Your Church and the Financial Crisis

An anonymous reader wrote very good comments to my post Credit, Debit, Cash and BARTER. Please read about his/her solutions to the financial crisis that can come through the Catholic Church.

"I've always wondered if Catholic parishioners could do far more for each other than most of them typically do. As the times continue to get worse, I'm willing to bet that the Catholic Church in America will only get stronger.

For example: Pot-luck dinners could become a nightly or perhaps a thrice-weekly affair, which would certainly cut down on most folk's grocery bills. Work on parishioner's homes could be done in return for gas and oil bills; and parishioners could get together to homeschool each other's children.

A rotating staff -- some, perhaps, with CNA or RN backgrounds -- could be put to use to watch over the elderly in the parish, and could also be used to watch each other's kids while the parents are still at work. Also, a parish or a group of parishes could request group rates from the local hospitals for medical care, and group rates from the local pharmacies and medical equipment businesses.

Also, if a family has a particular need for something or some service, they could post a 'ticket' on a bulletin board, and when someone has some thing or some trade they need in return that the first family can provide or perform, their 'tickets' could be exchanged and taken off the bulletin board.

And if all that sounds too good to be true, or if it doesn't sound like that would ever happen in your parish, you might want to take a look at how the Mormons, or the Baptists organize themselves. All of these things are already being done in other faith communities.

Catholics, I believe, need to start acting like family more often. It should be a source of a very strong identification to belong to a certain parish. Once that happens, all of these things are possible.

I have witnessed far too many ugly things happen amongst Catholic parishioners than I care to mention here; and I'm afraid that it is true that most of us have a long way to go before ever realizing such things in most of our parishes. But it can be done; and as the crisis in the economy worsens, our parishioners should really start looking out for one another, to the point that we begin to act like a very strong, united community."

Credit, Debit, Cash and BARTER

I've never taken an economics class, but seventy years on God's good earth gives me a little knowledge of how things work. So let's rank them from worst to best, from apparent moral and economic standpoints:

1. Credit means borrowing, with a promise to pay later. The result is that someone is a debtor and another is the debt holder. This system facilitates greed that motivates consumption. Clearly, most borrowers spend more than they should. The sin of usury may be involved (although reasonable interest is allowed because of money inflation and taxes on savings).
   
2. Debit means paying with a card that automatically subtracts money already deposited to a bank account. A key reason for debit cards appears to be ease of payment and fear of theft of cash. Debit cards involve more risk than credit cards and also mean the buyer pays more for goods and services. Both credit and debit cards can lead to a totalitarian society where the state keeps track of who purchases what.
3. Cash means paying with money/currency. This medium allows the easy and anonymous exchange of many different kinds of goods through an intermediate value established and valued by the government. Virtually every country in the world robs its citizens of their cash by printing more and more money and causing inflation.
4. Barter means directly exchanging/trading goods and services, without the use of credit, debit, or cash. Barter establishes the true value of material, because both sides agree on what and how much to exchange. Barter usually replaces money as the method of exchange in times of monetary crisis.
   

Comparisons can be made with our current economic problems and bad economic situations in the past that were followed by a barter economy. The first barter exchange system was the Swiss WIR Bank. It was founded in 1934 as a result of currency shortages after the stock market crash of 1929.

In the difficult 1990s, Russians reacted by using barter (veksels and zachety were the main money surrogates). As a percentage of industrial sales, bartering steadily increased from 5% in 1992 to nearly 55% in 1998. For more information on the relatively recent Russian barter experience, see here.

I also recommend that the reader examine "Barter" in the Wikipedia Encyclopedia. You'll learn that:

• Organized barter has grown to conduct third party bartering throughout the world to the point now where virtually every country has a formalized barter and trade network of some kind. A barter exchange provides the record-keeping, brokering expertise and monthly statements to each member. "Barter dollars" are the exchange medium.
  
• Complex business models based on the concept of barter are today possible since the advent of Web 2.0 technologies.

Bailing Out of the Stampede

Dear Friends,

Whenever a Great Bipartisan Consensus is announced, and a compliant media assures everyone that the wondrous actions of our wise leaders are being taken for our own good, you can know with absolute certainty that disaster is about to strike.

The bailout package that is about to be rammed down Congress’ throat is not just economically foolish. It is downright sinister. It makes a mockery of our Constitution, which our leaders should never again bother pretending is still in effect.

It promises the American people a never-ending nightmare of ever-greater debt liabilities they will have to shoulder. Two weeks ago, financial analyst Jim Rogers said the bailout of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac made America more communist than China! “This is welfare for the rich,” he said. “This is socialism for the rich. It’s bailing out the financiers, the banks, the Wall Streeters.”

That describes the current bailout package to a T. And we’re being told it’s unavoidable.

The claim that the market caused all this is so staggeringly foolish that only politicians and the media could pretend to believe it. But that has become the conventional wisdom, with the desired result that those responsible for the credit bubble and its predictable consequences - predictable, that is, to those who understand sound, Austrian economics - are being let off the hook. The Federal Reserve System is actually positioning itself as the savior, rather than the culprit, in this mess!

• The Treasury Secretary is authorized to purchase up to $700 billion in mortgage-related assets at any one time. That means $700 billion is only the very beginning of what will hit us.

• Financial institutions are “designated as financial agents of the Government.” This is the New Deal to end all New Deals.

• Then there’s this: “Decisions by the Secretary pursuant to the authority of this Act are non-reviewable and committed to agency discretion, and may not be reviewed by any court of law or any administrative agency.” Translation: the Secretary can buy up whatever junk debt he wants to, burden the American people with it, and be subject to no one in the process.

There goes your country.

