2007: In the Can

Herewith the year in review, with thanks to Wikipedia for refreshing my memory on various events.

January

4: Nancy Pelosi (D. California) is the first woman elected Speaker of the House, proving once again there's no accounting for taste.

10: President Bush announces a troop surge in Iraq. Liberals have a cow, and will have an even bigger cow when it becomes apparent (despite the efforts of the drive-by media) that the surge is a success.
15: Saddam Hussein's half-brother/intelligence chief and the former chief judge of Iraq are both hanged at dawn. Iran, under the leadership of the Maximum Pipsqueak, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, announces its intent to defy ineffectual U.N. sanctions and go forward with its nuclear program, leaving western liberals unconcerned.
20: Hillary Clinton announces her intent to re-capture the White House.

Deaths: Molly Ivins; Robert Drinan, S.J.; Denny Doherty (the Mamas and the Papas); Art Buchwald; Ron Carey (Off. Levitt on Barney Miller); Yvonne De Carlo.

February

10: General David Petraeus takes command in Iraq.

15: Twenty-nine people accused of taking part in the Madrid, Spain Bombing of 2004 go on trial in Madrid.
20: The Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit upholds the Military Commissions Act of 2006, which suspends habeas corpus in the case of enemy combatants. The U.S. Supreme Court is expected to issue an opinion in two consolidated cases challenging the Act during the next year.
25: 79th Annual Academy Awards. Only a small fraction of the population of the United States gave a silver-plated rat's ass.

Deaths: Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr.; Ian Richardson (British actor); Anna Nichole Smith; Ralph De Toledano (conservative commentator).

March

6: Scooter Libby is found guilty of perjury and obstruction of justice, even though the investigation in which he allegedly perjured himself and obstructed justice turned up no crimes.

Deaths: Calvert DeForest (Larry "Bud" Melman); Betty Hutton (singer and actress); John Inman (British actor; Mr. Humphries in Are You Being Served?).

April

11: North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper drops all charges against the Duke University lacrosse players accused of gang-raping a stripper, and categorically declares them innocent.
12: CBS Radio sacks Don Imus for making racist remarks about the Rutgers University women's basketball team.

16: In the United States' worst campus mass murder, a student with a history of serious mental disturbance goes on a shooting spree at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, Virginia, killing 32 (not including the gunman, who would commit suicide) and wounding 29.
16: The U.S. Supreme Court releases its opinion in Gonzales v. Carhart, upholding a ban on partial-birth abortion; Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg melts down.

Deaths: Tom Poston; Tommy Newsom (musician on the Johnny Carson show); Jack Valenti (president, Motion Picture Association of America); Boris Yeltsin; Kitty Carlisle; Patricia Buckley (wife of William F. Buckley, Jr.); Don Ho; Kurt Vonnegut; Johnny Hart (author of the comic strip B.C.).

May

6: Nicolas Sarkozy, friend of the United States, is elected President of France.

7: NASA announces that the Chandra X-Ray Observatory has detected the brightest known supernova. In typical, unimaginative astronomer fashion, this astounding phenomenon is designated "SN 2006gy."
10: British Prime Minister Tony Blair announces his forthcoming resignation.
11: During his first visit to Latin America, Pope Benedict canonizes 18th-century Franciscan friar Frei Galvão, Brazil's first saint.
29: Bashar Al-Assad is "re-elected" President of Syria.

Deaths: Charles Nelson Reilly; Les Schwab; Jerry Falwell.

June

1: Serial killer Jack "The Dripper" Kevorkian is sprung from prison after serving a paltry eight years for murdering people under the guise of "compassion."

2: Four men are charged with conspiring to launch a terrorist assault on JFK Airport in New York City.
5: Scooter Libby is sentenced to 30 months in federal prison for allegedly perjuring himself and obstructing an investigation that had uncovered no crimes.
16: Durham County Prosecutor Michael Nifong is disbarred as a result of the spurious rape charges filed against members of the Duke University lacrosse team.
27: British Prime Minister Tony Blair resigns in favor of the new Labour leader Gordon Brown.
30: Terrorists launch a car bomb attack on Glasgow International Airport in Scotland.

Deaths: Liz Claiborne; Charles W. Lindberg (last surviving participant in the two flag-raisings over Mt. Suribachi, Iwo Jima, the first of which did not yield the famous photograph); Ruth Graham (wife of Billy Graham); Kurt Waldheim.

