Blessed Be The Name of the Lord

Who Made HEAVEN and EARTH.

So What is his Name-
Blessed Be the Name of The Lord
Now and Forever

So What's His Name?:

Advocate (1 John 2:1)Almighty (Rev. 1:8; Mt. 28:18)Alpha and Omega (Rev. 1:8; 22:13)Amen (Rev. 3:14)Apostle of our Profession (Heb. 3:1)Atoning Sacrifice for our Sins (1 John 2:2)Author of Life (Acts 3:15)Author and Perfecter of our Faith (Heb. 12:2)Author of Salvation (Heb. 2:10)Beginning and End (Rev. 22:13)Blessed and only Ruler (1 Tim. 6:15)Bread of God (John 6:33)Bread of Life (John 6:35; 6:48)Bridegroom (Mt. 9:15) Capstone (Acts 4:11; 1 Pet. 2:7)Chief Cornerstone (Eph. 2:20)Chief Shepherd (1 Pet. 5:4)Christ (1 John 2:22)Creator (John 1:3)Deliverer (Rom. 11:26)Eternal Life (1 John 1:2; 5:20)Gate (John 10:9)Faithful and True (Rev. 19:11)Faithful Witness (Rev. 1:5)Faithful and True Witness (Rev. 3:14)First and Last (Rev. 1:17; 2:8; 22:13)Firstborn From the Dead (Rev. 1:5)Firstborn over all creation (Col. 1:15)Gate (John 10:9)God (John 1:1; 20:28; Heb. 1:8; Rom. 9:5; 2 Pet. 1:1;1 John 5:20; etc.)Good Shepherd (John 10:11,14)Great Shepherd (Heb. 13:20)Great High Priest (Heb. 4:14)Head of the Church (Eph. 1:22; 4:15; 5:23)Heir of all things (Heb. 1:2)High Priest (Heb. 2:17)Holy and True (Rev. 3:7)Holy One (Acts 3:14)Hope (1 Tim. 1:1)Hope of Glory (Col. 1:27)Horn of Salvation (Luke 1:69)I Am (John 8:58)Image of God (2 Cor. 4:4)Immanuel (Mt. 1:23)Judge of the living and the dead (Acts 10:42)King Eternal (1 Tim. 1:17)King of Israel (John 1:49)King of the Jews (Mt. 27:11)King of kings (1 Tim 6:15; Rev. 19:16)King of the Ages (Rev. 15:3)Lamb (Rev. 13:8)Lamb of God (John 1:29)Lamb Without Blemish (1 Pet. 1:19)Last Adam (1 Cor. 15:45)Life (John 14:6; Col. 3:4)Light of the World (John 8:12)Lion of the Tribe of Judah (Rev. 5:5)Living One (Rev. 1:18)Living Stone (1 Pet. 2:4)Lord (2 Pet. 2:20)Lord of All (Acts 10:36)Lord of Glory (1 Cor. 2:8)Lord of lords (Rev. 19:16)Man from Heaven (1 Cor. 15:48)Mediator of the New Covenant (Heb. 9:15)Mighty God (Isa. 9:6)Morning Star (Rev. 22:16)Offspring of David (Rev. 22:16)Only Begotten Son of God (John 1:18; 1 John 4:9)Our Great God and Savior (Titus 2:13)Our Holiness (1 Cor. 1:30)Our Husband (2 Cor. 11:2)Our Protection (2 Thess. 3:3)Our Redemption (1 Cor. 1:30)Our Righteousness (1 Cor. 1:30)Our Sacrificed Passover Lamb (1 Cor. 5:7)Power of God (1 Cor. 1:24)Precious Cornerstone (1 Pet. 2:6)Prophet (Acts 3:22)Rabbi (Mt. 26:25) Resurrection and Life (John 11:25)Righteous Branch (Jer. 23:5)Righteous One (Acts 7:52; 1 John 2:1)Rock (1 Cor. 10:4)Root of David (Rev. 5:5; 22:16)Ruler of God’s Creation (Rev. 3:14)Ruler of the Kings of the Earth (Rev. 1:5)Savior (Eph. 5:23; Titus 1:4; 3:6; 2 Pet. 2:20)Son of David (Lk. 18:39)Son of God (John 1:49; Heb. 4:14)Son of Man (Mt. 8:20)Son of the Most High God (Lk. 1:32)Source of Eternal Salvation for all who obey him (Heb. 5:9)The One Mediator (1 Tim. 2:5)The Stone the builders rejected (Acts 4:11)True Bread (John 6:32)True Light (John 1:9)True Vine (John 15:1)Truth (John 1:14; 14:6)Way (John 14:6)Wisdom of God (1 Cor. 1:24)Word (John 1:1)Word of God (Rev. 19:13)





he continues....



From the ancient wise men of blessed memory and authority:
It Is HE - YESHUAH-- THE PRINCE (SON), REFLECTING THE VERY FACE OF GOD-- THE WAY, BLESSED IS HE -So FULL OF MERCY, WHOSE NAME WE CALL UPON TO ATONE FOR OUR SINS BEFORE GOD THE FATHER AT THE RESURRECTION AFTER DEATH.

(There really is no other NAME by which men are saved-YESHUA)
Now sound the Shofar
HALLELUJIAH
BLESSED BE THE NAME OF THE LORD
There is a Messiah, A Savior, A Redeemer, An Atoner. He is The Way
WHO MADE HEAVEN AND EARTH
NOW AND FOREVER
AMEIN

O HOLY NIGHT

My Mother's Favorite Song

(now you know why- hear JOSH GROBAN sing it exquisitely)

When Society Strangles the Soul

HEAR CRAIG BARNES
Possibly one of the Greatest Preachers in the Country Now

What is Holiness Really. Do we try to Domesticate it? Has Society Strangled your soul.

Download the Audio here:

http://www.nationalpres.org/sermon.php?d=2007-10-28%200000


"Yet to all who received him, to those who believed on his name, he gave the right to become Children of God."
John 1: 12

From the "Amplified version"John 1:12 (Amplified Bible)
Amplified Bible (AMP)
But to as many as did receive and welcome Him, He gave the authority (power, privilege, right) to become the children of God, that is, to those who believe in (adhere to, trust in, and rely on) His name.

Click on the link, then click on the picture:


http://mv.vatican.va/3_EN/pages/x-Schede/CSNs/CSNs_G_Giud_big.html

From the Mount of Martyrs, Sacre Coeur a Monmartre

Watch the Light Beam-calculate the angle; it is directly pointed at the Sacred Heart Basillica-

http://mv.vatican.va/3_EN/pages/x-Schede/CSNs/CSNs_G_Giud_big.html

Is Your Prince Charming Really a Frog in Tuxedo

Torah Talk

AND CARLIN COMIC COMMENTARY (sketchy thesis but hilarious)

Blessed is He

Who Does Not See
And Yet Believes


Ladies and Gentlemen: Andrea Bocelli in the Basillica of
Santa Maria Sopra Minerva, Roma, Italia

Priests Prophets Kings

Quiz: Which Saint was "Not Afraid To Be A Father?"

(You didn't know some Saints were/are fathers??)

THANK YOU

GIVE THANKS!!

TO THE LORD
FOR HE IS GOOD

HIS MERCY
ENDURES
FOREVER


See the tie-in between American Thanksgiving and Sukkot, aka. the Festival of Booths. http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?print=yes&id=23508

What's An Etrog-There Will Be A Quiz

www.JERUSALEMSP.BLOGSPOT.Com

Just Ordinary Time

When Gourmet looks like ordinary Meat Loaf and Heaven looks like the Boy Next Door.
-or is he just the "Boy who cried Love."

They shall build houses and inhabit them;
they shall plant vineyards and eat their fruit.
They shall not build and another inhabit;
they shall not plant and another eat;
for like the days of a tree shall the days of my people be,
and my chosen shall long enjoy the work of their hands.
They shall not labor in vain,
or bear children for calamity;
for they shall be offspring blessed by the Lord--
and their descendants as well.
Before they call I will answer,
while they are yet speaking I will hear.
The wolf and the lamb shall feed together,
the lion shall eat straw like the ox;
but the serpent--its food shall be dust!
They shall not hurt or destroy
on all my holy mountain,
says the Lord.

- Isaiah 65:21-25

LIVE

Via con me (It´s wonderful). Paolo Conte.

What Does This Mean To You And Why Is It Showing Up Everywhere?

