Fresh new Binks

With lots of links, artwork, and great commentary. I particularly love this graphic which I stole from his site.

Heh heh heh. Hint. It has to do with the tale of the red underpants.

The Binksmeister also has lots of commentary on the G20 riots:

Barbarianism isn’t about not speaking Greek (the original source of the term), or being one of the famous tribes of antiquity who took on Rome. It’s an attitude towards people and things, that they are there for loot or wrecking or amusement. The sad thing is, these are our own restless over-privileged youth, raging about giant conspiracies and going on rampages. Next week, most of them will be back at McDonalds or Summer jobs or goofing off and smoking up, considering the billions of damage a lark.

The G20 riot-culture has become an excuse for mere idle barbarism with a little 5-finger discount, without fear of consequences.

Take names. Bust heads. Let peaceful protesters have their say, and all the rest get jail-time and fines and criminal records. The more the police (UOttawa, G20, KillTehJews marches) stand back, the worse such things will get. ~

Congratulations and best wishes, Cardinal Ouellet

Today, the Holy Father announced the appointment of Cardinal Marc Ouellet as Prefect of the Congregation for Bishops.

When I first heard the rumors, I knew they were true. Call it a word of knowledge, perhaps a woman's intuition. I just knew.

This is great news for the Universal Church. Sad news for Canada and Quebec.

Here are some of my favorites pictures of him that I've taken over the years. The one at the top was taken in his office in Quebec after I interviewed him there for a profile that ran in advance of the Eucharistic Congress.

One shows him climbing Parliament Hill in the rain during the 2009 March for Life.

There's a beautiful tribute video at ECDT.TV

Looks like I can embed it here.


Here's a link to a profile I did of him in 2008.

Go Ghana! Go Ghana! Go Ghana!

From an article written before little Ghana trounced the United States.

"We love to sing together, dance together, pray together," Ghana striker Asamoah Gyan told Bradley. "It brings joy to our hearts. This is our team."

Bradley says that spirit continues to the field. "What I've noticed, more than anything, about the Black Stars, is they are a team in every sense of the word," he wrote. "From their pregame (and postgame, and halftime, and pre-training and post-training) songs and prayers, to their disciplined adherence to Rajevac's rigid system that features a single striker, they are true believers that the whole can be greater than the sum of its individual pieces. ... It's 11 together with one goal."

Captain John Mensah (right) told the German news service DPA that prayer is no afterthought.

"We are Christians and we all know how important God is," he said. "We all respect God and we pray every time before the game and after the game. ... We praise God, what he has done for us. Then the next day is match-day, so we use that opportunity to give us strength and help us go on into the game."

The team isn't praying alone. The government and nation's churches have called for united prayers at home for the team.

And now that Ghana is the only African team left in the World Cup, Cameroon players Alex Song and Samuel Eto’o both said, in separate interviews, "Everybody must pray for Ghana."

Garden Party at the Nunciature

To mark the fifth anniversary of Pope Benedict XVI's election to the papacy, the Apostolic Nuncio held a garden party for various members of the diplomatic corps, clergy, and friends.

This is Archbishop Pedro Lopez Quintana's first year hosting this annual event, and he is a gracious and warm host. Over the past six or seven years, I have attended several of these events and many of us fondly remembered Archbishop Luigi Ventura, our previous Nuncio, who is now the Nuncio for France. We also remember Msgr. Michael Crotty, who left a few years earlier for Iraq but is now in Rome.

Thank God, Alan Rock never became prime minister

Dissension about Coulter's pending appearance at the University of Ottawa was inflamed by an email sent by a senior university official to her on March 19. It warned that Canadian law places limits on freedom of expression, including restrictions imposed by defamation law and laws against promoting hatred toward an identifiable group.

"I therefore ask you, while you are a guest on our campus, to weigh your words with respect and civility in mind," wrote Francois Houle, vice-president academic and provost.

Coulter made the email public, claiming the university was trying to gag her — triggering an avalanche of angry invective directed at the university for its allegedly heavy-handed effort to smother free speech.

The negative reaction dominated the news media, and resulted in hundreds of often vicious emails to Houle himself.

In fact, the released documents show that it was Rock — not Houle — who asked that the email be sent. Rock even dictated some of the wording.

"Ann Coulter is a mean-spirited, small-minded, foul-mouthed poltroon," Rock wrote to Houle in a March 18 email. "She is 'the loud mouth that bespeaks the vacant mind'."

"She is an ill-informed and deeply offensive shill for a profoundly shallow and ignorant view of the world. She is a malignancy on the body politic. She is a disgrace to the broadcasting industry and a leading example of the dramatic decline in the quality of public discourse in recent times."

At the same time, he argued, "we should not take any steps to interfere with her plans to speak next week on our campus."

Instead, Rock advised Houle he should write to Coulter informing her of the different rules surrounding free speech in Canada compared with those in the United States.

"You, Francois, as Provost, should write immediately to Coulter informing her of our domestic laws. ... You should urge her to respect that Canadian tradition as she enjoys the privilege of her visit."