July

7: Feast of the Exaltation of the Cross: Pope Benedict issues the long-awaited motu propio, freeing the Traditional Latin Mass from the shackles of stingy bishops.
10: The Cowboy of God is at it again, approving a document issued by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith that reaffirms the Church's age-old doctrine of extra Ecclesiam nulla salus (no salvation outside the Church). Liberals everywhere have a cow.
14: The Archdiocese of Los Angeles, under the leadership of Cardinal Roger Mahony, enters into a $600 million dollar settlement of sex abuse lawsuits, thereby saving the Cardinal from having to testify at trial.
15: Catholic Portugal legalizes abortion.
18: NFL quarterback Michael Vick is indicted in the infamous dog-fighting case.
25: Great moments in blog history: V for Victory! is born. Cyberspace would never be the same.
26: U.S.-led troops kick butt in the Helmand province of Afghanistan, permanently drawing the sting from fifty "insurgents."
30: U.S. Chief Justice John Roberts suffers a seizure, raising unseemly liberal hopes for a new vacancy on the Court.

Deaths: Ingmar Bergman; Tom Snyder; Tammy Faye Bakker (Messner); Lady Bird Johnson.

August

1: Collapse of the Interstate 35W bridge over the Mississippi in Minneapolis during rush hour, Minnesota, killing thirteen.
6: The Crandall Canyon mine collapses in Huntington, Utah. Three rescue workers die in the attempt to save six trapped miners, who are never recovered.
15: An earthquake measuring 8.0 on the moment magnitude scale strikes Peru, killing more than 500.
27: Former NFL player Michael Vick pleads guilty in the infamous dog-fighting case. All hell breaks loose for Idaho senator Larry Craig when he is found to have pleaded guilty to a disorderly conduct charge arising out of an alleged homosexual encounter in the men's room at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport on August 8th. U.S. Attorney Alberto Gonzales announces his resignation.
29: The infamous salmonella spinach scare breaks out.

Deaths: Richard Jewell (security guard wrongly accused of perpetrating the 1996 Olympics bombing in Atlanta); Leona Helmsley; Phil Rizzuto; Merv Griffin; Hal Fishman (face of the news in Los Angeles since 1960).

September

8: A great blogger and Dominican lawyer celebrates a birthday (and she won't say which one).
10: Gen. David Petraeus testifies before Congress about the effectiveness of the troop surge; Democrats' shameful treatment of him backfires.
12: The first of a series of major earthquakes takes place off the coast of Sumatra.
14: The motu proprio freeing up the Traditional Latin Mass takes effect.
16: O.J. Simpson is charged with six felonies in connection with an armed robbery in Las Vegas.
26: In an attempt to prevent a schism within the Anglican church, the U.S. Episcopal bishops agree to "exercise restraint" in the areas of consecrating gay bishops and authorizing rites for blessing same-sex unions.

Deaths: Lois Maxwell (the original Miss Moneypenny); Marcel Marceau; Alice Ghostley (character actress); Brett Somers; Jane Wyman; Han Dingxiang (Chinese Roman Catholic bishop imprisoned for defying the Communist government); Madeleine L'Engle (author of A Wrinkle in Time); Luciano Pavarotti.

October

3: More than 3,000 miners are trapped in the Elandskraal gold mine in South Africa. All are rescued.
12: Following in the illustrious footsteps of Soviet stooge Linus Pauling, Soviet dictator Mikhail Gorbachev, terrorist Yassir Arafat, and goober-grabbing, America-bashing ex-President Jimmy Carter, envirowacko Al Gore wins the Nobel "Peace" Prize.
19: A letter sent to Clear Channel Communications by U.S. Senate Majority Leader "Dingy" Harry Reid in an attempt to silence radio superstar Rush Limbaugh is auctioned off on eBay for $2.1 million. The money is donated to the Marine Corps-Law Enforcement Foundation.
20: Conservative Catholic Bobby Jindal is elected Governor of Louisiana, making him America's first governor of Indian descent. In southern California, fires begin raging that will consume half a million acres between Santa Barbara and the Mexican border.
28: Pope Benedict beatifies 498 martyrs of the Spanish Civil War. Liberals have the vapors over the fact that these martyrs were on the "wrong" side.

