Divinus Mentis

Pope Bashing: Lies of the Belfast Telegraph

2011-01-01T04:43:00.002-06:00

Suppose for a moment that I were to write something of a condemnation of the cultural nuances that foster horrible crimes wrought against the youth of the world. Now suppose in doing so, I name a sort of complacency, a perceived normality to the abhorrent deeds. I'm in effect, calling evil by name.

Fast forward a bit. An Irish newspaper writes a lengthy article about how my comments "outraged" victims of sex abuse. Confusing? No, not at all. You see, the newspaper is actually only taking snippets from my full speech and trying to represent the complacency as belonging to me, and the organization I head.

Welcome to reality, because this is exactly the sort of tactic that the Belfast Telegraph has perpetuated against the Catholic Church and Pope Benedict XVI.

Here's the lying article.

Notice the oddly worded title of the article. It starts with the blatant attempt at catching your eye with "Pope's child porn...". Simply amazing.

Here's what the Pope actually said.

Hawking, Discover Magazine, Lemaitre and Epic Failure

2010-09-03T09:53:00.008-05:00

During my normal rounds on IRC (Internet Relay Chat) and various websites, the subject of Hawking's recent comments regarding the "lack of need for God" in so many words inevitably came up.

Now in discussing the prevalent theories regarding the Universe (6 or so string theories, infinite regression, first cause, multiverse &c), I happened upon Fr. Lemaitre's Wiki page. I was looking for a citation regarding his development of Hubble's Law. Now this of course in itself is a typical treatment of Catholic contributors to science, as the law is named for Hubble, based on Einstein's equations of general relativity and postulated by Lemaitre. The man get's no credit. At best, seldom credit.

At any rate, I stumbled across this story on the infamous Discover Magazine website, which is actually a retraction of a previous article essentially claiming that Lemaitre didn't look at the data for Hubble's law (they retract this), which I understand as an insinuation that Edwin Hubble, who finally "confirmed the data" ten years later, deserves the credit. This notion was admirably retracted by Discover. However, the opening of the story completely robs Lemaitre AGAIN. Here's the quote from sentence ONE:

"We’ve previously celebrated Father Georges-Henri Lemaitre on this very blog, for taking seriously the idea of the Big Bang."

Excuse me? Taking seriously? Who's theory was The Primeval Atom Hypothesis (AKA The "Big Bang")? This was his theory.

This is very typical treatment and ignorance due to the fact, as anyone who watches documentaries (even on Edwin Hubble) knows, people like Lemaitre get very little spotlight. If you happen to be someone that contradicts the false dichotomy of science versus religion, you get swept under the rug.

Now this might not seem like a big deal, but I can't stress enough how prevalent this sort of thing is. For those of you who know what the Big Bang is, and for those of you who watch shows like the History Channel's "Universe", Carl Sagan's "Cosmos" or any such shows.... How many of you know that it was a Catholic Priest that came up with "The Big Bang"? Yeah I didn't either some years ago.

No airtime. Outright lies, and inexcusable ignorance. This is the direction anti-religious education is necessarily headed (cf. sine qua non).

Now to address the basic gist of Hawking, what we have are some options.

1. The Universe is "infinite" in one manner or another, thus making the empirical case for infinity as a real phenomena (sounds pro-God to me). Unfortunately you cannot traverse infinity to get to the present thus making this untenable.

2. The universe is finite, though perhaps one of many. This of course doesn't address the logical requirement of an un-caused first cause. Thus calling into question what sort of "god" Hawking is talking about in the first place.

Neither of these, or any other I have heard for that matter address the response to these two. Food for thought.

A final note, if not the most important of course is that contrary to the Big Bang, which all observation points to, making it the best theory we have for the origin of the Universe; we have no evidence for String Theory (of any kind in any of it's manifestations) or of Multiverse theories. There's zero, I repeat zero physical evidence that there exist any other universes than our own.

Multiverse theory, in my opinion is intended quite purposely to function as God rejecting or agendad Heliocentrist opportunists attempted to function. As an argument against the centrality of our existence in the Universe. Heliocentrism failed to kill God. In the same vein, proving we're "not the only universe" will have the same fizzling effect ultimately.

Further Reading

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georges_Lemaître
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Bang
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hubble%27s_law
http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/europe/09/02/hawking.god.universe/index.html

A little balance, please! 04-14

2010-04-15T04:50:00.000-05:00

Updates!

2010-04-13T09:44:00.002-05:00

Ok yeah, so I haven't been quite as diligent lately in making posts, essentially making my blog unread. I've been planning on updating with more frequency, so here's the start of that. First, my latest is a brief encounter with the underwhleming Calvinist Sect known as A&O ministries, regarding their absurd claims of Orthodoxy. Click here for that.

The Heresy of OSAS (Once Saved Always Saved)

2009-12-20T20:03:00.003-06:00

This heresy is the belief that once you become "Saved" you cannot lose your salvation, regardless of how many sins you commit or their seriousness. This heresy originated with John Calvin (founder of Calvinism) in the mid-sixteenth century. Even Martin Luther did not agree with John Calvin's "theory". Prior to Calvin, the unanimous consent of the early Christians was that a person is capable of losing his salvation by committing mortal sin, as John spoke about in 1 John 5:16–17. Justification of this heretical doctrine is often attempted by way of John 10:28.

John 10:28
And I give them life everlasting: and they shall not perish for ever. And no man shall pluck them out of my hand.

This verse does not say God cannot take away your salvation.

"In the case of John 10:28, Jesus says that no one will be able to take us away from God. The language is similar to Paul’s in Romans 8:39 when he says that nothing in creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus. Both of these passages address the same fact that no one is capable of removing you from the grace of God. No one is capable of nullifying your salvation. It would be like saying that no one is capable of pulling you out of a car driving at eighty miles per hour. This does not mean that you are incapable of opening the door and jumping out. In the same way, John 10:28 does not mean that we are incapable of severing our relationship with God. Read on in John, and you’ll see why."

(Catholic Answers: Once Saved Always Saved).

Revelation 22:19
And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and from these things that are written in this book.

Once your name is "the book of life" it can be stricken by God if you commit this sin.
The punishment is clear.

Matthew 12:31
Therefore I say to you: Every sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven men, but the blasphemy of the Spirit shall not be forgiven.

This verse tells of another sin that will not be forgiven men. Blasphemy of the Holy Spirit. "Saved" or not, you will not be forgiven this.

1 John 5:16
If any one sees his brother committing what is not a mortal sin, he will ask, and God will give him life for those whose sin is not mortal. There is sin which is mortal; I do not say that one is to pray for that.

1 John 5:17
All wrongdoing is sin, but there is sin which is not mortal.

Luke 6:46
And why call you me, Lord, Lord; and do not the things which I say?

Matthew 7:21
Not every one that saith to me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven: but he that doth the will of my Father who is in heaven, he shall enter into the kingdom of heaven.

See also:
Apostolic Apologetics: Mortal Sin
Catholic Answers: Once Saved Always Saved?

Presented by Apostolic Apologetics

Bishop Murdered in N.J.

2009-10-23T23:19:00.006-05:00

(CNN) -- Residents of the New Jersey town where a priest was found dead in the kitchen of his church's rectory Friday morning should exercise caution, Morris County Prosecutor Robert Bianchi said.

Due to the nature of the wounds, the death of the Rev. Ed Hinds, 61, of St. Patrick's Church "in all likelihood was in fact a homicide," Bianchi told reporters at a news conference Friday afternoon.

He said investigators believe Hinds was killed sometime between 11 p.m. Thursday and 8 a.m. Friday, when his death was discovered after he failed to show up for morning Mass. He was fully dressed in a black clerical robe when police arrived on the scene, Bianchi said.

Chatham Borough police were interviewing witnesses and had 50 to 100 police and detectives investigating the case, according to Bianchi.

Though he urged residents to go about their daily lives, he warned they "should be extra vigilant during these next couple of days."

Parents of children at the church Friday morning were called to come pick up their kids, though they were not believed to be in any immediate danger, Bianchi said.

The death was baffling, a church official said.

"It makes absolutely no sense. He was a very well-loved pastor and very well respected," said Bishop Arthur J. Serratelli of the Paterson Diocese.

"We are praying for the happy repose of his soul," he said.

Police had no suspects, Bianchi had said at an earlier news conference.

Chatham Borough, a community of just over 10,000 people, lies approximately 25 miles west of New York.

Video Coverage

Atheist groups continue advertising campaign

2009-10-21T05:21:00.004-05:00

By Paul Swonger

As CNN reports, a coalition of Atheist organizations are continuing their advertising campaign, aimed at "raising awareness about people who don't believe in a god" in Manhattan. New York's Manhattan subway system, the target of the ads is one of the busiest in the world with over 5 million riders per day. The month long ad campaign will be spread throughout a dozen stations with posters that read "A million New Yorkers are good without God. Are you?".

This is the second time this sort of advertising has not only been carried out, but covered by the major news outlets. So if the goal is raising awareness of atheists, are the News Agencies cooperating in being instruments of this?

Back in January of 2009, there was a similar campaign in Britain that plastered atheist beliefs on the sides of buses. Read about that here.

So what's the flip side?

While some religious faithful may be dismayed at the news, the ads may have an unintended affect. That is, those casual religious, of whom I am a former member, may decide to actually research premeditated, that which they hold to be the truth of their convictions, creating perhaps, more Apologists like myself who came from precisely this background. Indeed, I would say that aggressive anti-theistic absurdity is largely responsible for the strengthening of my faith, and indeed my move from a casual believer to a 'hardcore apologist'. This was dismaying news to a friend of mine who decided to educate me on the ways of atheist (or lack thereof *ahem*) only to find he had fostered the tempering of a religious zealot.

Medal of Honor for Hero Priest?

2009-10-20T19:43:00.001-05:00

According to The Associated Press, outgoing Army Secretary Pete Geren has endorsed awarding a posthumous Medal of Honor to Korean War chaplain Father Emil Kapaun.

Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, has also endorsed awarding the nation’s highest military honor to Father Kapaun, who died in a Chinese prisoner of war camp after being captured seven months earlier while serving as an Army captain and chaplain.

Go here to read The Associated Press article. And go here to access the website that has been set up to promote the cause for Father Kapaun’s canonization.

'Called out of darkness' and into light of Christ

2009-10-15T18:03:00.000-05:00

Anne Rice tells how her evolution of writing about vampires to angels reflected her spiritual journey from atheism to the Catholic faith

For years, Anne Rice, author of "The Vampire Chronicles" series and creator of the infamous vampire Lestat, was identified by the dark world of her own imagination. In 1998, however, she returned to the Catholic Church of her birth and in 2002 consecrated all her writing to Jesus Christ. Since then she has gone on to write two books in the "Christ the Lord" series, her spiritual confessions in "Called Out of Darkness" and the first book in her new "Song of Seraphim" series. "Angel Time," a story of redemption wound around a metaphysical thriller, will be released Oct. 27.

Rice spoke with Our Sunday Visitor about the current pop-culture obsession with vampires, the spiritual dimensions of vampire literature and her own journey from atheism to faith.

Our Sunday Visitor: Why do people find vampires so fascinating, and what was it that drew you to them when you first started writing "The Vampire Chronicles"?

Anne Rice: I always found them fascinating because they were supernatural monsters that had been human beings and were still human to a large extent. I always perceived them to be powerful metaphors for the lonely one in each of us, or the alienated one, or the one who feels like a monster. I think that's how vampire literature functions. It's really about us, about our consciousness, our ability to contemplate our own death, and we use the vampire as a mythic figure to talk about our own selves. That has always been the case, and that is probably true of all supernatural fiction that pertains to monsters. Mary Shelley's "Frankenstein" is really about us and what we do with our creative power and whether we misuse it or use it correctly.

I think the vampire myth is particularly flexible and potentially profound, so it's going to keep exciting people each time a new author comes along and uses it in a different way. Bram Stoker obviously being the first, and Sheridan le Fanu, one of the others of the 19th century. ... I brought something new to it in the minds of the public, and now at the present time we have new writers like Charlaine Harris and Stephenie Meyer bringing their new wrinkle to it all. I'm not surprised that people are interested. I think it's built into the story itself of the vampire, the human being who becomes a monster who feeds off fellow human beings and who is doomed really to live in both worlds -- the world of the living and the world of the dead. I think a lot of us feel that's what we're doing, and so we identify with the vampire; we respond to him with sympathy.

OSV: Today's vampire seems transformed, less monsterlike and more sensitive friend. What is the significance of that shift?

Rice: Certainly these new books are embracing the vampire and dealing in a very direct way with our fascination with him. It's people trying to get very close to the vampire, very close to his allure and his charm and human fascination with him. It's just various degrees of intimacy in a way. That's what's happening.

OSV: There seems to be a younger audience for the new books and movies -- preteens and teens. Do parents need to be concerned with their children's vampire obsessions?

Rice: I don't think parents need to be worried at all. I think kids are very aware of what's a fantasy and what's not a fantasy. I don't think there's anything inherently evil in vampire fiction. We know that vampires don't exist, and the kids that write to me certainly know that. Their e-mails indicate that they're responding to the romance in my books, to the glamour, to the beauty of the vampire, but they know perfectly well this is a mythic figure. I see it as a relatively harmless thing. In fact, I think there might be something good about children reading a lot and in understanding symbolic literature and speculative literature.

OSV: In an essay on your website, you talk about your work -- from "The Vampire Chronicles" through the "Christ the Lord" series -- as reflecting your journey through atheism back to God. How is your earlier work part of that spiritual journey?

Rice: As I was writing "Interview with the Vampire," I knew that I identified with Louis the vampire and that I felt like a creature of the night and a creature who was separated from God and a creature who was lost and pretty miserable. The book is really a meditation on misery, on the misery of being separated from God. I felt very comfortable writing it because it allowed me to express my sorrow. It's only years later that I realized the book is about the loss of my Catholic faith. It's about a fall from grace, about leaving the Church, about roaming in the darkness of atheism for many years and feeling as obsessed with God as ever.

OSV: You have said that you cannot write any more vampire books but that you could never renounce your earlier works because they were so much a part of you. Can you talk about that?

Rice: I really don't have any more stories to tell from the point of view of the vampires, because faith did come back to me and I felt that I found what those characters were always searching for. When faith came back, I wanted to write a new kind of fiction, a different kind of fiction, a fiction that I could dedicate directly to God. I would not go back to writing from the point of view of the vampires because the metaphors don't work for me anymore. I feel I live now in a universe in which salvation is a possibility for everyone. The promise is there for everyone. So the dark fictional world of the vampire doesn't have any validity for me now. But I certainly don't want to renounce my earlier work, because I think it's a perfect reflection of the struggle I was engaged in. I was searching for God and not willing to make the leap. To turn on those books, to decide they weren't important now, would be completely dishonest because I think those books do mirror the search for God. I have no more stories to tell about Lestat. I love him. He is still part of me. He was my hero throughout the writing of the "Chronicles." I still think of him all the time and picture him all the time, but I have no more stories to tell. I'd like to think wherever he is, he's finding what I found.

OSV: In "Called Out of Darkness," you write powerfully about Eucharist and Incarnation. What is the significance of your renewed faith in your life now and your decision to consecrate your writing to Christ?

Rice: One of the first things that happened to me after I made the commitment to go back to my Church and when I consecrated my work to Christ -- told him that I would write only for him -- was that there was this huge upsurge of energy in my writing. I don't think I had ever expected life to be so interesting and so challenging at this point. It was like a renaissance for me. I was able to envision all kinds of new stories. "Angel Time" is an example. And writing the life of Christ, getting the two books done -- "Christ the Lord: Out of Egypt" and "Christ the Lord: The Road to Cana" -- was a great adventure. It was very difficult, it was very challenging, and it was very thrilling. I felt suddenly that I was driving on all eight cylinders. I'm a little surprised when readers turn away and say, 'We won't read those books because they're about Jesus.' But what I've come to realize is that this is the same kind of prejudice I've confronted all my life. For years people said, 'We won't read her books because they're about vampires.' They would just dismiss them out of hand. It was the ultimate judging a book by its cover.

OSV: In "The Vampire Chronicles," you were exploring life in a godless world. Now in your newest book, "Angel Time," that spiritual quest has shifted. What was it like to write a book that is still a metaphysical thriller but this time with a focus on redemption?

Rice: The possibilities of Toby O'Dare [a contract killer who is the protagonist of "Angel Time"] are unlimited. He's really on the side of the angels, and it's tremendous fun to write about somebody on the side of the angels. I was certainly able to explore a lot of darkness, because darkness has been a part of my life and it's going to come out in any book I write. I was able to explore that in Toby's past -- how he became an assassin, what happened to him, his suffering and his childhood. But then to have that hero turn around and get a possibility to do good instead of evil was tremendously exciting.

OSV: Is your work, your writing, part of your prayer life in a sense?

Rice: Definitely. Writing the "Christ the Lord" books was very much part of my prayer life, because it was so important to me that they be biblically and theologically accurate, that I began writing about Our Lord as I perceived him through faith as a Catholic, as a Christian. So a great deal of prayer was always involved as well as a close study of Scripture. I love reading Scripture. It's been one of the great delights of the last few years for me, sitting down and having no distraction from just reading the Gospels. Very much my prayer life was involved. With "Angel Time" I have to think a lot about what Toby's life is now and how a person does good and what is good as opposed to evil. He can't just go out into the world and just do stuff to help people. He has to maintain his own commitment to God and his commitment to the angels who have recruited him. And so, yes, it's part of my prayer life, definitely.

OSV: What has been the reaction among fans and colleagues to your transition from atheism to Catholicism?

Rice: I think people are pretty accepting. One thing is that my writing of the last few years has brought me much closer to my fellow Catholics and to many, many non-Catholics too. I feel a communion with everybody that shares my values. When I was writing "The Vampire Chronicles," I was pretty much a loner. Certainly, there were a lot of people who shared my views then too, but we were all loners. That was our definition of ourselves. We were alienated. We weren't members of anything. Now I feel like I'm a member of something, and it's a very good feeling.

Another black legend, down the chute

2009-10-15T17:54:00.002-05:00

By George Weigel

The Thirty Years War looms large in the contemporary secularist imagination. There, it’s simply taken for granted that religious fanaticism laid waste to Europe between 1618 and 1648, and that the carnage only stopped when the exhausted powers of the day agreed to the Peace of Westphalia, which ended the wars of religion by adopting the principle of cuius regio eius religio—the prince’s religion would determine the religion of the principality. More subtle secularists find in cuius regio eius religio one root of modern statecraft, from which religious ideas and religiously informed moral judgments are to be rigorously excluded.

That’s the way it was, and that’s the lesson to be learned, right? Well, no, actually.
Or so writes Peter Wilson in “The Thirty Years War: Europe’s Tragedy” (Belknap/Harvard). As Professor Wilson’s subtitle suggests, the Thirty Years War was indeed a horrible business. When it was finally over, the Holy Roman Empire of the Hapsburgs had lost 20 percent of its population—some 8 million people—which is truly dreadful, even by 20th century European standards of mass slaughter. True, Wilson writes, the Thirty Years War began as a religiously-inspired civil war within the Hapsburg lands. But it became an international affair and a historic disaster when Sweden’s Gustavus Adophus, waging war behind a facade of Lutheran piety, saw his geopolitical chances and took ‘em. (That Richelieu and the Catholic French sided with the Lutheran Swedes in order to cut their Catholic Hapsburg rivals down to size nicely illustrates Lord Birkenhead’s comment in “Chariots of Fire:” “The Frogs aren’t a terribly principled lot...”).

Wilson’s challenge to conventional secularist wisdom lies in his summary judgment: this grisly business had far less to do with theological arguments over justification by faith than it did with dynastic ambition, greed, political incompetence, and a ruthless lack of morals among early practitioners of that foreign policy “realism” on which certain parties in Washington, D.C., pride themselves today. In short, the Thirty Years War was about politics detached from ethics, not about religion detached from reason.

If that’s true—and Professor Wilson makes a strong case—adjustments ought to be made in the Standard Version of the modern history of church-and-state.
Recent scholarship has demonstrated that Stalin, master of a hyper-secularist regime in Soviet Russia, killed more people on a slow afternoon than the dread Inquisition consigned to death in a decade. Now Peter Wilson demonstrates that the Thirty Years War (proportionally, a slaughter three times greater than World War II) was primarily a matter of unbridled politics, not maniacal religion. These two readjustments in historical understanding demonstrate, across a span of three and a half centuries, that the modern nation-state has been more deadly than the Church by orders of magnitude. That, in turn, ought to be an arrow in the rhetorical quiver of those Europeans and Americans who continue to argue, against secularist bigotry, that religiously informed moral argument has a legitimate place in the public square of 21st century democracies.