Jacob's Well. Living Water. Waters of Baptism. Lourdes Water. Holy Water.
vs.
Waters of Katrina flooding, Waterboarding Torture

Happy Feast Day- Saint Hilary

of Poitiers.

It's All Saints Day. All Day. For All the Saints. Happy All Saints Day to You.
Including Saint Hilary of Poitiers. Who? Google him- I dare you.
I thought Hilary Clinton should take courage after that ridiculous bashem smashemknockem sockem robot disgrace of a debate the other night. Clean up your misogynist act people. We women don't like it. We are over 60% of the Democratic Party according to that home boy from Philly Chris Matthews. Not nice fellas.

In the early days of the Church, there was a dispute of some import concerning whether Jesus was really from God and thus of the same essence as God, as John indicated that in the beginning was the Word. It is pretty undisputed well established Christian doctrine now that In the beginning was the Word (logos, raison d'etre, telos) which was God and was with God such that not anything good made was made without him. He, the Lord was in the beginning, "coexistent and consubstantial" with God in the Trinity of Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Not so well established in the 4th Century however.
This fact/doctrine was disputed by the Arians, now considered heretical in the 300s AD. Saint Hilary took them to task and wrote how off their rockers they were. When anyone stands firm and tries to tell people how off their rockers they are, how out of the divine will and plan they are, they get bashed- persecuted, in Saint Hilary's case, banished even for a time.
He was recognized as brilliant and appointed the Bishop of Poitiers in France. There is a great University in that town now. What I love about him is that he was married with a daughter at the time that he was made a Bishop. He was made eventually (centuries later) one of the hallowed "Doctors" of the church. A married Bishop with a daughter. Nothing about being married with a daughter and having a wife apparently stopped the church from considering him utterly brilliant and necessary to the development of right doctrine as it pertained to fighting off the Arian heresy. Why would it?
Sometimes people with bold conviction get bashed- rockem sockem robot smashed. Usually their message gets distorted. Generally they get misquoted, defamed and targetted by jealous people who try to rockem sockem smash them.

But She Who Endures To The End Shall Be Saved. It's a promise.

The Bishop of Poitiers (Bishop being almost as big a deal as President) was exhiled, where he prolifically wrote witnessing the truth, eventually toured round back through Greece and Italy back to France and was eventually rightly reinstalled as the Bishop of Poitiers, France. He is credited with being the Father of Latin Hymns for having written volumes of them. Fun Fact about Saint Hilary- Anglican England even honors his memory in this fashion:

The spring term at the Law Courts in England and at Oxford University are named for him--the Hilary Term--as are at least three English churches.

Saint Hilary of Poitiers, Pray For Us.

How Big Is Your God

How Does He Move
Whom Does He Use

Can He Use You.


Watch the Story of a Texas Preacher's Son
Who Caught the Fire
Tomorrow Night on 60 Minutes.

JOEL OSTEEN


the interview clip:
http://www.cbsnews.com/sections/i_video/main500251.shtmlid=3358518n

Joel Who?? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joel_Osteen

his church:
http://joelosteen.lakewood.cc/site/PageServer?pagename=JOM_homepage

Battle of the Bishops

Judging the Judges.


It is both amazing and frightening that people so freely condemn the motivation of others to call for their deprivation of the eucharist when Jesus flatly said "neither do I condemn you" and expressly said not to judge the motivation of others. Jesus did not come to condemn the world but to save it. Some people are outraged that a priest in San Francisco gave communion to two gay men in Nun drag who were making a point about who knows what, because they appear to be mocking Nuns rather making a point about who knows what. They don't know what. They are just sure that they shouldn't get communion. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0epd4HRb6gM&eurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww%2Ecatholic%2Dtube%2Ecom%2F

Cardinal McCarrick, the "retired" Archbishop of Washington doesn't agree with those who would deny communion to any candidate based upon their "pro-choice" stance. His view; they are all problematic on one doctrine or another. This is the genteel bishopric way of saying- basically, they all sort of suck. He has a more consistent integrated "life" view that includes doing the things that make Life possible (improved educational opportunities, fighting poverty, etc.) , the death penalty issue and immigration related livlihood issues, rather than the sometimes narrow agenda of just legislating "thou shall nots" and hand slapping "bad boy/bad girl" dictums on one issue- albeit a huge issue. For some this is the defining be and end all issue. Some studies indicate that one in three women in America will have an abortion by the time that they are 45. ONE THIRD. We know at least 47 Million abortions have occured since Roe.

http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/10/11/america/NA-REL-US-Cardinal-Politics.php

The abortion of an embryo that has a real potential to become human because it is already housed in a womb has a different reality and factual predicate than the pre-zygotes that will never see a womb because they were artificially created in a lab in the Invitro process and there are tens if not hundreds of thousands of them more than wombs lining up to house them to maturity.

A tree in a forest will drop multitudes of acorns and pine cones only a fraction of which will ever mature to trees.

The official Catholic position on any stem cell research that requires destruction of an embryo is that it is a "grave moral sin." Period. End of Story. No Discussion. Consequently it could fall within the excommunicable offenses also along the same lines if any candiate espoused it too loudly (as opposed to the "don't ask, don't tell" rubric some politicians are hiding under rather than address the issue head on while public opinion in America is overwhelmingly that the people holding back the federal funding on this research which already takes place around the world and in this country with state and private grant funding are "flat earth" people who in 50 years will look like the people who wanted to stone Gallileo.) Thus, there is a tendancy for people to go "oooh- embryonic stem cell research- cardinal sin-grave sinner." The more charitable will say "well, I suppose you are entitled to your opinion" while secretly condemning them to the netherworld.
The nuance of the issues begs much depeer study and typically people spouting off about what is or is not a "grave moral sin" understand the science about as well as they understand the circuitry in their car On-Star system, how the video feeds to them from their i-phone or the email is sent from their crack-berry.
Questions barely thought about in the grave moral sin spectrum by some include, but are not limited to whether the killing of an embryo is required to extract embryonic stem cells ( not always required or contemplated), whether the stem cells are pre-implanted in a scientifically fertilized scenario of a scientifically created pre-zygote that will never be implanted for lack of enough womb takers or artificial wombs (there are literally tens of thousands more frozen than ever will find a womb-are we pretending they don't exist or arguing for a society that just forces women to be surrogate wombs shackled to a bedpost?) and whether the taking of the cells, by their research properties will save magnitudes more people than the pre-zygote lost such that the moral balance might be reconsidered. If the research from three pre-zygotic not-implantable "embryos" allows two million children to be cured of AIDS or malaria what then is the moral equation even if those three pre-zygotic "embryos" die?
People in this election cycle are really tired, no - thoroughly disgusted-- with people whom they consider scientifically illiterate dictating their state of sin to them. If any progress is to be made, and any coming together in a mutually respectful civil consensus, we need better science education all around with facts to support it. Now each side crafts the facts to suit the argument, like saying-"well, umbilical and placental cells are just as good, and no promising result is actually believed with embryonic stem cells that adult stem cells can't provide". Researchers disagree.
"Moralists", theologians, clergy, etc. have to stop resorting to epithetic slander like "scientists and researchers are just out to cash in on an undeveloped market and thus they are exploiting human life for profit." False. Scientists and Researchers can be just as motivated by the drive to find cures-life saving cures. If they believe they can, and don't, it is worse than negligence in loss of life. These Moralists and Theologican have to understand the boring parts of the science they preach against if anyone will take anything they say seriously.

Candidates would do well to stop throwing around buzz words and sound-bites and talking to the audience and press like they are fifth grade drop-outs.
The candidates who are more scientifically literate and can articulate the science will do much better- you can win minds much better if you respect that people have them and treat them like they use them. The questions are serious. No time for making up the science. The scientific/research community would do well to do what they do well; present the facts factually.
That's what I call Scientific Progress.

What do you think? If a tree falls in the dark does it make the same sound as an acorn falling from a tree in the dark?

One Great American

WHO REALLY WAS ELECTED PRESIDENT IN 2000
(and had the moxie to fight for it)

BIG CONGRATULATIONS TO AL GORE ON WINNING THE NOBEL PEACE PRIZE

What does filling your tank have to do with the War in Darfur? If you have not seen "An Inconvenient Truth" yet, see it and find out. Not just for floating polar bear lovers.

http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2007/10/11/world/200701012GORE_index.html

Mares Eat Oats

Mares Eat Oats
and Does Eat Oats
and Little Lambs Eat Ivy
A kid'l eat Ivy too-
Wouldn't you?