Deaths: Robert Goulet; Joey Bishop; Deborah Kerr.

November

3: Crisis in Pakistan: President Musharaff declares a state of emergency.
5: The Writers Guild of America goes on strike. Nobody can tell the difference.
7: French President Nicolas Sarkozy addresses a joint session of Congress, and sends liberals all over the world into apoplectic fits by expressing friendship for and gratitude toward the United States, especially for the United States' enormous role in liberating France from the Nazis.
15: The International Atomic Energy Agency reports that Iran is defying the impotent U.N. Security Council by continuing to enriching uranium. Liberals turn over in bed.
30: Practitioners of the Religion of Peace in Sudan demand the murder of a schoolteacher who allowed her students to "insult" the prophet Mohammed by naming a teddy bear after him.

Deaths: "Evel" Knievel; Henry Hyde; Sean Taylor (Washington Redskins); Dick Wilson (Mr. Whipple in the old Charmin commercials); Norman Mailer; Brig. Gen. Paul Tibbets (pilot of the Enola Gay).

December

5: A 19-year-old hoping to become famous opens fire at the Westroads Mall in Omaha, Nebraska, murdering eight before turning the gun on himself.
8-18: Killer ice storms rip through the United States and Canada, leaving at least 64 dead.
9: A gunman opens fire at the New Life Church in Colorado Springs, Colorado, killing four and injuring two. A female security guard carrying a concealed weapon ends the attack by shooting the gunman. The shooter appears to be the same who had murdered two people at a missionary training center in Arvada, Colorado earlier the same day.
10: Michael Vick gets 23 months' federal time for his role in the infamous dog-fighting case. He is still facing state charges in Virginia.
15: President Pervez Musharaff lifts the state of emergency declared on November 3rd.
18: King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia pardons a girl who had been sentenced to 200 lashes and 6 months' imprisonment for having been alone with an unrelated male at the time she was gang-raped by several men.
19: Russian KGB thug dictator President Vladimir Putin is designated Time magazine's "Person of the Year," joining a long list of worthies that includes Pierre Laval (1931), Adolf Hitler (1938), Joseph Stalin (1939 and 1942), Nikita Khrushchev (1957), Jimmy Carter (1976), Ayatollah Khomeini (1979), Mikhail Gorbachev (1987 and 1989), and Bill Clinton (1992 and 1998).
20: Queen Elizabeth breaks Queen Victoria's record as longest-lived British monarch.
25: Tatiana, a four-year-old Siberian tiger, escaped her cage at the San Francisco Zoo and mauled several people before being shot by police.
22: Britain's former Prime Minister Tony Blair's conversion to Catholicism is announced.
27: Benazir Bhutto of Pakistan, the first woman ever to have served as prime minister of a Muslim country, is assassinated in a suicide bomb attack at a political rally in Rawalpindi.
31: Sarah Jane Moore is paroled at the age of 77 after spending 32 years in prison for trying to assassinate President Ford in 1975. Her attempt on Ford's life came less than three weeks after that perpetrated by Manson Family member Lynette "Squeaky" Fromme, who is currently serving a life sentence in Texas.

Deaths: Ike Turner; Anton Rodgers (British actor); Floyd Red Crow Westerman (actor and American Indian activist); Dan Fogelberg; Frank Capra, Jr.; Stu Nahan (long-time Los Angeles sportscaster).

And this is only a microscopic fraction of all the drama of 2007. May 2008 be a damn sight better.

More Great Movie Lines

In a recent marathon movie session, during which it began to dawn on a friend's 20-year-old son that "old" movies (and especially black-and-white movies) aren't so lame after all, I was reminded of some more classic movie lines, to wit:

Blazing Saddles (Cleavon Little, Gene Wilder, Slim Pickens, Harvey Korman, Crossbow Productions, 1974):
Mongo only pawn in game of life.

Heartbreak Ridge (Clint Eastwood, Marsha Mason, Mario Van Peebles, The Malpaso Movie Company, 1986):

The Marines are looking for a few good men. Unfortunately, you ain't it.