Even some so-called free-market economists are calling all this “sadly necessary.” Sad, yes. Necessary? Don’t make me laugh.

Our one-party system is complicit in yet another crime against the American people. The two major party candidates for president themselves initially indicated their strong support for bailouts of this kind - another example of the big choice we’re supposedly presented with this November: yes or yes. Now, with a backlash brewing, they’re not quite sure what their views are. A sad display, really.

Although the present bailout package is almost certainly not the end of the political atrocities we’ll witness in connection with the crisis, time is short. Congress may vote as soon as tomorrow. With a Rasmussen poll finding support for the bailout at an anemic seven percent, some members of Congress are afraid to vote for it. Call them! Let them hear from you! Tell them you will never vote for anyone who supports this atrocity.

The issue boils down to this: do we care about freedom? Do we care about responsibility and accountability? Do we care that our government and media have been bought and paid for? Do we care that average Americans are about to be looted in order to subsidize the fattest of cats on Wall Street and in government? Do we care?

When the chips are down, will we stand up and fight, even if it means standing up against every stripe of fashionable opinion in politics and the media?

Times like these have a way of telling us what kind of a people we are, and what kind of country we shall be.

In liberty, Ron Paul

TARP = TRAP

The economic situation may be akin to a 500-year flood that our country has yet to experience. Frankly, our economic problems could make the Great Depression of the 1930s look like a "summer walk in the park."

Loss of purchasing power can be expected to seriously impact anyone who has savings that can be tapped by the government through inflation. I count $1,086 B total for the following federal stimulus and bail-out programs in 2008:

• Early 2008 economic stimulus program - $160 B
• New economic stimulus program proposed by Democrats who control the Senate and House of Representatives - $56 B
• Bail-out of Bear Stearns in the form of money supply inflation - $30 B
• Bail-out of AIG in the form of money supply inflation - $85 B
• Bail-out of Wall Street - Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP, otherwise known as (T-R-A-P) $700 B
• Emergency funding by the Fed to central banks of Australia, Sweden, Denmark and Norway to lend to their local banks - $30 B added to an existing $247 B lifeline (announced on p 2 of "Financial Times" Sept 25, 2008)
• Package of low-cost loans to US carmakers $25 B (expected within 2 days)

If you read nothing else today, please read the New York Times article on TARP by Andrew Ross Sorkin, "A Bailout Above the Law."

Sarah Palin: Why No Longer Catholic?

I've been intrigued as to the reasons why Sarah Heath Palin's parents left the Catholic faith to join an Assemblies of God church in Wasilla, Alaska in 1976. The Los Angeles Times reports that her new church required baptism by immersion, so at age 12, Palin was "re-baptized" in Little Beaver Lake west of Wasilla (lat 61.5864, lon -149.8628).

The years 1972-1976 were undoubtedly the period of greatest religious turmoil in the Catholic Church in recent history. I can't think of a post-Vatican II time period other than the early- to mid-70's that generated more problems and losses for the Catholic church in the U.S.

In an interview with TIME magazine, Sarah Palin commented on dinner discussions with her parents, Chuck and Sally Heath, who had moved to Skagway Alaska in 1964:

...my dad was an elementary school teacher [science], so often our dinner-table conversations were about current events and about those things that an elementary school teacher teaches students — much about government and much about our nation...

It is almost certain that these dinner-table conversations in the 1970s occasionally would have discussed religion, and likely critiqued the goings-on in the Catholic Church of that time. Sarah's family believes in many traditional Christian beliefs, and Sarah Palin, in many ways, acts and lives as though she were still an active Catholic.

So what was the problem? Why did Chuck and Sally Heath decide to leave the Catholic Church? According to a biography written by Kaylene Johnson, Sarah and her three siblings were each baptized into the Roman Catholic Church as infants. Consequently, during the period when all four children were born (approximately 1962 - 1966), the Heath family remained active Catholics.

What changed between 1966 (when Molly Heath their youngest child was born and baptized in the Catholic Church) and 1976 when Sarah Heath was "re-baptized" in Beaver Lake by the Assemblies of God minister?

According to the Johnson biography, the Heath family moved to Anchorage in 1969 (when Sarah was five years old) and lived for a short time with friends. They then moved to Eagle River (10 mi NE of Anchorage) before finally establishing a home in Wasilla further to the north. The move to Wasilla would have occurred before 1976 when Sarah and her family are known to have become members of the Wasilla Assemblies of God church.

So what was going on in the Catholic churches in Skagway (1964-1969), Anchorage (1969), Eagle River (1969 - ?), and Wasilla (before 1976)--during the period immediately before and during the time when the Heath family fell away from the Catholic church?

SKAGWAY: From 1964 to 1969, the Heath family lived in Skagway, Alaska, where Chuck Heath was a teacher and coach. The Skagway News shares information about Sarah Heath Palin's family while they lived in Skagway. An interesting quote shows that in 1969, when Sarah was 5, she was attending "catechism class," presumably at the very small St. Therese of the Child Jesus parish in Skagway.

“I was the same age when we left here [Skagway] as my daughter Piper is now,” she said. “I enjoyed watching her, seeing how things were through her eyes.” Palin said she used to walk “by myself – I don’t know if parents do that now –around town to the neighbors,” home from catechism [my emphasis], and remembered the wind blowing, drying the clothes in the back yard. Also going to her dad’s basketball games – he coached the [Skagway] high school team.

Sarah Palin would have been a five year old catechism student in 1969. Thus, the Heath family remained practicing Catholics while they lived in Skagway. It is clear that only after the Heath's left Skagway in 1969 did they stop practicing their Catholic faith. Although other things in the Skagway Catholic community may have loosened the Heath's grip on their Catholic faith.

