanks "Word on Fire"

That's Army Chaplain Father Jeffrey Whorton, serving with our Special Forces.  He sent this note to Fr. Robert Barron of Word on Fire while he was assigned with the 7th Special Forces Group in Afghanistan.  He is thanking Fr. Barron for "Catholicism," the 10 part series on DVD, produced by Word on Fire.

Father Jeffrey Whorton, a military chaplain with U.S. Special Forces in Afghanistan, wrote to us: “My small Adult Ed study is using the series here with the 7th Special Forces Group, and it’s bearing fruit. I am preparing several folks to be received into the Church, and I believe that the Holy Spirit has used, among other things, the ‘Catholicism’ series. Thanks for your efforts. This is just a small testimony of the fruit born in the Kingdom as a result of your team's endeavors.”

God Bless The USA in 2012

Mark Steyn: Can 2012 be Happy?

Mark Steyn writing today at National Review Online wonders how 2012 can be happy since "America owes more money than anyone has ever owed anybody ever."

"Public debt has increased by 67 percent over the last three years, and too many Americans refuse even to see it as a problem. For most of us, “$16.4 trillion” has no real meaning, any more than “$17.9 trillion” or “$28.3 trillion” or “$147.8 bazillion.” It doesn’t even have much meaning for the guys spending the dough: Look into the eyes of Barack Obama or Harry Reid or Barney Frank, and you realize that, even as they’re borrowing all this money, they have no serious intention of paying any of it back. That’s to say, there is no politically plausible scenario under which the 16.4 trillion is reduced to 13.7 trillion, and then 7.9 trillion, and eventually 173 dollars and 48 cents. At the deepest levels within our governing structures, we are committed to living beyond our means on a scale no civilization has ever done."

Thomas Sowell: Choosing Gingrich

Thomas Sowell, writing today at National Review Online, has endorsed Newt Gingrich for the GOP nomination.

FR. Barron: Christopher Hitchens - A Religious Man

Fr. Robert Barron has read much of what Christopher Hitchens wrote, and does not believe Hitchens was, in fact, an atheist.  Rather, he was a man who believed passionately in justice, and one who believes in justice intuitively believes in something transcendent (i.e. God - even though Hitchens would never have admitted that).

Chocoholics: Nana Bee's is Here!

Good news for chocoholics everywhere: Nana Bee's, the world's best chocolate, can now be accessed from this Blog.  Just click on the Nana Bee's logo over on the right, select your favorite chocolate, and place your order.

Merry Birth of Jesus Day

"Catholics Come Home"- A New Website

This is a new website aimed at bringing fallen away Catholics back to church, and much more.

"At Catholics Come Home, we are dedicated to presenting the honest truth about even very difficult subjects. We want to share with you the beautiful, historical and miraculous aspects of the Catholic Church. People who have taken the time to explore our site are surprised to find out that there is much more to Catholicism than they ever realized."

Sundays are for Beauty: The Carol of the Bells

Have a Beautiful Sunday.

Rick Perry: Make Congress Part-Time

Rick Perry had his greatest moment in last night's debate when he suggested that the U. S. Congress should meet as often as does the Texas Legislature: 140 days every other year. Imagine how much less damage those 535 individuals could wreak on us if they were made part-time employees with half their salaries and half their staffs.  That's not going to happen any time soon, but let the debate begin.

Bill Press is an Embarrassment & Disgrace

Never liked this guy before; like him less now.  He's a typical Liberal who is exactly the kind of person referred to by Bishop Fulton Sheen when he said:

“Why are those who are notoriously undisciplined and unmoral also most contemptuous of religion and morality? They are trying to solace their own unhappy lives by pulling the happy down to their own abysmal depths.”

Iran Threatens to Close Strait of Hormuz

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That's the Strait of Hormuz in the upper right corner of the above map. Iran is now threatening to close the Strait in retaliation for our "act of war," manifested by the unscheduled landing of one of our drones on their territory.  The north coast of the Strait is claimed by Iran; the south coast by pro-Western Oman.  This could get very interesting very soon.  Interestingly, GOP Presidential Candidate Mitt Romney said yesterday that were he now president he would go in and get that drone.  President Obama has asked Iran to return it.  Robert Spencer of Jihad
Watch weighs in on all this in the below video.