Casablanca (Bogey, Ingrid Bergman, Paul Henreid, Sidney Greenstreet, Warner Bros., 1942):
Captain Renault: What in heaven's name brought you to Casablanca?
Rick: My health. I came to Casablanca for the waters.
Captain Renault: The waters? What waters? We're in the desert.
Rick: I was misinformed.

To see a kid go from scoffing at black-and-white movies to literally sitting on the edge of his seat in front of Casablanca almost makes up for the fact that they just don't make movies (much less movie "stars") like they used to.

December 28th: Feast of the Holy Innocents

From today's Office of Readings: excerpt of a sermon by Bishop St Quodvultdeus.

A tiny Child is born, who is a great King. Wise men are led to Him from afar. They come to adore One who lies in a manger and yet reigns in heaven and on earth. When they tell of One who is born a King, Herod is disturbed. To save his kingdom he resolves to kill Him, though if he would have faith in the Child, he himself would reign in peace in this life and for ever in the life to come.

Why are you afraid, Herod, when you hear of the birth of a king? He does not come to drive you out, but to conquer the devil. But because you do not understand this you are disturbed and in a rage. To destroy one Child whom you seek, you show your cruelty in the death of so many children.

You are not restrained by the love of weeping mothers and fathers mourning the deaths of their sons, nor by the cries and sobs of the children. You destroy those who are tiny in body because fear is destroying your heart. You imagine that if you accomplish your desire you can prolong you own life, though you are seeking to kill Life Himself.

Yet your throne is threatened by the Source of grace -- so small, yet so great -- Who is lying in the manger. He is using you, all unaware of it, to work out His own purposes freeing souls from captivity to the devil. He has taken up the sons of the enemy into the ranks of God's adopted children.

The children die for Christ, though they do not know it. The parents mourn for the death of martyrs. The Christ Child makes of those as yet unable to speak fit witnesses to Himself. See the kind of kingdom that is His, coming as He did in order to be this kind of King. See how the Deliverer is already working deliverance, the Savior already working salvation.

But you, Herod, do not know this and are disturbed and furious. While you vent your fury against the Child, you are already paying Him homage, and do not know it.

How great a gift of grace is here! To what merits of their own do the children owe this kind of victory? They cannot speak, yet they bear witness to Christ. They cannot use their limbs to engage in battle, yet already they bear off the palm of victory.

Honoring the Fallen at Christmas

Arlington National Cemetery.


The Tomb of the Unknowns.

H/T Tom Cralley.

"...And on Earth Peace to Men of Good Will."

Just keep repeating to yourself over and over: the Religion of Peace...the Religion of Peace...the Religion of Peace...

Merry Christmas!

Winter Solstice

Happy Winter Solstice to all you bone-in-the-nose fake Druids, pagan poseurs, and Little Children of Stonehenge out there who will be going out to dance beneath the Haunted Moon, where the dewdrops cry and the cats meow!

Video Caution: one bleepable word.

A Meditation on Mercy

Ever stop to thank God for not letting you have your own way all the time? However bad things might be, have you ever considered what a complete and unmitigated hash your life would be right now if you had always gotten everything you ever wanted, without let or hindrance?

In case you still doubt that God's mercy often consists in not letting us have everything we want, see Exhibit A.

"Scrooooooooooge!"

Marley was dead: to begin with. There is no doubt whatever about that. The register of his burial was signed by the clergyman, the clerk, the undertaker, and the chief mourner. Scrooge signed it: and Scrooge's name was good upon 'Change, for anything he chose to put his hand to. Old Marley was as dead as a door-nail.

Thus begins one of the most renowned secular Christmas stories of all time, the first edition of which was first published 164 years ago today. Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol in Prose, Being a Ghost Story of Christmas -- or, as it's now commonly known, A Christmas Carol -- has been adopted for movies, television, radio, theater and even opera; movie versions go back all the way to 1908. (100 years ago -- how time flies!)

As far as movie versions of A Christmas Carol go, I personally prefer:

A Christmas Carol (Reginald Owen, Gene Lockhart, Loew's, 1938)
A Christmas Carol (George C. Scott, Edward Woodward, made for television, 1984)
A Christmas Carol (Patrick Stewart, made for television, 1999)

Oh, yeah: and I have to admit liking Scrooged (Mirage Productions, 1988), with Bill Murray as Francis Xavier Cross, the Scrooge-like TV network executive who has a lot of straightening up to do. One good movie line: when Karen Allen gets into the cab driven by the cigar-chomping, Brooklyn-accented Ghost of Christmas Past, asks to be taken to the network studio building, and the Ghost asks, grinning: "Which floor?"