A relatively recent photo from the Skagway News in 2001 identifies Assembly of God Pastor Steve Smith preaching to those assembled for the Easter sunrise service at Pullen Park. The caption notes the Presbyterian Church and St. Terese Catholic Church joined with the Assembly of God to celebrate Easter, 2001. My comment: Perhaps this interdenominational scene may have played out much earlier in Skagway under the observation of the Heath family.

In 2002 the Diocese of Juneau (in which Skagway is located) had only 5,500 Catholics of a total 74,000 population, with 13 priests to serve the people. The first bishop appointed to serve the Juneau diocese, Robert Dermot O'Flanagan, was born in 1901 in Ireland and served as Bishop of Juneau from 1951 until his resignation on June 19, 1968. The history of the Juneau diocese notes that between 1968 and 1971, the Juneau diocese was remotely administered by the new Archbishop of Anchorage, Joseph T. Ryan. [Francis Thomas Hurley was not appointed to head the Juneau diocese until July 1971, two years after the Heath family had left Skagway.]

So would Bishop O'Flanagan have attracted or repelled the Heath family from 1964 to June 1968 when he resigned as Bishop? A historical vignette shows Bishop O'Flanagan as a down-to-earth individual who much resembled the hardworking Heath's:

During his early years he could be seen shoveling snow off the walks in the winter and in the summer cleaning up trash in the yard. He wore a pair of coveralls when he was doing his work stoking a wood burning furnace in the cellar of the church and raking up the yard. The ladies of the parish were worried about him not getting enough to eat or eating the right food.

The Heath family stayed in Skagway for approximately a year after Bishop O'Flanagan's retirement in June 1968. No scandals are documented as happening in the Catholic church of Skagway while the Heath family resided there, but 1967-1969 was the time when massive changes began to be instituted in virtually all the Catholic churches in the world. The only other observation is that the small Skagway church may have had no resident pastor during this time, because in 1991 the parish was said to be served by visiting priests.

ANCHORAGE/EAGLE RIVER/WASILLA: The Heath family lived in Anchorage for only a short time at their friend's house, so it appears likely they left the Catholic Church while living in Eagle River and Wasilla (although earlier damage to their faith may have occurred while they lived in Skagway). Did the Heath family encounter something scandalous or destructive of faith in the Anchorage diocese when they moved there in 1969, especially after they moved to Eagle River and then to the Wasilla?

I wonder if part of the answer might be Fr. (Msgr) Frank Murphy who worked in parishes around Anchorage from 1960 to 1985. In 2004 a high school principal in Eagle River publicly accused the priest of a sexually abusive incident committed in 1982. Pat Podvin had exposed the priest in a dramatic television interview, and then committed suicide in 2005. Four other men also have said Murphy abused them as youngsters, including Podvin's older brother Kent. Here is an excerpt of the sad article from the Anchorage Daily News :

On Feb. 6, 2003, Podvin appeared in a televised interview with Channel 2's Maria Downey and declared he had been sexually abused as an 18-year-old by Monsignor Frank Murphy, a priest who worked in parishes around Anchorage from 1960 to 1985. Podvin said he was going public because the Anchorage Archdiocese had failed to acknowledge that any local priest had sexually abused youngsters here, and he was also critical of retired Archbishop Francis Hurley, to whom he complained about Murphy in 1982 but who never personally responded afterward until after he went public.

The appalling story of Fr. Murphy's sexual assaults of young boys in the Anchorage Archdiocese over many years is told in gross detail in another article from the Anchorage Daily News. One wonders if Sarah Heath's older brother, who would have been ten years old in 1972, encountered this abusive priest.

For myself, I likely would not have stayed active in any Anchorage Catholic church if I had had to live under Archbishop Francis T. Hurley who began his rule in Juneau in 1971 and then was appointed to Anchorage in 1976. The Woodstock Theological Center identifies Francis T. Hurley of the Anchorage Archdiocese as one of the 15 Archbishops recommended to the Pope for appointment by the infamous Jean Jadot, the Vatican's apostolic delegate to the U.S in the 1970s:

Under Jadot, 15 archbishops were appointed: William D. Borders to Baltimore, Patrick F. Flores to San Antonio, Peter L. Gerety to Newark, James A. Hickey to Washington, Raymond G. Hunthausen to Seattle, Francis T. Hurley to Anchorage, Oscar H. Lipscomb to Mobile, Edward A. McCarthy to Miami, John L. May to St. Louis, Edward T. O'Meara to Indianapolis, John R. Quinn to San Francisco, John R. Roach to St. Paul, Charles A. Salatka to Oklahoma City, Robert Sanchez to Santa Fe, and Rembert G. Weakland to Milwaukee.

Traditional Catholics recognize many of the above archbishops as clear enemies of the Catholic Church. The actions of these archbishops resulted in massive defections from the Catholic church in the 1970s and 1980s--both of priests and people. Fortunately, these archbishops have been replaced and the Catholic church is beginning to grow again in spirituality and numbers.

So what did the Heath's do with regard to their religious practices in the mid to late 1970's? The Johnson biography states: "With or without her husband, Sally bundled up the kids and took them to church every Sunday for morning and evening services and most Wednesdays too." Of course, that reference was to the Assemblies of God church--not a Catholic church.

Obviously, only the Heath family can answer the question of why they abandoned the Catholic church in the 1970s. I hope they identify their reasons as they understood them at the time they joined the Assemblies of God church in Wasilla.

**Photograph of little Sarah Heath is reprinted with express permission from the biography by Kaylene Johnson published by Epicenter Press of Alaska-- SARAH: How a Hockey Mom Turned Alaska's Political Establishment Upside Down. This photograph is copyright 2008 by Chris and Sally Heath who reserve all rights; please don't republish photograph elsewhere on the internet without obtaining their express permission in advance.