Here's Mitt Romney:

"He (Obama) was extraordinarily weak and timid in a time of … a critical moment. This will have severe implications for us, long term, and it was a terrible mistake on his part. I find it incomprehensible that he didn’t destroy it, or go get it. I think destroying it would have been a good deal easier. Destroy it immediately, or go get it. But the idea of letting it fall into the hands of people who will use it against us, use the intelligence capacity against us, is an extremely enormous mistake on the part of this president."

Rick Perry: Moving Up?

Ramirez: Our Green Navy of The Future

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http://blog.heritage.org/2011/12/13/navy-buys-biofuels-for-15-per-gallon-from-stimulus-linked-firm/?utm_source=Newsletter&utm_medium=Email&utm_campaign=Morning%2BBell

Progressives Hate Natural Gas. Why?

Jon Entine, a Senior Fellow at George Mason University wrote a piece on The Enterprise Blog today in which he explains why the Environmental Left has entered into "bizarre alliances" with "the Russians and Iranians who thought they were going to corner the gas market in the coming decades," and now "demonize natural gas, and shale in particular, as a 'bridge to nowhere.'"

As they did in their previous quest to demonize carbon because it was heating the planet, these environmental wackos ignore the work of "independent researchers from across the ideological spectrum who have found shale gas to be environmentally safer than coal or oil."

 Here's a short video of Jon Entine:

Rick Perry: Not Politically Correct

Economics 101: The New Deal was a Bad Deal

Here's what Economist Dan Mitchell had to say at BigGovernment.Com about the big government policies of Herbert Hoover, FDR, and the myths about the Great Depression.

"I’ve commented many times about the misguided big-government policies of both Hoover and FDR, so I can say with considerable admiration that this new video from the Center for Freedom and Prosperity packs an amazing amount of solid info into about five minutes.

"Perhaps the most surprising revelation in the video, at least to everyone other than economic historians, is that America suffered a harsh depression after World War I, with GDP falling by a staggering 24 percent.

"But we don’t read much about that downturn in the history books, in large part because it ended so quickly.

"The key question, though, is why did that depression end quickly while the Great Depression dragged on for a decade?

"One big reason for the different results is that markets were largely left unmolested in the 1920s. This meant resources could be quickly redeployed, minimizing the downturn.

"But this doesn’t mean the crowd in Washington was completely passive. They did do something to help the economy recover. As Ms. Fields explains in the video, President Harding, unlike Presidents Hoover and Roosevelt, slashed government spending."

Ramirez: Obama's Lifelong Story

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Gingrich: "Palestinians" are an "Invented People"

The below article is from Robert Spencer of Jihad Watch and is in praise of Newt Gingrich for having the courage to state facts that none of our other politicians would dare utter publicly.  

http://www.jihadwatch.org/2011/12/gingrich-palestinians-an-invented-people.html

It should come as no surprise that Caroline Glick joined in the praise of Gingrich for coming forward and explaining clearly who the so-called "Palestinians" are, and what they want - but then we all know what they want, don't we?  She wrote this on her Blog today.

Drew Brees Talks about Jesus

Andrew Klavan of PJ Media wrote a don't miss piece yesterday in which he explains the difficulty the media has with good people like Drew Brees and Tim Tebow who are not afraid to speak openly about their faith.

"We know these assaults are not really protests against “religion,” or attempts to insure the government maintains a proper role in regards to religion. We know that because, so often, the moment the religion in question is Islam, so many of the anti-Christian players seem to switch sides and begin to sentimentalize Islamic practices which, if sponsored by Christians, would appall them. Indeed, Christians can be forgiven if they look to a teetering Europe — where Christianity is often persecuted while the most despicable forms of Islamism are protected — and see the specter of our own future."

You can read the Klavan piece by clicking HERE.

 

H/T: rutusmc

Sundays are for Beauty: Adoremus Slovak Choir

The Adoremus Slovak Choir was founded 1n 1992.  It's an all-Slovak group specializing in sacred music and Gregorian Chant.  The choir has performed in all the cities of Slovakia and in several other countries: Czech Republic, Hungary, Germany, Italy, Slovenia and Poland.

