Bless me, Father... are you getting this down?

I can't believe a judge has the gall to screw around with the seal of the confessional. Especially since the only thing that's going to happen is a contempt citation. Never give orders that you know won't be obeyed. Ed Peters has the relevant Canon Law information.

In his order, Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Haley Fromholz writes that Monsignor Michael Lenihan cannot assert "clergy privilege" to avoid revealing whether he heard confessions of a deacon accused of sexual abuse.

Fromholz writes that "the penitential privilege protects 'a communication made in confidence"' but "does not prohibit the disclosure of the fact that the communication occurred."

The church argued that all communications between a priest and a bishop are privileged. A church attorney said some priests might continue to refuse to answer questions despite the ruling.

Damn right they will. Yes, I have respect for the law of the land, but we're talking about two conflicting legal systems here, and a priest is still going to answer first to ecclesiastical law, even if the state punishes him for it. Peter and Paul did it, Ignatius did it, More did it. And under a lot stiffer penalties. If Msgr. Lenihan doesn't stand up for his vows (although I think he will), he's not fit to wear the stole.

As the preacher noted below, the Church is older than the State, and it will outlast it, too. The judge is badly outmatched this time.

H/T to Catholic Überblogger Mark Shea.

Maybe a bridge wasn't the smartest place to play this game

It's all fun and games until the bomb squad shows up.

While conducting a routine inspection on September 27, an Idaho Department of Transportation inspector noticed something strange on the Rainbow Bridge, located 13 miles south of Cascade on Highway 55. A green bucket held in place with a system of ropes and wires was suspiciously perched underneath one of the struts of the bridge. To be safe, the Boise bomb squad was called in and the highway was closed, stopping traffic for almost seven hours.

Around 2:15 p.m., 33-year old Scot Tintsman from Meridian showed up at the scene to tell police that the object was a "geocache." The bomb squad was called off, the bucket removed and traffic resumed just before 4 p.m. with travelers wondering, "What the heck is a geocache?"

Geocaching is a popular sport--some call it a hobby--where players use handheld Global Positioning System (GPS) units to locate containers stashed in the wilderness and secret urban locations. With technology prices dropping and companies making smaller hand-held GPS units, more and more people are enjoying this modern technological version of a scavenger hunt. But a sport this young still experiences growing pains and players still struggle to learn the rules of the game.

I can't believe I missed this line

Excellent quote in the WaPo from a Baptist preacher on the Alito hearings:

[Rev. Herbert H.] Lusk warned adversaries: "My friends, don't fool with the church because the church has buried a million critics. And those the church has not buried, the church has made funeral arrangement for."

H/T to (of all people) Mel Gibson. I would have been skeptical, but Mark Shea seems to think it's the real McCoy.


Update: Okay, I'm a gullible dork.

Well, that's a relief!

You scored as Chalcedon compliant. You are Chalcedon compliant. Congratulations, you're not a heretic. You believe that Jesus is truly God and truly man and like us in every respect, apart from sin. Officially approved in 451. Chalcedon compliant 100% Nestorianism 58% Pelagianism 58% Monophysitism 50% Apollanarian 42% Arianism 8% Adoptionist 8% Socinianism 8% Gnosticism 8% Modalism 8% Monarchianism 0% Albigensianism 0% Donatism 0% Docetism 0% Are you a heretic? created with QuizFarm.com

Akubra tip to the also non-monophysite Scott.

No wonder they're attacking so hard!

And here I thought the Kleptocrats were pigpiling on Alito beause he won't promise to protect the abortion industry. Turns out he's got another skeleton in his closet:

And he let that poor slob in Turkey take the rap for it. Expect to see senators leaping on this tomorrow like curs on a femur.

A/T to Lauren at Feministe.

Just a thought

I overheard a snippet of a conversation today and it occurred to me that my children will never understand why it feels ridiculous to call someone on the phone and ask "Where are you?"

What kind of an object lesson is this?

The inventor of LSD will turn into a two-dimensional, scintillating magenta ocelot 100 years old this week. A happy and surreal birthday to him and his seventeen remaining brain cells.

The funniest blonde joke I've ever seen!

I thought I'd heard them all, being from a Norwegian family, but this is a new one on me! Check it out!

Top 11 Reasons To Go To Work Naked

11. No one ever steals your chair.

10. Gives "bad hair day" a whole new meaning.

9. Diverts attention from the fact that you also came to work drunk.

8. People stop stealing your pens after they've seen where you keep them.

7. So that -with a little help from Muzak- you can add "Exotic Dancer" to your exaggerated resume.

6. You want to see if it's like the dream.

5. To stop those creepy guys in Marketing from looking down your blouse.

4. "I'd love to chip in, but I left my wallet in my pants."

