Seven Quick Takes (vol. 6)

I have been absent from the 7 Quick Takes Crew for a few weeks... but will try to put seven thoughts together on this beautiful morning. Check out Jennifer's Friday offerings over at Conversion Diary.

1. Yesterday was such an unbelievably windy day here in the north Texas area. Apparently it affected plane landings/takeoffs at DFW. And, it did affect us. I had big plans to go pick strawberries to freeze and to make jam. The strawberry patch is only open 3 days/week for picking; Tuesday it was too muddy -- we found out after driving all the way over there; Thursday was waaaay too windy; do we dare try it on Palm Sunday afternoon?

I must say I am very tempted to load up the boys after Mass and go for it. I have missed the availability of fresh (self-picked) fruit since moving over here. I love making jams and jellies. My extended family likes it, too.

2. My little garden is growing well. We have eaten a whole row (admittedly not huge rows, given the size of my garden) of radishes and are beginning to work on row two. From the photo, you may be able to see how well the onions are doing. I also planted four tomato plants, carrots, peppers, cucumbers, green beans and peas. This is all experimental, since my main attempt at growing things to eat has been limited to herbs in past years. I like the small size of my little raised beds. I can easily keep them weeded and planted. I'll keep you posted on our progress.

3. We were part of a slightly smaller group at morning Mass today. Perhaps folks are saving themselves for all the upcoming Holy Week liturgies. My oldest boy is getting very good at being the sole altar server, although today he did forget about holding the book for the intercessory prayers before helping to prepare the altar. Our priest is very kind... gave him a little pat on the arm to let him know it was OK.

4. I have printed up Mass programs for Palm Sunday and Good Friday in preparation for Holy Week. I still need to finish up the special edition for Easter Sunday and then the Easter Season following.

I had a bit of extra space available on the back of the booklets for Palm Sunday and Easter Sunday, so I have started including a few little excerpts from the CMAA publication Frequently Asked Questions on Sacred Music. These questions are typical questions such as: " What is Sacred Music", "Why should we regard Gregorian chant as the ideal?" and "Isn't this just a matter of taste?". The answers are well-documented and feature many quotes from Pope Benedict XVI, Pope John Paul II, Paul VI, Pius X, etc. They also give the references from various Church documents. I am hoping some of the folks at Mass will take the time to read a bit about it. Maybe we will gain some more supporters of the cause.

5. I am amazed at the many ways our new government is intruding upon our lives and the freedoms we have. In recent weeks, we have seen attacks on the unborn, amazingly high governmental expenditures (all in the name of saving our economy), an attempt to restrict freedom in organic farming, bullet casing recycling, etc. The first two items I am sure no one can escape knowledge of... other things seem to be happening quietly and behind the scenes.

Here is some information about the organic farming issue:

House and Senate are about to vote on a bill that will OUTLAW ORGANIC FARMING-- the Food Safety Modernization Act of 2009 (bill HR 875). There is an enormous rush to get this into law within the next week before people realize what is happening.

Main backer and lobbyist is Monsanto – chemical and genetic engineering giant corporation (and Cargill, ADM, and about 35 other related agri-giants) . This bill will require organic farms to use specific fertilizers and poisonous insect sprays dictated by the newly formed agency to "make sure there is no danger to the public food supply". This may include backyard gardens that grow food only for a family and not for sales.

If this passes then NO more heirloom clean seeds but only Monsanto genetically altered seeds.

I find this very disturbing... not just the fact that it will impact organic farmers who grow for sale to grocery stores, etc., but also because it will affect the backyard gardener who brings his excess to sell at farmers' markets. The biggest concern of all, though, is the idea of the reduction of the availability of heirloom seeds. I don't know if, as a practical matter, many folks are aware that many of the wonderful hybrid seeds we happily buy and use for our home gardens will not produce seeds that we could save and use in future years. Heirloom seeds offer that possibility.

One other little known fact of a small, but rather insidious change since Pres. Obama took the reins of power: He recently put out an executive order prohibiting the sale of spent brass casings collected at military shooting ranges to U.S. armaments manufacturers for use in reloading and sale to the public.

Up until now, it has been (from what I have heard) fairly common practice to have all brass casings collected from the ranges and sold to these bullet manufacturers. It greatly lessens the cost of ammunition to the general public for the particular caliber bullets that would apply. Well, military installations are no longer allowed to sell them to U.S. manufacturers. They must sell them to Chinese manufacturers now. I don't know if those Chinese manufacturers would be allowed to sell these products in the U.S. at all, so perhaps the intent is to lessen the supply to U.S. consumers. Just check it out to see if you can find any ammunition to buy for an AR-15. It isn't to be found currently.