Then there’s cuius regio eius religio, which the Standard Version typically posits as a step toward the institutional separation of church and state and the constitutional guarantee of religious freedom. Poles taught me years ago that precisely the opposite was the case: for Poles, whose lands did not experience the European wars of religion, regard the Westphalian imposition of religious faith by state edict as the world’s first systematic experiment in totalitarianism—the coercion of consciences by a public authority that claimed control over the innermost sanctuaries of the human spirit.

Thus if we are looking for deeper and sturdier roots of religious freedom in Europe, we might look elsewhere: to the Polish theologian and canonist Pawel Wlodkowic, who argued at the 15th century Council of Constance against the forced conversion of pagans; or to the 17th century Polish king, Zygmunt August, who declined the invitation of his countrymen to resolve their religious squabbles by stating that he was not “the king of your consciences.”
In the light of Peter Wilson’s book, perhaps some intrepid soul will raise these points in the Christophobic European Parliament. The reaction would be instructive.

Minnesota Department of Health 2008 Abortion Report.

2009-10-15T13:27:00.006-05:00

By Paul Swonger.

The Minnesota department of Health has released it's annual report on abortion. To download this report in PDF format, click the link provided at the end of this document.

Reading this report is something anyone that cares about human life should do. Over twelve thousand lives in Minnesota were lost due to abortion in 2008. What's always astonishing to me---every time I read these reports is how casually people treat the sanctity of life. An overwhelming majority of these pregnancies are a direct result of forsaking traditional family values; that is one man, one woman, united in marriage. Let's look at the statistics and see what we can learn.

Between January and December 2008 there were 12,948 reported abortions performed in Minnesota.

The month with the most abortions was February, with 1,16 abortions performed.
Of the 12,948 abortions in Minnesota during 2008, one was performed by a doctor specializing in "emergency medicine" (meaning emergency room). Four abortions were done in ambulatory surgery during 2008.

The most abortions; 4,308, occurred with women 20-24 years of age. The second largest age group of women was 3,304 for women 25-29 years of age. Women between 30 and 39 years of age accounted for less then the previous two groups combined with 2965 abortions.

645 abortions occurred with females 17 years of age or under.

The marital status of those receiving abortions is an overwhelming indication, with the majority of abortions occurring in unmarried women, at 10,717 occurrences. 328 women did not report their marital status.

Ramsey county reported 2,031 abortions, coming in second only to Hennepin county at 4,379.

In Minnesota, more white women have abortions than any other race at 8,000 in 2008. This number is followed by those identifying as "black" with 2,966.

High school dropouts accounted for 1,516 abortions in Minnesota during 2008.

Those at college graduate level accounted for 621 abortions during 2008 in Minnesota.

The most common gestational age for abortions was under nine weeks at 8,527. In the report, the more kids the women have, the less abortions in their group.

Most abortions occurred in women that had not been pregnant before (therefore in women that had no other children) with 5,399 abortions in this group.

The number of women during 2008 reporting one previous abortion was 3,114. Women reporting two previous abortions was 1,238.

During the 2008 report, 449 women having abortions in Minnesota reported to having four or more abortions in the past.

The overwhelming majority of women receiving abortions in Minnesota during 2008 said that they used contraception, but not at the time of conception at 8,231 women. The majority of these women, 1,949, said they used condoms as their birth control method.

Of the 12,948 fetuses killed in Minnesota during 2008, only 26 of them received a burial. The rest were cremated.

The government, cited as "Public Assistance" in the report, paid for the at least 3,864 of the abortions in Minnesota during 2008.

The majority of women who received abortions in Minnesota during 2008, cited the reason for their abortion as "they don't want children at this time".

Twelve of the abortions were because the pregnancy was a result of incest, and 6 women claimed the pregnancy was due to rape.

941 women cited their reasoning as being "a single parent".

270 women reported their reason as being "relationship issues, including abuse, separation, and extra marital affairs".

691 women reported their reason as wanting to finish "education goals" such as high school or college.

22 medical complications occurred as the result of abortions during 2008 in Minnesota during the procedure itself.

65 times the abortions were unsuccessful requiring the procedure to be repeated.

Total state funds used to pay for out of state abortion procedures, including incidental expenses amounted to $32,550.54

Female patients with access to printed materials, referred to commonly as "informed consent" numbered at just 234. At least seven of these women did not go through with the abortion. 12,072 women did not have access to these materials.

Download the report:

http://www.health.state.mn.us/divs/chs/abrpt/2008abrpt.pdf

Become part of the solution:

http://www.hli.org/

Please watch my video "99 Balloons".

Please watch my video "Who will this man become?".

Please watch my video "In Common".

Please watch my video "Imagine the Potential".

Sarah Silverman’s Obscene Rip At Vatican

2009-10-13T22:09:00.003-05:00

Comedian Sarah Silverman appeared on Bill Maher’s HBO show on October 9 attacking the Vatican. She began her monologue bemoaning the plight of world hunger, and then found a solution: “What is the Vatican worth, like 500 billion dollars? This is great, sell the Vatican, take a big chunk of the money, build a gorgeous condominium for you and all your friends to live in…and with the money left over, feed the whole f---ing world.”

Speaking of the pope, Silverman continued, “You preach to live humbly, and I totally agree. So, now maybe it’s time for you to move out of your house that is a city. On an ego level alone, you will be the biggest hero in the history of ever. And by the way, any involvement in the Holocaust, bygones….”

Silverman closed by saying, “If you sell the Vatican, and you take that money, and you use it to feed every single human being on the planet, you will get crazy p---y. All the p---y.”

Catholic League president Bill Donohue responds as follows:

Silverman’s assault on Catholicism is just another example of HBO’s corporate irresponsibility. Time and again, if it’s not Bill Maher thrashing the Catholic Church, it’s one of his guests. There is obviously something pathological going on there: Silverman’s filthy diatribe would never be allowed if the chosen target were the Chief Rabbi of Jerusalem and the state of Israel.

Here’s a reality check for Silverman: the Catholic Church operates more hospitals and feeds more of the poor than any private institution in the world. It also saved more Jews during the Holocaust than any other institution in the world.

Contact HBO head Bill Nelson: Bill.nelson@hbo.com

(Source: Catholic League)

Forum: The myth of the 'pedophile priest'

2009-10-06T16:20:00.002-05:00

The trauma stemming from the Boston case should not be used to accuse the whole Roman Catholic Church

Sunday, March 03, 2002

By Philip Jenkins (Post-Gazette, PA, USA)

The Roman Catholic Church in the United States is going through one of the most traumatic periods in its long history.


		Philip Jenkins is Distinguished Professor of History and Religious Studies at Penn State. His book "Pedophiles and Priests: Anatomy of a Contemporary Crisis" was published by Oxford University Press in 1996.

Every day, the news media have a new horror story to report, under some sensational headline: Newsweek, typically, is devoting its current front cover to "Sex, Shame and the Catholic Church: 80 Priests Accused of Child Abuse in Boston." Though the sex abuse cases have deep roots, the most recent scandals were detonated by the affair of Boston priest John J. Geoghan. Though his superiors had known for years of Geoghan's pedophile activities, he kept being transferred from parish to parish, regardless of the safety of the children in his care. The stigma of the Geoghan affair could last for decades, and some Catholics are declaring in their outrage that they can never trust their church again.

No one can deny that Boston church authorities committed dreadful errors, but at the same time, the story is not quite the simple tale of good and evil that it sometime appears. Hard though it may be to believe right now, the "pedophile priest" scandal is nothing like as sinister as it has been painted -- or at least, it should not be used to launch blanket accusations against the Catholic Church as a whole.

We have often heard the phrase "pedophile priest" in recent weeks. Such individuals can exist: Father Geoghan was one, as was the notorious Father James Porter a decade or so back. But as a description of a social problem, the term is wildly misleading. Crucially, Catholic priests and other clergy have nothing like a monopoly on sexual misconduct with minors.

My research of cases over the past 20 years indicates no evidence whatever that Catholic or other celibate clergy are any more likely to be involved in misconduct or abuse than clergy of any other denomination -- or indeed, than nonclergy. However determined news media may be to see this affair as a crisis of celibacy, the charge is just unsupported.

Literally every denomination and faith tradition has its share of abuse cases, and some of the worst involve non-Catholics. Every mainline Protestant denomination has had scandals aplenty, as have Pentecostals, Mormons, Jehovah's Witnesses, Jews, Buddhists, Hare Krishnas -- and the list goes on. One Canadian Anglican (Episcopal) diocese is currently on the verge of bankruptcy as a result of massive lawsuits caused by decades of systematic abuse, yet the Anglican church does not demand celibacy of its clergy.

However much this statement contradicts conventional wisdom, the "pedophile priest" is not a Catholic specialty. Yet when did we ever hear about "pedophile pastors"?

Just to find some solid numbers, how many Catholic clergy are involved in misconduct? We actually have some good information on this issue, since in the early 1990s, the Catholic Archdiocese of Chicago undertook a bold and thorough self-study. The survey examined every priest who had served in the archdiocese over the previous 40 years, some 2,200 individuals, and reopened every internal complaint ever made against these men. The standard of evidence applied was not legal proof that would stand up in a court of law, but just the consensus that a particular charge was probably justified.

By this low standard, the survey found that about 40 priests, about 1.8 percent of the whole, were probably guilty of misconduct with minors at some point in their careers. Put another way, no evidence existed against about 98 percent of parish clergy, the overwhelming majority of the group. Since other organizations dealing with children have not undertaken such comprehensive studies, we have no idea whether the Catholic figure is better or worse than the rate for schoolteachers, residential home counselors, social workers or scout masters.

The Chicago study also found that of the 2,200 priests, just one was a pedophile. Now, many people are confused about the distinction between a pedophile and a person guilty of sex with a minor. The difference is very significant. The phrase "pedophile priests" conjures up images of the worst violation of innocence, callous molesters like Father Porter who assault children 7 years old. "Pedophilia" is a psychiatric term meaning sexual interest in children below the age of puberty.

But the vast majority of clergy misconduct cases are nothing like this. The vast majority of instances involve priests who have been sexually active with a person below the age of sexual consent, often 16 or 17 years old, or even older. An act of this sort is wrong on multiple counts: It is probably criminal, and by common consent it is immoral and sinful; yet it does not have the utterly ruthless, exploitative character of child molestation. In almost all cases too, with the older teen-agers, there is an element of consent.

Also, the definition of "childhood" varies enormously between different societies. If an act of this sort occurred in most European countries, it would probably be legal, since the age of consent for boys is usually around 15. To take a specific example, when newspapers review recent cases of "pedophile priests," they commonly cite a case that occurred in California's Orange County, when a priest was charged with having consensual sex with a 17-year-old boy. Whatever the moral quality of such an act, most of us would not apply the term "child abuse" or "pedophilia." For this reason alone, we need to be cautious when we read about scores of priests being "accused of child abuse."

The age of the young person involved is also so important because different kinds of sexual misconduct respond differently to treatment, and church authorities need to respond differently. If a diocese knows a man is a pedophile, and ever again places him in a position where he has access to more children, that decision is simply wrong, and probably amounts to criminal neglect. But a priest who has a relationship with an older teen-ager is much more likely to respond to treatment, and it would be more understandable if some day the church placed him in a new parish, under careful supervision.

The fact that Cardinal Law's regime in Boston seems to have blundered time and again does not mean that this is standard practice for all Catholic dioceses, still less that the church is engaged in some kind of conspiracy of silence to hide dangerous perverts.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I am in no sense soft on the issue of child abuse. Recently, I published an expose of the trade in electronic child pornography, one of the absolute worst forms of exploitation, and my argument was that the police and FBI need to be pressured to act more strictly against this awful thing.

My concern over the "pedophile priest" issue is not to defend evil clergy, or a sinful church (I cannot be called a Catholic apologist, since I am not even a Catholic). But I am worried that justified anger over a few awful cases might be turned into ill-focused attacks against innocent clergy. The story of clerical misconduct is bad enough without turning into an unjustifiable outbreak of religious bigotry against the Catholic Church.

View the Original Article Here.

Site Changes (Apostolic Apologetics)

2009-10-04T06:09:00.002-05:00

I've made some changes to Apostolic Apologetics; namely I had some issues when Google changed some code on me as far as the site appearance goes. All is back to normal after some hours messing with the logo and background images in Photoshop. What better time than now to have a look at the immense amount of resources available there at Divinus Mentis' sister site?

http://sites.google.com/site/apostolicapologetics/

Meeting after pro-homosexual ELCA decisions could reorganize American Lutheranism

2009-09-27T16:03:00.000-05:00

Indianapolis, Ind., Sep 24, 2009 / 10:28 pm (CNA).- Following the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America’s controversial recent assembly, a two-day gathering of Lutherans will begin in Indianapolis on Friday. Organizers say the meeting will begin the creation of an alternative fellowship for Lutherans who uphold traditional marriage and are unwilling to support the new changes in the church’s teaching. In August the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America’s (ELCA) Churchwide Assembly approved a new policy that no longer declares marriage as “the appropriate place” for sexual relations, but rather calls for “social trust” in associations that are “loving” and “committed.”

The assembly, which met in Minneapolis, Minnesota, claimed that consensus does not exist on homosexuality. It recognized four “conscience-bound beliefs” ranging from disapproval of all homosexual relations to honoring them as equally valid marriages.

The gathering also voted to allow pastors to be in homosexual relationships.

In response to the changes, 1,200 Lutherans will attend the convocation of Lutheran Coalition for Reform (CORE). The convocation will have as its theme “What After Minneapolis?”

Organizers were forced to close registration on September 14 because of space limitations and had to move the event to from Christ the Savior Lutheran Church to the Catholic Holy Spirit Parish in the Indianapolis suburb of Fishers.

“It is wonderfully ironic that Lutherans who started 500 years ago as a movement to reform the Roman Catholic Church would now return to a Catholic Church to re-form themselves,” said Lutheran CORE director Rev. Mark Chavez of Landisville, Pennsylvania.

Chavez said the disagreement is not about sex but about the “source of authority” in the ELCA.

“The assembly’s sexuality decisions have opened the eyes of people to the biblical and theological crisis in the ELCA,” he added. “We have no objection to the Confession of Faith in the ELCA constitution. The ELCA says that the Bible is the source and norm of its faith and life, but the actions of the ELCA Churchwide Assembly have shown that the ELCA does not practice what it says it believes.”

The Lutheran CORE meeting says it intends to be a “confessional and confessing movement” that is “rooted in Scripture, creeds, and confessions” and open to all Lutherans in North America. It aims to be an “umbrella group” for other Lutheran movements both within and outside of the ELCA.

The meeting will consider a resolution that organizers say could possibly reconfigure North American Lutheranism.

“This is an exciting and hopeful time for confessional Lutherans in North America,” said Rev. Paull Spring, chair of the Lutheran CORE Steering Committee from State College, Pennsylvania.

Spring, who is retired bishop of the Northwest Pennsylvania Synod, said the organization’s ministries have received an “incredible outpouring of support” and reported that people and churches are joining the coalition for reform at an almost overwhelming pace.

The hiatus is over!

2009-09-15T15:48:00.000-05:00

It's been an unexpected and unannounced 2 month break from posting here at the blog. I'm back at it and planning some new content in the near future. Keep your eyes peeled.

The Cappadocian Fathers

2009-07-16T06:37:00.005-05:00

The Cappadocian fathers. Who are they? What was their role in the early Church? What really can protestant theologians say about these men? Can anyone but the Orthodox and Catholic (apostolic) Churches claim them? Naturally we have some friends claiming Apostolic Succession with which we disagree, so what else did these men have to say besides being the primary defenders against the Arian heresy, and the defenders and champions of the doctrine of the trinity? What did they say about Petrine Primacy, Infant Baptism, Apostolic Succession, private interpretation of scripture, purgatory and the like? Why is it that nearly all Christian denominations accept the definition by these men of the Trinity doctrine as canonized by the council of Constantinople, yet deny so much else of what these men held to, as Orthodox theology? Find out in my latest article, simply titled "The Cappadocian Fathers". Read it here.

Chuck Norris defends Karl Keating: David vs. Goliath of government agencies

2009-06-26T18:26:00.002-05:00

(Source: WND)

One of the most hideous ways the IRS usurps power and control over Americans is through its oppression over nonprofits and especially religious groups. Threatening to withdraw tax exempt status or to levy penalties are just a couple ways it exercises its tyranny.

For example, on April 3, 2009, Catholic Answers, one of the nation's largest lay-run apologetic (or defense) ministries for the Catholic movement, filed suit in federal court against the Internal Revenue Service for violating its rights to free speech.

What spurred on the lawsuit is that the IRS imposed fines on Catholic Answers because President Karl Keating wrote in one of his e-letters that 2004 presidential candidate John Kerry shouldn't be allowed to receive the Eucharist (communion) because of his pro-abortion stand, advocacy and voting record. Whether you agree or not, Keating was voicing his conviction and opinion, which is his First Amendment right to do. At no point did Catholic Answers even tell people for whom to vote or not to vote.

Does that letter-writing act sound like something that deserves IRS fines and further taxes?

You can imagine the long, uphill battle that will ensue for Catholic Answers as it attempts to sue the IRS. It confesses that it's doing so "not just for ourselves, but on behalf of non-profit organizations and churches all across the country that are constantly harassed, threatened, intimidated, and persecuted by the IRS." That is the reason it is also appealing to the public for donations.

Everything is wrong and ludicrous about these types of governmental actions, from the tyrannical power of the IRS to the violations against American rights and freedoms. And two major historical inconsistencies emerge from these situations as well: First, early in our country's formation, the pulpits used to be the conscience of this nation. Preachers were never restricted in their political voice in any way per the First Amendment. In fact, clergy and politicians used the pulpits to rally support, without threat of governmental intrusion or penalty.

Second, the Internal Revenue Service wasn't started until nearly 100 years after the Revolutionary War in 1862 as the Bureau of Internal Revenue. Its creation coincided with the creation of the income tax, which it was designed to collect (though it would be later ruled as unconstitutional until 1913 via congressional law). Both were the initial work of President Lincoln and Congress, which saw them as necessary to pay for civil war expenses.

But could Lincoln even have imagined how the IRS would have become the most bloated federal bureaucracy on the planet?

Today, the IRS is the No. 1 enemy of your pocketbook. It is the government's financial mafia, the thug collection agency for government's intimidation, control, extravagant spending, corporate bailouts and national debt. It can't be overhauled or even reformed. (Congress's attempts have failed.) Who doesn't fear an IRS audit? It's the only federal agency before which you are considered guilty until proven innocent. I have a better definition for the acronym I.R.S.: Internal Rip-off Service.

The best answer is to abolish the IRS, sweep away the present tax code and implement a Fair Tax that lives up to its name. The Fair Tax does away with all taxes and puts in their place a single consumptive (fair) tax, which is the closest, practical, modern proposal to the taxation system favored by the founders.

With the Fair Tax, the harder you work and the more money you make, the better off you and our economy will be. You pay taxes only when you buy something, which means you can control how much you're taxed, and you're never penalized for working hard. It's time we had a system through which people didn't have to figure out ways to cheat to save their money. It's the biggest economic stimulation package there is. Again, as the Fair Tax website says, "Think of it as the world's biggest economic jumper cables!"

Of all the present fallacies in the American system, the IRS must be the one that causes America's founders to roll most in their graves. Its control and power is not only unconstitutional, but its outrageous taxations strike at the core of the very reason for America's secession from England. The founders would be horrified by the power of the IRS and its plethora of taxes we now have to pay: income taxes, employment taxes, capital gains taxes, estate taxes, corporate taxes, property taxes, Social Security taxes, gas taxes, etc.

The founders opposed domestic taxes. They regarded high taxes and aggressive tax collectors as tyrannical, and always to be guarded against. Patrick Henry warned: "Excisemen may come in multitudes; for the limitation of their numbers no man knows. They may, unless the general government be restrained by a bill of rights, or some similar restriction, go into your cellars and rooms, and search, ransack, and measure, everything you eat, drink, and wear."

That is one of many reasons I encourage everyone to join a T.E.A. (Taxed Enough Already) party this Independence Day. You may not think your participation contributes much, but it was dozens, then hundreds, of small resistances that eventually led a revolution in the beginning.

You might not be in solidarity with everything Catholic Answers believes, but you must commend its courage to stand up and fight the Goliath of government agencies. We already know its odds of losing. Yet we also must remember how the story ends: It just takes the right man with the right stone to bring Goliath down.