And if the words sound queer
and funny to your ear
a little bit gipsy and jivey

Just sing
Mares Eat Oats and Does Eat Oats
and Little Lambs Eat Ivy
A kid'l eat Ivy too,
wouldn't you.

That was a song my tone deaf Father used to sing to me. If you say it really fast it gets funny. He used to sing it as we were going to the store, or around the house when we were little. While my Dad passed away a decade ago now, the song pops back into my head at the most unusual times.
It seems to serve this purpose now: to remind me that Dad is still watching,the maker of Mares, Does and little lambs and Kids is still watching, and amidst the chaos, the conflict, the angst, the uncertainty of life, the worry, the drama, the wars, the loss, the disputations, the heartache, the tensions, and the good and bad grief, that there is a plan, and logic to it- that God is still in control, and he made things to make sense. Mares and Does after all still and always will eat oats. They are made that way. It works for them. Little lambs and kids (as in goat babies)-well, they apparently still eat ivy.
War will decimate millions of homes half a world away, and bring back tens of thousands of veterans with half a brain and half their limbs. Aids will decimate millions of homes half a world away and create millions of black orphaned children. Hurricaines and Tsunamis will wipe out villages and coastal cities half a world and a few states away. We now deny torturing prisoners of war and have clandestine foreign detention centers in which to do it.
And Mares still eat oats, Does eat oats, and Little Lambs Eat Ivy. And did you know that Kids by the way do too? We still have little lambs don't we? Someone check on that.
Somehow, God designed it, is still in control, sense is to be found somewhere in it's natural order if we look and pray hard enough to find it--which, not just deistically clicking along with the regularity of disinterested clockwork, but watched after intently minute by minute by an unsleeping God, begs the question, "wouldn't you?" And still there are born little lambs- who eat Ivy. Little lambs- as a sign- that God has not given up on the world.

We are profoundly disturbing the natural order.

The God of Israel never sleeps. I'm having trouble myself.
The least we can do is say Thanks for watching.

Voix du ciel

Now that's a voice-Arrivaderci

Next Year in Lourdes- 150 years since this

150 years of miraculous healings of a physical, psychological and emotional kind:
see,

http://www.catholic-forum.com/saints/stb06001.htm

Lourdes is one of the Largest Marian Shrines in the World-

to the Blessed Mother-the Greatest Jewish Mother Ever, Mary.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lourdes

official site (send a Vet to Lourdes with the Knights of Malta):
http://www.lourdes-france.org/index.php?goto_centre=ru&contexte=en&id=491&id_rubrique=491

S.A.V. Send A Vet

To Lourdes 2008

Hi Mom. I'm Home

See more like this on

www.Catholic-Tube.com

The no-brainer; Shouldn't all these kids have health insurance?

Movies that Matter

Saint Francis still Speaks

I urge everyone to watch the movies and powerpoint here about the Franciscan Friars of the Holy Land. This part of the Franciscan Order (after Saint Francis of Assisi) is charged by the Holy Roman Catholic Church to tend the Christian sites of the Holy Land. The order itself follows after Saint Francis' apostolic poverty. They have a Foundation which supports the needs of the Christian community around the Holy Land Christian sites which in turn helps sustain these sites viably. The conflict in the region has caused a mass exodus of the Christians, who are not connected with the Muslim agenda there but are native Palestinians. They are a peaceful buffer in the conflict caught in the cross-hairs. They worship the Jewish Messiah. They need our help. Please view the movies which discuss a Memorial Hall in which you can subscribe a loved one to support the Franciscan Mission.

http://www.nativityhall.com/movies.aspx

Holy Heresies

Let There Be Light, if you can Pay For The Electricity.

And Jesus said to the boy- how many loaves and fishes do you have? He said five. Then Jesus said, let me have them, and before I give them to any of those thousands of hungry folks on the Hill I am going to have to ask them a few screening questions to confirm their ideological alignment with me. I will bless the bread, and turn it into enough to feed five thousand people, but first I have to know how they feel about gay people and whether they understand that the genetic material from their respective reproductive parts, when combined outside a womb in a petri dish is actually a baby. It looks like a few mutating cells, but I am going to Rorschack test them and see if they see a human baby there. If they say "fig tree" they get thrown in the Lake of Fire. Then I have to ask them if they agree with me on which of the ruling Prelates is most likely to tote my philosophy. If they answer all Open Sesame questions correctly, then let them eat. If not, let them starve.

Then the Apostle Paul, Saint Paul to you, who was hauled off in chains and sent out of the country on a ship to Rome to be tried for spreading word of The Word, found himself shipwrecked on the Island of Malta. On the Island many people came to him needing healing.
He said- I know I can heal you, but first before I try or get near you, I have to ask you a few screening questions- like 'Is the earth flat or round?' 'if you extract an egg from a woman, and put it in a jar and a guy jacks off in the jar and you shake it up does God think that there is a human in the jar?" If the Maltese people answer wrongly I won't heal them, I will let them perish in their sinful thoughts for having rejected my philosophy. Only if they answer all the open sesame questions correctly will I heal them and let them live.

Then Jesus said that on judgment day he would separate the sheep from the goats, and place the sheep on his right and the goats on his left. To the sheep he will say, come get your inheritance that was reserved for you from the creation of the world because you answered correctly the open sesame questions and picked what was lying behind the Price is Right Door No. 1. --the rest of that feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, tending to the sick, visiting people in prison, giving water to thirsty people doesn't count for squat-I was just kidding with all that. It's all about what's in the Petri dish and jack off jar.

NOT! Of course Jesus and Paul said nothing of the sort!!!

So Why Do Some American Bishops Do It During American Election Season?

THINKING OUTSIDE THE TANK

Today is the Feast Day of Saint Francis. Happy Feast Day to you.

It is also the 50 anniversary of Sputnik. What could those two possibly have in common? Answer: Hillary Clinton.
Huh? you say.

Sputnik, explained Hillary today in a address at the Carnegie Institute for Science in Washington launched a period in American history where we were excited and inspired by the unlimited potential for science to advance us forward in multi-dimensioned areas of improvements in health, space exploration and unprecedented economic opportunities created by development of entirely new industries. Sputnik launched rockets of an attitude about the potential and hope of Science. After Sputnik laid the challenge, America rose to it, after suffering a depression and a World War, and the economy was launched into an unparalleled period of expansive growth with the creation of entirely new industries. America became the leader of the Western World economically and technologically. Computers, which 40 years ago were the size of a room are now something you can carry in your palm.

Subsequently during the Presidency of her husband, the discovery/invention of the potential of the Internet launched a technological revolution whose significance parallels the Gutenberg press and movable type. This transformed business and industry into a new Century. The fact that you can read this blog is a direct result. This could not have happened without a government that created a hospitable environment for such revolutionary technological innovation.

After Sputnik, the American genius was unleashed, the economy responded, and it eventually threw cold water on a Cold War as the world cooperated in the Space Program and brought down a Berlin Wall bloodlessly.

This was all because of an attitude about the Promise and Hope of Science. We need to regain this attitude, and not attempt to conform facts to our superimposed biased theories or make science an enemy. Science is not the enemy of morality.

The current challenges to the environmental degradation attendant to climate change, she argued can be met with innovation. We can regain the competitive edge that is partially lost to Europeans who are far ahead of us in carbon capping and recapturing environmental and atmospheric toxins. The current administration, she noted is not only hostile to addressing the need clearly, but is engaged in a "war on science" in which it suppresses facts, truth and honest scientific inquiry/research in a variety of disturbing areas to obscure the real seriousness of our challenges. It even re-writes reports.
Not until recently, seven ( 7 )years into his Presidency did Bush even admit there was a serious global warming climate change crisis- after the UN dedicated an entire session to it because the rest of the world has passed him and us by on noticing. The record of suppressing Truth, people pursuing it and fabricating conclusions or records by selective redactions, factual suppression and industry edits on governmental reports is more than disturbing, it is flatly dangerous. Hillary will reverse the disturbing trend.
She will inspire kids to want to become engineers, scientists of all flavors and explorers on the cutting edge of research and scientific exploration.