Update: A friend corrected my info. This executive order only lasted a week. Here is a news release:

http://www.nraila.org/News/Read/NewsReleases.aspx?ID=12244

6. I am reading a book I just received by Pope Benedict XVI: The Spirit of the Liturgy. It was recommended very highly by many different MusicaSacra forum participants. I am about 20% into the book and am finding it absolutely wonderful. As with Pope Benedict's other books, I find the amount of information about the historical aspect of things and especially as it relates to the Jewish history gives so much depth to the writing.

This is not a quick read... but well worth the effort.

7. I am appalled that Notre Dame has invited Pres. Obama to speak at their commencement and give him an honorary law degree. I signed the petition against it online... along with many others. I don't have much hope that any of the outcry will touch the heart of Fr. Jenkins, but we should all pray for him.

For a bit of consolation, read this letter sent to Fr. Jenkins by one of our fearless bishops with a few extra comments by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf (in red):

March 31, 2009

Reverend John I. Jenkins, C.S.C.
President
University of Notre Dame
400 Main Building
Notre Dame, IN 46556

Dear President Jenkins:

I wish to express in my own name and on behalf of the Catholic community of this Diocese, my dismay and outrage [goes a little beyond the soft-peddling "disappointment", right?] at your decision to invite the current President of the United States to address the 2009 graduates of the University of Notre Dame and to receive an honorary degree.

This decision of your flies in the face of the expressed directive of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops in the year 2004, that Catholic institutions not so honor those who profess opposition to the Church’s doctrine on abortion and embryonic stem cell research.

I would ask that you rescind this unfortunate decision and so avoid dishonoring the practicing Catholics of the United States, including those of this Diocese. [He is sticking for his flock.] Failing that, please have the decency to change the name of the University to something like, “The Fighting Irish College” or “Northwestern Indiana Humanist University.” [simply.too.good] Though promotion of the obscene is not foreign to you, [! This refers to Fr. Jenkin’s relationship to the play The V. Monologues ] I would point out that it is truly obscene [i.e., this is worse yet] for you to take such decisions as you have done in a university named for our Blessed Lady, whom the Second Vatican Council called the Mother of the Church.

I sign myself

Very truly yours,
The Most Reverend Thomas G. Doran, D.D., J.C.D.
Bishop of Rockford

h/t Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

I wish any readers the very best for this coming Holy Week and Easter!

CCHD Second Collection This Weekend...

I have written about how unhappy I was to discover the way our donations have been used by the leadership of the CCHD (See my posts from here and here). This is the weekend (Nov. 22-23) when they will be asking for our donations. I plan to express my displeasure by not donating this time around. I realize this doesn't completely take care of the problem, since I believe that other diocesan funds are used to fund the CCHD in addition to this collection at Masses.



We do have the opportunity to say something to the bishops by withholding donations this time around, however. There are many other ways to support and aid the poor. We should be good stewards of the gifts God has given us and find charities that are in line with Catholic teaching. I personally have some I like very much. Edmundite Missions, Mercy Home, local parish food drives, etc. I also like supporting various cloistered religious orders, such as the Poor Clares (there is a wonderful monastery in Roswell, NM) and Benedictines (Clear Creek Monastery is one of my personal favorites).

Hurray for local Bishops!

Our local bishops, Bishop Kevin Vann (Fort Worth) and Bishop Kevin Farrell (Dallas) have issued a joint letter to the faithful in the two dioceses regarding the sanctity of life in this Respect Life month. See the entire document here:

http://www.cathdal.org/img/Flash/EngFarrellVann.pdf

They very clearly lay out the information for the Catholics in their flocks with which they can inform their consciences in accordance with Church teaching. I was most pleased to see this and happy to know that they are speaking out in this crucial time in an election year.

Pray for an end to abortion!

HT to James at Opinionated Catholic.

Interesting tidbits for a Monday morning

Politics...


Michele Malkin has a funny response to Obama's comments about blue-collar America's bitterness... check out her site here.