Milestone!

Today at 11:55:57 a.m. Mountain Time, the 20,000th visitor since December 11, 2006 arrived on the scene. Thank you to all my loyal readers, and to all who link to this humble site.

I Gotta Start Paying More Attention to the Bulletin!

I do more than my fair share of complaining when things go wrong, so now it's time to declaim from the rooftops about something that's going right. For one thing, the priests at my new parish are both wise, highly orthodox, completely adorable, and even cassock-wearing (the first I have seen since moving to Idaho more than 12 years ago). For another, Latin is slowly but surely making its way back to the liturgy at this parish. And for yet another, some changes for the better are coming to the interior of the church. Here are the pastor's notes in this week's bulletin (the paragraph breaks are mine):

Last week I wrote about the tabernacle in our parish church being moved into the middle of the sanctuary. It will be moved at the beginning of the Christmas season, and will be placed on a wooden stand, or altar, that matches the main altar and the ambo. This altar will be temporary and at some point in the future we will look at providing a more substantial one on which to place the tabernacle.

Once the tabernacle is moved there will be a different protocol upon entering and exiting the church. As it is now we bow to the altar before going into our pew and also as we leave, once the tabernacle is in the sanctuary we will genuflect tot he Lord present in the Eucharist as we enter or leave the church....Also the tabernacle present in plain view reminds us to demonstrate a respectful demeanor in the church before and after Mass keeping conversation to a minimum.

The tabernacle in plain view is a wonderful sign of the presence of God in this special place which is our parish church. It is also a challenging sign for us because we ourselves become a sort of tabernacle as we receive the Body and Blood of Christ our Lord.

So, to all you people who are consumed by depression over the state of the church over the last several decades (and especially in this diocese, where all sorts of nutty things are going on), it's time to take heart. Playtime is over. Things ARE changing.

When the Real Criminal is the Victim

In 2006, a nineteen-year-old girl in the eastern Saudi Arabian town of Qatif met with a high school friend in order to get back a picture of herself that she had given him before she was married. During the course of this meeting, they were assaulted by seven men who gang-raped the girl.

In November of that year, a court sentenced the girl who had been brutalized to jail time and 90 lashes. Her crime? Being alone in a car with a man to whom she was neither related nor married. In fairness, it must be pointed out that the court allowed itself to be distracted from throwing the book at the rape victim just long enough to impose token prison sentences on the rapists. However, when the girl appealed, the court increased her sentence to six months and 200 lashes. Today, it is reported that, amid a firestorm of international protest, King Abdullah has pardoned the rape victim, while nevertheless upholding the correctitude of the verdict against her.

American feminists are so busy making the world safe for abortionists and promiscuous men that one is hard-pressed to find them even expressing an opinion on the enormities committed against their sex in places like Saudi Arabia where, in the ordinary course of what passes for justice, a rape victim needs to be pardoned by the king in order to escape punishment. The National Organization for Women's shrieky website, for example, does not even mention this incident. But let a prosecutor in, say, Kansas go after Planned Parenthood for its complicity in child sexual abuse, and all PMS will break loose.

Feminists whose life work is the destruction of Christian civilization need to understand that it is precisely this type of "justice" from which evil, oppressive, patriarchal Christendom protects them. Whatever may be wrong about this country, a sentence like the following cannot truthfully be uttered here: "Today the President pardoned a woman for being a rape victim."

Unless the feminazis win the war for this country's soul.

December 16, 1944: Battle of the Bulge

The Battle of the Ardennes, popularly known as the Battle of the Bulge, the German Army's last great offensive of World War II, began sixty-three years ago today in the snow-covered, semi-mountainous Ardennes forest region of Belgium and Luxembourg. The Nazis succeeded in surprising the Allies and creating a salient or "bulge" in their line of advance; but thanks to fierce American resistance, failed in their ultimate objective: to cut the Allied line, surround their armies and force them to sue for peace. The soldiers who beat back the Nazi assault and erased the "bulge" did so in spite of the Ardennes' most rigorous winter conditions in living memory.