Catholics and the Bible: The Real Story

2009-06-25T03:02:00.006-05:00

Catholics and their view of scripture are being misrepresented by the non-Catholic population. In my latest article, a transcription from the Catholic Action Edition of the Holy Bible, we see through the Encyclicals of three Popes, what the official Catholic stance on the Bible is. From Pope Leo XIII, Pope Benedict XV and Pope Pius XII, we can with little effort see the extensive writing on the very subject of Holy Scriptures, their place in Catholic Theology, and indeed the history of the Apostolic Church. This assembly of information took nearly a full day to complete, but I believe the work promises to bear the fruit of understanding. Light where there was darkness, truth where there was confusion. This extensive collection of commentary will give the reader the Catholic Side of scholarship, interpretation, preservation, and tell an amazing story through the eyes of some of the most prolific leaders of the Catholic Church. Is what anti-Catholics say true? Does the Church run from scripture? Was scripture kept from the masses? With unmistakable reverence the Church preserves, passes on, and venerates the Holy Scriptures. See for yourself. Read "Catholics and The Bible".

Ancient Holy Land quarry uncovered, team says

2009-06-22T00:38:00.000-05:00

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israeli archaeologists said on Sunday they had discovered the largest underground quarry in the Holy Land, dating back to the time of Jesus and containing Christian symbols etched into the walls.

The 4,000-square-meter (yard) cavern, buried 10 meters beneath the desert near the ancient West Bank city of Jericho, was dug about 2,000 years ago and was in use for about half a millennium, archaeologist Adam Zertal said.

The cave's main hall, about three meters tall, is supported by some 20 stone pillars and has a variety of symbols etched into the walls, including crosses dating back to about AD 350 and Roman legionary emblems.

Zertal said his team from Haifa University first discovered the site three months ago while they were putting together a detailed archaeological map of the area.

"We saw a hole in the ground ... and went down and discovered this giant cavern, originally a quarry, built uniquely with hall after hall," Zertal told Reuters.

The team believes the stones were used in buildings and churches in the region, but Zertal said further research was necessary.

The site may eventually be turned into one of the largest underground tourist sites in the Holy Land, he said.

(Writing by Ari Rabinovitch; Editing by Michael Roddy)

The Bible: What is Scripture?

2009-06-21T16:01:00.013-05:00

Perhaps the most visible and predominant view of American Christianity is that of Americanized Protestantism. Though, the term doesn't necessarily sit well with those I apply it to, I do so based on historical precedent, and of course, precedent set by the Catholic Church. Another view in contrast to the view of most of these, is the view of the Canon of scripture as the Apostolic Churches (Catholic, Orthodox and others) are concerned.

Increasingly we find that a multitude are running from the resulting denominations spawned from the protestant reformation. In light of this, it has become a decision many are faced with, whether they will rejoin the Mother Church, "Non-Denominational" or so called "Bible Teaching" Churches.

One of my latest articles on Apostolic Apologetics discusses the issue of the Canon of Scripture, which for any person that considers themselves to be Christian, is of central importance. If we for example, say we are "Bible Teaching", how then can we neglect to teach the development of the Canon of Scripture (that is, what exactly is in the Bible)? Moreover, if we are not teaching the whole of scripture, can we call ourselves "Bible Teaching"? The same goes for many protestant concepts, including "Sola Scriptura", and of course the rejection of Catholic doctrine on "scriptural grounds".

In my time researching, learning, discussing and even debating, it has been alarming to me to see the amount of misinformation that is perpetuated in non-Catholic circles on the subject of the Canon. Perhaps the most common of these false teachings is that the Catholic Church, at the Council of Trent, added to the Bible what protestants now call the Apocrypha. This is indeed a common belief, however even "reformed" protestant scholars can tell you this is quite simply not the case (example).

The Canon of scripture as Catholics now have it, still includes the mislabeled "apocrypha" (correctly called the deuterocanon), and have since at the very latest, the fourth Century. This is an alarming revelation to those who like me, were raised and indeed indoctrinated to believe that the Catholic Church committed many "evils", and foremost among them was the perversion of the Canon of scripture.

When confronted with the facts of the matter, it is increasingly clear that the real Bible, which is of the Apostolic Church, is indeed the Catholic Bible. Now I will concede here, that many of our Eastern brothers in the Orthodox and other Eastern Churches have a larger canon even than that of the Roman Church. The additional books of the larger canons of these Churches were the result of geographical acceptance, rather than general consensus throughout the Church as was the case with the so called "apocrypha".

It is extremely important to understand the history of the Canon of Scripture, as if by the account of the Apostolic Fathers we accept some, and not others, we should be questioning our logic. The logic behind the rejection in today's protestant Churches of these texts, is exactly the subject of my latest article, plainly called "Deuterocanon/Apocrypha". You are encouraged to read, and by all means voice your opinion on the subject either here, or on the built in comments function within that page. Thanks for reading, and God Bless.

David servum meum

2009-06-20T15:42:00.006-05:00

Vatican Designates Cathedral of Saint Paul as National Shrine

2009-06-16T20:11:00.001-05:00

The Vatican has designated the Cathedral of Saint Paul to be the first national shrine in honor of the Apostle Paul. This special distinction was granted by the Office of the Holy See and the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, following a request by The Most Rev. John C. Nienstedt, Archbishop of Saint Paul and Minneapolis.

This will be the first national shrine in the State of Minnesota and the only national shrine in North America dedicated to honor Saint Paul.

According to canon (church) law, “The term shrine signifies a church or other sacred place to which the faithful make pilgrimages for a particular pious reason with the approval of the local ordinary (bishop).”

Those wishing to participate more fully in the life of the National Shrine can become members of the Archconfraternity of the Apostle Paul.

Tens of thousands of people, particularly tourists, already visit the Cathedral of Saint Paul every year. Bus loads of children also come to learnabout the role of the Mother Church of the Archdiocese. The number of visitors is expected to increase significantly as a result of this designation as a national shrine dedicated to Saint Paul.

Over the decades, the Cathedral developed as a catechism in stone and glass by evangelizing through its grandeur and beauty. The patron Saint Paul is particularly honored through a series of bronze grills that depict major events in his life, from his conversion to his martyrdom. The Shrine of the Nations, which features patron saints of ethnic groups from Europe who settled the area, serves as a reminder that the work of the Apostle to the Gentiles continues through every age.

(Source: http://www.cathedralsaintpaul.org/ )

Editor's note:

Grand news, as this is my home parish. Have a look at the official website.

6,000-year-old tombs found next to Stonehenge

2009-06-12T14:54:00.002-05:00

(Times Online)

A prehistoric complex, including two 6,000-year-old tombs, has been discovered by archaeologists in Hampshire.

The Neolithic tombs, which until now had gone unnoticed under farmland despite being just 15 miles from Stonehenge, are some of the oldest monuments to have been found in Britain.

Archaeologists say they will hold valuable clues about how people lived at the time and what their environment was like.

The discovery is also close to Cranborne Chase, one of the most well researched prehistoric areas in Europe.

“It’s one of the most famous prehistoric landscapes, a Mecca for prehistorians, and you would have thought the archaeological world would have gone over it with a fine tooth comb,” Dr Helen Wickstead, the Kingston University archaeologist leading the project, said.

From examining similar sites, archaeologists know that complex burial rituals were common at the time. Typically bodies would be left in the open air until the flesh had decayed, leaving only a skeleton. Then bones were put in special arrangements in the tombs.

“The tombs were like bone homes for important people in the community,” Dr Wickstead said.

The tombs were discovered by Damian Grady, an English Heritage photographer, who flew over the area in a light aircraft taking aerial photographs of the land, looking for marks or features on the landscape suggestive of ancient monuments. One photograph showed two long mounds.

After discussions with colleagues, Mr Grady was left in little doubt that the mounds were the site of ancient tombs. He contacted Dr Wickstead inviting her to investigate.

After carrying out a survey of the land using electromagnetic detectors and ultrasound, Dr Wickstead created a map of what lay beneath the fields. She was able to identify the two tombs with troughs on each side, known as long barrows, typical of Neolithic burial sites.

Her team was also found artifacts, including fragments of pottery, flint and stone tools, close to the surface.

So far Dr Wickstead’s team have only used non-invasive techniques to figure out what lies inside the tombs, which are located on the land of a local female farmer.

Because the original surface of the land has been preserved beneath the mound, scientists will be able to examine it for traces of pollen and identify which plants and trees were common at the time.

Whether they are excavated will depend on local feeling, she says.

“We’re treading very carefully on the excavation issue,” Dr Wickstead said.

“We want to be sure that it’s what people living in Damerham village want. It’s their heritage.”

The Kingston University team are due to publish preliminary findings of their research in the journal Hampshire Studies.

(Source: Times Online--Spelling Corrected by me)

After 65 years, Catholic hero talks about D-Day assault

2009-06-07T02:09:00.000-05:00

HOUSTON, Texas (CNN) -- Decorated D-Day veteran Lenny Lisovicz says the whispers are true.

For 65 years my family had heard whispers that he and 220 men stormed Omaha Beach and that he and his captain later went AWOL in Paris, France.

They heard he returned to combat and fought all the way to Germany and his courage was rewarded with the prestigious Silver Star.

Then -- after that sacrifice and loss -- he was committed to a hospital.

On the 65th anniversary of D-Day, Uncle Lenny finally talked at length about everything he had seen and done. And he said it was all true.

Nowadays, Uncle Lenny lives a tranquil life. At 91, he is proud of his garden, where he grows corn, tomatoes and grapefruit. He takes in stray cats, attends Mass and sends money regularly to Catholic missionaries.

But his thoughts are never far away from a sliver of sand thousands of miles away. He turned down my offer to visit Normandy.

"I don't want to see it. I try to rub that out of my mind. It won't go away," he said.

But now, he finally agreed to share his memories. Watch Uncle Lenny describe storming the beach »

It began with The Longest Day: June 6, 1944. My uncle was a 26-year-old lieutenant with the Army 1st Infantry Division, the famed "Big Red One." They had been training in England for something big for months.

Then, over the loudspeakers in the barracks came the famous declaration from Gen. Dwight Eisenhower: "You are about to embark on the Great Crusade."

The Germans were taken by surprise in one of the greatest amphibious invasions of all time, which would mark a turning point of the war in Europe.

Don't Miss

Horrors of war vivid for D-Day heroes

"I just imagined what that enemy observer felt when he looked through that concrete bunker and looked out at that ocean and all he could see was boats, warships," Lisovicz said.

But the Nazis had a superior position.

"They had you pinpointed. It was just like shootin' ducks on a pond. Your comrades would get artillery busted. A hand flying here, a leg there, guts laying out on the ground, asking for help and you couldn't help them. You had to move. You just had to push them aside," he recalled.

But the Allies couldn't push their way onto the cliffs until a massive air assault began.

"At times there were so many planes in the sky you couldn't see the sky... ," Lisovicz said. "You could see them forming from all directions coming into one pattern. And that's how we got off the beach, darlin'."

Their orders were to meet up with the paratroopers, who landed behind enemy lines. My uncle said they found them by smell, because they were all dead.

"They backed them in a corner and machine gunned them down and didn't have enough decency to cover them," he said.

That was when an unwritten order came down: "No prisoners. And we didn't take any."

It was shortly after this that he decided he had enough. He and the captain went AWOL in Paris. To add insult to injury, they stole the major's jeep. Their freedom lasted only about a week.

"The MP told us he was going to shoot us for going AWOL. But who cares? You didn't care anymore," Lisovicz said. "You were just fed up with war, fed up with killing, just absolutely fed up."

But they weren't shot -- not by Americans, anyway.

My uncle and the captain went back into combat. The captain was killed by a camouflaged tank. My uncle was now the commanding officer. And the fighting was ferocious as he battled his way into Germany.

He set trip wires for flares in one pivotal battle. At about 3 a.m., the flares went off. The Germans had overrun the outer defenses of the platoon. It was chaos.

The Silver Star says that he "skillfully deployed men and weapons into strategic positions and with accurately directed fire, held the foe at bay until supporting troops arrived and repulsed the attack."

But there was more.

"When I looked up I seen a man walking up with two of my comrades. It was a German. So I went after him. And got him and brought my men back," he said.

The Silver Star described it as "extraordinary gallantry and aggressive leadership."

Only 22 of the 220 men that stormed the beach with him came home alive.

That was the last time my uncle saw combat. He had been hit. He learned about his Silver Star in the hospital.

He wanted to return, but he was shell-shocked.

"It took them a year and a half of my life for them to straighten me out and get back to civilian life," he said.

(Source: CNN)

SCIENCE FILE / Q&A - Earth's twin is out there -- somewhere - An astronomer sees signs of parallel planets within our grasp.

2009-05-27T10:43:00.003-05:00

(LA Times)

By John Johnson Jr.
November 17, 2007

For the last 20 years, UC Berkeley astronomer Geoff Marcy has been the world's leading planet finder. Of the 260-odd planets that have been discovered in other solar systems, Marcy and his team have found 150. His most recent discovery, announced last week, is a fifth planet orbiting a star called 55 Cancri, about 41 light-years from Earth. Marcy, 53, sat down in his office to talk about the friendly and not-so-friendly competition to find the first Earth-like planet that could harbor life.

Describe your latest discovery.

This is one of the nearest stars to our sun. It has nearly the same mass as our sun, the same temperature as our sun and the same age. Frankly, what's delightful about it is that we now have five major planets orbiting it. The planets around 55 Cancri have a range of masses, from around 10 Earth masses at the smallest, to the largest, which is around four times as large as Jupiter. It's certainly the largest complement of planets ever found around another star.

Are any of these planets habitable?

This newest planet, No. 5, resides in the habitable zone, about 0.8 Earth-sun distances from its star. So this new planet we've found would be warmed up -- like a face to a campfire -- to lukewarm temperatures, making the water, if any, liquid. Having said that, we suspect that this new planet is made mostly of hydrogen and helium gas. Its mass is about 55 times the mass of Earth. So it probably isn't just a solid rock, like our Earth. Such a big planet with a rocky core and a fluffy gaseous envelope probably can't support life as we know it.

How many planets have you discovered?

My team has discovered 150. The Swiss team is a strong second. In fact, I just got an e-mail from the leader of the team congratulating me on the five planets around 55 Cancri.

So the competition is friendly?

It's a touchy friendship. We laugh about it. But in the true spirit of science we appreciate the competition because we know if we snooze, we will lose the next precious planets that are the next exciting batch to find.

What's the allure of an Earth-like planet?

To find the first Earth was a dream of Aristotle. Even in the religious realm, people have wondered, and still do, whether Earth was uniquely put here. Not to delve into touchy issues, but there's still a large -- how shall I put it -- spiritual question. Is the Earth the center of creation? And we're about to find out whether there are any other Earths out there. The Vatican will be interested. It's no joke. I've gotten two calls from them.

What are the prospects for finding planets farther out?

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There are three very exciting missions NASA is planning right now that would advance the search.

The first one is called Kepler. It's a space-borne telescope that will be able to measure the tiniest dimming (caused by a planet crossing in front of the host star), to one part in 100,000, allowing us to detect Earth-like planets.

The goal is to image a huge chunk of the sky around the constellation Cygnus, monitoring 150,000 stars continuously for four years . . . It's scheduled to launch in 2009.

What about the other missions?

The next one NASA is pushing is the Space Interferometry Mission, which is being designed and built at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California. What SIM will do is find Earth-like planets in the habitable zone around the nearest stars. SIM is going to find the nearest Earth twin a few light-years away.

And the third mission?

The Terrestrial Planet Finder. I listed it third because it's further technologically down the line. We had hopes of launching in 2016, but I think that's not likely. . . . It would take the first pictures of Earth-like planets. Look at our own solar system. Which of the planets is blue? Earth. So if you found another star with a pale-blue dot tooling around that yellow star, that blue color and chemical analysis of the planet might give us a strong suggestion of life.

When do you think we'll see the first Earth-like planet?

I would say within three years we will have the first suggestion of rocky, lukewarm planets. We won't have the spectra. We won't know if there's oxygen. But we will know there's a rocky planet warmed up by its proximity to a campfire, if you will, where water could be liquid.

Say we find an Earth twin, what do we do then?

I know exactly what we do. UC Berkeley, in conjunction with the SETI [Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence] Institute, is building a new radio telescope north of Mt. Lassen in Hat Creek designed to search for radio and television signals from an advanced technological civilization. It's called the Allen Telescope Array.

If the array picks up radio waves, then what do we do?

There is a written protocol for this. Step A is to communicate broadly and uniformly to the world what you think you have found, so that everybody can follow up and double and triple and quadruple check your work. . . .

I would recommend that Step Two be a . . . conference, where all of the nations are represented and we talk about it. The immediate question is what message, if any, to send back.

Remember, any such dialogue will not be lively repartee, because a star 50 light-years away means it takes 50 years to get back to them and 50 years to get back to you, so the jokes will not have quite the timing that they have when Seinfeld is on stage.

--

john.johnson@latimes.com

(Source: LA Times)

Contributed by nirv

Peaceful Notre Dame Protesters Arrested

2009-05-26T10:21:00.005-05:00

This is relatively "old news" as it happened back towards the 8th of May.

News reports are citing "trespassing charges" although I have yet to verify this. Regardless, it's a sad thing when a Catholic Senator, and other Catholics peacefully demonstrating on the grounds of a Catholic University are arrested for doing so, in the presence of someone like Obama, speaking at the university, and further being "honored", when the man so consistently goes contrary to the Catholicity of the University. A despicable era in Notre Dame History. It's time to call for accountability for those involved.

See for yourself.

"It's Torture, it's drowning"

2009-05-25T06:21:00.006-05:00

I thought I'd share this video of Eric "Mancow" Muller being water boarded, to "prove it's not torture". Apparently a victim of a drowning as a child, only alive after being revived, he is an expert on what it feels like to drown. Known for his "right wing Politics", this is an invaluable insight into how quickly your ideas can change when confronted with reality.

It took a pair to do this, and there is a standing challenge I guess for Sean Hannity, for 1000 dollars per second he can last (to charity I hope).

Enjoy the video, feel free to leave your comments.

More Americans “Pro-Life” Than “Pro-Choice” for First Time

2009-05-15T21:38:00.000-05:00

Also, fewer think abortion should be legal “under any circumstances”

by Lydia Saad

PRINCETON, NJ -- A new Gallup Poll, conducted May 7-10, finds 51% of Americans calling themselves "pro-life" on the issue of abortion and 42% "pro-choice." This is the first time a majority of U.S. adults have identified themselves as pro-life since Gallup began asking this question in 1995.

The new results, obtained from Gallup's annual Values and Beliefs survey, represent a significant shift from a year ago, when 50% were pro-choice and 44% pro-life. Prior to now, the highest percentage identifying as pro-life was 46%, in both August 2001 and May 2002.

The May 2009 survey documents comparable changes in public views about the legality of abortion. In answer to a question providing three options for the extent to which abortion should be legal, about as many Americans now say the procedure should be illegal in all circumstances (23%) as say it should be legal under any circumstances (22%). This contrasts with the last four years, when Gallup found a strong tilt of public attitudes in favor of unrestricted abortion.

Gallup also found public preferences for the extreme views on abortion about even -- as they are today -- in 2005 and 2002, as well as during much of the first decade of polling on this question from 1975 to 1985. Still, the dominant position on this question remains the middle option, as it has continuously since 1975: 53% currently say abortion should be legal only under certain circumstances.

When the views of this middle group are probed further -- asking these respondents whether they believe abortion should be legal in most or only a few circumstances -- Gallup finds the following breakdown in opinion.

Americans' recent shift toward the pro-life position is confirmed in two other surveys. The same three abortion questions asked on the Gallup Values and Beliefs survey were included in Gallup Poll Daily tracking from May 12-13, with nearly identical results, including a 50% to 43% pro-life versus pro-choice split on the self-identification question.

Additionally, a recent national survey by the Pew Research Center recorded an eight percentage-point decline since last August in those saying abortion should be legal in all or most cases, from 54% to 46%. The percentage saying abortion should be legal in only a few or no cases increased from 41% to 44% over the same period. As a result, support for the two broad positions is now about even, sharply different from most polling on this question since 1995, when the majority has typically favored legality.

Republicans Move to the Right

The source of the shift in abortion views is clear in the Gallup Values and Beliefs survey. The percentage of Republicans (including independents who lean Republican) calling themselves "pro-life" rose by 10 points over the past year, from 60% to 70%, while there has been essentially no change in the views of Democrats and Democratic leaners.

Similarly, by ideology, all of the increase in pro-life sentiment is seen among self-identified conservatives and moderates; the abortion views of political liberals have not changed.