In case you missed the comments that led to the hoopla... here is a quote from Obama's speech about those poor jobless folks in PA:

You go into these small towns in Pennsylvania and,
like a lot of small towns in the Midwest, the jobs have been gone now for 25
years and nothing's replaced them...And they fell through the Clinton
Administration, and the Bush Administration, and each successive administration
has said that somehow these communities are gonna regenerate and they have
not.

And it's not surprising then they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion
or antipathy to people who aren't like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or
anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations.

Obama's 'former' pastor is 'wright-on' again here...





Catholicism...


Georgetown University commissioned a poll among Catholics. It seems that many young Catholics are under the misconception that Sunday and Holy Day Mass attendance is optional. On the bright side, the younger generation tends to take fasting and abstinence requirements during Lent more seriously than would have been expected. One interesting fact. The general attitudes of those born before 1960 and post 1980 are more similar than those in-between...

'
At Mass yesterday, our pastor reminded us that Pope Benedict's visit to the U.S. is an opportunity to really listen to what he has to say to us as part of the Church in America. I intend to have EWTN going full-blast a lot this week. I had the great pleasure to be able to sing with the Centenary Camerata, which was the guest choir at Mass at 5:30 pm.

Great post on Peggy Noonan...

HT Creative Minority Report... check out their post about Peggy Noonan's insightful analysis of the Democratic political candidates... attitudes, truthfulness...

As stated in the post, Peggy Noonan has an uncanny ability to make you aware of things you maybe knew.

She speaks of Hillary's untruthfulness and Obama's attitude toward middle class America, as exemplified in their recent actions and words. I think, particularly, Obama's attitude toward middle class America is not atypical of most priveleged liberals... that is the problem. They have no real regard for those they hope to rule.

Wine and conversation

After schola practice this evening... as I was discussing the world problems with friends, it occurred to me that I have gotten a mite cynical in my (let's be kind) middle age. We spoke of politicians, Hillary, Obama, McCain... expressing our dissatisfaction with the entire group of them for various reasons. My opinion is that, no matter how high-minded and moral a person starts out, prolonged exposure to politics and other politicians is a very corrupting influence.

On the ride home, I caught a few minutes of Michael Savage's show on talk radio... yes I do listen to him occasionally, although I am not sure I would qualify as a member of the Savage nation. He was speaking of the huge government defense contracts that are enriching many a senator and congressman. He claims Murtha (the marine who has turned on his fellow jarheads) is one of the biggest beneficiaries... in fact, his claim is that, now that Democrats are becoming as wealthy as the Republicans on all this defense spending, it is necessary to keep the war going and to focus our attention on the economy (it's the economy, stupid) instead.

One of my friends said that there is a bit of humor to be found in the political process... apparently in some states (Ohio being one, I think), the primary process allows members of any party to vote for candidates in the Democrat party... so, some radio show pundits have encouraged Republicans to get in and vote for Hillary (assuming she would be easier to beat in the general election). Some have even, reportedly, been named delegates for Hillary...

I am feeling very fortunate...

Catholic Traditions...

I was just browsing through a Catholic online forum and found a post asking the question: What Catholic traditions and liturgies do you miss from your youth (roughly paraphrased)? I was so surprised to see the responses...

Receiving communion at altar rails-
Altar boys (not girls) with patens-
Sanctus bells-
Priests actually preaching from the pulpit (instead of wandering around like a talk show host)-
The priest purifying the sacred vessels at the altar
The choir actually in the choir loft-
Extra priests coming out at communion time to help distribute-
Confessions offered immediately before Mass-
Pre-Mass rosaries-
Post-Mass recitations of the Prayer to St. Michael the Archangel-
Post-Mass benedictions-
May crownings

Of this list, we have many at our parish regularly... Communion at the altar rails is not done at the Novus Ordo Masses, but we do have a portion of the original altar rail still in the church! As for the priest purifying the sacred vessels... I am thinking if the priest isn't doing this, it is an abuse. The (indult?) allowing it to be done by others has expired and wasn't renewed, as I understand it. I think it now must be done by either a deacon or priest. We don't have pre-Mass rosaries at our parish, but I think it would be allowed if requested by parishioners... the Angelus prayers and Prayer to St. Michael are done before daily Mass regularly.

Tenebrae

This evening, after the Holy Thursday Mass, there was adoration of the Blessed Sacrament in the chapel separate from the main church... at 8 pm I attended my first Tenebrae service. I really liked it a lot... the sound of the wooden (clacker? -- don't know what else to call it) for the strepitus at the end definitely startled a few.