Gardening for Deer

This year, the garden has a bumper crop -- of DEER! I don't see them in the day, but they turn on the backyard light at night. The deer I saw at 3:15 am was ambling along the fence where I planted new thornless blackberries this spring.

The evidence of deer is reflected in these photos of destruction in my garden, vineyard, and orchard.

1. Thornless blackberry plants which have had to regrow their leaves several times this summer after being eaten by deer.


2. Concord grape vines with many missing leaves that were munched by deer during the past three weeks.














3. Apple tree with bottom apples and leaves that are gone. Yes, some of those lower-hanging apples were eaten by grandchildren, but not all. Even the antleered one [NOT a grandchild!] is willing to come out from hiding to eat the apples!

Proposed Revisions to the Novus Ordo Mass

The Ordo Missae White Book (OMWB) published by ICEL (marked "Study Text Only") was posted on the American Catholic Bishops website over a month ago. I've briefly looked at these proposed modifications to the English translation of the Sacred Liturgy of the Mass.

Here's an abbreviated list of my complaints about the Novus Ordo Mass (NOM) and how/if the OMWB proposes to fix the problems. [A prior post discussed the serious deficiencies of the NOM and gives a key reference.]

1. The NOM English"formula of general confession" is a very poor and virtually unrecognizable translation of the Latin original which it was supposed to follow. OMWB proposes a somewhat better wording, including correctly adding "through my fault, through my fault, through my most grievous fault..."
2. The NOM Consecration of Jesus' blood uses the words "for all" while all extant versions of the New Testament (over 20) translate Christ's words as "for many." OMWB corrects this extremely serious problem by replacing "for all" with "for many."
3. The NOM-introduced "Mystery of Faith" proclaimed by the priest immediately after the Consecration distracts focus from the True Presence of Jesus on the altar. OMWB proposes no change and leaves the people's acclamations to refer to Jesus' future coming at the end of the world and ignoring the fact that He is now present.
   
4. The NOM-introduced "Sign of Peace" distracts from the True Presence of Jesus on the altar, especially because it is placed between the Consecration and Communion. OMWB makes the "Sign of Peace" optional, but does not propose moving it to the beginning of Mass.
5. The NOM-eliminated Last Gospel (John 1:1 thru 1:14) no longer instructs Catholics with key truths about Jesus' Divinity. OMWB does not propose restoring the Last Gospel to the Mass.
   

The ICEL-recommended changes approved by Rome ,and now being considered by the American bishops, are first attempts to rectify the disastrous changes to the Mass that occurred after Vatican II, and I applaud this start. But because other serious issues remain in the Novus Ordo Mass, I will continue to attend the old Latin Mass.

How do You Return to the Church?

Many Catholics have fallen away from believing in and practicing their faith during the past 40 years. More and more are finding their way back home, but some wonder how difficult it is to return and what procedures must be followed.

Several years ago I listened to Jack Cashill give a public speech in which he talked about returning to the Catholic Church after an absence of many years. He described meeting a good priest at a reception and learning what it would take to return to the faith of his fathers.

Does anyone know the simple answer the priest gave him? Hint: it takes only about fifteen minutes, and afterwards, the reinstated Catholic knows he is far more favored and blessed by God than the long-time faithful Catholic in the next pew.

Answer: The only thing that is necessary to return to grace and truth in the Catholic faith is to go to confession, which means to be sorrowful for your sins, admit your sins to a priest, and do the penance that the priest gives you. Is it difficult to remember sins committed over 10, 30, and even 50 years ago? Not too bad if all you have to do is answer the priest's questions. Jack said the priest who admitted him back in the Church and heard his confession simply asked him how many times he had committed particular sins.

Priests know how difficult it is for a person to confess their sins after an extended time because memory fails and there may be embarrassment. That is why the priest asked Jack Cashill how many times he had committed a particular sin. The audience laughed with humble self-awareness when he admitted "about 1,300 times, Father!"

I'd like to personally welcome home all our lost brothers and sisters. I know you've been through hell during your time away from the City of God [St. Augustine].

Do You See the Difference?

Thanks to Michelle Malkin for this observation.

Learning the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite Mass

The Fraternity of St. Peter (FSSP) has been training many priests during the past year to offer the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite Mass. I've been wondering about the results, and found a good example. A favorite blogger and science-fiction author and new Catholic (Easter 2008), John C. Wright, identified a particularly good sermon and I was curious about the homilist:

One Fr. John De Celles [STL], speaking in Old St. Mary's Church this weekend, delivered a homily to rebuke Nancy Pelosi, who publically offered a gross distortion of the Catholic teaching on aborticide. It is, if you will, the modern version of St. John the Baptist rebuking Herod, another figure who saw nothing wrong in slaying innocent children.

Wright noted that the entire sermon given on Labor Day weekend has been posted on the web. I read it and am very impressed. So who is Fr. John De Celles whose sermons are so good that one will be picked up and reprinted by the well-respected National Review magazine?

The current Bulletin of St. Mary's Church reports that Fr. De Celles now offers the old Latin Mass in Alexandria, VA:

You may recall that last summer Father attended a week-long seminar to learn how to say this Mass. He attended another seminar this summer to both review the rubrics of the Traditional Mass and to focus on the High Mass. In addition he put a lot of time and energy into preparing for [offering the Extraordinary Form on] August 15th.

Those efforts paid off in many ways. We expected some people would attend the evening Mass on the 15th simply because it fit their schedule. We did realize a few might have had no idea this would be the Traditional Mass despite weeks of announcing that it would be. And we thought a number would attend because it was a sung High Mass.