"Pro-Life" Up Among Catholics and Protestants

One of the more prominent news stories touching on the abortion issue in recent months involves President Barack Obama's commencement speech and the bestowal of an honorary doctorate degree on him at the University of Notre Dame -- a Roman Catholic institution -- on Sunday. The invitation has drawn criticism from conservative Catholics and the church hierarchy because of Obama's policies in favor of legalizing and funding abortion, and the controversy might have been expected to strengthen the pro-life leanings of rank-and-file Catholics.

Nevertheless, the swelling of the pro-life position since last year is seen across Christian religious affiliations, including an eight-point gain among Protestants and a seven-point gain among Catholics.

Gender Agreement

A year ago, Gallup found more women calling themselves pro-choice than pro-life, by 50% to 43%, while men were more closely divided: 49% pro-choice, 46% pro-life. Now, because of heightened pro-life sentiment among both groups, women as well as men are more likely to be pro-life.

Men and women have been evenly divided on the issue in previous years; however, this is the first time in nine years of Gallup Values surveys that significantly more men and women are pro-life than pro-choice.

Bottom Line

With the first pro-choice president in eight years already making changes to the nation's policies on funding abortion overseas, expressing his support for the Freedom of Choice Act, and moving toward rescinding federal job protections for medical workers who refuse to participate in abortion procedures, Americans -- and, in particular, Republicans -- seem to be taking a step back from the pro-choice position. However, the retreat is evident among political moderates as well as conservatives.

It is possible that, through his abortion policies, Obama has pushed the public's understanding of what it means to be "pro-choice" slightly to the left, politically. While Democrats may support that, as they generally support everything Obama is doing as president, it may be driving others in the opposite direction.

Survey Methods

Results are based on telephone interviews with 1,015 national adults, aged 18 and older, conducted May 7-10, 2009. For results based on the total sample of national adults, one can say with 95% confidence that the maximum margin of sampling error is ±3 percentage points.

Gallup Poll Daily results are based on telephone interviews with 971 national adults, aged 18 and older, conducted May 12-13, 2009, as part of Gallup Poll Daily tracking. For results based on the total sample of national adults, one can say with 95% confidence that the maximum margin of sampling error is ±3 percentage points.

Interviews are conducted with respondents on land-line telephones (for respondents with a land-line telephone) and cellular phones (for respondents who are cell-phone only).

In addition to sampling error, question wording and practical difficulties in conducting surveys can introduce error or bias into the findings of public opinion polls.

Judge rules family can't refuse chemo for boy

2009-05-15T17:04:00.001-05:00

MINNEAPOLIS – A Minnesota judge ruled Friday that a 13-year-old cancer patient must be evaluated by a doctor to determine if the boy would benefit from restarting chemotherapy over his parents' objections.

In a 58-page ruling, Brown County District Judge John Rodenberg found that Daniel Hauser has been "medically neglected" by his parents, Colleen and Anthony Hauser, and was in need of child protection services.

While he allowed Daniel to stay with his parents, the judge gave the Hausers until Tuesday to get an updated chest X-ray for their son and select an oncologist.

If the evaluation shows the cancer had advanced to a point where chemotherapy and radiation would no longer help, the judge said, he would not order the boy to undergo treatment.

However, he said, if chemotherapy is ordered and the family still refuses, Daniel will be placed in temporary custody.

The judge wrote that Daniel has only a "rudimentary understanding at best of the risks and benefits of chemotherapy. ... he does not believe he is ill currently. The fact is that he is very ill currently."

It was unclear how the medicine would be administered if the boy fights it. Dr. Bruce Bostrom, a pediatric oncologist at Children's Hospitals and Clinics of Minnesota, said last week he would have a hard time forcing Daniel to take the medicine. Bostrom said Friday his hospital has psychologists, child life specialists and other resources to help ease Daniel's fears. He also said an ethics committee would meet next week to talk about all the scenarios doctors may encounter.

Daniel's court-appointed attorney, Philip Elbert, called the decision unfortunate.

"I feel it's a blow to families," he said. "It marginalizes the decisions that parents face every day in regard to their children's medical care. It really affirms the role that big government is better at making our decisions for us."

Elbert said he hadn't spoken to his client yet. The phone line at the Hauser home in Sleepy Eye in southwestern Minnesota had a busy signal Friday. The parents' attorney had no immediate comment but planned to issue a statement.

Daniel was diagnosed with Hodgkin's lymphoma and stopped chemotherapy in February after a single treatment. He and his parents opted instead for "alternative medicines" based on their religious beliefs.

Child protection workers accused Daniel's parents of medical neglect; but in court, his mother insisted the boy wouldn't submit to chemotherapy for religious reasons and she said she wouldn't comply if the court orders it.

Doctors have said Daniel's cancer had up to a 90 percent chance of being cured with chemotherapy and radiation. Without those treatments, doctors said his chances of survival are 5 percent.

Daniel's parents have been supporting what they say is their son's decision to treat the disease with nutritional supplements and other alternative treatments favored by the Nemenhah Band.

The Missouri-based religious group believes in natural healing methods advocated by some American Indians.

After the first chemotherapy treatment, the family said they wanted a second opinion, said Bostrom, a pediatric oncologist who recommended Daniel undergo chemotherapy and radiation.

They later informed him that Daniel would not undergo any more chemotherapy. Bostrom said Daniel's tumor shrunk after the first chemotherapy session, but X-rays show it has grown since he stopped the chemotherapy.

"My son is not in any medical danger at this point," Colleen Hauser testified at a court hearing last week. She also testified that Daniel is a medicine man and elder in the Nemenhah Band.

The family's attorney, Calvin Johnson, said Daniel made the decision himself to refuse chemotherapy, but Brown County said he did not have an understanding of what it meant to be a medicine man or an elder.

Court filings also indicated Daniel has a learning disability and can't read.

The Hausers have eight children. Colleen Hauser told the New Ulm Journal newspaper that the family's Catholicism and adherence to the Nemenhah Band are not in conflict, and that she has used natural remedies to treat illness.

Nemenhah was founded in the 1990s by Philip Cloudpiler Landis, who said Thursday he once served four months in prison in Idaho for fraud related to advocating natural remedies.

Landis said he founded the faith after facing his diagnosis of a cancer similar to Daniel Hauser. He said he treated it with diet choices, visits to a sweat lodge and other natural remedies.

___

On the Net:

Hauser case final argument briefs: http://www.courts.state.mn.us/?pageNewsItemDisplay&item45848

Nemenhah Band: http://www.nemenhah.org

Pope calls for Palestinian State

2009-05-11T06:50:00.002-05:00

(Associated Press)

TEL AVIV, Israel – Pope Benedict XVI called for the establishment of an independent Palestinian homeland immediately after he arrived in Israel Monday, a stance that could put him at odds with his hosts on a trip aimed at easing strains between the Vatican and Jews.

The pope also took on the delicate issue of the Holocaust, pledging to "honor the memory" of the 6 million Jewish victims of the Nazi genocide at the start of his five-day visit to Israel and the Palestinian territories.

Benedict urged Israelis and Palestinians to "explore every possible avenue" to resolve their differences in remarks at the airport after he landed.

"The hopes of countless men, women and children for a more secure and stable future depend on the outcome of negotiations for peace," he said. "In union with people of goodwill everywhere, I plead with all those responsible to explore every possible avenue in the search for a just resolution of the outstanding difficulties, so that both peoples may live in peace in a homeland of their own within secure and internationally recognized borders."

While Benedict's support for a Palestinian homeland alongside Israel is widely shared by the international community, including the United States, it was noteworthy that he made the call in his first public appearance. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, leader of the hard-line Likud Party, has pointedly refused to endorse the two-state solution since his election. But he is expected to come under pressure to do so when he travels to Washington next week.

The pope has tried to improve interfaith relations throughout his four-year papacy. But Benedict has had to tread carefully on his Middle East visit after coming under sharp criticism from both Muslims and Jews for past statements. He is hoping his weeklong trip to the Holy Land, which began with three days in neighboring Jordan, will improve interfaith ties.

Benedict angered many in the Muslim world three years ago when he quoted a Medieval text that characterized some of Islam's Prophet Muhammad's teachings as "evil and inhuman," particularly "his command to spread by the sword the faith. He later expressed regret that his comments offended Muslims.

The Vatican has also come under widespread criticism over the years for not doing enough to stop the genocide — a charge it rejects. And the German-born pope himself has faced questions for his involvement in the Hitler Youth corps during the war. Benedict says he was coerced. The pope also outraged Jews earlier this year when he revoked the excommunication of an ultraconservative bishop who denies the Holocaust.

Later Monday, Benedict is scheduled to lay a wreath at Israel's Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial.

"It is right and fitting that, during my stay in Israel, I will have the opportunity to honor the memory of the 6 million Jewish victims of the shoah," he said, using the Hebrew word for the Holocaust. He said he would "pray that humanity will never again witness a crime of such magnitude."

Dignitaries and religious leaders greeted the pontiff at a red-carpet ceremony at the Tel Aviv airport. Yellow and white Vatican flags fluttered alongside blue and white Israeli banners as an honor guard played in the background.

The pope smiled as he walked along the carpet, flanked by Israeli President Shimon Peres on one side and Netanyahu on the other. Other political leaders, along with black-robed Christian clergymen and Muslim religious leaders, stood in line to shake his hand.

"Your visit here brings a blessed understanding between religions and spreads peace near and far. Historic Israel and the renewed Israel together welcome your arrival as paving the great road to peace," Peres said.

The pope plans to visit holy sites in both Israel and the Palestinian territories. He also will try to draw attention to the shrinking Christian community in the Holy Land.

In Jordan, he said he had a "deep respect" for Islam and toured the country's largest mosque, where he did not pray but had a moment of reflection.

Before heading to Israel, Benedict urged Christians and Muslims at a farewell ceremony in Jordan to work for religious tolerance. He said his visit to a Jordan's largest mosque was one of the highlights so far of his first Middle East pilgrimage.

"I would like to encourage all Jordanians, whether Christian or Muslim to build on the firm foundations of religious tolerance that enable the members of different communities to live together in peace and mutual respect," Benedict said.

During his three days in Jordan, the pope said he hoped the Catholic Church could be a force for peace in the region.

Fr. Corapi on Notre Dame Scandal

2009-05-10T18:21:00.003-05:00

Angels & Demons

2009-05-09T13:37:00.002-05:00

Lepanto

2009-05-09T11:56:00.003-05:00

White founts falling in the courts of the sun,
And the Soldan of Byzantium is smiling as they run;
There is laughter like the fountains in that face of all men feared,
It stirs the forest darkness, the darkness of his beard,
It curls the blood-red crescent, the crescent of his lips,
For the inmost sea of all the earth is shaken with his ships.
They have dared the white republics up the capes of Italy,
They have dashed the Adriatic round the Lion of the Sea,
And the Pope has cast his arms abroad for agony and loss,
And called the kings of Christendom for swords about the Cross,
The cold queen of England is looking in the glass;
The shadow of the Valois is yawning at the Mass;
From evening isles fantastical rings faint the Spanish gun,
And the Lord upon the Golden Horn is laughing in the sun.

Dim drums throbbing, in the hills half heard,
Where only on a nameless throne a crownless prince has stirred,
Where, risen from a doubtful seat and half-attainted stall,
The last knight of Europe takes weapons from the wall,
The last and lingering troubadour to whom the bird has sung,
That once went singing southward when all the world was young.
In that enormous silence, tiny and unafraid,
Comes up along a winding road the noise of the Crusade.
Strong gongs groaning as the guns boom far,
Don John of Austria is going to the war,
Stiff flags straining in the night-blasts cold
In the gloom black-purple, in the glint old-gold,
Torchlight crimson on the copper kettle-drums,
Then the tuckets, then the trumpets, then the cannon, and he comes.
Don John laughing in the brave beard curled,
Spurning of his stirrups like the thrones of all the world,
Holding his head up for a flag of all the free.
Love-light of Spain - hurrah!
Death-light of Africa!
Don John of Austria
Is riding to the sea.

Mahound is in his paradise above the evening star,
(Don John of Austria is going to the war.)
He moves a mighty turban on the timeless houri's knees,
His turban that is woven of the sunset and the seas.
He shakes the peacock gardens as he rises from his ease,
And he strides among the tree-tops and is taller than the trees,
And his voice through all the garden is a thunder sent to bring
Black Azrael and Ariel and Ammon on the wing.
Giants and the Genii,
Multiplex of wing and eye,
Whose strong obedience broke the sky
When Solomon was king.

They rush in red and purple from the red clouds of the morn,
From temples where the yellow gods shut up their eyes in scorn;
They rise in green robes roaring from the green hells of the sea
Where fallen skies and evil hues and eyeless creatures be;
On them the sea-valves cluster and the grey sea-forests curl,
Splashed with a splendid sickness, the sickness of the pearl;
They swell in sapphire smoke out of the blue cracks of the ground, -
They gather and they wonder and give worship to Mahound.
And he saith, "Break up the mountains where the hermit-folk may hide,
And sift the red and silver sands lest bone of saint abide,
And chase the Giaours flying night and day, not giving rest,
For that which was our trouble comes again out of the west.
We have set the seal of Solomon on all things under sun,
Of knowledge and of sorrow and endurance of things done,
But a noise is in the mountains, in the mountains, and I know
The voice that shook our palaces - four hundred years ago:
It is he that saith not 'Kismet'; it is he that knows not Fate;
It is Richard, it is Raymond, it is Godfrey in the gate!
It is he whose loss is laughter when he counts the wager worth,
Put down your feet upon him, that our peace be on the earth."
For he heard drums groaning and he heard guns jar,
(Don John of Austria is going to the war.)
Sudden and still - hurrah!
Bolt from Iberia!
Don John of Austria
Is gone by Alcalar.

St. Michael's on his Mountain in the sea-roads of the north
(Don John of Austria is girt and going forth.)
Where the grey seas glitter and the sharp tides shift
And the sea-folk labour and the red sails lift.
He shakes his lance of iron and he claps his wings of stone;
The noise is gone through Normandy; the noise is gone alone;
The North is full of tangled things and texts and aching eyes
And dead is all the innocence of anger and surprise,
And Christian killeth Christian in a narrow dusty room,
And Christian dreadeth Christ that bath a newer face of doom,
And Christian hateth Mary that God kissed in Galilee,
But Don John of Austria is riding to the sea.
Don John calling through the blast and the eclipse
Crying with the trumpet, with the trumpet of his lips,
Trumpet that sayeth ha!
Domino gloria!
Don John of Austria
Is shouting to the ships.

King Philip's in his closet with the Fleece about his neck
(Don John of Austria is armed upon the deck.)
The walls are hung with velvet that is black and soft as sin,
And little dwarfs creep out of it and little dwarfs creep in.
He holds a crystal phial that has colours like the moon,
He touches, and it tingles, and he trembles very soon,
And his face is as a fungus of a leprous white and grey
Like plants in the high houses that are shuttered from the day,
And death is in the phial and the end of noble work,
But Don John of Austria has fired upon the Turk.
Don John's hunting, and his hounds have bayed -
Booms away past Italy the rumour of his raid.
Gun upon gun, ha! ha!
Gun upon gun, hurrah!
Don John of Austria
Has loosed the cannonade.

The Pope was in his chapel before day or battle broke,
(Don John of Austria is hidden in the smoke.)
The hidden room in a man's house where God sits all the year,
The secret window whence the world looks small and very dear.
He sees as in a mirror on the monstrous twilight sea
The crescent of his cruel ships whose name is mystery;
They fling great shadows foe-wards, making Cross and Castle dark,
They veil the plumed lions on the galleys of St. Mark;
And above the ships are palaces of brown, black-bearded chiefs,
And below the ships are prisons, where with multitudinous griefs,
Christian captives sick and sunless, all a labouring race repines
Like a race in sunken cities, like a nation in the mines.
They are lost like slaves that swat, and in the skies of morning hung
The stairways of the tallest gods when tyranny was young.

They are countless, voiceless, hopeless as those fallen or fleeing on
Before the high Kings' horses in the granite of Babylon.
And many a one grows witless in his quiet room in hell
Where a yellow face looks inward through the lattice of his cell,
And he finds his God forgotten, and he seeks no more a sign -
(But Don John of Austria has burst the battle-line!)
Don John pounding from the slaughter-painted poop,
Purpling all the ocean like a bloody pirate's sloop,
Scarlet running over on the silvers and the golds,
Breaking of the hatches up and bursting of the holds,
Thronging of the thousands up that labour under sea
White for bliss and blind for sun and stunned for liberty.
Vivat Hispania!
Domino Gloria!
Don John of Austria
Has set his people free!

Cervantes on his galley sets the sword back in the sheath
(Don John of Austria rides homeward with a wreath.)
And he sees across a weary land a straggling road in Spain,
Up which a lean and foolish knight forever rides in vain,
And he smiles, but not as Sultans smile, and settles back the blade. . .

(But Don John of Austria rides home from the Crusade.)

- G.K. Chesterton

When science and the imagination took flight

2009-05-06T21:36:00.001-05:00

(Catholic Herald)

There was a time, 200 years ago, when scientists and poets shared a vision of the world, says John Hinton
1 May 2009 The Age of Wonder
By Richard Holmes
HarperCollins, £25

With The Age of Wonder author Richard Holmes adds to his to already substantial credits as historian and biographer par excellence. We know immediately what he is about and plunge gratefully into his rivers of effortless prose about the magic time 200 years ago when art and science were married in coincidental and joyful discovery.

Once immersed, we meet a host of fascinating characters alight with curiosity. First, an agreeable and dedicated young man called Joseph Banks, an official botanist perched awkwardly in the crow's nest of HMS Endeavour captained by a certain James Cook in 1769. Joseph's scientific self was looking for a landfall among the surf of the Polynesian Islands; his Romantic self was also combing the tropical seascape for the fabled island of Tahiti, the location of paradise. He found both and it was not long before the ship's crew made a happy landfall on the island for a period of three months.

The Tahitian girls were fond of Banks but their menfolk, despite all attempts to stop them, were chronic thieves. At one point they made off with the ship's quadrant and had to be pursued into the mountainous heart of the island by the young botanist and a squad of marines.

Cooke's response to this was to build a fort and post guards, but he nevertheless commended Banks for his superior grasp of the native culture, customs and language. His essays and samples earned Banks a brilliant reputation on his return to England. But for some reason he never completed the full story of his voyage to paradise, perhaps because by age 50 he was crippled by gout; his adventure remains a preface to what followed in Holmes's wondrous age. We move onwards and upwards.

And in December 1783, a crowd of 400,000 Parisians, about half of the city's population, gathered in the Tuileries gardens to watch a scientific first: a manned ascent in a hydrogen balloon. Only a month earlier, the Montgolfier brothers had gripped Europe with news they had sent humans aloft in a vessel lifted by hot air. In its wake, balloon fever swept the Continent.

Yet according to Holmes, the Montgolfiers's craft was an "uncontrollable monster", unlike the vehicle designed by Dr Alexandre Charles. This used "inflammable air" - hydrogen, newly discovered by Lavoisier - to achieve its lift and was fitted with valves, ballast, barometers and thermometers. It was intended to be a true scientific test flight.

Charles and his assistant Ainé Roberts duly set off in his balloon and flew serenely across the French countryside for two hours before landing at Nesle.

Savouring his moment of glory, Charles asked Roberts to step out first. This was an error. Free of Roberts's weight, the balloon launched back into the evening air with just the hapless Charles on board. Within 10 minutes, he had soared up to 10,000 feet. "I was the first man to see the sun set twice in the same day," Charles recalled. Terrified, he just managed to land his craft and never flew again.

Charles's ordeal was not in vain. Benjamin Franklin, who had watched the ascent from the Tuileries, was deeply impressed and envisaged the day when airborne armies would transform warfare. Astronomer William Herschel wondered, presciently, if telescopes could be carried high into the clear upper atmosphere. And Samuel Johnson claimed it would soon be possible to examine "the face of Nature, from one extremity of the Earth to the other".

Such reactions vividly encapsulate the Age of Wonder, a time when science and Romanticism worked hand in hand to reveal the glories of Nature. It was a very different revolution from the one previously wrought by the mathematical and philosophical works of Newton, Locke and Descartes.

Those scholars certainly changed our vision of the cosmos, but in a distinctly elitist manner. They used only Latin or mathematical terms to describe their work and limited their numbers to a small circle of savants.

Science's second great revolution was very different with its commitment "to explain, to educate, to communicate". And if this involved a bit of showmanship, so be it.

Apart from the balloon trips and expeditions to distant and exotic lands, there were public lectures where Humphry Davy demonstrated dramatically how two glistening new elements - potassium and sodium - could be isolated by electrolysing pots of foul, bubbling caustic alkalis. And then the construction of the great telescopes of Herschel, which revealed comets, nebulae and a new planet, Uranus, in the night sky.