3. Inventive way to finally meet that special person in Human Resources.

2. Can take advantage of computer monitor radiation to work on your tan.

1. Your boss is always yelling, "I wanna see your ass in here by 8:00!"

Via (who else?) Miss Cellania.

I'm pretty sure it's satire...

... but it comes so close to some of the real pro-death, anti-male ranters that it's easy to confuse them. Check out I Blame the Patriarchy, and then compare it to this real pro-abort blog.

Bill would make abortion a felony in Indiana!

This may be a glimmer of hope:

Abortion would be illegal for most women in Indiana, including victims of rape and incest, under a bill filed this week in the Indiana House...

The only exception allowed under House Bill 1096 would be for women whose health or life would be permanently impaired if a pregnancy continued. The bill would define life as beginning at conception and make it a felony to perform all other abortions. Anyone convicted would face up to eight years in prison.

[Rep. Troy] Woodruff said he expected the bill to easily pass the House. But Senate President Pro Tempore Robert Garton, R-Columbus, and Gov. Mitch Daniels questioned the prospects of the proposal.

With a Republican majority in both house and senate, and a Republican governor as well, it looks like there may be a chance for this. Woodruff is gambling on Samuel Alito being confirmed this month before the law is passed and challenged, in the hope that the new Supreme Court will look at it differently from the 1973 court.

The text of the bill is here. Pray harder than ever for an unbiased, NARAL-free Supreme Court.

Update: My LaBW points out that although the bill makes it a felony to perform an abortion, it doesn't make it a crime to obtain one. So there is a penalty for the abortionist, but not for the woman. Which is as it should be. Women make the abortion decision under stress; a doctor doesn't. And a doctor who has spent time in prison is unlikely to be practicing when he gets out. Also as it should be.

Praying hard

Confirmation hearings for Samuel Alito begin today. I have a good deal of confidence that he'll be confirmed, although the Kleptocrats have sworn to block him if they can. I don't think the court will be overturning Roe vs. the Human Race any time soon, but one more fetus-friendly justice could prevent a lot of harm anyway.

Bear in mind that most of the people who are pulling for humanity's Alito's defeat don't pray, and think you're an idiot for doing so. That gives us an advantage: the worshippers of Moloch aren't actively beseeching his help.

John Paul the Great, pray for us!

Note to self:

"Newspaperman" is a job. "Daddy" is a vocation. Do not confuse the two.

They got this picture off my driver's license!

Which prehistoric creature are you?


Nggghhaahhh!
Grrr arrr Rum and Monkey.

The usual H/T to Miss Cellania.

Ack! Embarassing!

I believe them when they say it was human error. What business would be stupid enough to deliberately link Planet of the Apes to search results for movies about Martin Luther King? Still, of all the embarrassing website gaffes you could make...

Wal-Mart is apparently suspending the system until they work out the glitch. I don't know; I think we could have some fun with this. How about getting Lolita on a search for Jerry Lee Lewis? Or Revenge of the Nerds for Bill Gates? American Gigolo for Bill Clinton? Encino Man for Charles Darwin? Waterworld for Ted Kennedy?

All right, let's make it a meme. I tag Patrick, Julie, Pilgrim and Scott to come up with at least five as bad or worse than these.

One of my favorite deadly sins!

What Sad Rejected Super Hero Are You?

GLUTTONOUS MAN!

You're GLUTTONOUS MAN! Born with the bizzare power to spread his massive beer gut out over several miles, Gluttonous Man is able to crush any threat that comes near him. Also any homes, schools, businessess, roads, trees, wildlife, small children, basically anything in his way. But his aim is getting better. It's not easy controlling a giant expanding stomach ya know.
Take this quiz!

Ironically, before I married my LaBW, I was six foot three and weighed somewhere around 130. Her cooking has modified the situation a bit, but I'm not going to be tipping any scales anytime soon. So this may be as close to obesity as I ever get!

Smart!

What better way to start off your married life than by deliberately pissing off God?