We estimate that there were 600 people here that night. The overwhelming response was a positive one, actually an extremely positive one, which was wonderful to hear. It provided, as we hoped, an opportunity for parishioners to experience the beauty of the “Old Mass.”

The FSSP priests are seeing a lot of good results from their training other priests to offer the old Latin Mass. In addition, I've noted over the years that the best prepared homilies seem to come from priests who are favorable to the old Mass.

Todd Palin--American Manhood at its Best

What's the story behind the Alaska governor with an approval rating of 89 to 93 percent? A good part of it has to be her husband, Todd Palin, who is discussed in ALASKA magazine of February 2008. Here are a few quotes from the cover story, "Palin's Way," by Melissa DeVaughn on "America's Hottest Governor."

It's her favorite room [kitchen] in the large but unpretentious home her husband, Todd, designed and built five years ago.... Todd's floatplane is docked just a hundred yards away [on Lake Lucille] at the edge of the neatly mown lawn....Having such a high-powered wife does not faze Todd, who refers to himself jokingly as the "First Dude."

While Sarah does the work of governor, Todd remains the quintessential Alaska man. He stays busy with his week-on, week-off job with British Petroleum on the North Slope. He's also one of the state's best snowmachiners, and has won the grueling 2,000-mile Tesoro Iron Dog race four times. In the summer, Todd fishes a commercial site in Bristol Bay and spends time flying his airplane, a hobby he has enjoyed for 20 years.

Having his wife become governor changed the Palin household, he said, but not in a monumental way. "Her schedule dictates my schedule, but with her being mayor for so many years, we were already used to it," he said. "The kids are very adaptable. There are thousands of Alaska families that adapt, whether you're a contract guy who's gone for the summer season, a sloper or in the military, we have a lot of families who don't have the 9-to-5 schedule."

On this day, Todd Palin is preparing to change into work clothes and help oversee construction of a community playground in Juneau. As First Dude, he is a champion of vocational education for Alaska students. "I'm a product of on-the-job training that was offered to me in 1989. And growing up in the high schools that I attended, we had great shops, mechanic shops and carpenter shops. In recent years, that has not been a high priority, but that is coming back. So I've told the commissioner of labor, 'Wherever you can use me in that role, I am there for you'."

"My slope job has provided for my family," he said. "when an opportunity is given to an individual, it is what that person does with it that matters. As I travel the state, that's a big concern, getting kids motivated. I am meeting kids that can't read a tape measure or just don't want to work, so it's the same message wherever we go. Step out. Once you step out and are given an opportunity, you can change a life"

Todd's family is spread from Bristol Bay to Homer.... when [daughter] Bristol revealed she spent $20 on leg waxing--'That was supposed to be gas money,' Todd Palin said disapprovingly [and Sarah Palin concurred!]

So what I learned about Todd Palin is that he is at least as good an individual as Sarah Palin--likely even better as he is a very strong and loving husband and father! The governor of Alaska seems to know that too, as she introduced Todd to the country as "the man she admires the most in this world."

Here are some other things I've found out about Todd Mitchell Palin in searching the web:

• One-eighth Native Alaskan (born 1965 in Dillingham, Alaska)
• Grandmother grew up in a traditional Yup'ik Eskimo house in Bristol Bay
• Graduated Wasilla High School, followed by college work
  
• Commercial salmon fisherman on the Nushagak River in Bristol Bay
• Coach of kids' hockey and basketball teams
  
• Member of the United Steelworkers Union
• Rugged individual who works at blue-collar job on the North Slope
• Avoids conflict of interest, including resigning as oil production supervisor when his wife was elected governor [later resumed non-conflicting labor in oil field)
  
• Four-time winner of the Iron Dog, the 2,000-mile snowmachine race (longest in the world) from Big Lake to Nome along the Iditarod Trail and then on to Fairbanks
• Prefers to vote as an independent
• Is reliable and trusted ["I have to trust my life in his hands, and I do, because he can still think when he's dehydrated and tired," says his partner in the Iron Dog]
  
• Has a lot of willpower and doesn't quit [During 2008 Iron Dog snowmachine race, was thrown 70 feet and broke his arm, yet finished to end up in fourth place]
• Committed to loving new life [When he found wife's recent pregnancy would result in a baby with Down Syndrome, commented “We shouldn’t be asking, ‘Why us?’ We should be saying, ‘Well, why not us?’”]
• Helps others even when seriously inconvenienced [In last year's Iron Dog, Palin and his teammate helped a racer with broken ribs reach the next checkpoint before heading on to victory]
• Won't spend money he doesn't have [Eloped with Sarah because her family had a bad fishing year and a $35 marriage was all that could be afforded]
• Rock and pillar of his family ["He can go on just an hour or two of sleep a night. He says, 'I can sleep when I die,' " said Sarah Palin. "There is no way I could have done this job [as governor] without his tremendous contributions to the home life. He's able to keep it organized, like a well-oiled machine."]
• Takes his family's safety and welfare seriously: "In 2005, before Palin ran for office, the Palin family accused Wooten [Sarah Palin's brother-in-law] of drinking a beer while in his patrol car, illegal hunting and firing a Taser at his 11-year-old stepson. The Palins also claimed Wooten threatened to kill Sarah Palin's father.... More recently, Todd Palin said, he took his concerns over the governor's safety directly to Monegan. But he said he never told anyone to fire Wooten." Another site adds, "At one point, Todd Palin brought information prepared by himself and a private investigator to Monegan." To see why Todd was alarmed, see the background information supplied in the Ethics Disclosure Form filed in this 'Troopergate' case.
  

Personally I applaud Todd Palin for being the best example of American manhood that I can imagine.

Gov. Sarah Palin - Experience Needed?