More important, these efforts were followed avidly and sympathetically not just by the public, but by poets and writers, including Byron, Coleridge, Keats, and Shelley. Similarly, Joseph Haydn claimed a visit to Herschel, then living in Slough, in 1792 helped him write his oratorio "The Creation"; Byron's Don Juan includes a tribute to Davy's lantern; while in 1812 Shelley used unmanned fire balloons to distribute copies of his revolutionary pamphlet, A Declaration of Rights.

Clearly, in those days, society saw no gulf between the artist and the scientist. As Holmes makes clear, 200 years ago poets, writers and scientists shared a vision of Nature. There is no reason why they should not do so again.

Wordsworth's leap of the heart when he saw a rainbow was not Newton's prism; it was Nature's own rather more spectacular effect.

Thus the lives of botanist Joseph Banks, Davy the chemist, the poet Coleridge and a host of other scientific romantics are knitted together in a seamless narrative that is laced, to good effect, with a great deal of titillating gossip.

The end result is quite compelling. And it is told with the pace and élan that are the hallmark of all great history and biography.

(Source: Catholic Herald)

Huge ice chunks break away from Antarctic shelf

2009-04-29T20:02:00.001-05:00

(Associated Press)

BERLIN – Massive ice chunks are crumbling away from a shelf in the western Antarctic Peninsula, researchers said Wednesday, warning that 1,300 square miles of ice — an area larger than Rhode Island — was in danger of breaking off in coming weeks.

The Wilkins Ice Shelf had been stable for most of the last century, but began retreating in the 1990s. Researchers believe it was held in place by an ice bridge linking Charcot Island to the Antarctic mainland.

But the 127-square-mile (330-square-kilometer) bridge lost two large chunks last year and then shattered completely on April 5.

"As a consequence of the collapse, the rifts, which had already featured along the northern ice front, widened and new cracks formed as the ice adjusted," the European Space Agency said in a statement Wednesday on its Web site, citing new satellite images.

The first icebergs broke away on Friday, and since then some 270 square miles (700 square kilometers) of ice have dropped into the sea, according to the satellite data.

"There is little doubt that these changes are the result of atmospheric warming," said David Vaughan of the British Antarctic Survey.

The falling away of Antarctic ice shelves does not, in itself, raise sea levels, since the ice was already floating in the sea. But such coastal tables of ice usually hold back glaciers, and when they disintegrate that land ice will often flow more quickly into the sea, contributing to sea-level rise.

Researchers said the quality and frequency of the ESA satellite images have allowed them to analyze the Wilkins shelf breakup far more effectively than any previous event.

"For the first time, I think, we can really begin to see the processes that have brought about the demise of the ice shelf," Vaughan said.

He said eight ice shelves along the Antarctic Peninsula have shown signs of retreat over the last few decades.

"The retreat of Wilkins Ice Shelf is the latest and the largest of its kind," he said.

The Wilkins shelf, which is the size of Jamaica, lost 14 percent of its mass last year, according to scientists who are looking at whether global warming is the cause of its breakup.

Average temperatures in the Antarctic Peninsula have risen by 3.8 degrees Fahrenheit (2.5 Celsius) over the past 50 years — higher than the average global rise, according to studies.

Over the next several weeks, scientists estimate the Wilkins shelf will lose some 1,300 square miles (3,370 square kilometers) — a piece larger than the state of Rhode Island, or two-thirds the size of Luxembourg.

One researcher said, however, that it was unclear how the situation would evolve.

"We are not sure if a new stable ice front will now form between Latady Island, Petrie Ice Rises and Dorsey Island," said Angelika Humbert of Germany's Muenster University Institute of Geophysics.

But even more ice could break off "if the connection to Latady Island is lost," she said, "though we have no indication that this will happen in the near future."
___
On the Net:

ESA's 'Webcam' from Space

(Source: Yahoo/AP)

Deputy US marshal guilty of leaking secrets to mob

2009-04-28T20:34:00.000-05:00

(Associated Press)

CHICAGO – A deputy U.S. marshal was convicted Tuesday of violating the secrecy of the federal government's witness protection program by leaking information about a key witness cooperating in a Chicago mob investigation.

Deputy marshal John T. Ambrose, 42, stared straight ahead as jurors returned the verdict after almost three days of deliberation. He was acquitted of two charges of lying to federal agents, and sentencing was set for Sept. 9.

Defense attorney Francis C. Lipuma promised an appeal. "This is far from over, we're going to keep up the good fight," the attorney said.

Ambrose, a veteran fugitive hunter with a sterling record until now, is the only person in the 39-year history of the ultrasecret Witness Security Program to deliberately violate its security safeguards.

"This is a real tragedy for federal law enforcement and for Deputy Marshal John Ambrose," said Gary S. Shapiro, first assistant U.S. attorney.

The program was established to protect witnesses against mobsters and terrorists who would want to silence them with threats or violence, and Shapiro said the government's ability to get such witnesses to testify depends on their feeling safe from retaliation.

Lipuma argued Ambrose was an innocent man who may have "shot his mouth off" in boasting about his job to a family friend but never betrayed his oath as a lawman. Prosecutors say the person Ambrose told was a former police officer with known mob ties.

FBI agents first realized there was a leak in the program when they heard two mobsters in a prison visitors room talking about a mole in federal law enforcement.

Witnesses including U.S. Attorney Patrick J. Fitzgerald and the head of the FBI's Chicago office, Robert D. Grant, testified that when they confronted Ambrose with evidence he had leaked witness security information he admitted doing so.

Lipuma argued Ambrose was an innocent man who may have "shot his mouth off" in boasting about his job to a family friend but never betrayed his oath as a lawman. Prosecutors said the person Ambrose told had known mob ties and the secrets made their way to a reputed mob boss.

The protected witness whom the leak involved, Nicholas Calabrese, was the only so-called made member of the Chicago Outfit, as this city's organized crime family calls itself, to switch sides and tell what he knew about mob murders, prosecutors said. Calabrese admitted to taking part in 14 murders himself.

Ambrose was twice assigned to guard Calabrese at a so-called safe site. His testimony in the government's landmark Operation Family Secrets investigation that ultimately sent three mob bosses to prison for life.

Prosecutors have not alleged that Ambrose endangered Calabrese's life but said passing the information effectively delivered it to the mob.

Scientist Stephen Hawking 'very ill'

2009-04-21T01:40:00.004-05:00

LONDON, England (CNN) -- Scientist and author Stephen Hawking is "very ill" and has been hospitalized, according to Cambridge University, where he is a professor.

Cambridge University said the 67-year-old is "comfortable" and will stay overnight at Addenbrookes Hospital in Cambridge.

Hawking, one of the world's most famous physicists, is also a cosmologist, astronomer, and mathematician.

Wheelchair-bound Hawking is perhaps most famous for "A Brief History of Time" which explored the origins of the universe in layman's terms, is considered a modern classic.

Hawking has Lou Gehrig's Disease (Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, or ALS), which is usually fatal after three years. Hawking has survived for more than 40 years since his diagnosis.

On his Web site, Hawking has written about living with ALS. "I try to lead as normal a life as possible, and not think about my condition, or regret the things it prevents me from doing, which are not that many," he wrote.

He added: "I have been lucky, that my condition has progressed more slowly than is often the case. But it shows that one need not lose hope."

The disease has left him paralyzed -- he is able to move only a few fingers on one hand. Hawking is completely dependent on others or technology for virtually everything -- bathing, dressing, eating, even speech. He uses a speech synthesizer with an American accent. Watch Larry King's interview with Hawking in 1999 »

Hawking has been married and divorced twice. In 2004, police completed an investigation into accusations by Hawking's daughter that his second wife was abusing him. Authorities said they found no proof.

His Web site says he has three children and one grandchild.

Hawking was born in Oxford, England, on what turned out to be an auspicious date: January 8, 1942 -- the 300th anniversary of the death of astronomer and physicist Galileo Galilei.

A Cambridge University spokesman told CNN: "Professor Hawking is very ill and has been taken by ambulance to Addenbrookes Hospital, Cambridge."

Professor Peter Haynes, head of the university's department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics, said: "Professor Hawking is a remarkable colleague, we all hope he will be amongst us again soon."

At Cambridge, he holds the position of Lucasian Professor Mathematics -- the prestigious post held from 1669 to 1702 by Sir Isaac Newton.

Hawking has guest-starred, as himself, on Star Trek: The Next Generation and The Simpsons. He also said if he had the choice of meeting Newton or Marilyn Monroe, his choice would be Marilyn.

In October, CNN's Becky Anderson interviewed Hawking. The following are some quotes from that interview:

"Over the last twenty years, observations have to a large extent confirmed the picture I painted in 'A Brief History of Time.' The one major development that was not anticipated was the discovery that the expansion of the universe is accelerating now, rather than slowing down... We live in the most probable of all possible worlds." Watch the CNN interview »

"I believe that the long-term future of the human race must be in space. It will be difficult enough to avoid disaster on planet Earth in the next hundred years, let alone next thousand, or million."

"I see great dangers for the human race ... but I'm an optimist. If we can avoid disaster for the next two centuries, our species should be safe as we spread into space."

(Source: CNN) Contributed by nirv.

4 convicted in Pirate Bay file-sharing trial

2009-04-17T09:04:00.003-05:00

STOCKHOLM – Four men behind popular file-sharing site The Pirate Bay were convicted Friday of breaking Sweden's copyright law by helping millions of users freely download music, movies and computer games on the Internet.

In a landmark ruling, the Stockholm district court sentenced Gottfrid Svartholm Warg, Peter Sunde, Fredrik Neij and Carl Lundstrom to one year each in prison.

They were also ordered to pay damages of 30 million kronor ($3.6 million) to a series of entertainment companies, including Warner Bros, Sony Music Entertainment, EMI and Columbia Pictures.

With an estimated 22 million users, The Pirate Bay has become the entertainment industry's enemy No. 1 after successful court actions against file-swapping sites such as Grokster and Kazaa.

Lundstrom helped finance the site while the three other defendants administered it.

Defense lawyers had argued the quartet should be acquitted because The Pirate Bay doesn't host any copyright-protected material. Instead, it provides a forum for its users to download content through so-called torrent files. The technology allows users to transfer parts of a large file from several different users, increasing download speeds.

The court found the defendants guilty of helping users commit copyright violations "by providing a Web site with ... sophisticated search functions, simple download and storage capabilities, and through the tracker linked to the Web site."

In a video clip posted on the Internet, Sunde called the ruling "bizarre" and said it would be appealed. He also dismissed the damages to the entertainment companies, saying "we can't pay and we won't pay."

Mockingly, he held up a hand-scribbled "I owe U" note to the camera. "This is as close as you will get to having money from us," he said.

The Pirate Bay had assured users the trial wouldn't affect the site, and it remained operational after the verdict. Authorities temporarily shut down the site in May 2006 after seizing servers and computer equipment during raids in several locations in Sweden. But it soon reappeared, running on servers elsewhere.

The case focused on dozens of works that the prosecutor said were downloaded illegally. They included songs by the Beatles, Robbie Williams and Coldplay, movies such as "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire" and computer games including "World of Warcraft — Invasion."

Judge Tomas Norstrom told reporters that the court took into account that the site was "commercially driven" when it made the ruling. The defendants have denied any commercial motives behind the site.

John Kennedy, the head of the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry, called the verdict good news for anyone "who is making a living or a business from creative activity and who needs to know their rights will be protected by law."

When he testified in the trial on behalf of international music companies, Kennedy said that illegal file-sharing had cost the recording industry billions of dollars in lost revenue.

The court hearings, which ended March 3, renewed debate about file-sharing in Sweden, where many defend the right to swap songs and movies freely on the Internet. Critics say that Swedish authorities caved in to pressure from the U.S. when they launched the crackdown on The Pirate Bay in 2006.

The Pirate Bay's supporters mobilized for the trial, waving black skull-and-crossbones flags outside the court and setting up a Web site dedicated to the proceedings. The defendants sent updates from the court hearings on social networking site Twitter.

The verdict comes as Europe debates stricter rules to crack down on those who share content illegally on the Internet.

Last week French legislators rejected a plan to cut off the Internet connections of people who illegally download music and films, but the government plans to resurrect the bill for another vote this month.

Opponents said the legislation would represent a Big Brother intrusion on civil liberties, while the European Parliament last month adopted a nonbinding resolution that defines Internet access as an untouchable "fundamental freedom."

Sweden earlier this month introduced a new law that makes it easier to prosecute file-sharers because it requires Internet Service Providers to disclose the Internet Protocol-addresses of suspected violators to copyright owners.

Critics said the new law could harm Sweden's reputation as a spawning ground for Internet technology. The country of 9 million has one of Europe's highest rates of Internet penetration, but has also gained a reputation as a hub for file-sharers.

Statistics from the Netnod Internet Exchange, an organization measuring Internet traffic in Sweden, suggested that daily online activity dropped more than 40 percent after the law took effect on April 1.

(Source: Yahoo/Associated Press)

Editor's Commentary:

I'm not sure that the agencies and companies involved are aware of the negative impact this is going to have on themselves.

Personally, I encourage everyone to boycott these billion dollar companies "due monies" from "loss of revenue".

Hey Warner Bros, hey Sony, wanna see what loss of revenue really looks like? Start messing with the internet and freedom of information. You bite the hand that feeds you, you're going to feel the hurt.

Personally, I rely heavily on the Pirate bay for all sorts of files, none of which are illegal. I certainly have never downloaded anything I would have bought had I not been able to download it. This lawsuit is absolutely bogus, and illustrates how honestly salesmen know nothing about technology, and seek to do nothing but make the disparity between rich and poor greater.

I could go on but I'll leave it at that for now. More as the story develops.

Anti-Christian Britain

2009-04-09T20:05:00.000-05:00

(Catholic Exchange)

As you may know, in Islamic countries such as Afghanistan, converting from Islam to Christianity is a crime punishable by death. While they don’t go that far, certain Indian states and Nepal erect formidable hurdles for would-be converts to Christianity.

And then there’s the United Kingdom.

In 2007, a 16-year-old girl was placed into foster care after being assaulted by a family member. Her foster mother had taken care of 80 foster kids over 10 years. She rented a farmhouse and was, by all accounts, completely committed to the well-being of the children placed under her care.

She is also a practicing Anglican Christian. This hadn’t been a problem. No one had ever accused her of taking advantage of her relationship to the girls for proselytizing.

The same is true of the 16-year-old in question. Still, the girl became interested in Christianity on her own; said that she wanted to attend church; and expressed a desire to be baptized. For the girl, baptism was a “washing away of the horrible things she had been through and a symbol of a new start.”

Well, that’s when the fur flew. You see, the girl was born a Muslim, and her baptism is regarded by Muslims as apostasy. If you’re thinking “so what? It’s not Afghanistan,” think again. But this is Britain, where a Christian nurse was recently suspended for offering to pray for her patients.

Thus, when the girl’s case manager learned about her baptism, she “flew into a rage.” Even though the foster mother hadn’t encouraged the girl’s interest in Christianity, she was removed from the list of foster care providers. A child who was in her custody was removed and she “lost the farmhouse she rented to look after vulnerable teenagers, due to the loss of income.”

Even more outrageously, government officials told the girl to stay way from church for six months!

To their credit, neither the foster mother nor the girl passively accepted the rulings. The foster mother has, with the assistance of Britain’s Christian Institute, challenged her removal, and the girl is supporting her efforts.

A spokesman for the Institute called the right to “to change or modify [one’s] religious beliefs” a “core human right in any free society.” He added that he couldn’t imagine an atheist foster parent being removed if “a Christian child in her care stopped believing in God.”

Beyond the double standard, there’s a tragic irony at work here. As journalist Peter Glover wrote in First Things, Britain’s “growing crime rate and out-of-control teenage pregnancies” has created “national anxiety” among Brits.

At the same time, as these cases illustrate, government and media elites have instituted a “determined program to abolish the influence of Christianity.” Brits shouldn’t be “astonished that a culture that set out to devalue its values should find itself awash in crime, sex, and social discord.”

And a country where government officials forbid a girl from going to church has clearly forgotten what makes social accord possible in the first place.

(Source: CE)

Whale makes appearance off New York's coast

2009-04-09T20:02:00.004-05:00

NEW YORK (CNN) -- Call him Moby Ick.

A 30- to 40-foot humpback whale surfaced in the not-quite-pristine waters just north of New York City's Verrazano Bridge on Thursday morning, according to the Coast Guard.

By midday, the whale had shifted its course southward and could be seen in the waters off Coney Island. The Coast Guard set up a moving safety zone around the whale so it does not encounter oncoming maritime traffic.

Long Island's Riverhead Foundation dispatched a boat to assess the whale's well-being. The organization noted a number of growths on the creature's skin but determined that it was in overall "moderate health," according to Riverhead's Rob DeGiovanni. Watch the whale move through the New York harbor »

Whale sightings in the vicinity of New York City are rare but not unprecedented. An officer from New York's Department of Environmental Conservation told CNN he has made four or five whale sightings in his four years patrolling the city's waters.

(Source: CNN)

Hackers reportedly have embedded code in power grid

2009-04-09T19:59:00.004-05:00

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Computer hackers have embedded software in the United States' electricity grid and other infrastructure that could potentially disrupt service or damage equipment, two former federal officials told CNN.

The code in the power grid was discovered in 2006 or 2007, according to one of the officials, who called it "the 21st century version of Cold War spying."

Department of Homeland Security Director Janet Napolitano would not confirm such a breach, but said Wednesday that there has been no known damage caused by one.

"There have been, to my knowledge, no disruptions of power on any grid caused by a deliberate cyberattack on our infrastructure -- on the grid," Napolitano said. "Nonetheless, we remain in constant protection, prevention, education, resiliency mode and we work with the utility sector particularly on that." Watch security officials explain threat »

The U.S. power grid isn't the only system at risk. The former officials said malicious code has been found in the computer systems of oil and gas distributors, telecommunications companies and financial services industries.

Napolitano said the vulnerability of the nation's power grid to cyberattacks "has been something that the Department of Homeland Security and the energy sector have known about for years," and that the department has programs in place to fight such attacks.

Security experts say such computer hacking could be the work of a foreign government -- possibly Russia or China -- seeking to compromise U.S. security in the event of a future military conflict.

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Former CIA operative Robert Baer said he is not aware of a specific breach like the one the former officials describe. But he said people in the intelligence community assume that such attacks from countries like China go on all the time.

"Their foreign intelligence service has been probing our computers, our defense computers, our defense contractors, our power grids, our telephone system. ... I just came from a speech at the national defense university and they were hit by the Chinese trying to get into their systems," Baer said.

"They are testing and have gotten in portals. It's a serious threat."

Baer said if the software was embedded by a foreign government, he doubts it would be used to launch a surprise attack. Instead, he said, that government likely would keep the bugs in place in case of a future conflict with the United States.

"It's deterrence in the event of war," he said. "They will have another weapon at their disposal, which will be to turn off our power."

When the coding is found, it can be destroyed. But experts said that's easier said than done.

"If you have somebody who knows what they're doing writing that code and embedding it in a clever way, you can look right at it and not recognize it," said Scott Borg, director and chief economist at the U.S. Cyber Consequences Unit, an independent research institute.

And even when it's found, Borg said, confirming the source of a cyberattack can be next to impossible.

"Anonymity is a fact of life in the cyberworld," he said. "It's very easy to run an attack through somebody else's computer. It's very easy to embed code in Russian or Chinese when you're not Russian or Chinese.

"So it's very difficult to be confident on where anything like this comes from."

Critics of the utilities industry have accused it of not doing enough in the past to defend against cyberassaults. But Ed Legge, spokesman for the Edison Electric Institute, which represents shareholder-owned electric companies, said the industry takes the threat seriously and has made progress in closing some of the loopholes that would allow such attacks.

President Obama has started a 60-day review of all the nation's efforts at cybersecurity that is expected to be completed by April 17, Napolitano said.

While utility grids are owned by industries, not the government, Napolitano said her department will continue working with power companies and other industries to help prevent an attack that could cripple power or other vital services.

"Can we continue to work to enhance efforts within critical infrastructure like the utility grid? Yes," she said. "Are we continuously looking for ways to enhance and educate for the prevention and protection of the cyberworld? Absolutely.

"Is this a priority of the president's and of all of us that are involved with safety and security? You bet."