All doubts about Hillary's Presidential stature were dispelled when she hit her stride in speaking about the need to spur on green alternative energy technological innovation, with concrete visionary plans which include restructuring and budgeting departments, incentivized with grants and awards to get us off our dependency on foreign oil. Industries that can barely be imagined now, can with the right hospitable governmental environment save us from our dependency on foreign oil which is fueling more than our cars; it is fueling a distorted foreign policy. Green technologies can be exportable to redress balance of trade deficit issues. We are now overtaken by Europeans who are on the ball with this already and surpassing us in alternative sustainable energy technologies. That does not have to be the case and it is a scandal that it is. Why is the most popular hybrid a Japanese Toyota for example.

Here is where Saint Francis is looking out for us. Few people realize that Saint Francis was a soldier from Assisi warring with other Italian city states prior to his conversion where he became, among other things, an Apostle of Peace. He forsook the lance and sword, for a life following Jesus, the Prince of Peace in as pure a form as he could possibly live. He went on mission to address the Turkish Sultan in a time when religious wars abounded to promote Peace.

War simply breaks the heart of God. And we have been at it far too long.

There is no doubt that oil and the oil industry feature strongly in our perpetually warring foreign policy. Hillary wants to create the governmental platform where we don't need to factor oil into the equation, thus minimizing our self interest geopolitically in regions where people would rather kill us. She wants to invest in new green technologies and roll back some of the unnecessary subsidies currently favoring the oil industry which does not need them.

The natural consequence of these reshaped priorities will certainly foster Peace.

A budget is a moral document. Ours is way out of balance in favor of war supplementals and financing the mechanics, personnel and products of War. War. Not kids health care, not upgrading and building schools, not clean water sanitation in developing countries, not medical care, not promotion of scientific health biomedical research, not caring for indigents and homeless. Just War and More War; The business of killing people as an instrument of Foreign Policy-because diplomacy failed.

Hillary noted that as a child with a pair of binoculars looking for Sputnik in her suburban Chicago backyard she was so inspired by the space program she wrote a letter asking how she could become an Astronaut. She received an official letter back explaining that women were not considered for the program. The Poetic Justice of the same woman now running for the job that would make her the boss of NASA and everyone who could possibly write such a letter is too sweet for words. But she isn't gloating. No time for that. Neither is she "strident", "inappropriately aggressive", "angry" or any stereotype of a successful woman Yalie attorney aspiring to the highest public service office in the land.

She is just really SMART. So Smart you and I can't possibly know how smart.
She has vision coupled with strategic astuteness.
There is a reason she has the most money
of anyone running.

Some of the same people/groups are still going to have the same ideological objections to her wanting to reverse the ban on stem-cell research, without looking at the possibilities that advanced scientific research will hold in, for example, the area of increased effectiveness of fertility treatments (without the need to create more embryos than necessary for implantation) in addition to the life saving cures of all manner of diseases that this research may offer. Some people will still think it morally objectionable to make legal Plan B contraceptives, without noticing that the government would not in any case force or mandate anyone to take them.

Whatever your moral persuasion along those lines, for her sheer Brilliance, Integrity, Intellectual honesty in appreciating and tackling the most serious issues of the time, and for the compassionate heart of a Mother, watching Mothers who receive flag draped coffins returning from Iraq, SENATOR HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON should be the next President.

And so, as we pray as we are taught, for all leaders and public servants, please pray with me:

LORD, MAKE HER AN INSTRUMENT OF YOUR PEACE.

Deceit is in the mind of those who plan evil, but those who counsel peace have joy.
- Proverbs 12:20-20

You Can't Handle The Truth

On the Difference Between Lust and Passion

On the Eve of the Feast Day of Saint Francis I am compelled to write on the difference between Lust and Passion; two impulses that can have some outward manifestation similaries and are thus sometimes mistaken one for the other by their object, but emminate from two entirely different places; one is an impulse of the heart, the other an impulse of humanness sometimes known as the "flesh" which is a composite of the confluent influences of hormones, emotions, tissues and wrong thought. It is a tragedy to mistake one for the other, because to deny Passion is to insult Love.

Outward manifestations of both appear to the observer or the object to be both intense, and both self-sacrificing to the extent that the rest of rational self preservation is discarded in its pursuit.
But one is a selfish impulse and the other entirely self-less in favor of the other's good.

No man has greater love than that he lay down his life for his friends. Jesus, our best friend, did that for us. What a friend we have in Jesus. His Passion was the supreme self-lessness in human form. He cared for us more than his own life. His heart was pure. He gave himself totally and fully for our salvation. He poured himself out. He paid the ultimate price.

Lust takes, demands, and gives no thought to that which it claims and must possess or its well being. It objectifies its object to calculate what it gains from it's pursuit. Passion gives overwhelmingly, unceasingly and unconditionally. It spends itself in an outpouring without counting the cost or the loss. It believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things- to serve the good of the other.
Passion emminates from Love.
Lust emminates from greed.

And this is Love, that God gave his only Son so that no one who believes on his name shall be forsaken, but all who believe in him and call on his name will be saved.

And the Passion of Christ demands and compels that we Go and Do Likewise.

Blessed be the Name of the Lord, Jesus of Nazareth.

EXTRA: You really don't want to miss the EWTN show Live on the Rock where Dawn Eden, a Jewish born woman from New York city discusses her transformation from living a "Sex in the City" ungratifying lifestyle to one where she practices Chastity and Abstinence as a practicing Catholic who believes sex before marriage isn't the fullest path to the depths of real love. Tomorrow may be the last day you can access the EWTN show on their Archives; see Dawn's blog at www.dawneden.com

Follow Me

Saint Dominic below-
click to see Brother Hugh be ordained as Deacon.

When the Son of Man comes in all his glory, and all the angels with him,
he will sit on his throne in heavenly glory. All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left.

Then the King will say to those on his right 'Come you who are blessed by my Father, take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat. I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink. I was a stranger and you invited me in. I needed clothes and you clothed me. I was sick and you looked after me. I was in prison and you came to visit me.'

Then the righteous will answer him "Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?"

The King will reply "I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brethren of mine, you did it to me."

(Brethren, here meaning "family members" includes women, something strikingly missing from these Dominican ceremonies in any role other than observer from the nosebleed peanut gallery sections, and then typically only to those consecrated, veiled and in habit. The blanket exclusion of women can make one deaf to their voices; a fair comment from this New York Times movie reviewer of LAKE OF FIRE a documentary on abortion; opening in New York theatres today, http://movies.nytimes.com/2007/10/03/movies/03fire.html )

Click To Play

What Did Jesus Really Look Like?

Jesus, son of Mary, son of God, from Nazareth, in the North, Gallilee region, not far from Lake Kinneret, the Sea of the Gallilee.

(the images derived from the Shroud of Turin, believed to be the burial cloth of Jesus. Note that left hand in the full image seems to indicate that the nails in the hand went through the wrist with the white indicating the blood flow from the wrist. The image from the Shroud is his visage after his beating, flogging, scourging and crucifiction; stare at the picture for 5 seconds and see what is believed to be his visage during his ministry)

http://www.theworkofgod.org/shroud.htm

A priest in Mexico found this on this film when he developed pictures of his new church and altar:

http://holyfaceofjesus.com/holy_face_of_jesus.htm

http://www.thepassionofthechrist.com/splash.htm

For Deacon Brother Hugh

Salve Regina, Mater Misericordiae,
vita, dulcedo, et spes nostra, salve!
Ad te clamamus, exsules filii Hevae,
ad te suspiramus, gementes et flentes,
In hac lacrimarum valle.
Eja ergo, Advocata nostra,
Illos tuos misericordes oculos ad nos converte
Et Jesum, benedictum fructum ventris tui,
Nobis, post hoc exilium, ostende,
O clemens, O pia, O dulcis Virgo Maria.


See Deacon Brother Hugh Vincent Dyer's homily below:
www.dominicanfriars.org/2006/10/28/br-hugh-vincent-dyer-op

Click To Play

The Pursuit of Life; Reductio Add Absurdum

How Much Torture is Cruel and Unusual?