Gov. Sarah Palin is clearly well-liked by the people of Alaska because she has an 80+ percent favorable rating. But does she have adminstrative and foreign policy experience? Clearly, Gov. Palin is a very competent administrator, with more leadership experience than Barack Obama and Joe Biden put together. Here's an abbreviated list of past and current leadership duties of Gov. Sarah Palin:

• Managing the extensive resources of State and City personnel and offices
  
• Appointing qualified people to carry out the laws and direct the policies of Alaskan city and state government
• Conducting public relations campaigns to manage and market Alaskan resources
  
• Evaluating and signing (or vetoing) bills passed by Alaska legislators
  
• Serving as the commander-in-chief of the Alaska National Guard
• Preparing and delivering reports on Alaska to the Legislature and to other interested parties
  
• Estimating the amounts of money required to be raised by taxation, preparing and recommending City and State budgets, and holding firm to her goal of financial balancing of income and expenses
• Assuring the Alaskan people of honesty and ethics in State government
  

A comparative list of experience and achievements between Palin and Obama is given here. Moreover, I don't worry about whether Vice-president Sarah Palin has a lot of experience in foreign policy, because all administrators of complex institutions rely on knowledgeable advisors and consultants. U.S. foreign policy decisions always are preceeded by well-studied proposed policy documents, followed by meetings with key advisors whose differing perspectives create the necessary background for a final decision by the President. [One of my distant cousins is one of those policy advisors, in that some of his documents dealing with the Middle East have made it to the desk of the President.]

Gov. Sarah Palin already is quite knowledgeable about China and other PAC-RIM countries that buy the majority of Alaskan products. She also is highly concerned about new Russian interests and impacts, including near the North Pole. Alaska has recently been impacted by unauthorized Russian flights that intrude into U.S. airspace.

My personal belief is that McCain's four-time bout with melanoma eventually will become a five-time bout and he will not survive his complete term. That would put Gov. Sarah Palin into the White House. Here's what our oldest son wrote about Gov. Sarah Palin:

"She appears to be the most 'likable' of the four major Pres/Vice Pres candidates. This may have been a stroke of genius on the part of McCain, time will tell. The democrats' reaction strikes me as confused and ridiculous so far. I don't think they were ready. She is not the type of person you can attack head-on and walk away looking very good. I'm feeling better about the Republican ticket's chances in November already. Looking toward the future, I'd give her a greater possiblity of being President of the United States someday than Hillary."

Vice-president Sarah Palin will need to select good advisors, just as President Reagan did in the 1980's. For starters, I'd recommend Pat Buchanan who seems to have some of the best insights on foreign policy, including Russian, Chinese, and Middle East problems.

Demagogy, Change, and Utopian Promises

H.L. Mencken was right when he defined a demagogue as "one who will preach doctrines he knows to be untrue to men he knows to be idiots." I might change that definition a little: "one who makes promises he knows can't be fulfilled to TV viewers he knows to be forgetful idiots."

I listened to part of Barack Obama's acceptance speech at the Democratic National Convention and suggest people should read his speech, rather than just listen to it. Obama promised everything but the moon to the American people, and I was reminded of Fidel Castro as he came to power many years ago.

Obama is a fantastically good speaker whose impassioned public speeches appeal to the emotions, fears, and expectations of many people. Here are a few excerpts of promises made tonight by Obama--unrealistic Utopian promises. Notice that Obama mostly uses the personal pronoun "I" in his promises for change. [Do people no longer remember the old saying, "Out of the frying pan into the fire!" meaning to go from a bad situation to one that's even worse?]

So let me spell out exactly what that change would mean if I am president...

I will cut taxes -- cut taxes -- for 95 percent of all working families. Because in an economy like this, the last thing we should do is raise taxes on the middle-class. [How does Obama define "working families" and "middle-class." "Economy like this" also gives him an 'out'. ]

And for the sake of our economy, our security, and the future of our planet, I will set a clear goal as president: in 10 years, we will finally end our dependence on oil from the Middle East. [Yes, but please tell us how much less energy our country will be using at the end of ten years?]

I'll help our auto companies re-tool, so that the fuel-efficient cars of the future are built right here in America. I'll make it easier for the American people to afford these new cars. And I'll invest $150 billion over the next decade in affordable, renewable sources of energy -- wind power and solar power and the next generation of biofuels; an investment that will lead to new industries and 5 million new jobs that pay well and can't ever be outsourced. [This paragraph should be re-read a third time! Does Obama have plans to unseat Congress, control wages, run businesses, and add 5 million new jobs to the federal payroll?]

Now is the time to finally meet our moral obligation to provide every child a world-class education... [If w-c implies the best education that money can buy, not every student can or will absorb a w-c education.]

I'll invest in early childhood education. I'll recruit an army of new teachers, and pay them higher salaries and give them more support.... [What's wrong with current teachers? Does Obama really mean an ARMY of new teachers drafted into federal government service?]

Now is the time to finally keep the promise of affordable, accessible health care for every single American. If you have health care, my plan will lower your premiums. [Just like in Canada, where my friend's father would have died because it takes months to get Canadian permission for open-heart surgery. Instead, he came to San Antonio for the surgery.] If you don't, you'll be able to get the same kind of coverage that members of Congress give themselves. [Get ready for more medical tourism.] And as someone who watched my mother argue with insurance companies while she lay in bed dying of cancer, I will make certain those companies stop discriminating against those who are sick and need care the most.

Now is the time to help families with paid sick days and better family leave, because nobody in America should have to choose between keeping their jobs and caring for a sick child or ailing parent. [Who's going to pay? Private companies already are struggling to stay alive while competing with India, China, and other developing countries.]