Good Friday Plans

The boys worked really hard on their schoolwork this week and were able to finish all five days' work in only four days... so tomorrow we'll be able to participate in the local "Way of the Cross" along with some other home schooling friends. I'm hoping for good weather...

New Musical Instruments

The boys are enjoying playing their new instruments. It has been a bit easier getting them to practice with the novelty of having different instruments (and that are their very own) to play. They are both progressing well... getting close to the end of the Suzuki Book 1 pieces. Another benefit is that I have pulled out my violin and gotten myself back into practice myself. I find that I often play their pieces along with them when they are first learning them... and also that I can use it to demonstrate a technique I am trying to get them to focus their efforts upon... much easier than trying to tell them with words. Prior to this, I probably hadn't pulled out my violin in 20 years or so... I had to have it restrung and a new bridge fitted for it before I could... now if I can just keep up with them as they progress, all will be well...

Seton Music Program

I don't know if I have mentioned how much I am liking the Seton Music books they provide as part of the curriculum for the kids before. Since we are a bit out of sync with the rest of the world on their schoolwork, I have to adjust the pages we use differently than they recommend in the lesson plans in some cases so that we are singing Easter songs at Easter... since my kids are a half-year ahead of their age group academically, we are always out of step with everyone else...

Anyway, back to topic... the music choices in the little books are great. They often give the solfegge hints for many of the pieces (which I make the boys sing alternately with the words). There are also many Latin pieces in chant notation in my older boy's book this year. It makes it easy for me to include chant notation reading (and Latin pronunciation) as a part of their normal singing and music education. I had a thought today, though, and was just wondering how many of the parents using the books know how to read chant notation... I wondered if a simple unaccompanied CD recording of the various pieces would be useful for those not really musically inclined. Perhaps it would make a good future project...

Political Notes...

It is late... I am hearing (in the background news report) more discussion about the problems Obama may be facing because of the radical nature of the church he has been a member of for the past 20 years. I can remember reading the website of that church several months ago and being a bit appalled at the blatantly racist attitude fostered there... That being said, I am wondering at the timing of this big media blitz. Usually, the timing of these things is no accident, I find. So... who was pulling the strings (either by keeping the big thrust of this story back earlier in the game or by doing it now instead of later on in the campaign -- say, after he already had the Democratic nomination). I am guessing this is an insider (i.e. Democrat) strategy... and who stands to gain?

I thought Obama was a total left-wing nut-roll (for whom I would never vote) way before now... so it has done nothing to change my opinion of him... but certainly it looks to me like a last-ditch effort on the part of Hillary to help her campaign efforts. I am glad the radical nature of his religious affiliation has finally been made public... I am not so gullible that I would believe a man could be a member of a church for such a long time with this type of preacher and never have heard the type of vicious rhetoric Wright spews... in fact, I would go so far as to say that I think Obama is being disingenuous to try to say that he doesn't agree with Wright's views. I suppose he senses that speaking the truth about such political and racial views would not work out well for him in his campaign... and, of course, he is probably right. His is a bit more politically correct packaging, but probably the underlying attitudes are similar, in my opinion.

But, I digress... Happy Triduum...

A Canadian's View of Canadian Healthcare

I know I am a bit slow, but I finally got around to reading last month's Imprimis, which featured a great article by Mark Steyn, a Canadian citizen and columnist. Here's his view on Canadian healthcare, lest Americans be fooled by certain politicians claiming all will be well when we have the same system here...

"Canadian dependence on the United States is particularly true in health care, the most eminent Canadian idea looming in the American context. That is, public health care in Canada depends on private health care in the U.S. A small news story from last month illustrates this:

A Canadian woman has given birth to extremely rare identical quadruplets. The four girls were born at a U.S. hospital because there was no space available at Canadian neonatal intensive care units. Autumn, Brook, Calissa, and Dahlia are in good condition at Benefice Hospital in Great Falls, Montana. Health officials said they checked every other neonatal intensive care unit in Canada, but none had space. The Jepps, a nurse and a respiratory technician were flown 500 kilometers to the Montana hospital, the closest in the U.S., where the quadruplets were born on Sunday.