The Supreme Court this term will hear a case involving the death penalty-but not exactly whether it should be outlawed in every state as intrinsically cruel and unusual for the State to kill off someone for their depravity, but whether a particular type of three-drug coctail lethal injection is too gruesomely painful and so should be substituted for some lesser form of torture unto death. Apparently we are splitting hairs on what is too gruesome a method of torturing unto death. Apparently no state just gives someone the option of intervenious injection with a bottle of Vodka mixed with a bottle of crushed sleeping pills so they can quietly slip away into that good night like Anna Nicole Smith when their number is called.
The case is Ralph Baze v. John D. Rees and it will likely be heard this term. It's a case that came to the Court from the lovely state of Kentucky, which practices this form of tri-drug coctail lethal injection borrowed from Oklahoma and Texas. [Briefs are linked to the pre-eminent Supreme Court blog http://www.scotusblog.com/]
The drugs apparently have the effect of paralyzing someone's muscles so that they cannot speak or move, but without effect on the nervous system such that they feel pain but just cannot speak about it. This is coupled with a drug that induces a heart attack (otherwise known as rock salt-the kind that melts snow-in your veins it induces heart attack). It is believed that the combination of these drugs places someone in the uncomfortable posture of being slowly tortured without ability to do anything about it- kind of like in Medieval England before the invention of the guillotine where someone was executed (at the Tower of London for example) by strapping them and their heads to a block so the executioner could lob off their heads with a sword, only he occassionally didn't get it on one try so he had to keep swinging while the person was half alive and felt his blinking head sever and roll off.
Of Course the entire discussion of whether certain drugs are more cruel and unusual than others in the State killing off someone for their depravity entirely misses the point of the 8th Amendment prohibition against "cruel and unusual" because DEATH is cruel and unusual per se. It is flatly cruel and unusual as a method of "punishment" to just kill off the sinner. If the degree of torture can be analyzed as potentially "cruel and unusual" then of course the blatant killing off -death itself- is the very definition of "cruel and unusual."
It serves no deterrent to him or her, it serves no rehabilitative function, it flies in the face of most people's understanding of the potential in all human life for redemption, it plays God where God said "do not kill" as one of the top Ten on the hit parade of sure-to-land-you-in-Gehenna commandments if you break them. Sure, there are some extremely depraved incorrigibles. So let them make license plates or do anything socially useful in solitary for the rest of their lives. The State has no jurisdiction to kill anyone. That's why an "unjust war" is considered nothing less than mass murder. It's God's jurisdiction. So lets hope that the Supreme Court takes the opportunity to issue something other than the narrowest ruling that addresses only whether drug A must be substituted with drug B to send them to their maker sooner.

AUTHOR OF "DEAD MAN WALKING" COMES TO TOWN:
Holy Trinity Catholic Church in Georgetown Washington, DC is sponsoring a very special event this Sunday.
On Sunday, September 30th at 10:10 AM and at 7:00 PM, Holy Trinity Church has invited Sr. Helen Prejean to speak to the Parish community on How Do You Live a Life that Does Justice? What I Believe. Sr. Helen's presentation is offered as part of the Adult Education Lecture Series this Fall sponsored by The William J. Byron, S.J. Fund for Adult Education. For more information on Sr. Helen's presentation, please check out our website at http://www.trinity.org/Education/AdEd/AESchedule/index.htm.

WHAT'S A RED MASS?

ALL RISE

Every year, the Sunday before the opening of the fall session of the US Supreme Court in Washington, DC there is a Mass at Saint Matthews Cathedral (1725 Rhode Island Ave, NW, Washington, DC) (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cathedral_of_St._Matthew_the_Apostle) for the purpose of blessing those involved with Justice in America. Five of the Nine US Supreme Court Justices in the US now are Catholic. Typically three or more of them come to this Mass, as do dignitaries from all branches of government and various Cabinet Secretaries and sometimes even the Chief Executives as well as Justice Department officials/attorneys of all levels.

This year the RED MASS is at 10:00 am SEPTEMBER 30, 2007.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Mass

The Amazing News is that everyone, I mean literally everyone is welcome to come. But because the world is welcome to attend you have to show up early enough to get a seat or the Secret Service will have you cordoned off into some sattelite location. It officially starts at 10:00 am but the doors open at 9:00 and there is typically already formed a line around the block by that time.

The event is sponsored by the John Carroll Society (http://www.johncarrollsociety.org/) who puts on a brunch at a nearby hotel afterwards at which time it gives out awards for pro bono leadership of various individuals and law firms who contributed to serving the legal needs of the poor in DC through the Archdiocese Legal Network. Anyone can come to this as well for the mere price of the brunch ticket of $40.00 by calling 703-560-1042.

This year the Archbishop of Washington, his Excellency the Most Reverend Donald W. Wuerl, http://www.adw.org/about/lead_bio_wuerl.asp
is the Principal Celebrant who is hosting the Archbishop of Milwaukee, His Excellency the Most Reverend Timothy M. Dolan http://www.archmil.org/bishops/ArchbishopDolan.asp to give the homily (sermon.)

This is a time where we have seen some major changes in the Administration of Justice with the resignation of Gonzales, so it seems a particularly appropriate time to invoke the blessings of God and His wisdom on the Judicial system.

If you can't come, we still need your prayers.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RFgKMxjGVT8&NR=1

St. Thomas More Prayer
"Lord, grant that I may be able in argument, accurate in analysis, strict in study, candid with clients, and honest with adversaries. Sit with me at my desk and listen with me to my client's plaints, read with me in my library, and stand beside me in court, so that today I shall not, in order to win a point lose my soul."

A Dieu Marcel

From Liz Berney


Dear Friends,

For those who have not heard the sad news, two wonderful men who were dear friends & clients from my literary agent days & work, Marcel Marceau (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marcel_Marceau)
and Gene Savoy, both passed away during the past few days (Marceau last night and Gene a week ago Friday).

Both men lived inspiring, remarkable, full lives. Marceau continued performing throughout the world, delighting audiences of all ages, for 50 years, until just a few years ago. Gene (who was the discoverer of ancient Peruvian cities & recreated ancient sea voyages) also continued his explorations for over 4 decades, until quite recently. Marceau had a heroic past - he was born Jewish (and had changed his name to that of a 19th c. French general). In WW II, he & his brother worked with the French resistance, including leading Jewish children out of France to safety in Switzerland. Marceau's father died in Auschwitz.

Both Gene and Marceau were sensitive and kind men, who reached out to people on a personal level. I still remember Gene's kind call and beautiful letter to me when my father passed away 5 years ago. One of many special memories of Marceau occurred one evening about 8 years ago, when we were meeting to discuss business after a performance, while my younger daughter was sitting in a corner of the room drawing pictures. Marceau thoughtfully went over to my daughter and praised her drawings and artistic ability - a memory which was a great inspiration to her & her artwork.

The Marceau Foundation may have a memorial service for Marceau in New York. If so, I'll try to send out another email with the info, since many of the recipients of this email also had a chance to meet Marceau and may be interested in attending.It's difficult to know what to say at such times. Marceau's beautiful quote probably said it best -

"Do not the most moving moments of our lives find us without words."

Mia Culpa, Mia Culpa

It is Yom Kippur (so if I were really Jewish I should not be on the web)- After sundown I will turn the lights out and the computer off in solidarity. This is the time I am told to really reflect hard on the moral failings, sins and transgressions we indulged in negligently or intentionally this past year and to humbly ask forgiveness. Catholics are supposed to do this daily or at least weekly and drop in the Confessional.

The National Conscience has two things on which it need chest-beat and start the wrenching of garments. The Nation as a whole has to figure out how to straighten up and fly right on these points which demand bipartisan non-bickering real solutions: it needs to face truth and consequences in a really intellectually honest way heretofore unseen-and we need to come together on it:

THE ENDLESS WAR
THE FETACIDE HOLOCAUST

I pass no judgment on, while many have opinions on, which mass murdering is worse; the tacit legal permission for taking of innocent life that cannot defend itself or speak against it in numbers that surpass that of the WWII holocaust annually by women given legal license to self mutilate and discard their offspring in the process, or the civil engineering of a foreign country by Optional Experiamental War that has wiped out close to a million foreigners and several thousand of our own and cost us over 3 Billion dollars that should have been put to better use (for medical treatment of uninsured to save lives for example.)
On sheer numbers the Fetacide Holocaust suggests it is the more pressingly urgent moral crisis.
The culpability of the Nation's budget (your tax dollars) putting weaponry in the hands of Americans to perpetrate murder and mayhem on a country that didn't ask us in and doesn't really want us there, is a whole other level begging for moral scrutiny.