Now is the time to change our bankruptcy laws, so that your pensions are protected ahead of CEO bonuses.... [Translated: Bankruptcy laws need to be more lenient so that people who have spent themselves into deep debt can be relieved of their promises to pay what they borrowed. Uninsured medical expenses will be used to justify the easing of bankruptcy laws, although the changes will apply to every debtor who simply bought too much using their credit card.]

Kansas City Air Show

It's been many, many years since I attended an air show, and I was certainly impressed with this 2008 display of planes and aerial acrobatics at the Downtown Airport. The show started at 10:00 am and we didn't leave until after 4 pm.

I told one of our sons that the plane I was most impressed with was the jet-powered sailplane owned by Bob Carlton, a rocket scientist in Albuquerque, NM. The sailplane's two small jet engines were designed for smaller radio-controlled airplanes, but Bob mounted the engines in a retractable pod on top an Italian Alisport glider. The engines are powered up whenever the plane takes off or performs aerobatics near the ground.

The grandkids were most impressed by the NOISE of the military jets, including a U.S. Navy F-18 that dived and soared with thunderous blasts to bend, if not break, your eardrums. Yes, we used earplugs, but it's hard keeping them in young grandkids.

The best aerobatics had to be Sean Tucker in his Oracle Challenger II. I've never seen anything like the movements his plane performs in the sky. The bright red plane was doing stunts that are very difficult to do because the plane is designed to be quite stable and it resists being put into certain flight configurations, such as tail-down falls or slow forward movements with the nose up (continuous stall?) to make the plane appear to act much like a helicopter.

Corruptio Optima Pessima (of an Ex-Nun)

Stories that teach well can be either positive or negative. A negative learning story is embedded in the recent obituary of an ex-Catholic nun who appears to illustrate the Latin phrase--Corruptio Optima Pessima ("corruption of the best is the worst"). [I've heard this phrase used to indicate the primacy of the Catholic Church because when you see members of the Church fall--they fall much further downward into a pit of errors.]

The obituary states that the woman was a nun for 25 years before marrying and joining a Unitarian Universalist "church". I've checked the blog of the "pastor" to see a blasphemous post on "God of Queer, Transgressive Spaces." Not surprisingly, "Pastor Sean" has a "partner" and a substance-abusing son.

Why do I focus on the ugly, the blasphemous, and the loss of faith of a particular ex-nun? Because this falling away is only one example of so many other losses of Catholic religious and laity that occurred within twenty years of the significant destruction of Catholic liturgy and practice following Vatican II.

We often talk about "loss statistics" in the Church, but we can't forget each one of these losses is the sad story of an individual person who lost their way. Back in the 1970's, losses became so common that people just accepted it. The local parish lost at least three assistant priests who abandoned their vocations over a less than five year period. It became a joke.

I remember making Legion of Mary visits to fallen-away Catholics in the 1970s when it was common to hear "The Catholic Church has changed and I don't recognize or believe in it anymore." Then the person would say they weren't attending Church. It didn't seem to matter to them what they believed, which church they attended, or if they attended at all.

This particularly affected children who grew up in the 1970's and 1980's, and the result is that the Catholic Church is now trying to convert (not re-convert) an entire lost generation. The beliefs of older Catholics were also thrown into doubt. One example was a practicing Catholic who accompanied me and another fellow to a Catholic chapel where the Indian god of destruction, Shiva, was being honored. When the priest said his ecumenical gesture was not a problem, my friend abandoned the Catholic Church to join Full Faith Church of Love, a fast-growing evangelical church in Kansas City that became approximately half full of ex-Catholics who rejected the "new catholic church." Terrible, terrible times!

One lady approaching death during the 1970's told me that nothing mattered anymore. Because the Church had changed everything, she no longer believed in the Catholic Church or God's laws or Jesus' resurrection. I talked animatedly with her in her hospital room and insisted that enemies inside the Church were trying to obscure the Church's teachings and destroy Her, and that she should remain constant with what her parents had taught her and what she had learned as a child in Catholic school. I read her obituary about a month later and noted she had been buried at a Catholic Mass, but I never really knew whether she had resumed her beliefs in the Catholic faith.

What should be done about the ex-nun described in this post? I will ask Mary to intercede with Jesus for His mercy on this poor soul who descended into such grave errors. Her life is a chilling example of the many great falls that occurred in the unfortunate years following Vatican II.

China's Image

Bernardo Cervellera of Asia News writes of Chinese hoaxes at the Olympics to preserve the Chinese image, including:

...the fireworks displays seen on television all over the city were not real, but were generated by computers. The illusion was necessary because on the evening of August 8, the Beijing sky was cloudy and hazy - because of the pollution and heat - and visibility was poor.

The Washington Post also reports that ethnic children were not really members of Chinese ethnic groups, but were actors. [Well, if your historical practice is to deceive, it takes a while to learn to stop the deceptions.]

I often turn into China English TV to see what is going on and if China may be changing for the better (it is, but it takes someone smarter than I am to see how much of the change is both real and good). Invariably their TV ads are directed to showing China as a tourist's paradise with peaceful blue lakes, green forests, scenic mountains, and clean air. Obviously, these are very selective pictures--as is the news that is reported.

A couple of days ago I was surprised that CCTV.COM presented a TV feature on the Catholic Church in Beijing that showed the South Cathedral, including Mass offered by a "patriotic priest." The program was unusual in that it displayed the addresses and telephone numbers of at least five Christian churches in the capitol city.

Retreating to Youth

This afternoon I pretended to be much younger than I really am (very dangerous!). Two ear buds were inserted and tuned to a local Kansas City country music station while I cleaned the car from top to bottom, just like I might have done 50 years ago (substituting a Sansa mp3 player for the car radio).