There you have Canadian health care in a nutshell. After all, you can’t expect a G-7 economy of only 30 million people to be able to offer the same level of neonatal intensive care coverage as a town of 50,000 in remote, rural Montana. And let’s face it, there’s nothing an expectant mom likes more on the day of delivery than 300 miles in a bumpy twin prop over the Rockies. Everyone knows that socialized health care means you wait and wait and wait—six months for an MRI, a year for a hip replacement, and so on. But here is the absolute logical reductio of a government monopoly in health care: the ten month waiting list for the maternity ward. "

Can you tell I don't think socialized medicine is a good idea? I came to this conclusion years ago when we were stationed in Germany. I got a double whammy on it... Firstly, I got to see a military wife and friend go through horrible problems related to a botched operation performed in the German system.

Secondly, I saw an American version of socialized medicine in a little microcosm of the military medical system provided for the military families while over there. All the base services were provided free-of-charge to the military families... you had to report for "sick call" if you wanted to see a doctor for any reason (much like the illegal aliens who use the hospital emergency rooms for their primary health care). Since it didn't cost anything, people were lined up there waiting for the most unbelievably minor things. If it had even cost a co-pay of $5, they would, perhaps, have thought twice about wasting their own and a doctor's time going in for their minor ailment...

Anything that is "free" seemingly has no value...

Kansas City Catholic Post...

Check out this great post by Kansas City Catholic... an interesting analogy.

http://kansascitycatholic.wordpress.com/2008/02/26/do-you-remember-that-time/

Isn't Universal Healthcare Great? Just ask the Canadians...

In Canada, the Schiavo case with an outrageous twist
By Jonathan Rosenblum
An elderly Orthodox Jew is on life support. His children have adamantly opposed his removal from the ventilator and feeding tube, on the grounds that Jewish law expressly forbids any action designed to shorten life. If their father could express his wishes, they say, he would certainly oppose the doctors acting to deliberately terminate his life. The director of the ICU told the children that neither their father's wishes nor their own are relevant, and he would do whatever he decided was appropriate.

Yes, the issue of sanctity of life is a slippery slope, isn't it? We are on the same path here in the U.S. Let's keep in mind that Canada has that wonderful thing -- Universal Healthcare. We should also remember that with it comes many things that aren't so wonderful, this example of lack of personal choice among them. It is so imperative that we vote accordingly...

Read the entire story by clicking on the link above.

Thanks to Inside Catholic.

Catholics and Politics -- Papal Reminders of the Non-negotiables

From Rorate-Caeli:

As far as the Catholic Church is concerned, the principal focus of her interventions in the public arena is the protection and promotion of the dignity of the person, and she is thereby consciously drawing particular attention to principles which are not negotiable.Among these the following emerge clearly today:

[FIRST NON-NEGOTIABLE]- protection of life in all its stages, from the first moment of conception until natural death;

[SECOND NON-NEGOTIABLE]- recognition and promotion of the natural structure of the family - as a union between a man and a woman based on marriage - and its defense from attempts to make it juridically equivalent to radically different forms of union which in reality harm it and contribute to its destabilization, obscuring its particular character and its irreplaceable social role;

[THIRD NON-NEGOTIABLE]- the protection of the right of parents to educate their children.These principles are not truths of faith, even though they receive further light and confirmation from faith; they are inscribed in human nature itself and therefore they are common to all humanity.The Church’s action in promoting them is therefore not confessional in character, but is addressed to all people, prescinding from any religious affiliation they may have. On the contrary, such action is all the more necessary the more these principles are denied or misunderstood, because this constitutes an offence against the truth of the human person, a grave wound inflicted onto justice itself.
Benedict XVI

Address to the Members of the European People's Party

Muppet candidates

Click on the title "muppet candidates" to see a very cute youtube video...

Embryonic Stem Cell Research Article - FIRST THINGS

I've just been reading my February 2008 First Things Journal. I found one article particularly interesting -- "Getting Stem Cells right", by Maureen L. Condic. According to what I have found in the magazine credit and online, she is an associate professor of neurobiology and anatomy at the University of Utah School of Medicine and conducts research on the development and regeneration of the nervous system. She has been a contributor to the National Review and First Things on stem cell research.

This article focused on a means of obtaining reprogrammed cells that are pluripotent (able to generate all the cells of the body) without using human embryos or human or animal eggs. Called induced pluripotent stem cells (IPSCs), they are developed from ordinary human skin cells that were converted to stem cells by a process termed direct reprogramming. This reprogramming is done by means of gene-therapy viruses. The process takes approx. 2 weeks, while no embryos are produced or destroyed.