Back to the Fetacidal Holocaust:
If you attribute the taking of the pre-born human genetically coded DNA with potential to become a fully human entity as seriously as you take a post-born one you can't sit idly by and let it happen without doing everything in love to stop it. And why wouldn't you attribute the taking of pre-born human genetically coded DNA with potential to become a fully human entity as seriously as you take a post- born one? What's the difference between the "blob of tissue" that could become the next Einstein and the crying nursing baby that could become the next Einstein? If you say one is just a blob of tissue and one is actually a baby, I say, they are both the next Einstein.
But the moral crisis in the destruction of the next Einstein does not fall exclusively on the despirate frightened almost-mother. It falls on society, the Nation as a whole. Because we as a whole Nation have to figure out a better way to make the Almost- Mother WANT to become the Mother of Einstein no matter what the state of her maturity, financial posture, family situation or state of social distress or disgrace in which she finds herself. And that is a much broader legislative challenge than telling her she does or does not have a choice. The "choice" rhetoric is just beside the point. It's so tired.
God gave women the Choice already whether they want to carry a conceived embryo to term or not. Women have the choice already, legal or not to eat right or at all, to slit their wrists in depressed despair, to jump off a bridge, or to take a bottle of 407 cleaning solution and shoot it up themselves to self- abort and self-sterilize themselves. No law is going to make a depressed despirate woman stop being depressed and despirate unless that law goes directly to the root of the reasons of why a pregnant woman would be so despirate or depressed that she kills her offspring before it sees daylight. No law is going to take the natural Choice away from women to protect or not protect, nurture or not nurture the life within them (certainly not one criminally penalizing the conduct- how much jail time should one get if one succeeds in suicide?) thus laws should be much better constructed to provide the socio-economic structures which encourage women to WANT their children and society has to be reformed at a much more basic level, welcoming in all life and all pregnant women.

There really should be a bi-partisan commission established to address this creatively-the surface of which is barely scratched because everyone is ducking the nasty rhetoric and name calling.

The Catholic Church is at the forefront of trying to address it in aggressively promoting abstinence/chastity (see, http://www.dawneden.com/), establishing pre and post abortion counseling such as the Gabriel Project (http://www.gabrielproject.com/) and Raphael Project, many post-abortive counseling organizations and efforts, and praying and counseling outside abortion clinics. There is a group now praying and fasting starting Tuesday called "40 Days For Life" (http://www.40daysforlife.com/) which is a national effort to raise prayer and consciousness regarding ( http://www.catholic-tube.com/) the scandal of neglect of potentially pregnant women and to broaden the perspective on what the "choices" really are to encourage keeping one's pre-born child alive. See, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O09HfkzvlnY

We have to move the legislative dialogue out of the arena of the "choice" discussion into
the "incentive" discussion. Face it- women already have the choice. By punishing one choice does nothing to take away the ability to choose-it just punishes women (not men by the way whose interjecting intervention apparently caused the unwanted pregnancy so they bear great and equal moral responsibility while no Republican agenda has ever sought to make them bear any legal responsibility for an unwanted pregnancy resulting in an abortion-as if the woman got pregnant by herself. That, ladies and gentlemen is what we call in the trade an "Equal Protection" problem).

"WHY SHOULD I KEEP IT?"
Start Answering that - and make her believe it- and you have done more than demanding Roe v. Wade be overturned. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KxqxSjJFxek&NR=1

WHY? WHY?
Here I have to interject a slide show of my sister Katie, her husband Chris and their baby, my nephew Jack who was born when Katie was 42 in a very "high risk" situation. (they are on vacation and the back of the gallery are a few of their friends with their baby- also born to someone over 40)-http://www.kodakgallery.com/ShareLandingSignin.jsp?Uc=18ytx13r.3tzmw2lr&Uy=-1yvmws&Upost_signin=Slideshow.jsp%3Fmode%3Dfromshare&Ux=0

Learning War No More-
On the War in Iraq, no one can say enough - not Cindy Sheehan, Not Move-On, not John Kerry, not anyone, on the depraved, insane, absurd, immoral, tactically ignorant, obscenely murderous diplomatic and foreign policy failure that the war in Iraq is. The disgust-o-meter has flown off the radar. It is absolutely frightening that this country has been steered at the helm by the team of self-impressed, woefully misguided Foreign Policy pseudo-diplomats who so misunderstand world geopolitics that they have conned the country for 4 years (longer than all of WWII) into the illusion that this INSANE war is helpful to Israel or the US. It's beyond scandalous. It is frighteningly immoral. It is plainly unjust. It is probably criminal.


So the Congress/Senate needs to get off of Move-On and get back to the business of really trying to make the world a better safer place. I received this email which I pass along for your consideration.

Catholics United Opposes Partisan Attack on MoveOn.org

Dear Friends,

Catholics United joined the following statement in response to yesterday's shameful move by Senate Republicans to shift public attention away from our nation's most pressing moral concern: ending the war in Iraq.

Catholics like us need now, more than ever, to add our voices to the growing chorus of Americans demanding real change in Iraq. If you have not done so already, please sign the Catholics for an End to the War petition at http://www.catholicsforanend.org/.

If you have signed the petition, please help us get to our goal of 20,000 signatures. Refer your family and friends today.

We are planing more activities in the coming weeks and months to make Catholics' voices heard, including advertising campaigns and local actions. Please stay tuned for further information.
In Peace,
Chris KorzenExecutive Director, Catholics United

Allies Statement in Support of MoveOn.org

The resolution condemning MoveOn.org yesterday sponsored by Senate Republicans was nothing more than a distraction from the real issue at hand: their unpopular support for a failed war in Iraq that is dragging on without end. Regardless of one's position on the ad in question, Senator Cornyn's resolution and the Republican assault on MoveOn.org represented a frightening attack on free speech and an outrageous attempt to intimidate an organization, its allies and the popular movement in America they have helped lead to end the war in Iraq. Rather than intimidating MoveOn.org or the coalition which is working to bring a responsible end to the war in Iraq, we are confident that such attempts to stifle debate will only further energize the progressive movement and the effort to end the war.

US Action Campaign for America's Future
Americans United for Change
Progressive States Network
TrueMajority.org
American Family Voices
Win Without War
Catholics United

and this should really tick you off: http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/092207C.shtml

THE WAY THE TRUTH AND THE LIFE
Nothing Premised on a Lie will Stand because its Foundation is an Illusion.


Ms. Butler,
A 2,000 word article, Seven CIA Veterans Challenge 9/11 Commission Report — Official Account of 9/11 a "Joke" and a "Cover-up", appeared today on OpEdNews. Link to article.
The article details severe criticism of the 9/11 Commission Report by seven CIA veterans and their calls for a new investigation. A brief quote from each of the individuals featured in the article appears below.
Please help disseminate this critically important information.
Best regards, Alan
Raymond McGovern, former Chairman of the National Intelligence Council and 27-year CIA veteran, "I think at simplest terms, there's a cover-up. The 9/11 Report is a joke."
William Christison, former National Intelligence Officer (NIO) and former Director of the CIA's Office of Regional and Political, and 29-year CIA veteran, "We very seriously need an entirely new very high level and truly independent investigation of the events of 9/11. I think you almost have to look at the 9/11 Commission Report as a joke and not a serious piece of analysis at all."
Melvin Goodman, PhD, former Division Chief of the CIA's Office of Soviet Affairs and Senior Analyst from 1966 - 1990, "The final report is ultimately a coverup. I don't know how else to describe it."
Robert Baer, 21-year CIA veteran and specialist in the Middle East, who was awarded the Career Intelligence Medal upon his retirement in 1997, "Until we get a complete, honest, transparent investigation …, we will never know what happened on 9/11."
Robert David Steele has 25 years of combined service in the CIA and the U.S. Marine Corps. Second ranking civilian in U.S. Marine Corps Intelligence from 1988 - 1992. Member of the Adjunct Faculty of Marine Corps University. "I am forced to conclude that 9/11 was at a minimum allowed to happen as a pretext for war. … I have to tell anyone who cares to read this: I believe it. I believe it enough to want a full investigation that passes the smell test of the 9/11 families as well as objective outside observers."
Lynne Larkin, former CIA Operations Officer who served in several CIA foreign stations before being assigned to the CIA's Counter-Intelligence Center. There, she co-chaired a multi-agency task force, which coordinated intelligence efforts among the many intelligence and law enforcement agencies. One of twenty-five signers of a letter to Congress expressing their concerns about "serious shortcomings," "omissions," and "major flaws" in the 9/11 Commission Report and offering their services for a new investigation.
David MacMichael, PhD, former Senior Estimates Officer at the CIA with special responsibility for Western Hemisphere Affairs at the CIA's National Intelligence Council. Prior to joining the CIA, he served for four years as a civilian counter-insurgency advisor to the U.S. government, and prior to that was a U.S. Marine Corps officer for ten years. One of twenty-five signers of a letter to Congress expressing their concerns about "serious shortcomings," "omissions," and "major flaws" in the 9/11 Commission Report and offering their services for a new investigation.
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An Unlikely Green?