After seeing a copy of the final email to Coulter, Rock praised Houle: "Quel excellent message! Merci et felicitations. I am sure she has never been dressed down so elegantly in her life!"

Gateway Pundit's dirty laundry list on the oil spill

He writes:

In fact there is clear evidence that the negligence by the Obama Administration caused the destruction of the Gulf coastline.

** The feds only accepted assistance from 5 of 28 countries a month after the disaster.
** It took the Obama Administration 53 days to accept help from the Dutch and British.
** It took them 58 days to mobilize the US military to the Gulf.
** The feds shut down crude-sucking barges due to fire extinguisher concerns.
** The Obama Administration ignored oil boom manufacturers that have miles of product stockpiled in their warehouses.
** They only have moved 31 of 2,000 oil skimmers to the disaster area off of Florida.
** Florida hired an additional 5 skimmer boats to operate off its coast due to federal inaction.
** There are no skimmer boats off the coast of Mississippi.
** The massive A-Boat skimmer won’t be allowed to join the cleanup effort until the Coast Guard and the EPA figure out whether it meets their standards.
** The feds shut down sand berm dredging off the Louisiana coast.
** The president continues to hit the golf course, ball games, hold BBQ’s and party while the crude oil washes up on shore.

That’s what you get when you elect a community organizer as president.

Ah, but you must "never let a crisis go to waste!"

Bottom up or top down church governance

I went to mass this morning as today is the Feast of St. Peter and St. Paul. Bishop Carl Reid gave an off the cuff homily on the meaning of "on this rock I shall found my Church" and then, after a breakfast with the bishop and others, I came home to start culling the huge pile of newspapers that accumulated while we were away.

I came across this article in the Prairie Messenger, but posted online at the National Catholic Reporter. It reinforces why I will sign up for the Personal Ordinariate and thank God I am not an Episcopalian (my bolds):

Independent-minded Episcopalians, however, haven't always been willing to go along, and have pushed the boundaries of acceptable faith and practice.

Jefferts Schori firmly rejected the push to centralize power and discipline, saying that Anglicanism, and the Episcopal Church, were founded by Christians who wished to escape the strong hand of an established hierarchy.

“Unitary control does not characterize Anglicanism; rather, diversity in fellowship and communion does,” she said.

Imposing uniformity on the 77 million Anglicans scattered across the globe runs the risk of repeating the “spiritual violence” and “cultural excesses” of colonial missionaries who built the communion on the back of the British Empire, the presiding bishop added. [There is a lot more spiritual violence in allowing false teaching, because it is soul-destroying]

“We live in great concern that colonial attitudes continue,” said Jefferts Schori, “particularly in attempts to impose a single understanding across widely varying contexts and cultures.”

The presiding bishop also said that criticism of the Episcopal Church often comes from parts of the communion that bar women from becoming priests or bishops; and charged that other Anglican churches allow gay bishops under an unofficial don't ask/don't tell agreement.

“In our context, bowing to anxiety by ignoring that sort of double-mindedness is usually termed a `failure of nerve,'” Jefferts Schori said.

Liberal Episcopalians applauded Jefferts Schori's letter, which was remarkable for its full-throated defense of Episcopal Church policies.

“It is an understated declaration of independence,” said Jim Naughton, editor of the blog Episcopal Cafe. “The presiding bishop is not going to allow the Archbishop of Canterbury to establish the terms of the debate anymore.”

Jefferts Schori's rehashing of Anglican history may seem innocuous to outside observers, said church historian Diana Butler Bass, but her strong defense of democratic Anglicanism is a “call to arms.”

“Those are fighting words,” Butler Bass said. “She's saying, `this is our tradition and you're violating it.' She is accusing Williams of being an imperialist.”

In essence, Williams and Jefferts Schori are having a very old argument over local autonomy and central authority, Butler Bass said -- two extreme and perhaps irreconcilable interpretations of Anglicanism.

“He's trying to find coherent Anglican identity and enforce it in a top-down way, and she's saying we've always been democratic, local, grassroots.”

That argument seems to have reached a breaking point, the historian said.

All I can say is this: we need the ministry of Peter. Thank God that Jesus provided for us and founded his Church on Peter, the rock, and promised the gates of hell will not prevail against Her.

What's funny is how through-the-looking glass all this is. Why? Because the bishopess and her ilk would probably be the most interested in a top-down enforcement of their relativist orthodoxy in a most colonial way upon those "throwback" African Anglican bishops (many with PhDs from the best western universities, but I digress) who understand that the Church has no authority to ordain women or to change the sacrament of marriage.

I have met no greater absolutists than relativists, who are projecting when they accuse those of us who hold to the revealed truth taught by the Church of being absolutists. There is a difference between believing in absolute truth and being an absolutist who would force or impose in a dictatorial fashion.

But someone has to make the final call and determine, by the power of the Holy Spirit, that this is what the Church teaches, someone who is under the authority of the deposit of faith himself.

That would be the Holy Father.

I think, if I am not mistaken, the last set of ARCIC talks will deal with this issue of the local vs. the universal church.