(Source: CNN)

School faces lawsuit for dismissing student who refused to condone homosexuality

2009-04-09T19:43:00.002-05:00

(CNA)

Ypsilanti, Mich., Apr 9, 2009 / 03:31 pm (CNA).- A lawsuit was filed against Eastern Michigan University on Thursday after school officials allegedly dismissed a student from the school’s counseling program for not affirming homosexual behavior as morally acceptable. The Alliance Defense Fund Center for Academic Freedom filed the lawsuit with the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan on behalf of student Julea Ward.

EMU reportedly requires students in its counseling program to affirm or validate homosexual behavior within the context of a counseling relationship. It also prohibits students from advising clients that they can change their homosexual behavior.

According to the Alliance Defense Fund, Ward has never addressed homosexual behavior in any form during counseling sessions with her clients.

The school initiated a disciplinary process against Ward and reportedly said she could stay in the graduate school counseling program if she agreed to undergo a “remediation” program. According to the ADF, the program’s purpose was to change her belief system as it concerns counseling about homosexual relationships and to conform her beliefs to the university’s views.

Given the choice of voluntarily leaving the program or asking for a formal review hearing, Ward chose the hearing.

During the hearing, EMU faculty reportedly denigrated her Christian views and asked “several inappropriate and intrusive questions about her religious beliefs,” the ADF said.

Pam Young, director of Communications for EMU, would not address the Ward's dismissal, and instead explained that the university has a policy of not commenting on pending litigation. Young told WorldNetDaily that, “we are a diverse campus with a strong commitment not to discriminate on the basis of gender, race, disability, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression."

But ADF Senior Counsel David French says that discrimination is exactly what took place. "Christian students shouldn’t be penalized for holding to their beliefs," he said. "When a public university has a prerequisite of affirming homosexual behavior as morally good in order to obtain a degree, the school is stepping over the legal line.

“Julea did the responsible thing and followed her supervising professor’s advice to have the client referred to a counselor who did not have a conscience issue with the very matter to be discussed in counseling. She would have gladly counseled the client if the subject had been nearly any other matter."

ADF Legal Counsel Jeremy Tedesco added: “Julea has a constitutional right not to be compelled to speak a message she disagrees with. She acted as a professional counselor should--with great concern both for her beliefs and the client.”

Tedesco claimed that EMU’s policies are incompatible with the Constitution.

(Source: CNA)

Harvard Aids expert says Pope 'correct' on condoms and spread of HIV

2009-04-08T18:16:00.003-05:00

(Times Online)

The head of Harvard's Aids Prevention Centre says condom use does not lower HIV infection rates.

The head of a Harvard-based AIDs prevention centre says the Pope is “correct” to claim that condom distribution risks aggravating the transmission of HIV.

Last week Benedict XVI incurred the wrath of AIDs campaigners and criticism from the Governments of France and Germany for saying, en route to Africa, that AIDS could not “be overcome by the distribution of condoms.” In comments condemned as "scary" and "alienating" by members of the International Planned Parenthood Federation, Benedict XVI lauded monogamy as a way to combat the spread of AIDs. He said that condom distribution risked exaggerating the spread of the virus.

Edward C. Green, director of the AIDS Prevention Center at the Harvard Center for Population and Development Studies said this week: “The best evidence we have supports the Pope’s comments."

In an interview with the National Review Online, Mr Green said: “We have found no consistent associations between condom use and lower HIV-infection rates, which, 25 years into the pandemic, we should be seeing if this intervention was working.”

He said condom distribution could lead to “risk compensation”, meaning that, once furnished with condoms, people were more likely to engage in riskier sexual behaviour.

Today, this claim was disputed as “ludicrous” by Michael Bartos, chief of the UN AIDs Aids Prevention Unit in Geneva

“It is like saying that sales of mosquito repellent are higher in places where people are more likely to get mosquito bites,” he said. "If people are using condoms more in areas where they are more likely to get HIV, that is positive."

He said there was no “empirical evidence” to show that greater availability of condoms led to an increase in risky sexual activity

Mr Green claimed that reducing "concurrency" or the custom of engaging in two, usually long-term sexual relationships at the same time was the key to successfully combating AIDS. He said: “The best and latest empirical evidence indeed shows that reduction in multiple and concurrent sexual partners is the most important single behavior change associated with reduction in HIV-infection rates (the other major factor is male circumcision).”

In an interview with The Times today, Mr Bartos said: “One thing that accounts for the very high AIDs transmission rate in South Africa is the low rate of male circumcision and the high rate of concurrent partnerships.”

He added: “Condom messaging needs to be more refined and needs to take into account the reality of people’s lives. However it is a false opposition to say [that it is a case of] either condoms or concurrent relationships or male circumcision." Condoms and programmes tackling concurrency and male circumcision, which can reduce the transmission of the HIV virus by up to 60 per cent, were both needed, Mr Bartos said. "Concurrency is a factor but not the master explanation for the spread of AIDs."

However, a leading author on the fight to combat AIDs today backed Mr Green’s theory. Dr Helen Epstein, author of The Invisible Cure, Why We Are Losing the Fight Against AIDS in Africa, said that concurrency can “give rise to a vast interlocking network of stable sexual relationships that serves as a virtual superhighway for HIV, placing at risk large numbers of people who may think they are safe because they are not typically “promiscuous”. For example, some men have two girlfriends or two wives, (or a wife and a girlfriend) with whom they sleep regularly. One or both of those women may have another regular partner – and those men may have other regular wives or girlfriends – and so on.”

A molecular biologist who has co-designed an AIDs prevention programme based on combating concurrency in partnership with the non-profit organisation Population Services International in Mozambique, Dr Epstein added: “In Africa most HIV transmission takes place in long term relationships. People use condoms in casual relationships, and with prostitutes, but that accounts for a relatively small part of the epidemic in the "AIDS epicentre" of East and southern Africa .”

She said the importance of reducing concurrency had been proved by Uganda's successful "Zero Grazing" AIDs prevention campaign, promoted in the late 1980s by its Government. "The tone was pragmatic, not moralistic, and this helped de-stigmatize the epidemic, and brought everyone into the campaign, including community and church groups, women’s groups, the media and ordinary people. As a result, sexual norms began to shift in favour of fewer sexual partnerships and more consistent condom use in casual sex.”

While she wished the Catholic Church would change its ban on condoms, Dr Epstein highlighted the role the Church could play in promoting collective change of sexual behaviour.

She said: "The [ Uganda ] program was based on a very African process of community mobilization, collective action, compassion and mutual aid. These are things the Church has always been good at. Indeed, the Church is often much better at promoting collective action than the public health community, which tends to take a more individualistic approach.”

(Source: Times Online)

Motive sought in deadly attack at Calif. Catholic retreat

2009-04-08T12:46:00.003-05:00

(Associated Press)

TEMECULA, Calif. – Investigators are trying to determine why a 72-year-old man opened fire at a remote Korean Christian retreat, killing a woman and wounding three other people before being disarmed during a struggle with some of his victims, authorities said Wednesday.

The man was hospitalized in guarded condition, Riverside County sheriff's Detective Jesse Martinez said. His identity was not immediately released.

Detectives were puzzling over the attacker's motives for the Tuesday shootings at the Kkottongnae (GOHT'-dohng-nay) Retreat Camp in Temecula, about 85 miles southeast of Los Angeles.

Investigators hadn't determined if there was any relationship between the victims and the gunman, and having trouble piecing together exactly what transpired because many victims speak only Korean.

"That language barrier, that's the key to figuring out what happened," sheriff's spokesman Dennis Gutierrez said.

The gunman, armed with a revolver, attacked a couple in a cabin, killing the unidentified woman with a single shot and wounding a man in the chest, sheriff's Sgt. Michael Lujan said.

He then tried to kill a man and a woman in another cabin, firing two shots in the air before they managed to disarm him following a fist fight that injured all three, knocked over furniture and damaged a door, Lujan said.

"It was hand-to-hand," he said.

The remaining victims, all older than 50, were hospitalized and expected to live, Lujan said.

The campground, located along an isolated road amid rolling hills, has eight to 10 cabins for visitors and semi-permanent residents.

The retreat is one of four U.S. branches of the Kkottongnae Brothers and Sisters of Jesus, a Roman Catholic organization dedicated to serving the poor and homeless. It was founded in the city of Cheongju, South Korea, by Father Oh Woong Jin in 1976.

Kkottongnae means "flower village" in Korean.

"We have some nuns that are very distraught," Gutierrez said. "

A woman who answered the phone at the group's Lynwood branch about 10 miles from downtown Los Angeles said she did not speak English well and declined to discuss the shooting.

At the group's headquarters in Eumseong, South Korea, south of Seoul, spokesman Brother Matthew Park said he has been unable to get through to branch officials in California and only learned about the shooting through news reports.

The campground, previously used as a summer camp before the group bought it, was marked by a single white sign in English and Korean on the side of the winding road in remote southeast Riverside County.

Several women from the retreat sat wrapped in blankets outside the law enforcement lines.

"This is the last place this is supposed to happen," Gutierrez said.

Kkottongnae Web site: http://www.flower-vill.com/

(Source: Associated Press/Yahoo News)

Satellites Show Arctic Literally on Thin Ice

2009-04-07T23:53:00.005-05:00

(NASA)

The latest Arctic sea ice data from NASA and the National Snow and Ice Data Center show that the decade-long trend of shrinking sea ice cover is continuing. New evidence from satellite observations also shows that the ice cap is thinning as well.

Arctic sea ice works like an air conditioner for the global climate system. Ice naturally cools air and water masses, plays a key role in ocean circulation, and reflects solar radiation back into space. In recent years, Arctic sea ice has been declining at a surprising rate.

Scientists who track Arctic sea ice cover from space announced today that this winter had the fifth lowest maximum ice extent on record. The six lowest maximum events since satellite monitoring began in 1979 have all occurred in the past six years (2004-2009).

Until recently, the majority of Arctic sea ice survived at least one summer and often several. But things have changed dramatically, according to a team of University of Colorado, Boulder, scientists led by Charles Fowler. Thin seasonal ice -- ice that melts and re-freezes every year -- makes up about 70 percent of the Arctic sea ice in wintertime, up from 40 to 50 percent in the 1980s and 1990s. Thicker ice, which survives two or more years, now comprises just 10 percent of wintertime ice cover, down from 30 to 40 percent.

According to researchers from the National Snow and Ice Data Center in Boulder, Colo., the maximum sea ice extent for 2008-09, reached on Feb. 28, was 5.85 million square miles. That is 278,000 square miles less than the average extent for 1979 to 2000.

"Ice extent is an important measure of the health of the Arctic, but it only gives us a two-dimensional view of the ice cover," said Walter Meier, research scientist at the center and the University of Colorado, Boulder. "Thickness is important, especially in the winter, because it is the best overall indicator of the health of the ice cover. As the ice cover in the Arctic grows thinner, it grows more vulnerable to melting in the summer."

The Arctic ice cap grows each winter as the sun sets for several months and intense cold sets in. Some of that ice is naturally pushed out of the Arctic by winds, while much of it melts in place during summer. The thicker, older ice that survives one or more summers is more likely to persist through the next summer.

Sea ice thickness has been hard to measure directly, so scientists have typically used estimates of ice age to approximate its thickness. But last year a team of researchers led by Ron Kwok of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., produced the first map of sea ice thickness over the entire Arctic basin.

Using two years of data from NASA's Ice, Cloud, and land Elevation Satellite (ICESat), Kwok's team estimated thickness and volume of the Arctic Ocean ice cover for 2005 and 2006. They found that the average winter volume of Arctic sea ice contained enough water to fill Lake Michigan and Lake Superior combined.

The older, thicker sea ice is declining and is being replaced with newer, thinner ice that is more vulnerable to summer melt, according to Kwok. His team found that seasonal sea ice averages about 6 feet in thickness, while ice that had lasted through more than one summer averages about 9 feet, though it can grow much thicker in some locations near the coast.

Kwok is currently working to extend the ICESat estimate further, from 2003 to 2008, to see how the recent decline in the area covered by sea ice is mirrored in changes in its volume.

"With these new data on both the area and thickness of Arctic sea ice, we will be able to better understand the sensitivity and vulnerability of the ice cover to changes in climate," Kwok said.

Related Links:

> Satellites Show Arctic Literally on Thin Ice: Briefing Materials
> Arctic Sea Ice Reaches Lowest Coverage For 2008
> NSIDC Arctic Sea Ice News and Analysis
> NASA and the International Polar Year
> ICESat

Congress in Honduras prohibits abortion pill

2009-04-07T14:25:00.005-05:00

Tegucigalpa, Apr 7, 2009 / 01:23 pm (CNA).- The House of Representatives in Honduras has approved a law prohibiting “the morning-after pill” as unconstitutional because of its abortifacient nature. The full Congress approved the measure which bans the purchase, sale, use and distribution of the morning-after pill.

The measure was sponsored by Liberal Party Representative Martha Lorena Alvarado and supported by a statement from the Medical College of Honduras, which pointed out the pill’s abortifacient effects.

The emergency contraceptive pill “is a hormonal bomb that acts directly in the body causing thousands of physical changes in girls, who are the ones taking it the most, 12, 14 and 16 year-old girls take it after a night of partying, making it a pharmaceutical abortion,” Alvarado said.

Abortion is unconstitutional in Honduras.

Alvarado noted that the sale of the drug has been criminalized in Costa Rica, Ecuador, Peru and Argentina,” because it has been shown to be an abortifacient and very harmful to the youth.”

Representative Silvia Ayala of the Democratic Unification Party said the World Health Organization issued a statement claiming the pill is not an abortifacient. However, the WHO’s statement only considers abortion to take place after implantation, and therefore it does not see the elimination of an embryo between conception and implantation as an abortion.

Alvarado pointed out that Ayala’s arguments are part of a political agenda of groups financed by international organizations determined to make abortion a human right.

Location: Honduras

(Source: CNA)

Editor's Commentary

This is not the "morning after pill" many people of heard of, this pill is known commonly as "the abortion pill" and also as RU486.

SETI Chief Astronomer: "Humans Predicted to Make Contact with an Extraterrestrial Civilization Within Two Decades--A Galaxy Classic

2009-04-03T08:24:00.003-05:00

(Daily Galaxy)

"That's 500 billion planets out there, and bear in mind there are 100 billion other galaxies. To think this [the Earth] is the only place where anything interesting is happening, you have got to be really audacious to take that point of view." Seth Shostak, SETI senior astronomer

Some leading astronomers are quite confident that mankind will make contact with intelligent alien life within two decades. The search for extraterrestrial life will leap forward next year when NASA launches the Kepler space telescope. The instrument will be constantly scanning the same 100,000 stars over its four-year mission with the exciting objective of discovering Earth-sized planets in the habitable zones around suns.

This will allow SETI to home in on where the odds of life are possibly greatest. Currently, SETI’s mission to find life on other planets is like trying to find the proverbial needle in a haystack. But now, whenever Kepler identifies planets most likely to sustain life, the team at SETI will be able to focus in on those solar systems using deep-space listening equipment. This will be a huge upgrade from their present work of randomly scanning the outer reaches of space for some kind of sign or signal. Also, upping the ante, is the recent discovery of Earth-like planets outside our solar system, which has led astrophysicists to conclude that Earth-like planets are likely relatively common in our galaxy.

"Everything has caused us to become more optimistic," said American astrophysicist Dr Frank Drake in a recent BBC documentary. "We really believe that in the next 20 years or so, we are going to learn a great deal more about life beyond Earth and very likely we will have detected that life and perhaps even intelligent life elsewhere in the galaxy."

However, some astrophysicists have warned that we humans may be blinded by our familiarity with carbon and Earthlike conditions. In other words, what we’re looking for may not even lie in our version of a “sweet spot”. After all, even here on Earth, one species “sweet spot” is another’s species worst nightmare. In any case, it is not beyond the realm of feasibility that our first encounter with extraterrestrial life will not be a solely carbon-based occasion.

Alternative biochemists speculate that there are several atoms and solvents that could potentially spawn life. Because carbon has worked for the conditions on Earth, we speculate that the same must be true throughout the universe. In reality, there are many elements that could potentially do the trick. Even counter-intuitive elements such as arsenic may be capable of supporting life under the right conditions. Even on Earth some marine algae incorporate arsenic into complex organic molecules such as arsenosugars and arsenobetaines. Several other small life forms use arsenic to generate energy and facilitate growth. Chlorine and sulfur are also possible elemental replacements for carbon. Sulfur is capably of forming long-chain molecules like carbon. Some terrestrial bacteria have already been discovered to survive on sulfur rather than oxygen, by reducing sulfur to hydrogen sulfide.

Nitrogen and phosphorus could also potentially form biochemical molecules. Phosphorus is similar to carbon in that it can form long chain molecules on its own, which would conceivably allow for formation of complex macromolecules. When combined with nitrogen, it can create quite a wide range of molecules, including rings.

So what about water? Isn’t at least water essential to life? Not necessarily. Ammonia, for example, has many of the same properties as water. An ammonia or ammonia-water mixture stays liquid at much colder temperatures than plain water. Such biochemistries may exist outside the conventional water-based "habitability zone". One example of such a location would be right here in our own solar system on Saturn's largest moon Titan.

Hydrogen fluoride methanol, hydrogen sulfide, hydrogen chloride, and formamide have all been suggested as suitable solvents that could theoretically support alternative biochemistry. All of these “water replacements” have pros and cons when considered in our terrestrial environment. What needs to be considered is that with a radically different environment, comes radically different reactions. Water and carbon might be the very last things capable of supporting life in some extreme planetary conditions.

At any rate, the odds of there being some type of life somewhere out there are good. As for intelligent life, well, that will depend on the definition of intelligence. There are a lot of other intelligent species here on Earth besides humans, that we don’t generally regard as such. In spite of many Star Trek episodes to the contrary, the odds of alien life forms having evolved to talk, look and act exactly like super hot humans are slim to none. If life is out there, it will have evolved according to it’s particular niche in the universe and will likely be quite foreign to us in the way it looks, communicates and thinks. We might not even be able to recognize hypothetical life forms as alive in the sense that we understand life. In fact, it would be more “miraculous” if we could effectively communicate with extraterrestrial life than to find that it exists. From that perspective, even if there are other life forms out there, we’d still be alone in the universe. Of course, that doesn’t mean we shouldn't look for the answers.

(Source: Daily Galaxy) Contributed by nirv

10 Strange Legends And Images Of Saints

2009-04-02T18:43:00.002-05:00

Throughout the history of the Catholic Church, thousands of saints have come and gone. Many of them become patron saints because of the experiences in their own lives. These experiences are often bizarre and frequently gruesome. This list looks at ten of the more unusual cases.

Click here to visit Listverse , and check out the list!

Body in found in Utah's Canyonlands identified as St. Cloud State professor

2009-04-02T18:00:00.002-05:00

(Pioneer Press)

MOAB, Utah — A body found in southern Utah's Canyonlands National Park has been identified as a Minnesota biology professor who went missing last year.

Jerry O. Wolff, 65, of Sartell, Minn., disappeared into a remote part of the park last May after leaving a note to his family that said he was going to the wilderness to return his body to nature.

The St. Cloud State University professor's disappearance prompted an intensive search of the area that lasted several days.

Paul Henderson, a National Park Service spokesman, said Thursday a hiker found a body March 19 in the park's Needles District. It was recovered and sent to the Utah Medical Examiner's Office. Henderson says Wolff was identified through dental records.

He says it appears Wolff died from a single gunshot to the head.

Michelle Obama's warm touch with queen draws gasps

2009-04-02T14:16:00.002-05:00

(CNN)

(Source: CNN)

Catholic Church prepares for tens of thousands of U.S. converts

2009-04-02T14:14:00.004-05:00

Washington D.C., Apr 1, 2009 / 04:09 am (CNA).- Tens of thousands of new Catholics are expected to join the Catholic Church in the U.S. in 2009, with many doing so at the Easter Vigil liturgies on April 11. Converts to Catholicism are known as catechumens if they have never been baptized and as candidates if they have received baptism in another Christian community and now seek full communion with the Catholic Church.

The Archdiocese of Atlanta, where Catholics have traditionally been a minority, estimates that 513 catechumens and 2,195 candidates will enter the Catholic Church in 2009, about 1,800 doing so at Easter. The figures do not include infant baptisms.

Father Theodore Book, director of the Office of Divine Worship for the Atlanta Archdiocese, said the archdiocese has been “blessed with an authentic dynamism” during recent years. He cited the archdiocese’s annual Eucharistic Congress, saying it draws nearly 30,000 participants.

“One of the many blessings that we have received from the Lord is the large number of individuals entering the Church,” he said.

The Archdiocese of Seattle will reportedly welcome 736 catechumens and 506 candidates, while the Diocese of San Diego will baptize 305 and receive into communion 920 other baptized Christians.