The Battle of the Bulge was the deadliest battle of the war for the United States. There were 81,000 American casualties, including 23,554 captured and 19,000 killed. On December 17, 1944, the infamous Massacre at Malmedy would take place, in which Kampfgruppe Peiper, part of the First SS Panzer Division, would murder a group of unarmed Americans captured during the offensive.

Book Meme!

The Redoubtable Marcus Magnus, knowing what a sucker I am on this subject (and being a really huge one himself), has tagged me for a meme about books. (By the way, I think the book he has in mind in his answer to Item No. 7 is Abbé Augustin Barruel's Memoirs Illustrating the History of Jacobinism -- a book both of us would like to lay our hands on.)

1. One book that changed your life: A Trumpet for Reason, by Leo Rosten, author of The Joys of Yiddish and Hooray for Yiddish!. It helped nudge me to conservatism, which in turn helped nudge me back into the Church.

2. One book that you’ve read more than once: Hands down, it's actually three books: The Lord of the Rings, by J.R.R. Tolkien. After reading it 35 times, I lost count. (And, of course, because I read these books so many times, the movies, with all their plot and character changes, drove me nuts.)

3. One book you’d want on a desert island: I also want a Notebook with a satellite internet connection, not only so I can read all the books, but also so I can send for help!

4. One book that made you laugh: All the Trouble in the World, by P.J. O'Rourke.

5. One book that made you cry: Just about anything by St. Alphonsus Ligouri or St. Louis de Montfort.

6. One book that you wish had been written: "How Bill Clinton Lost the Presidency."

7. One book that you wish had never been written: The fraudulent yet incredibly destructive "Kinsey Report" on human sexuality (which is actually two books).

8. One book you’re currently reading: Libido Dominandi: Sexual Liberation & Political Control by E. Michael Jones. I'm also just starting Ann Coulter's new book: If Democrats Have Any Brains, They'd Be Republicans.

9. One book you’ve been meaning to read: One day I'd like to be able to get through Gibbon's The Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire. I've tried a couple of times to get through it, but so far haven't succeeded.

I tag Athanasius contra Mundum at 50 Days After!

A Blast from the Past

It's been a long time since I posted anything about my hometown of Reseda, so...

...here is my home parish, St. Catherine of Siena in Reseda, California. Except for the palm trees in the front, it looks just the same as ever on the outside. The steeple, however, is not original to the building. The original steeple, which was white and not a metal skeleton, was badly damaged in the Northridge Earthquake and had to be replaced. They redid it in metal so that it would be less top-heavy.

The picture on the front of the church is a mosaic. Jesus is offering St. Catherine her choice of a gold ring or the Crown of Thorns, and she is reaching for the latter.

December 12th: Our Lady of Guadalupe

Today is the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe, who appeared to St. Juan Diego Cuauhtlatoatzin in 1531. This is the image the Blessed Mother left on St. Juan Diego's cactus fiber tilma. Though made from material that seldom lasted more than 20 years, the tilma has survived several disasters and continues in good shape to this day.

The symbolism of the image of Guadalupe is fascinating. A couple of years ago, Happy Catholic posted a very good explication; I can do no better than to link to it here.

The Veneration of Martyrs

In today's Office of Readings in honor of the feast of Pope St. Damasus (c. A.D. 305-384), St. Augustine copes with objections to the veneration of martyrs, to whom St. Damasus was greatly devoted. Since many Protestants have been falsely taught that the Communion of Saints is idolatry, and since many Protestants also admire St. Augustine, this clear, simple passage of his would be a good one to refer them to. It not only clearly explains the nature of the veneration of saints, carefully distinguishing it from the worship due to God alone; it also proves that the veneration of the saints comes down to us from the very beginning of the Church and was not merely an invention of the "Dark Ages."

At least some Protestants who admire St. Augustine seem to think they can find support for their views in his writings. This is just one of countless instances in which Augustine refutes Protestant doctrine. Plus, as the Redoubtable Marcus Magnus, himself a former Protestant, is fond of pointing out, if the Protestants who admire St. Augustine had lived in his time, they would have had to attend Mass in order to hear his words.

From a treatise against Faustus by St. Augustine, bishop.