This process would seem to negate the need for further destruction of human embryos in the quest for embryonic stem cells, since the IPSCs "meet the defining criteria" for embryonic stem cells "with the significant exception" that the cells "are not derived from embryos".

In her article, Dr. Condic brings out the point that even President Clinton's bioethics commission concluded that embryo destruction posed a moral problem and was justifiable only if there were no alternatives. Well... it seems there is now a suitable alternative, but those vested in the destruction of embryos are unwilling to give up their direction in the destruction of human embryos.

It does make you wonder if perhaps (since, after all, there have been no significant clinical treatments for illnesses gained as a result of the embryonic stem cell research to date due to the risk of tumor formation in all forms of pluripotent stem cells) there may be another ideological reason why they want to continue to destroy embryos in their research. Perhaps by getting folks immune to this form of destruction of life, another inroad into the 'culture of death' can be made on ordinary citizens. If they can be made to believe that Embryonic Stem Cell Research has the potential to cure all sorts of horrible human ailments by killing a few embryos (which aren't really persons anyway, according to the researchers), then their ideology is spread insidiously.

On the other side, using this IPSC technology holds many advantages for the researcher. There are none of the ethical considerations involved in using adult skin cells (no eggs, no embryos) in stem cell research. They would now, presumably, have other funding options available to their research as well. Plus, from the article, Dr. Condic says that many researchers have had dismal results in trying to get egg donations from women for their research. The risks involved in harvesting eggs are still fairly high for the women involved.

As Dr. Condic stated in her article: "Good science does not demand that all avenues of inquiry be pursued. The Tuskegee experiments on African American men with syphilis and the Nazi experiments on Jews and disabled persons were not legitimate avenues of scientific investigation and were not justified by the useful information they yielded." When you remember those perversions of the supposed scientific inquiry justifications, we are reminded by Dr. Condic: "No one seriously believes that freedom of scientific inquiry should trump all other considerations."

Read the article... it provides hope that, at least on one front -- in Embryonic Stem Cell Research -- IPSCs will bring about the elimination of destruction of human embryos in clinical research.

FIRST THINGS, February 2008

Voter's Guide for Serious Catholics

I pulled out my old copy of the Catholic Answers Action publication “Voter’s Guide for Serious Catholics” this weekend, intending to pass it along to our pastor. My intent is to offer to purchase a large number of the guide for distribution at our parish. Along the way I got into a discussion with a fellow schola member about the issues that are (as Catholic Answers describes it) nonnegotiable.

While I was lamenting the fact that so many Catholics seem to be uninformed about those key moral issues of importance to faithful Catholics, he was mentioning that some of those same faithful Catholics seemed to think that it was an ‘all-or-nothing’ deal. In other words, if the candidate doesn’t fit the bill completely, it was unacceptable to vote for him. The idea of voting as faithfully as possible and, perhaps at times, choosing a ‘lesser evil’ seems to be anathema to some of those folks. As a result, the possible power of such a moral voting bloc is diminished.

I am also quite often dismayed by how many ‘devout’ Catholics have become ‘cafeteria’ Catholics on some of these moral issues. The big five – abortion, euthanasia, human embryonic stem cell research, human cloning and homosexual marriage – are not necessarily identified as such by many… For some people, providing universal healthcare, eliminating the death penalty, unlimited (illegal) immigration from Mexico, and a possible cure for Parkinson’s disease outweigh what the church has to say on these key issues. So, even if a particular candidate doesn’t score so well on the ‘life issues’, but is a strong supporter of a person’s favorite issue, they feel completely free to vote for him (since none of the other candidates is perfect, either).

I wonder how much these guides help – I have to hope they do some good to those who read them. But I think an opening of the heart to the Church teachings is required… that is a much more difficult thing for many.

Political musings

I am glad Mike Huckabee is a Christian... I am glad he is pro-life. However, I don't agree with his views on several key issues... like his views on immigration, propensity toward taxing the heck out of his constituents, etc. I also find his huckster-like comedic quips on the campaign trail more than a bit annoying... Here's a quote I find troublesome...

Well, let’s remember that all law establishes morality. That’s what law does. The law of speeding is saying that it’s immoral to go at 85 miles an hour. The morality is that we have established a 65-mile-an-hour limit. So that’s what all law does: It establishes that it is wrong for me to murder you (emphasis added). – Mike Huckabee

Doesn't he have it backward? Doesn't morality provide the underlying basis for laws?