The mostly rural Diocese of Birmingham, Alabama reportedly will have 445 new converts. The diocese’s Cathedral of St. Paul could not hold them and their families for the Rite of Election, which had to be held in three separate ceremonies.

At St. Peter’s Basilica in Vatican City, California resident Heidi Sierras will represent North America at the Easter Vigil, where she will be baptized by Pope Benedict XVI.

The 2008 Official Catholic Directory listed 49,415 adult baptisms and 87,363 people received into full communion in 2007.

(Source: CNA)

Cardinal George: Notre Dame's invitation to President Obama embarrasses Catholic Church

2009-04-02T14:11:00.002-05:00

(Chicago Sun Times)

Cardinal Francis George called the University of Notre Dame’s decision to invite President Obama to speak at its commencement an “extreme embarrassment” to Catholics.

“It is clear that Notre Dame didn’t understand what it means to be Catholic when they issued this invitation,” George said Sunday while speaking at a conference hosted by the archdiocese’s Respect Life office in Rosemont.

In a video of George’s speech posted Wednesday on lifesitenews.com, George calls Notre Dame “the flagship Catholic university” and said that it has “brought extreme embarrassment to many, many people who are Catholic.”

George joins Timothy Dolan, archbishop of New York, and bishops from South Bend, Newark and Austin, among others, in speaking out against Obama’s commencement speech.

The university’s invitation to Obama follows a long-standing university tradition of inviting the sitting president to speak at graduation. Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush all spoke at Notre Dame commencement ceremonies.

But Obama’s positions on embryonic stem cell research and abortion have caused a firestorm of protest over his planned May 17 speech at the Catholic university.

Susan Burritt, spokeswoman for the Archdiocese of Chicago, said today that George would have no additional comments on the president’s speech at Notre Dame.

She said George has no authority over the prestigious South Bend, Ind. university in his role as archbishop or as head of the U.S. Conference on Catholic Bishops.

The Chicago archdiocese switchboards are lighting up with calls regarding the controversy. She said all callers are given contact information for the chairman of Notre Dame’s board of trustees — the provincial supervisor for the Holy Cross order of priests — which runs Notre Dame, and for the Congregation for Catholic Education in Rome.

Notre Dame’s president, the Rev. John Jenkins, previously said the university does not condone all of the president’s policies. Still, he said it’s valuable to engage in conversation and said there are no plans to rescind the invitation.

George said in his weekend speech that the office of the U.S. president deserves “some respect, no matter who is holding it.” He also said the school shouldn’t rescind the invitation.

“You just don’t do that,” he said.

Related Blog Posts

President of US Bishops' Conference: Notre Dame Obama Invite an "Extreme Embarassment"

From A Catholic View

Notre Dame: Obama Commencement Speech - Bishop Boycotts

From RADARSITE

(Source: Chicago Sun Times)

Did you know?

2009-04-02T12:44:00.003-05:00

Space Spotlight: Starburst pattern on Mars

2009-04-02T11:06:00.005-05:00

(CNN)

(Source: CNN)

Jupiter's stormy Great Red Spot is shrinking

2009-04-02T11:01:00.002-05:00

(CNN) -- Everything about Jupiter is super-sized, including its colorful, turbulent atmosphere. But there's fresh evidence that one of the planet's most recognizable features, the Great Red Spot, is shrinking.

The spot, which is actually an ancient monster storm that measures about three Earths across, lost 15 percent of its diameter between 1996 and 2006, scientists at the University of California, Berkeley, have found.

It shrank by about 1 kilometer (about 0.6 miles) a day during that time period, said Xylar Asay-Davis, a postdoctoral researcher who was part of the study.

Astronomers have observed for years that the clouds of the Great Red Spot have been waning, but this newest research focused on the motion of the storm -- a much more reliable way to measure its size, Asay-Davis said.

He and fellow Berkeley researchers Philip Marcus, Imke de Pater, Michael Wong and Sushil Shetty developed software that tracked the movement of the spot's cloud patterns over long periods of time.

"It's not just the motion of the spot as a whole object. Within it, it has a very complicated swirl to it -- sort of a thin ring on the outside and then a sort of quiet area in the center -- and that shape of it has been changing over time," Asay-Davis said.

"What we actually look at is where the winds are the strongest in the vortex. It's the ring where they're the strongest, and that ring has been shrinking over time."

The findings have been submitted for publication in Icarus, the International Journal of Solar System Studies.

See photos of the other planets and find out what makes them stand out »

The researchers do not know why the storm is shrinking. In fact, little is known about the Great Red Spot at all. Even the exact cause of its distinctive color is a mystery.

"We don't actually know what causes any of the colors on Jupiter," said Amy Simon-Miller, chief of the Planetary Systems Lab at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center. "One of the leading theories is that [the storm] is dredging up stuff from much deeper below in the atmosphere that turns red when it's exposed to sunlight."

The spot isn't always bright red; sometimes it's actually quite pale, Simon-Miller noted.

Astronomers have been tracking it since the 1870s, said Glenn Orton, a senior research scientist at NASA'S Jet Propulsion Laboratory who investigates planetary atmospheres. It is possible that the spot may one day disappear, he added.

"It's just a storm that, like many things, has a natural growth and disintegration rate," Orton said.

Astronomers see a dramatic difference in the spot's shape when comparing photos of Jupiter taken more than a century ago to recent images of the planet. Orton joked that the Great Red Spot used to be so long that its acronym should have stood for the "Great Red Sausage."

"I just happened to look at an old picture and said to myself, 'That looks like a breakfast sausage.' It's very long. I mean, if you look at one of those pictures back from then and a picture now, you think, 'My God, this thing is going on a diet," Orton said.

Now eye-shaped, the spot is expected to become circular by about 2040, he added.

Chemical stew

The storm is a fascinating feature on a fascinating planet. It has some of the characteristics of a hurricane on Earth, including a circular motion and strong winds. They're Jupiter-strength inside the spot, with some gusting up to 400 miles per hour, Simon-Miller said.

Unlike hurricanes on Earth, which are low-pressure systems, the Great Red Spot is a high-pressure system, so it's more stable -- one of the reasons it has lasted so long, she added. Another factor in its longevity is that there is no land on Jupiter to slow a storm in the way landfalls cause hurricanes to lose steam on Earth.

Jupiter's atmosphere of colorful dots, swirls and bands may look like an impressionist painting from above, but it would quickly lose its beauty on closer approach. The clouds visible from space consist of ammonia ice and ammonium hydrosulfide -- a sort of smoggy chemical stew -- and the conditions below are brutal, especially inside the Great Red Spot.

"The winds are so strong, everything would get pulled apart pretty quickly. There's no surface to stand on and look up at it," Simon-Miller said.

Probes sent by NASA towards the interior of the planet have been crushed by the gas giant's enormous atmospheric pressure.

Still, the images of Jupiter and its Great Red Spot mesmerize astronomers.

"The pictures are just so beautiful, and they're different every single time we look," Simon-Miller said.
(Source: CNN)

Nasa IOTD: Hubble Finds Hidden Exoplanet in Archival Data

2009-04-02T10:58:00.004-05:00

Hubble Finds Hidden Exoplanet in Archival DataIn 19 years of observations, the Hubble Space Telescope has amassed a huge archive of data--an archive that may contain the telltale glow of undiscovered extrasolar planets. Such is the case with this image--one of three extrasolar planets orbiting the young star HR 8799--which is 130 light-years away. The planetary trio was originally discovered in images taken with the Keck and Gemini North telescopes in 2007 and 2008. But using a new image processing technique that suppresses the glare of the parent star, scientists found the telltale glow of the outermost planet in the system while studying Hubble archival data taken in 1998. The giant planet is young and hot, but still only 1/100,000th the brightness of its parent star. By comparison, Jupiter is one-billionth the brightness of our sun.

Image Credit: NASA, ESA, and G. Bacon (STScI)

(Source: Nasa)

Dozing

2009-03-28T07:56:00.002-05:00

Welcome Home Newt!

2009-03-28T07:44:00.003-05:00

Guess who's coming to Mass? According to various reports (1, 2) Newt Gingrich is set to be accepted into the Catholic Church this weekend.

I forget if I posted the rumor or not (I usually tend not to) but as much as this makes me happy it's really not surprising.

(Source and full story.)

2009-03-28T02:19:00.000-05:00

(Telegraph)

A girl of 10 has become the first girl cub scout in the country to achieve all 33 activity badges.

Rebecca Hooper has astonished scout leaders by pulling off the stunning feat before her 10th birthday earlier this month.

The youngster has been saluted for her "determination and enthusiasm" for tackling activities ranging from astronomy to animal care and DIY to martial arts.

It has taken Rebecca, a sixer from 1St Burgh St Peter cubs, just over a year to reach her goal.

She spent time during her summer holidays working through the badges and collecting evidence for others.

She set to work after a cub scout leader jokingly told her that she needed to "pass all the badges" before she could achieve her silver award.

Rebecca, of Toft Monks, near Beccles, Norfolk, thought he meant all 33 activity badges.

She only later realised she actually needed to gain five "challenge" badges to get the award.

Rebecca has taken her first flight in a small private aeroplane, attended judo lessons and learned how to protect herself, made a computer desk for her DIY badge and cooked her family a roast dinner.

She has also repaired a puncture on her bicycle, visited a synagogue, learned how to read a map, looked after farm animals, sailed a boat and tidied up her local churchyard.

Rebecca, who hopes to become a vet, said she particularly enjoyed the work involved for her animal carer badge.

She said: "I also enjoyed the martial arts one because it gave me a chance to start something new. I got 17 badges in the summer holidays last year and I wanted to carry on and get the rest."

Scout Association spokesman Simon Carter said he believes Rebecca is the first girl in the UK to collect all 33 activity badges.

"To have achieved all the cub scout award badges shows great determination and enthusiasm," he said.

(Source: Telegraph)

Prisoners baby-sit toddler found on Maryland motorway

2009-03-28T01:33:00.004-05:00

(Telegraph)

A prison work crew looked after a toddler who was spotted on Friday running along the centre of a rural motorway in Maryland as trucks loaded with gravel rumbled by, police and correctional officials said.

The six inmates shared their lunches with the 2 1/2-year-old boy, who apparently had wandered away from home, and played with him while authorities located the boy's parents, said Gary Kershner, a correctional officer who was overseeing the prisoners.

"Me and my inmate crew, we just kind of baby-sat for the next three hours," Mr Kershner said. "They were as much entertained by the child as he was by them."

The boy was on Route 550, not far from the Pennsylvania border, when a lorry driver stopped to pluck him off the road shortly after 9 am.

Mr Kershner, who had stopped his van to help, said the driver handed the boy to him for safekeeping until police arrived.

Police eventually found the boy's home nearby. The child was reunited with his family after child services investigated and found no immediate cause to suspect abuse or neglect.

The boy's father, who works at home, told police he had left his son in the care of an 18-year-old daughter, who then left without notice. State police were conducting their own investigation and would report their findings to Frederick County prosecutors for possible charges, Lt Michael Brady said.

(Source: Telegraph)

Reel Religion: A Century of the Bible and Film

2009-03-28T01:28:00.002-05:00

(Telegraph)

A new exhibition looks at how the Bible has influenced film-makers since the dawn of film in 1898

The Passion Play of Ober-Ammergau, 1898, USA. Directed by Henry C Vincent

Click here for that story.

Can the Human Lifespan Reach 1,000 Years -Some Experts Say "Yes"

2009-03-27T21:39:00.004-05:00

(Daily Galaxy)

Cambridge University geneticist Aubrey de Grey has famously stated, “The first person to live to be 1,000 years old is certainly alive today …whether they realize it or not, barring accidents and suicide, most people now 40 years or younger can expect to live for centuries.”

Perhaps de Gray is way too optimistic, but plenty of others have joined the search for a virtual fountain of youth. In fact, a growing number of scientists, doctors, geneticists and nanotech experts—many with impeccable academic credentials—are insisting that there is no hard reason why ageing can’t be dramatically slowed or prevented altogether. Not only is it theoretically possible, they argue, but a scientifically achievable goal that can and should be reached in time to benefit those alive today.

“I am working on immortality,” says Michael Rose, a professor of evolutionary biology at the University of California, Irvine, who has achieved breakthrough results extending the lives of fruit flies. “Twenty years ago the idea of postponing aging, let alone reversing it, was weird and off-the-wall. Today there are good reasons for thinking it is fundamentally possible.”

Even the US government finds the field sufficiently promising to fund some of the research. Federal funding for “the biology of ageing”, excluding work on ageing-specific diseases like heart failure and cancer – has been running at about $2.4 billion a year, according to the National Institute of Ageing, part of the National Institutes of Health.

So far, the most intriguing results have been spawned by the genetics labs of bigger universities, where anti-ageing scientists have found ways to extend live spans of a range of organisms—including mammals. But genetic research is not the only field that may hold the key to eternity.

“There are many, many different components of ageing and we are chipping away at all of them,” said Robert Freitas at the Institute for Molecular Manufacturing, a non-profit, nanotech group in Palo Alto, California. “It will take time and, if you put it in terms of the big developments of modern technology, say the telephone, we are still about 10 years off from Alexander Graham Bell shouting to his assistant through that first device. Still, in the near future, say the next two to four decades, the disease of ageing will be cured.”

But not everyone thinks ageing can or should be cured. Some say that humans weren’t meant to live forever, regardless of whether or not we actually can.

“I just don't think [immortality] is possible,” says Sherwin Nuland, a professor of surgery at the Yale School of Medicine. “Aubrey and the others who talk of greatly extending lifespan are oversimplifying the science and just don't understand the magnitude of the task. His plan will not succeed. Were it to do so, it would undermine what it means to be human.”

It’s interesting that Nuland first says he doesn’t think it will work but then adds that if it does, it will undermine humanity. So, which is it? Is it impossible, or are the skeptics just hoping it is?

After all, we already have overpopulation, global warming, limited resources and other issues to deal with, so why compound the problem by adding immortality into the mix.

But anti-ageing enthusiasts argue that as our perspectives change and science and technology advance exponentially, new solutions will emerge. Space colonization, for example, along with dramatically improved resource management, could resolve the concerns associated with long life. They reason that if the Universe goes on seemingly forever—much of it presumably unused—why not populate it?

However, anti-ageing crusaders are coming up against an increasingly influential alliance of bioconservatives who want to restrict research seeking to “unnaturally” prolong life. Some of these individuals were influential in persuading President Bush in 2001 to restrict federal funding for embryonic stem cell research. They oppose the idea of life extension and anti-ageing research on ethical, moral and ecological grounds.

Leon Kass, the former head of Bush's Council on Bioethics, insists that “the finitude of human life is a blessing for every human individual”. Bioethicist Daniel Callahan of the Garrison, New York-based Hastings Centre, agrees: “There is no known social good coming from the conquest of death.”

Maybe they’re right, but then why do we as humans strive so hard to prolong our lives in the first place? Maybe growing old, getting sick and dying is just a natural, inevitable part of the circle of life, and we may as well accept it.

"But it's not inevitable, that's the point," de Grey says. "At the moment, we're stuck with this awful fatalism that we're all going to get old and sick and die painful deaths. There are a 100,000 people dying each day from age-related diseases. We can stop this carnage. It's simply a matter of deciding that's what we should be doing."

One wonders what Methuselah would say about all this.

(Source: The Daily Galaxy, Contributed by nirv)

Hubble's Greatest Hits

2009-03-27T21:36:00.001-05:00

Hubble's Greatest Hits:

The Hubble Space Telescope was launched in April 1990. After the problems with its main mirror were fixed, it started sending beautifully detailed images of space back to earth. Here are some of the best. These are actual photographs from the Hubble Space Telescope.

Staring across interstellar space, the Cat's Eye Nebula lies three thousand light-years from Earth. One of the most famous planetary nebulae, NGC 6543 is over half a light-year across and represents a final, brief yet glorious phase in the life of a sun-like star.

It may look like a seahorse, but the dark object is actually a pillar of smoky dust about 20 light-years long. The structure occurs in our neighbouring Large Magellanic Cloud, in a star-forming region near the Tarantula Nebula

MyCn18: an hourglass nebula. The sands of time are running out for the central star of this hourglass-shaped planetary nebula. With its nuclear fuel exhausted, this closing phase of a Sun-like star's life occurs as its outer layers are ejected - its core becoming a cooling, fading white dwarf

MyCn18: an hourglass nebula. The sands of time are running out for the central star of this hourglass-shaped planetary nebula. With its nuclear fuel exhausted, this closing phase of a Sun-like star's life occurs as its outer layers are ejected - its core becoming a cooling, fading white dwarf

In 1787, astronomer William Herschel discovered the Eskimo Nebula, NGC 2392, which resembles a person's head surrounded by a parka hood

These glowering eyes are the swirling cores of two merging galaxies called NGC 2207 and IC 2163 in Canis Major. Billions of years from now, only one of these two galaxies will remain. Until then, they will slowly pull each other apart

This is the Cone Nebula within the bright galactic star-forming region NGC 2264. Some have claimed this looks like an image of Jesus Christ

Reflection Nebula NGC 1999. Reflection nebulae do not emit light on their own. They shine because of a light source embedded within, like a street lamp illuminates fog. The bright, young star left of centre gives NGC 1999 its brightness

This image is sometimes called Starry Night, a reference to the Vincent van Gogh painting. For reasons unknown, star V838 Mon's outer surface suddenly greatly expanded with the result that it became the brightest star in the entire Milky Way in January 2002. Then, just as suddenly, it faded

Planetary Nebula Mz3: The Ant Nebula. Expelled gas streaming away at 1,000 kilometres per second create a strange ant shape

The Orion Nebula, M42, is only 1,500 light-years away. It offers one of the best opportunities to study how stars are born partly because it is the nearest large star-forming region, but also because the nebula's energetic stars have blown away obscuring dust clouds

A huge gas and dust pillar in the Trifid Nebula, punctuated by a smaller pillar pointing up and an unusual jet pointing to the left

A seemingly square nebula. IC 4406 is probably a hollow cylinder, with its square appearance caused by viewing the cylinder from the side

M74: The Perfect Spiral. If not perfect, then this spiral galaxy is at least one of the most photogenic. An island universe of about 100 billion stars, 32 million light-years away toward the constellation Pisces, M74 presents a gorgeous face-on view.

This is the mess that is left when a star explodes. The Crab Nebula is the result of a supernova seen in 1054 AD. In the nebula's centre is a pulsar: a neutron star as massive as the Sun but with only the size of a small town.

The Perfect Storm: Sculpted by stellar winds and radiation, these fantastic, undulating shapes lie within the stellar nursery known as M17, the Omega Nebula, some 5,500 light-years away in Sagittarius

These two galaxies are pulling each other apart. Known as The Mice because of their long tails, they will probably collide again and again until they coalesce

(Source: Telegraph)

Benedict XVI, Africa, AIDS, and Condoms

2009-03-27T08:33:00.037-05:00

By Paul Swonger ( commodianus@gmail.com ) 3.27.09

(Please e-mail all typographical or grammatical errors. I'm only human.)

While I haven't remained silent on the issue, I thought I would take the time to offer my comments on the current "mania" sweeping the internet regarding Pope Benedict XVI's recent comments on condoms, and the spread of the AIDS epidemic.

One of the world's most "prestigious medical journals" (according to BBC news), the Lancet, has accused Pope Benedict XVI of distorting science in his remarks on condom use.

Quotes used here are taken from that article, which can be found here.

Lancet said the Pope had "publicly distorted scientific evidence to promote Catholic doctrine on this issue". It said (according to BBC news) the male latex condom was the single most efficient way to reduce the sexual transmission of HIV/Aids.

"Whether the Pope's error was due to ignorance or a deliberate attempt to manipulate science to support Catholic ideology is unclear," said the journal. But it said the comment still stood and urged the Vatican to issue a retraction.

"When any influential person, be it a religious or political figure, makes a false scientific statement that could be devastating to the health of millions of people, they should retract or correct the public record," it said. (The Lancet)

"Anything less from Pope Benedict would be an immense disservice to the public and health advocates, including many thousands of Catholics, who work tirelessly to try and prevent the spread of HIV/Aids worldwide."(The Lancet)

"Our correspondent says the article shows how far the Pope's attempts to clarify the Vatican's position on condoms have backfired. " (BBC News)

It's really interesting an enlightening to me to see how people react to this "story". On the one hand we have an allegedly renowned scientific journal (and many others) calling the Pope a liar, and accusing him of distorting "scientific facts". So let's begin there.

Let's just all take a deep breath, set aside our opinions, and perform some basic logical evaluations. I'm certain we can arrive at the truth, and I would like also to note, your comments are encouraged, and I will respond to them in this post.