An audience of One

Christian musician Steve Camp lost his brother Norm this week, and posted this humbling reminder of what it means to serve the Lord with your whole heart:

I wanted you all to meet my brother for he is a rare jewel in the body of Christ. He was a servant, not a star. He was a man of God, not a man of the world. He was not about style, but all about substance. He loved others and thought lowly of himself. He was an athlete in his younger years and really enjoyed life to the fullest—a practical joker at heart. He was patient and longsuffering even in his suffering (he was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease seven years ago). We are all different in the body of Christ with different callings, gifts and talents. I have spent most of my Christian life in the public eye as a Christian singer/speaker/writer before audiences in churches, festivals, colleges and civic auditoriums. He spent most of his life simply for the applause of heaven. In my early years of Christian music while I was busy making a name for myself, he was busy promoting the name of Christ. While I was charging for Christian music ministry (until 1994 when the Lord convicted me and no longer charge), he was freely giving his life and the gospel away. While I was rubbing shoulders with the most famous in evangelical circles, he was marching on his knees in the trenches of some of the hardest ministry found any where in the world today. How I treasure and am thankful for Norm...

Our life is a vapor—come and gone so quickly; and only what is done for Christ will last. May we live each day faithfully to the Lord and unselfishly to others—giving our lives away for the glory of the God and not our own. Norm's life could be summed up by the Apostle Paul when he said, “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the course, I have kept the faith; (2 Timothy 4:7). Faithful to the fight; faithful to the finish; faithful to the faith. And now my brother has heard the sweetest words anyone could ever hear from the Lord, “Well done, Norm, thou good and faithful servant.”

What a profound reminder for each of us to live our lives for an “audience of ONE.”

That last phrase is enough to shake you in your boots. An audience of one. There are those whose calling is high-profile; they're called to proclaim the Gospel in the public eye. That doesn't mean they seeek fame; it just means that God's purpose for them is accomplished through their visibility. Then there are some whose service doesn't require publicity but who gain recognition simply because a lot of people see their love for Christ. Blessed Teresa of Calcutta did her work for decades before a journalist happened to notice her and made her ministry world-famous.

But the Lord's biggest labor pool is comprised of the ordinary Joes, who do what they're told and never call a press conference about it. Steve describes a preacher who worked in the shadows. He preached in poor, ravaged and dangerous places, to people who might otherwise never hear the Gospel. He risked his life, but he got no medals for it. No books were written about Norm. No network will ever base a mini-series on his life. Even if Protestants had such a thing, he wouldn't be well-enough known for anybody to start a cause for his canonization. He simply proclaimed the Gospel until he was physically unable, and then went home. And when he arrived, he was met at the gate by the only Person Whose endorsement meant anything to him.

The famous and the obscure servant are the same, really. Only the circumstances differ. In the end, everybody who serves the Lord is performing for an audience of One. Everything else is irrelevant.

May Norm spend eternity basking in the applause.

So is this average-average, a little more average than not, or what?

"Average" is such a vague term. Unless you're Scott, who measures it for a living.

You Are 60% "Average American"

You are average because you've known your best friend for at least ten years. You are not average since you don't think affirmative action is necessary.

How "Average American" Are You?

A/T to the never-average Miss Cellania.

Here it comes

I can already hear the dirty-eared subliterates crowing about this. The Vatican has opened up the archives of the Index of Forbidden Books, and there are a few surprises. Watch the Fundamentalist end of the blogosphere for triumphant reportage that Uncle Tom's Cabin was almost included (See, Romanists are pro-slavery!) and Mein Kampf wasn't (The pope really was in league with Hitler!).

Merely the existence of the Index is upsetting to American Protestants, who nevertheless maintain their own informal Index. (Raise your hand if you've ever actually read, let alone viewed, The Last Temptation of Christ. How about Brokeback Mountain?). But when the Catholic Church reviews the morality of books or other media on an organized basis, it's censorship. In fact, that's the origin of the word "censor." So how long do you think it'll take before anti-Catholic inbreds (the kind who obsessively replace "Catholic" with "Romanist") start parading Papist perfidy over this? I'm watching the search engines to see who's first.

What those guys almost certainly won't take into account is that the censors were actual people, given the job of determining which books were contrary to Christian faith and morals. They weren't empowered to speak ex cathedra; they were merely asked for an educated opinion, which they gave. If they made some choices that today we think were wrong, so what? They didn't have the benefit of hindsight, and the Church is not so monolithic that even Catholics will all agree with them. And I'm prepared to bet that the vast majority of the books on the Index would be offensive to Protestants today as well, and that 99 percent of Protestants have never read a book on the list. (Unless it was a specifically Protestant theological work, of course. In which case you can hardly expect to find a nihil obstat on it anyway.)

H/T to Fr. Tucker. If there's an Index of Required Blogs, Fr. Tucker belongs on it.