So what did I learn? First, I learned my arthritis and other problems don't bother me with lively country music sounding in my head. Second, my car really needs to be cleaned more than once every three years! Third, hazards are associated with ignoring REALITY, as taught by some country songs that I heard.

Country music is usually a good bellwether of civilization (or the lack thereof). One song by Brad Paisley struck me as a sorrowful window into the souls of many young people who (1) are lonely, (2) are unsure of their own worth, (3) want to be more than they are, and (4) are driven to exchange acting for reality.

The lyrics to Paisley's "Online" are sung by an overweight, five-foot-three, asthmatic youth who works at the local pizza place. On MySpace, he pretends to be six-foot-five, lives in Malibu, and drives a Maserati. Obviously, he gets the girls' attention with his lies and exaggerations. When he logs in every night, "I grow another foot and lose a bunch of weight."

Unfortunately, this sung fictional autobiography is typical of many young people today who waste their free time by sitting in front of computers, eating snacks, and making up stories about being someone they are not. I wonder if they can ever stop telling stories when they eventually get a girlfriend and wife. Doesn't anyone ever talk about "bad habits" anymore?

A second song may illustrate the unwillingness of modern souls to accept growing old and the reality of dying. "Everybody Wants to Go to Heaven" by Kenny Chesney ends with:

Everybody wanna go to heaven
Hallelujah, let me hear you shout
Everybody wanna go to heaven
But nobody wanna go now
I think I speak for the crowd.

A third song by Rodney Atkins, "Cleaning this Gun (Come on in Boy)", is more my type. A daughter is now old enough for dating and the father recognizes the young man needs a reminder, "she deserves respect, that's what she'll get!" Of course, the father is cleaning his gun as he talks to the boy! There will be REAL consequences if the boy does the wrong thing!

Lastly (if you've gotten this far), P_L_EE_AA_SS_EE listen to the www.GodTube.com music about two roosters walking arm in arm by Lewis and Lewis, two Christian country singers. My husband laughed and laughed--even though this is a very serious song.

Summer Vacation

My husband really enjoys vacationing in the mountains, his favorite cool place in the hot summertime. This year, the temperature in Kansas City was almost as good as Colorado, so we really didn't need to travel to avoid the heat.

We camped with two of our children and their families which turned out to be a great trip. The kids didn't want to come home!

The most beautiful scenery was on the the gravel road from Paonia Reservoir east to the town of Crested Butte. We saw aspen groves like I've never seen before. See the photo which is meant as a belated "Happy Birthday" card for one of our daughters-in-law!

For me, the best parts of our vacation were climbing to the top of the sand dune, hiking up the side of a steep mountain canyon to reach the top and further to a shaded, woody glen, and finally returning home quickly on a private plane.

Splinters from the True Cross

When saying the rosary of Our Lady, it is best to meditate on each of the mysteries-- mostly incidents in the life of Jesus. This evening I thought about the fourth sorrowful mystery, "Jesus carries His cross up Calvary." During this painful and difficult journey, Jesus would likely have gotten splinters in his hands from the roughly hewn wood. A good meditation is to compare Jesus' splinters with the splinters we get in our own lives. The lesson is to bear small wounds willingly and silently.

I searched for the type of wood of the cross and found lots of guesses, including olive wood, cedar of Lebanon, cypress, planetree, and dogwood. Yet no ancient resource exists that tells us which kind of wood was used to construct the cross of Jesus Christ.

The old Catholic Encyclopedia identifies the wood as pine, which would have many splinters.

A microscopic examination of the fragments of the Cross scattered through the world in the form of relics reveals the fact that it was made from a pine-tree (Rohault de Fleury, "Mémoire sur les instruments de la Passion", Paris, 1870, 63).

Everything has some very interesting comments about the Aleppo Pine that grows in dry climates in the Mediterranean region.

The Aleppo pine, also known as Jerusalem pine, and its close relative, the Brutian pine, are a fixture in the Mediterranean....

This pine grows rather quickly, reaching a respectable height within five years and eventually growing to a height of about 20m (60'), especially if spaced in parks or reforestation projects. It will live to be about 150 years old. In the wild it's often shorter and stunted specimens can be seen living a precarious existence on steep, rocky inclines. Its timber has been used in construction and shipbuilding since ancient times.

There is one theory that says that the Aleppo pine is the original Christmas tree. That actually makes sense. Although we associate the Christmas tree with the spruce or larch of northern climates and surround it with very un-Mediterranean quantities of snow, the pine was the sacred tree of Attis. Now Attis was a thoroughly solar god, and this widespread evergreen figures prominently in his myth and rites, one of which is the winter solstice feast which Christians adopted early on in their history and long before Christianity spread to northern Europe. In the spring equinox rite a pine was cut down and on it was placed an effigy of the god that was then taken to his mother Cybele. Attis would rise on the third day.

So there you have it. Next time you see a Christmas tree, think of easter bunnies. The pine, either Aleppo or Brutian since the ancients didn't really make the distinction between different conifers, is generally thought to be the "fir" of the Hebrew scriptures and, according to one myth, it was blessed by the infant Jesus when it hid the Holy Family during their flight from Herod. The tree also figured in the rites of Bacchus....

The Aleppo pine is a tree used in the service of false gods that may have been used to crucify the real God-man, Jesus Christ. Don't forget that "groves" is used 24 times in the Old Testament to describe the the outdoor places located in or near trees where pagan altars and images were displayed and worshipped. The wooden cross of Jesus is a great sign of contradiction, even more so when we consider the history of the Aleppo pine and Jesus' sacrificial death on the cross.

Kansas City Catholic Conversion!

Kansas City Catholic has converted to Kansas Catholic! Just to let you know my favorite blogger, WOLFTRACKER, is actively blogging at his new location.