Science Journal Claims:

"It said (according to BBC news) the male latex condom was the single most efficient way to reduce the sexual transmission of HIV/Aids."

Single most efficient? Even more than not risking it in the first place? Absurd.

"Sexual transmission" - Does anyone else notice that? This is basic math and basic logic. Let me pose an analogy:

Are you more likely to die from space travel by going into space, or by remaining on Earth?

To die from space travel, you need to actually, space travel.

The greatest insight people seem blinded to, is the phrase "sexual transmission" the scientific journal uses. But to me, this entire issue is being sidestepped, and ignored.

Sexual abstinence, when practiced, is more effective at avoiding sexually transmitted diseases than having sex, even while properly using a condom. Fact.

How do we know this? Well first there's common sense: If you don't have sex, you eliminate (not reduce) the risk of acquiring a sexually transmitted disease through sexual contact outside of being raped. Fact.

Secondly, we do have statistics, and we do have a scientific idea of exactly how effective condoms are at preventing sexually transmitted diseases. According to a 2000 report by the National Institutes of Health, correct and consistent use of latex condoms reduces the risk of HIV/AIDS transmission by approximately 85% relative to risk when unprotected, putting the seroconversion rate (infection rate) at 0.9 per 100 person-years with condom, down from 6.7 per 100 person-years. The same review also found condom use significantly reduces the risk of gonorrhea for men.

(Source: National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases; National Institutes of Health, Department of Health and Human Services (2001-07-20). "Workshop Summary: Scientific Evidence on Condom Effectiveness for Sexually Transmitted Disease (STD) Prevention" (PDF).: pp.13-15. Download the PDF of the Study here)

This means according to the study that Fifteen Percent of the time condom users are at risk for contracting a disease while using condoms.

Who is correct? The Pope, or the Journal?

But wait, there's another argument. Because dealing in scientific and logical fact isn't enough to appease the scoffers, we have another point to deal with, which is "people aren't going to stop having sex, or start following the morals the Church has been teaching for 2000 years".

But does that make the Pope wrong? Let's take a look. At this point opponents commit any number of well known logical fallacies. I'll do a step by step break down. First, a quick note on logic:

"A fallacy is, very generally, an error in reasoning. This differs from a factual error, which is simply being wrong about the facts. To be more specific, a fallacy is an "argument" in which the premises given for the conclusion do not provide the needed degree of support. A deductive fallacy is a deductive argument that is invalid (it is such that it could have all true premises and still have a false conclusion). An inductive fallacy is less formal than a deductive fallacy. They are simply "arguments" which appear to be inductive arguments, but the premises do not provided enough support for the conclusion. In such cases, even if the premises were true, the conclusion would not be more likely to be true."

(Source: Nizkor Project ; Dr. Michael C. Labossiere )

Clicking any of these will bring you to a definition and huge explanation of each fallacy.

Appeal To Nature:
It's natural to have sex, people shouldn't be told not to because it's natural. Fallacy.

Appear to Common Practice/argumentum ad antiquitatem:
People are having sex regardless of what the consequences are, therefore trying to convince them to abstain is wrong. Fallacy.

Appeal to Authority:
Renowned Scientists say the Pope is wrong, therefore he is wrong. Fallacy.
Renowned scientists say that condoms are more effective than not having sex with infected partners, that means it's true. Fallacy.

Argumentum ad populum/Appeal to Majority:

Most people think the Pope is wrong, therefore he is wrong. Fallacy.
Most people think it's ok to use condoms so it is. Fallacy.
Most people believe in God, so there is one. Fallacy.

Ad Hominem Circumstantial:

"Whether the Pope's error was due to ignorance or a deliberate attempt to manipulate science to support Catholic ideology is unclear," - The Lancet Fallacy.
"He's just saying that because he's Catholic". Fallacy.
"He's just saying that because he's an Atheist". Fallacy.

Logic is the science of thought, and governs the empirical sciences as the most fundamental means of demonstrating reproducible (hence empirical) truth.

How logic works:

A = A
A Stays A
A != B (A Cannot Equal B).

So the "answer" that people "are still going to have sex" is really nothing more than a logical fallacy. It may be factually true, but using it as a basis to claim the Pope is lying or wrong, is false.

I will further demonstrate this now. I've already demonstrated scientifically that abstaining is undeniably more effective than using a condom. I have one friend who still won't admit that fact, so before I move on, I'd like to quote statistics from more reliable scientific publications.

I will address the "they're still going to have sex" argument momentarily.

Causes of Failure:

Condoms are widely recommended for the prevention of sexually transmitted diseases (STDs). They have been shown to be effective in reducing infection rates in both men and women. While not perfect, the condom is effective at reducing the transmission of HIV, genital herpes, genital warts, syphilis, chlamydia, gonorrhea, and other diseases.

(Source: "The Condom". Planned Parenthood. 2004-01-04. http://www.plannedparenthood.org/birth-control-pregnancy/birth-control/condom.htm )

How people still get infected while using Condoms:
One study found that semen exposure from a broken condom was about half that of unprotected intercourse; semen exposure from a slipped condom was about one-fifth that of unprotected intercourse.

(Source: Walsh T, Frezieres R, Peacock K, Nelson A, Clark V, Bernstein L, Wraxall B (2003). "Use of prostate-specific antigen (PSA) to measure semen exposure resulting from male condom failures: implications for contraceptive efficacy and the prevention of sexually transmitted disease". Contraception 67 (2): 139–50. doi:10.1016/S0010-7824(02)00478-X. PMID 12586324. )

In this study, 1/5 of people using condoms are still exposed to semen through their sexual conduct.

You don't need to write for a science journal to know that this semen may be infected, and that the chance of contact with infectious fluids is much higher than that of no sexual contact, as the Pope has pointed out. In fact, falsely relieving anxieties about sexual conduct in the AIDS capital of the world, will do exactly as the Pope says, and add false security, increasing risk as opposed to abstaining, which actually reduces the risk better than condoms.

Some studies have associated larger penises and smaller condoms with increased breakage and decreased slippage rates (and vice versa), but other studies have been inconclusive.
Slippage results in failure and exposes the user to risk.

( Source: Spruyt, Alan B. (1998). "Chapter 3: User Behaviors and Characteristics Related to Condom Failure". The Latex Condom: Recent Advances, Future Directions (Family Health International). http://www.fhi.org/en/RH/Pubs/booksReports/latexcondom/behavcharac.htm. Retrieved on 2007-04-08. )Holes in Condoms:
One of my friends brought up to me a comment allegedly made by Pope John Paul II saying that condoms have holes in them. He then proceeded to call the Pope an idiot.

However, my friend seemed to be unaware of Lamb Intestine (Naturalamb) and similar condoms, which do have holes in them, do not protect from disease, and are meant for "more pleasure" and to protect against pregnancy, not STDs. These condoms are also used by people who have a latex allergy.

Quote:
^"NATURALAMB® Brand Condoms are ideal for the monogamous couple who desire heightened sensitivity with trusted pregnancy protection. NATURALAMB® does not prevent the transmission of sexually transmitted diseases (STDs)."
( Source: http://www.naturalamb.com/faqs.aspx 3.27.09 )

One percent of people have a Latex allergy according to Health Grades. That might not sound like much, but in the USA, 1% is 2.7 Million people.

Back to "they're going to anyways".

It has been clearly demonstrated in this article, why the Pope was correct. Conclusion:

Saying that people will have sex anyways makes the Pope wrong. False.
Encouraging people to use condoms guarantees the use of them, and therefore reduces risk. False.
Living a life contrary to the teachings of the Pope and the Catholic church reduce risk more than following them does. False.
Encouraging Condom use makes the AIDS problem worse. True.
Having one sexual partner rather than many, decreases your risk. True.
Abstaining from sex until marriage lessens the risk of infection. True.
Encouraging people to use condoms, encourages them to have sexual contact, which is more of a risk than abstinence, and the Pope's advice at large. True.
Utilizing modern science to test your partener for AIDS reduces the risk of infection. True.

At this point I'd like to make one final comment. Washington DC in the United states is in the state of an AIDS epidemic. More specifically in the United states, the minority community is by far the hardest hit according to studies by the CDC. The hardest hit among these groups are the black community.

Is this a result of unavailability of Condoms? No.
Is it because most minorities follow the Pope? No.
Is it a natural associated risk as a consequence of irresponsible behavior? Yes.

Irresponsible behavior is not limited to minority groups either.

You can download the PDF I got this image from here. It contains many CDC statistics. Education of the facts are essential in this matter.

More statistics:

South Africa is by far the hardest hit on the African continent by the AIDS epidemic, with an estimated 5,300,000 adults and children living with aids as of a study done in 2003. The reported deaths due to aids in South Africa in 2003 were 370,000.

The reported adult literacy rate in south Africa during these studies in 2003 is 14.8%.
( Source: "AIDS In Africa" )

How likely is it then that the person will be able to read condom instructions and use them properly?

How likely is a person so gravely affected by lack of education to use a condom in the first place?

What's the solution to the AIDS Epidemic? Education. Everywhere in the world it is education.

Approximately 184,402,200 Africans are Catholic (1/5 of the Population).
22,000,000 Africans are estimated to be infected with AIDS.
2.38% of the African population is infected with AIDS. That's more than 2 in every 100. More than 20 in every thousand.

Effective Parts of the Solution:

Discourage promiscuity.
Increase Literacy.
Sexual Education.
Moral Education.
No sex without testing.
One sexual partner; your spouse for life that has been tested.
Raise awareness of rape, increase penalties.

Thanks for reading. I will add to this article in the future and correct errors if I notice any.

Responses To This Article:

This comes from IRC (EFNet) from an Atheist friend of mine (3.27.09).

(10:54:44) (@nirv) Single most efficient? Even more than not risking it in the first place? Absurd.
(10:54:50) (@nirv) you want to go that far?
(10:55:11) (@nirv) then let's say it's even more effecient to just have an abortion so they don't even have to SAY NO TO SEX because they're NOT ALIVE
(10:56:48) (@nirv) HUMANS NOT EXISTING AT ALL is an EVEN BETTER OPTION THAN ALL OF THOSE!

Interestingly this sounds like a pro-life argument albeit an odd one. In other words, in this line of reasoning, it's more important to live and suffer (even with AIDS) than it is to not be born. I'm not sure he realizes this. Pretty strange coming from my pro-choice friend who just recently said:

(21:20:48) (mawst) I don't believe humans have the right to kill people out of convenience.
(21:21:02) (@nirv) it's so weird
(21:21:06) (@nirv) think about it
(21:21:11) (@nirv) if a man somehow got pregnant
(21:21:18) (@nirv) where is the baby going to come out?
(21:21:19) (@nirv) his ass?
(21:21:24) (@nirv) you damn right I'd have an abortion
(21:21:32) (@nirv) so if you can have an abortion in that state
(21:21:38) (@nirv) what's wrong with women being able to do it?
(21:21:47) (@nirv) because they're women? They're SUPPOSED to have kids?

First, no, obviously the uterus is no indication women are supposed to carry a child, let alone their ability to get pregnant. What we do know though, is that it's not my error, the error lies in thinking you can act without consequences, and that it's ok to murder because "you don't feel like having kids". You felt like having sex though didn't you?

I hesitate into turning this into an abortion debate but:

Basing justification of abortion on a non existent hypothetical concept does not work, especially since most abortions are made out of convenience. Not because "men get pregnant and there's nowhere for the baby to come out". This is perhaps the single most ridiculous comment I have ever heard any pro choicer make EVER. Not mostly because of rape, not mostly because of health concerns, but the facts show, out of "convenience".

And back to the United States AIDS Epidemic, the 4th largest cause of death for African Americans in these statistics (see the PDF) was AIDS. Do you know what the #1 killer was? Abortion. Abortion remains a GENOCIDE against blacks in America. Funny how Obama supports it, don't you think?

The most dangerous place for an African American in the United States is in the Womb of an African American mother.

Get the facts here: http://www.blackgenocide.org/

In getting back to the previous comments, the argument just reiterates the common theme:

"We can't control ourselves, so if you expect us to it'd be better if we just weren't born in the first place."

This is the "modern thinking human"? Interesting. It's actually terrifying how many people think this way. This is how opposed to self control people are. If there's a better example of people being completely angry and irrational about the fact that our actions have consequences, I haven't found it yet.

(11:21:40) (@nirv) why are we even talking about religion?
(11:21:43) (@nirv) it isn't taught in schools
(11:21:50) (@nirv) that should be your first clue that it's dumb

First I notice this as an argumentum ad hominem. He doesn't have any valid counterpoint to anything I've said in the article so he attacks the argument itself (classic ad hominem).

Apparently nirv is unaware that the University system is an invention of the Catholic Church, and further, how many Universities and other colleges have Catholic affiliations (e.g. Georgetown, Notre Dame, and many many others). There are dozens with Catholic affiliation in our state alone. Anyone that's shopped for a college should be able to recognize all the "St. Mary's" and "St. Thomas's) etc. Additionally, the idea that religion, theology, and specificaly in this case Catholicism isn't taught in respectable colleges that also excel in the sciences is a sad naivety and an ignorance of fact. These statements are simply false.

Bomb destroys Pakistan mosque, several feared dead

2009-03-27T05:26:00.003-05:00

PESHAWAR, Pakistan – A suicide bomber blew himself up in a mosque in northwestern Pakistan during Friday prayers, killing or injuring about two dozen people, officials said.

The blast collapsed the mosque in Jamrud, a town near the Afghan border, and police were digging in the rubble for any survivors, said Bakhtiar Khan, a local government official.

Khan said "several" people had been killed or injured. He had no further details. Mohammed Bashir, another official in Jamrud said 23 people were injured.

Rising violence in Pakistan's northwest is fueling doubts about the country's ability to counter Taliban and al-Qaida militants blamed for attacks also in neighboring Afghanistan.

Jamrud lies in the Khyber region, where militants have intensified attacks on trucks carrying supplies to NATO and U.S. forces in Afghanistan.

The area is also bedeviled by bloody feuds among various tribal and militant factions.

(Source: Yahoo News/AP)

Japan OKs deployment of missile defense system

2009-03-27T05:24:00.001-05:00

(Yahoo News)

TOKYO – Japan's military mobilized Friday to protect the country from any threat if North Korea's looming rocket launch fails, ordering two missile-equipped destroyers to the Sea of Japan and sending batteries of Patriot missile interceptors to protect the northern coastline.

Pyongyang plans to launch its Kwangmyongsong-2 satellite April 4-8, a moved that has stoked already heightened tensions in the region. The U.S., Japan and South Korea suspect the North will use the launch to test the delivery technology for a long-range missile capable of striking Alaska.

Japan has said that it will shoot down any dangerous objects that fall its way if the launch doesn't go off successfully. Tokyo, however, has been careful to say that it will not intervene unless its territory is in danger.

The North said earlier this month that any attack on the satellite would be an act of war.

South Korea and the U.S. prepared deployments of their own. Seoul is also dispatching an Aegis-equipped Sejong the Great destroyer off the east coast to monitor the launch, a military official in Seoul said. He asked not to be named because he was not authorized to speak to the media.

Two U.S. Aegis-equipped ships, docked at a South Korea port, will set sail in coming days, U.S. military spokesman Kim Yong-kyu said.

As Japan's military got its orders Friday, North Korea's preparations appeared to be moving ahead quickly, and South Korea's nuclear envoy headed to Washington as regional powers scrambled to coordinate a joint strategy for the launch.

North Korea mounted a rocket on a launch pad on its northeast coast, American intelligence officials say, putting Pyongyang well on track for the launch.

North Korea is now "technically" capable of launching it in three to four days, South Korea's Chosun Ilbo newspaper said, citing an unnamed diplomatic official.

The U.S. and South Korea warned Thursday it would be a major provocation with serious consequences, and Japan's parliament was expected to issue a resolution next week demanding the launch be scrapped.

Regional powers have said any launch is banned under a 2006 U.N. Security Council resolution and would trigger sanctions.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton warned that such a "provocative act" could jeopardize the stalled talks on supplying North Korea with aid and other concessions in exchange for dismantling its nuclear program.

Of all the North's neighbors, Japan has reacted the most strongly because the satellite will fly over its airspace, and North Korea has designated a zone near Japan's northern coast where debris is likely to fall. North Korea sent a similar rocket over Japan in 1998, prompting Tokyo to build up its missile defenses.

On Friday, Defense Minister Yasukazu Hamada told reporters he ordered the deployment of land-to-air and sea-to-air missile interceptors to the area at risk.

"We will make sure to eliminate anything that may cause us any damage," he said.

Under Friday's order, the Japanese military is allowed to shoot down any missile fragments and debris heading toward Japanese territory.

The military will move some PAC-3 land-to-air missiles, currently deployed around Tokyo, to Japan's northern coast, and deploy a pair of destroyers carrying SM-3 sea-to-air missiles in nearby waters, the Defense Ministry said in a statement.

A set of the PAC-3 missiles would be also brought into central Tokyo to defend the nation's capital. The destroyers, equipped with Aegis radar, will sail from their southern homeport of Sasebo.

Japan's National Security Council approved Hamada's order to mobilize the missile interceptors.

Officials stressed that the measures were purely precautionary and said the likelihood of any debris hitting Japan was extremely low.

"We would like everyone to continue your daily life and business as usual," Chief Cabinet Secretary Takeo Kawamura said.

But some analysts said Japan — trying to appear strong in the face of the North Korean launch — is overreacting.

Hajime Izumi, a Shizuoka University professor of international politics, urged the government to be more balanced.

"The deployment is unavoidable as long as there is a slight possibility of a failure, but the problem is that it creates an impression that a launch would be a 100 percent failure," Izumi said.

Japan and others are also threatening sanctions.

Japan imposed tight trade sanctions on Pyongyang in 2006 after it tested ballistic missiles in waters dividing the two countries and conducted an atomic test. Japan's current sanctions, which have been extended every six months, are set to expire April 13.

Clinton vowed Wednesday to take the matter to the U.N. Security Council should the launch go forward. The council banned the North from any ballistic activity in 2006.

(Source: Yahoo News)

Arsonist caught on camera setting fire in MN Catholic Church

2009-03-27T01:12:00.004-05:00

MINNEAPOLIS, MN- St. Olaf Catholic Church is a pillar of downtown Minneapolis. The church has always open and welcoming for more than 70 years.

"This is a place of worship and a house for the entire community," says church administrator Peter Barrett.

But in 2007, a member of that community swiped the baby Jesus from St. Olaf's Nativity.

"It was a fine piece that was handcrafted in Israel of olive wood," says Barrett.

Since then, the church doors are still open, but visitors have company - a new high tech security system with 21 cameras that are always recording.

The investment paid off on Tuesday.

It was 2:30 in the afternoon and a church surveillance camera captured a person walking through the front door.

Another camera caught the person at the top of the stairs in a church corridor attached to the skyway. The person appeared to pour something on the carpet, then lit it on fire and walked out the door. A church staffer found the fire and put it out.

"Churches have to walk a very fine line between being open and available to their worshippers and then securing their property, and that someone would take advantage of that openness that St. Olaf tries to promote is disgraceful," says Minneapolis Police arson investigator Sean McKenna.

Police are investigating the incident as an arson fire and while the damage was limited, it could have been much worse, like the time in 1953 when the original St. Olaf burned to the ground.

"On Ash Wednesday as a matter of fact. How about that for timing," says Barrett.

St. Olaf was rebuilt and expanded. The problem then was electrical.

But police say this week's incident was intentional.

"You wonder how people are thinking or not thinking as it were about the place they are," says Barrett.

Police say if it turns out the person used flammable liquid to accelerate the fire, the charge could be first degree arson which carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison. The arson could also be considered a federal crime.

Anyone with information about the case should call the Minneapolis Police Arson Hotline at 800-723-2020.

(Source: MSNBC)

Fargo rushes to block Red River flooding

2009-03-27T01:07:00.004-05:00

(LA Times)

Residents and volunteers in the North Dakota city work to reinforce a man-made barrier, bracing themselves for a record-breaking crest.

Reporting from Fargo, N.D., and Chicago -- As snow continued to fall Thursday across North Dakota's frozen plains, weary volunteers and frantic residents in Fargo scrambled to bolster the 12-mile-long man-made barrier that was holding back the Red River.

Officials in the city of 90,000 also were busy preparing a plan to evacuate major sections of Fargo -- which they acknowledged would be difficult given the number of roadways being blocked by the rising water. Mandatory evacuations were ordered as a precaution in one neighborhood Thursday night after cracks were found in an earthen levee, the Associated Press reported.

Click here for the Full Story

Life is the only Choice

2009-03-27T00:43:00.004-05:00

This is a video I thought I'd share with everyone.