THE EARTH IS THE LORD'S AND EVERYTHING IN IT -L'Shana Tova!

Question: What does a retired Cardinal do after retirement?
Answer: Almost as much as he did before retirement.

The 77 year old Cardinal McCarrick, formerly the Cardinal and Archbishop of Washington, DC is perhaps an unlikely Green. But not so unlikely when
one considers his understanding of God as Creator and the Family of God living in the Family Home called Planet Earth. We need to clean house. From the perspective of his 77 years it looks like in places we have become rather slothful slobs, maybe even vandals, in caring for our environment which is putrifying before our eyes. God is an Artist. We are throwing mud all over his paintings.

From Greenland, no less, the ever spry Cardinal McCarrick attended a conference on religion, the environment and other things normally associated with those crazy wide eyed tree hugging whale watchers, the Kerrys and uncle Al. It even got the attention of the Greenland Press. No one held up a sign saying "God is Green" but they may as well have.
see,
http://www.zenit.org/article-20485?l=english

Yes, Seth, We Can Do Better**

This Just In From Senator Bob Casey

Dear Cynthia,

After recently returning from a trip to Iraq, I am more convinced than ever of the need to transition the mission in Iraq and change the Bush policy.
In February, I voted against President Bush's decision to send more U.S. troops to Iraq.
Seven months later, the signs are clear that the Bush troop surge did not achieve its goal of buying time for the Iraqis to get their country in order. While in Iraq, I met with troops and U.S. officials including General David Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan Crocker as well as top Iraqi leaders. The troops I met were in the Green Zone and at a forward patrol base. Their bravery and commitment was inspiring.
Unfortunately, I had a very different impression of the Iraqi officials. They demonstrated no sense of urgency to undertake the political reforms that are needed to stabilize Iraq. Even as their country is torn apart by civil war and, as I write this email, 3,754 American troops including 175 Pennsylvanians have lost their lives, the Iraqi government has not stepped up to take control of their country. While in Iraq, the security problems are clear to see. Baghdad is a city of massive concrete barriers erected to restrict access of suicide bombers.
The streets were too dangerous to travel on so we were transported by helicopter that flew close to the ground and very fast to avoid missile attacks. And while I was at a patrol base, one of my meetings was punctuated by the sound and explosion of a rocket landing a few hundred yards away. Assessments of the progress in Iraq have been grim. The Bush administration's own assessment in the National Intelligence Estimate says that al Qaeda has regained strength to pre-9/11 levels. And governmental reports give failing grades to progress by our own Department of Homeland Security to improve security at home and to progress by the Iraqis on key military, political and diplomatic objectives. My trip to Iraq and these reports have redoubled my resolve and the sense of urgency to change our policy in Iraq.
As a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, you can be assured that I will continue to press the Bush administration and General Petraeus in upcoming hearings. And I will continue to urge my Republican colleagues to join me to pass legislation to change the Bush policy in Iraq.

Sincerely, Bob Casey

**The title responds to the closing comment in the Movie "No End In Sight" that everyone needs to see in which a Marine Seth asks not-too-rhetorically (paraphrased)- Do you mean we can't do better than this? Don't tell the Marines who fought in Fallujiah that. Don't tell the Marines still there that. Don't tell me we can't do better. That makes me angry.

PEACE PACE PAX PAIX PAZ

Far more Americans have died in Iraq than were killed on 9-11 and we are heading toward the 4,000 mark. Unholy obscene numbers of Iraqis have died at the hands of Americans.

The military surge has not produced a corollary fruitful political surge.

We are sending Americans in the middle of someone else's Civil War.

We are squandering Treasure as bad stewards on borrowed time and dime.

The US is not safer. Israel is not safer.

The Foreign Policy myths and wishes have stayed the course and run their course. There is no coherent intellectually honest strategy (and you know it).

For everything there is a season, and now is the smart season to REDEPLOY.

The fruit of more combat is more death and dismemberment.

The fruit of Diplomacy is Peace.

PACE PAX PAIX PEACE PAZ

..............................................

(I received this today and forward it for your thoughtful consideration.)

Ms. Butler,
Over the last 8 weeks a world renowned scientist and three nationally recognized engineers have called for a new investigation of 9/11, yet none of these have been reported in the mainstream media.
Most recently, on Sept. 4, Joel S. Hirschhorn, Ph.D., who served for 12 years as a Senior Staff Member of the Congressional Office of Technology Assessment and later as Director of Environment, Energy and Natural Resources for the National Governors Association, called for a new investigation of 9/11, saying "First, let the technical truth emerge. Then, if necessary, cope with the inevitable political, conspiracy and other questions." Former Congressional Office of Technology Assessment Senior Staff Member Calls for New Investigation of 9/11
On Aug. 27, Lynn Margulis, Ph.D., member of the National Academy of Sciences and world renowned scientist, characterized the official account of 9/11 as "a fraud" and called for a new investigation, "I suggest that those of us aware and concerned demand that the glaringly erroneous official account of 9/11 be dismissed as a fraud and a new, thorough, and impartial investigation be undertaken." National Academy of Sciences Member Calls for New 9/11 Investigation
An Aug. 21 article reported that James Quintiere, Ph.D., former Chief of NIST's Fire Science Division, called for an independent review of the World Trade Center Twin Tower collapse investigation. "I wish that there would be a peer review of this," he said, referring to the NIST investigation. "I think all the records that NIST has assembled should be archived. I would really like to see someone else take a look at what they've done; both structurally and from a fire point of view. ... I think the official conclusion that NIST arrived at is questionable." Former Chief of NIST's Fire Science Division Calls for Independent Review of World Trade Center Investigation
On July 16, J. Marx Ayres, former member of the National Institute of Sciences Building Safety Council and former member of the California Seismic Safety Commission called for a new investigation of 9/11, "Steven Jones' call for a serious investigation of the hypothesis that the WTC 7 and the Twin Towers were brought down, not just by impact damage and fire, but through the use of pre-positioned 'cutter-charges' must be the rallying cry for all building design experts to speak out." Former California Seismic Safety Commissioner Endorses 9/11 Truth Movement
Additionally, this week, Commander Ralph Kolstad, U.S. Navy ‘Top Gun’ pilot, questioned the official account of 9/11 and called for a new investigation. "When one starts using his own mind, and not what one was told, there is very little to believe in the official story." U.S. Navy 'Top Gun' Pilot Questions 9/11
The mainstream media has not covered any of these stories. Please help disseminate this critically important information.
Best regards, Alan

All Roads Lead To

Roma

Any accidental Pilgrim can wonder into any church in Rome and find the most amazing pieces of art and history everywhere in front of them. There are stunningly brilliant statues and paintings everywhere-everyone should get to Rome at least one time in their life (and Firenze, Siena, Assisi, etc...)
In one church there is standing just off to the right of the altar (if you are standing behind the altar) a little known Michelangelo sculpture of Jesus. The Story, which has inspired about 500 years of homilies, goes (as told by an Archbishop) that when Michelangelo was asked how he possibly could capture the Spirit of Jesus to create such a beautiful work of art he replied:

"It's easy: I take the raw marble and just chip away everything NOT JESUS."

Lets Seriously Get A Grip

Before we slide off the Cliff

I was in Starbucks today with my new favorite toy; Verizon wireless (it's a trap for the warrantless wireless wiretap NSA folks). I was sitting at a table and I couldn't help but overhear a very attractive young woman, probably in her mid-20s, talking to her other very attractive young woman friend about her recent divorce and abortion. She was so discrete about it anyone in Starbucks earshot now knows the price of her abortion. Abortions are, by the way, I was shocked to learn far less expensive than a root canal. It costs less to dispose of the fruit of your womb than it does to clean out the roots of a bad tooth and cap it. Oh- and her insurance covered much of it.
I wouldn't say that she was glib, so much as non-challant. It was a medical procedure, involved some medications she detailed, and had less emotional consequence it seemed than getting rid of the creep that was her x-husband. I wanted to say- I just had a root canal, you just killed your first born (before it saw daylight). Hello? Anyone home under that cute Anne Klein $200. sundress? You had a living, growing, human DNA coded being inside you and
you -what-checked your insurance policy to see how much out of pocket it would cost you to rip
it from the walls of your motherhood? Care for another VanillaMochaCarmelMachiatto?
-And where do you think that you sent that creature that was ripped from the walls of your motherhood?
I don't know what we are going to do to make people realize what they are doing. I don't know if sending all the "I used to be a hip slut like you and now I am a born-again chaste virgin and still georgeous" spokespeople to campuses, Focus on the Family and EWTN shows is going to wake people up.
Federally funding mandatory ultrasounds is a good start. You could set them up in church basements or in the Gabriel Project clinics. Why doesn't every church have one? Why doesn't every McDonald's have one? Buy a happy meal and get a free ultra-sound. That thing-yeah, with tiny fingers, toes and eyelids-that's what your "procedure" just killed. If an ultra-sound saves just one life it is worth more than the price of the fanciest organ.