Some catechesis from The Anglo-Catholic

From Fr. William "Doc" Holiday:

Believing" is an ecclesial act. The Church's faith precedes, engenders, supports, and nourishes our faith. The Church is the mother of all believers. "No one can have God as Father who does not have the Church as Mother" (St. Cyprian, De unit. 6:PL 4, 519).

These words from the Catechism of the Catholic Church (181) speak volumes about a genuine Catholic faith. In particular, they teach us that what we believe is not a faith of our own making. The tenets in which we believe existed long before us, and we are called to embrace these pre-existing principles. We may never presume to parse them in accord with another belief system with which we happen to agree as individuals, because, as stated in the Catechism, "Believing is an ecclesial act." As soon as one is confronted with a theological argument that is prefaced with, "Well, I believe…" or, "_____ s have always [or never] believed _____ …" it can almost be guaranteed that the subsequent reference will deviate from what the Church teaches. Consequently, the position can not be truly Catholic.

From the boyz at Hill Buzz

A draconian plan involving this creepy video.

Someone out there with video making skills needs to start turning all of Obama’s cult of personality creepiness against him — by recycling all of the most memorable 2008 campaign bits and showing how all of that Hope and Change measures up to the reality we’re experiencing.

One of the greatest tools we will all have against this administration going forward will prove to be the above “Obama kids” video, shot in California, at a Liberal school where parents indoctrinated their children into the Obama cult by having them learn and perform this Leni Reifenstahl-approved song.

It’s not just super-creepy…it’s political gold, and Republicans need to realize this. Pronto.

Think about it.

Just imagine how effective a video would be if it showed facts and figures about the Obamaspill Gulf Disaster, with these kids as the soundtrack. Intersperse images from the disaster with photos of Obama golfing, yucking it up with Paul McCartney and Beyonce in the White House, and generally behaving like the fool he is while the Gulf of Mexico is destroyed. Include the facts that Obama approved this well, that Obama waived the safety requirements to make drilling easier for BP, and document all of the international offers for help that Obama turned down which have made the disaster worse. Show the resistance the Obama Administration has given Governors Jindal and Barbour as they have tried to protect their states from this disaster…all while people hear those creepy kids singing their praises to Obama the Lightbringer.

This could be a very powerful visual.

And it can be repeated for every other disaster to come under this “president”.

He proclaimed himself a demigod who could do anything.

His cultists used children to literally sing his praises as a Lightbringer.

Every day, he fails the most basic tests of competence.

Call. Him. Out. On. It.

Sarah Palin. Wow.

She is electric. From Dodo Can Spell.

Palin is passionate about weaning the USA off the oil wells of the Middle East. Here she is giving a speech to Texans in Tyler and with every speech she is picking up additional members for her fan club. On the oil spill fiasco, she tells Obama : "Buck up or stay in the truck." I have no clear idea what that phrase means, but it sounds good. According to her the USA is the only country in the world that does not want to become self-dependent where energy is concerned but would rather that they depend on other nations for it. She is right as usual.

Posted by MariaS at 10:14

Some beautiful Anglican plainsong

This is part of the Anglican patrimony I hope will be preserved in the Personal Ordinariates---Anglican plainsong.

Click on the audio for Psalm 18 part two, then on the Magnificat.

Beautiful.

I have a psalter and sometimes sing Morning Prayer and Evensong, though my voice is no where near as disciplined as this.

Pictures from Banff

Our last dinner together in Banff Friday evening, before our return to Ottawa from Calgary on Saturday night.

Other pictures were taken on the Banff gondola, at the top of Sulpher Mountain, and from the window of our room.

We also saw a young grizzly bear on the way up to the gondola.

I swam in the indoor pool shown below one afternoon.

A good time was had by all. More than that. It was a great time!

Still more pictures from the Rockies

My traveling companions indulged me with a trip to Storm Mountain Lodge, on Rte #93, the pass that crosses the Rockies just south of Lake Louise and north of Banff. When we made our first Rockies trip we stayed in one of their 1920s vintage cabins for a few nights. I loved it, but my husband hated it. No cable, no TV, bears outside at night, a fireplace but a tiny bathroom wedged into a corner of the cabin. The roof leaked during a massive thunderstorm.

The cabins looked like they'd been spruced up and they all sported new roofs.

We might have stayed for lunch, but they had a crackling fire in the lodge that made it a little smokey for the one among us with allergies.

We rode up a mountain in Lake Louise on an open chair. But we missed seeing an grizzly bears that day.

More pictures from the Rockies

We stayed at the Post Hotel in Lake Louise and our room had a stone fireplace and a Thomas Kinkade view of a rushing river.

Alas, it was not really cold enough to justify my lighting a fire, even though I very much wanted to!

I did have a fire at our Jasper Park Lodge accommodation.








You could always tell a wild animal had been spotted when you'd see cars parked by the side of the road. And everyone getting out and getting close, even if it was a bear!

My 61st birthday dinner in Jasper

We stayed for three glorious nights at the Jasper Park Lodge. On our first night, we celebrated my birthday (June 19th) at the Lodge's restaurant, with some champagne and a fine dinner.

I believe I had prime rib, medium rare.