Have a Beautiful Sunday.

"The Jimmy Doolittle Raid" A Must See Video

H/T: edsciss

Catholicism: It's Your Story

Watch+the+Chicago+marathon+of+CATHOLICISM+on+WTTW-11%3a+Saturday%2c+December+10th%2c+1-6+PM.

Caroline Glick: "An Ally No More"

Caroline Glick has not trusted the Obama administration for some time, but her latest column in the Jerusalem Post, and on her Blog, sounds like she has no hope that the United States will support Israel until we have a change in Washington.

"With vote tallies in for Egypt's first round of parliamentary elections in it is abundantly clear that Egypt is on the fast track to becoming a totalitarian Islamic state. The first round of voting took place in Egypt's most liberal, cosmopolitan cities. And still the Muslim Brotherhood and the Salafists received more than 60 percent of the vote. Run-off elections for 52 seats will by all estimates increase their representation.

"Rather than warn Egypt that it will face severe consequences if it completes its Islamist transformation, the Obama administration has turned its guns on the first country that will pay a price for Egypt's Islamic revolution: Israel.

"Speaking at the annual policy conclave in Washington sponsored by the leftist Brookings Institute's Saban Center for Middle East Policy, US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton hammered Israel, the only real ally the US has left in the Middle East after Mubarak's fall. Clinton felt it necessary - in the name of democracy - to embrace the positions of Israel's radical Left against the majority of Israelis.

"The same Secretary of State that has heralded negotiations with the violent, fanatical misogynists of the Taliban; who has extolled Saudi Arabia where women are given ten lashes for driving, and whose State Department trained female-hating Muslim Brotherhood operatives in the lead-up to the current elections in Egypt accused Israel of repressing women's rights. The only state in the region where women are given full rights and legal protections became the focus of Clinton's righteous feminist wrath.

"There is little qualitative difference between accusing Israeli society of destroying democracy for seeking to defend itself against foreign political subversion, and accusing Jews of destroying morality for failing to embrace foreign religious faiths.

"...Under President Obama, the US government has become hostile to Israel's national rights and strategic imperatives. Under Obama, the US is no longer Israel's ally."

There's much more in her piece, and you can read it all by clicking on the link below.

An ally no more

Steve Breen on "The Arab Spring"

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H/T: rutusmc

Death by Drug Shortage

Since the Obama administration feels that government should control the nation's healthcare, here would seem to be a good place to start.  It's inconceivable that this shortage of chemo therapy drugs could not be solved in a heartbeat if the FDA willed it.

Obamacare, though, was never intended to save lives, and it won't.  Cutting $1.05 trillion from Medicare over the first ten years (and $4.95 trillion over the first 20 years) is certainly not intended to save lives.  If, however, the FDA stepped in to help solve this shortage crisis (in the way mentioned by Peter Johnson, Jr), the private sector could do the rest, and lives would be saved. That's how it should work in a free country.

Where's The Line To See Jesus?

MERRY CHRISTMAS!


H/T: rkwlsn

Today is the feast of The Immaculate Conception

http://www.catholicapologetics.org/ap080400.htm

Rick Perry on Faith and Values

Pearl Harbor Remembered, 12/7/2011

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Thomas Sowell: Christmas Books This Year

The inestimable Thomas Sowell recommended several new books that would make excellent Christmas gifts this year, in a piece on National Review Online yesterday.

Included in his recommendations: a biography of Stan Musial, Ann Coulter's new one: "Demonic," which practically predicated the "Occupy" movement, and new offerings by his friend, Walter Williams, and one of his favorite writers, Theodore Dalrymple.

You can read about all his recommendations by clicking on the link below:

Christmas Books - Thomas Sowell - National Review Online

The Occupiers Last Venue

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H/T: jpa1948

Beck Calls Out Gingrich 12/06/2011

So, is Gingrich really the true Conservative in the GOP race?

If you missed the hit piece on Gingrich by George Will a few days ago, you can read it HERE.

Claire Berlinski on "The iron Lady"