Tomorrow, September 5, at 5:30 pm at the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, DC is a Mass in honor of the tenth anniversary of the passing of Mother Theresa. Invite anyone you see at Starbucks tomorrow. You never know what life you may save.

I appeal to you therefore, brethren, and beg of you in view of (all) the mercies of God, to make a decisive dedication of your bodies – presenting all your members and faculties – as a living sacrifice, holy (devoted, consecrated) and well pleasing to God, which is your reasonable (rational, intelligent) service and spiritual worship.: (Romans 12:1)

Service With Honor

Veterans;


They saw things you hope you never have to.
We paid them to risk injury. We owe them care.
We have to do a better job taking care of the war wounded. This URGENT story emailed to me seemed worthy of attention (facts have not been verified).

Someone is hopefully paying attention.


Fri Aug 31, 2007 11:17 am (PST)Subject:
Please help save Private Ryan: This Lakota Warrior served two tours in Iraq, participated in over 160 missions, now the Army at Ft.Carson, Colo. wants to kick him out without helpDate: Mon, 27 Aug 2007 13:33:54 -0600The Army is even calling this wounded soldier, "Dead Wood" Write letters, contact your Congressional Delegation, send funds, DO SOMETHING! This Lakota Warrior needs help. The address to help is at the bottom of this article.Gay KingmanColumn: Help lacking for hidden war wound - Sunday. August 26, 2007Pfc. Ryan LeCompteIt's been hell trying to save Private Ryan.
Pfc. Ryan LeCompte, an Army scout, has been diagnosed by military and private doctors with post-traumatic stress disorder and a traumatic brain injury after serving two tours in Iraq with the 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment.

He came home with a wounded mind and a broken body.

Now senior officers want to get rid of him.

The 27-year-old Lakota warrior from Lower Brule, S.D., was a standout soldier, earning accolades for working tirelessly, without complaint, despite the long hours and harsh conditions he faced, according to a December 2003 award recommendation.He participated in more than 160 combat missions.He was an unstoppable force that ranks him among the best in the Thunder Squadron.That was then.Now senior officers at Fort Carson, Colo., argue he should be kicked out of the military without benefits for misconduct, charges that include missing a unit formation and allegedly hitting two soldiers.LeCompte's chain of command has made every effort to mentor and rehabilitate him into a productive citizen and soldier, wrote the Army's congressional coordinator, Kenia Bultman, in an April response to an inquiry from Sen. Tim Johnson, D-S.D.LeCompte's actions continue to defy the good order and discipline of the unit and have a negative impact on the rest of the soldiers.Tammie LeCompte, Ryan's wife, asked the senator's office for help. She said her husband was receiving poor medical care, was harassed by supervisors and was facing a dishonorable discharge after seven years of service.The soldier had been on post at Fort Carson for more than a year before he was admitted to the Sheridan, Wyo., Veterans Administration Hospital for a six-week program, including treatment for substance abuse and post-traumatic stress disorder.He was released in June. But his supervisors had already been building a case to have him discharged.On Aug. 20, Ryan attended a hearing to argue against misconduct charges. But Col. Henry Butchâ Kievenaar said he would proceed with the separation, despite being aware of Ryan's combat-related injuries.The previous month, Kievenaar had discussed a medical separation for post-traumatic stress disorder with the LeComptes and an investigator with Veterans for America, according to a letter sent to the senator's office by Mary Foster, director of the military personnel division at Fort Carson.Maj. Gen. Robert Mixon, Fort Carson's post commander, will make the final decision in days to come.But the outcome doesn't look promising for Ryan.And it doesn't bode well for thousands of other military service members returning from war zones in Iraq and Afghanistan with emotional and mental problems.Dr. Steven Knorr, director of mental health at Evans Army Community Hospital at Fort Carson, issued a memo to unit commanders, urging them to move swiftly and decisively when deciding the fate of soldiers with emotional issues.

An excerpt from the memo posted on the National Public Radio Web site reads: PROCRASTINATING ON DISCIPLINE AND SEPARATION. Delaying administrative separation is counterproductive. Get rid of dead wood.Jason Forrester, a spokesman for Veterans for America, said about 38 percent of soldiers returning from Iraq suffer from mental health problems, but the military has inadequate resources to assist them.They need to be more proactive in screening people when they come back and start treating them rather than punishing them, Forrester said.The General Accounting Office is investigating other allegations made by Fort Carson soldiers who say they were mistreated or kicked out of the Army after admitting they suffer from PTSD.In fact, several multi-layered investigations are under way by the GAO, involving PTSD, traumatic brain injuries and deployment-related health problems.We've had a lot of requests for reports in this area, Laurie Ekstrand, GAO director of health care, said Friday. This is a huge issue.The first GAO report is expected in December. The rest will follow next year, Ekstrand said.Meanwhile, dozens of pages of military medical records show Ryan's PTSD and traumatic brain injury have led to nosebleeds, memory loss, panic attacks and headaches. He also falls asleep at inappropriate times.His tendency to sleep is probably a welcome escape from his bleak internal landscape, wrote Dr. David Polefka, a psychologist at the veterans hospital in Sheridan, Wyo.The military treated Ryan with prescription drugs. This spring, he was oversedated while a patient in the Cedar Springs Behavioral Health System in Colorado Springs, Colo.He had to be resuscitated, according to a July report from Dr. Roderick O'Brien of the U.S. Air Force Academy Hospital.Ryan's family members say he no longer resembles the 20-year-old who signed up for military service in 2000.Orville Langdeau of Lower Brule, S.D., said his nephew can't even make a simple decision by himself. He wants Ryan back among the Lakota, where he can heal and be honored as a combat veteran.In a July 23 psychiatric report, Dr. Anne League described Ryan as very sleepy, looks depressed. When I asked him questions, he either stared back at me, answered, I don't remember,' or I don't know,' or looked at his wife for help.The Fort Carson military psychiatrist said Ryan did appear confused or to not understand what I was asking him. He was alert and orientated, at least after he woke up. He also could not remember the last time he felt happy.Yet, in a medical evaluation requested by Ryan's command, League in a July 30 letter described Ryan as alert, exhibits good eye contact and understanding of his situation and has been able to establish one-to-one relationships. His activities of daily living functioning remain intact. Asked about the contradictory statements, written within a week of each other, League said, I can't speak with anyone without a release from the soldier.And if Ryan were to sign a release?Well, if he's not competent, it raises a lot of issues.

In May, Tammie LeCompte testified before the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform during a hearing called Invisible Casualties:
The Incidence and Treatment of Mental Health Problems by the U.S. Military.

But the hearing didn't give her the platform to say what her life with Ryan was really like.I'm alone and fighting the U.S. Army, she said last week.She quit her job to take care of Ryan and five children. Money is so tight the family is eligible for food stamps. The soldier's wife recently sold their bedroom suite for $600. The kids' beds are gone, too.Two months ago, Tammie sold the family living room set for $900.Anything at home and worth some money is at the pawn shop, she said.Jodi Rave covers Native issues for the Missoulian. Reach her at (406) 523-5299 or jodi.rave@.. .You can help

Friends have established the LeCompte Combat Lakota Warrior Fund. Electronic fund transfers can be sent to:Armed Forces Bank and the Air Academy Bank in Colorado Springs, Colo.Routing No. 101108319Account No. 5157153
The LeComptes' mailing address is:Ryan and Tammie LeCompte4314-D Inchon CircleFort Carson, CO 80913
http://www.ic.arizona.edu/ic/kmartin/School/lakotaact.htm

http://www.indigenouspeople.net/sioux.htm