We, the Christian Community, assemble to celebrate the memory of the martyrs with ritual solemnity because we want to be inspired to follow their example, share in their merits, and be helped by their prayers. Yet we erect no altars to any of the martyrs, even in the martyrs' burial chapels themselves.

No bishop, when celebrating at an altar where these holy bodies rest, has ever said, "Peter, we make this offering to you," or "Paul, to you," or "Cyprian, to you." No, what is offered is offered always to God, who crowned the martyrs. We offer in the chapels where the bodies of those He crowned rest, so the memories that cling to those places will stir our emotions and encourage us to greater love both for the martyrs whom we can imitate and for God Whose grace enables us to do so.

So we venerate the martyrs with the same veneration of love and fellowship that we give to the holy men of God still with us. We sense that the hearts of these latter are just as ready to suffer death for the sake of the Gospel, and yet we feel more devotion toward those who have already emerged victorious from the struggle. We honor those who are fighting on the battlefield of this life here below, but we honor more confidently those who have already achieved the victor's crown and live in heaven.

But the veneration strictly called "worship," or latria, that is, the special homage belonging only to the Divinity, is something we give and teach others to give to God alone. The offering of a sacrifice belongs to worship in this sense (that is why those who sacrifice to idols are called idol-worshipers), and we neither make nor tell others to make any such offering to any martyr, any holy soul, or any angel. If anyone among us falls into this error, he is corrected with words of sound doctrine and must then either mend his ways or else be shunned.

The saints themselves forbid anyone to offer them the worship they know is reserved for God, as is clear from the case of Paul and Barnabas. When the Lycaonians were so amazed by their miracles that they wanted to sacrifice to them as gods, the apostles tore their garments, declared that they were not gods, urged the people to believe them, and forbade them to worship them.

Yet the truths we teach are one thing, the abuses thrust upon us another. There are commandments that we are bound to give; there are breaches of them that we are commanded to correct, but until we correct them we must of necessity put up with them.

Memed!

Athanasius contra Mundum at 50 Days After has tagged me for a meme in which I am to disclose 8 random facts about myself. So, let's see if I can come up with eight things random enough and interesting enough to hold people's attention:

1. When I was in high school, I won several trophies for my oral interpretation of Spanish poetry (an excerpt from Llanto por Ignacio Sánchez Mejías by Federico García Lorca) and for extemporizing short speeches in Spanish.

2. I am a published poet. When I was in college, I published a free verse poem called "Elegy on a Bar of Soap." I have written very little in the way of poetry since college.

3. I just published an article in the November issue of Homiletic and Pastoral Review.

4. To the best of my recollection, I have not chewed gum since high school.

5. I have never seen Grease or West Side Story. I thought E.T. was good, but I haven't needed to see it more than once.

6. I once had the privilege of singing the Exsultet at Easter Vigil Mass.

7. My first ever jury trial was a misdemeanor case in which my client was charged with one count of battery and one count of trespass. The verdict: not guilty on both counts.

8. I once kissed a cardinal's ring: that of Timothy Cardinal Manning, then Archbishop of Los Angeles, at the former Cathedral of St. Vibiana. I was in grade school. I wonder if kissing cardinal's rings is still done.

If you're reading this, consider yourself tagged!

December 8, 1941: War Declared on Japan

Here is the text of Congress' joint resolution declaring war on Japan on December 8, 1941:

JOINT RESOLUTION Declaring that a state of war exists between the Imperial Government of Japan and the Government and the people of the United States and making provisions to prosecute the same.

Whereas the Imperial Government of Japan has committed unprovoked acts of war against the Government and the people of the United States of America:

Therefore be it Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,

That the state of war between the United States and the Imperial Government of Japan which has thus been thrust upon the United States is hereby formally declared;

and the President is hereby authorized and directed to employ the entire naval and military forces of the United States and the resources of the Government to carry on war against the Imperial Government of Japan;

and, to bring the conflict to a successful termination, all of the resources of the country are hereby pledged by the Congress of the United States.

Approved, December 8, 1941, 4:10 p.m. E.S.T.

It is instructive to compare this Joint Resolution to the one issued on September 15, 2001 in the wake of 9/11. It would have been better if the words "declaration of war" had been used in this Joint Resolution, since this would have brought some much-needed clarity of purpose at a time when our resolve is seriously weakened from within. However, this Joint Resolution is clearly tantamount to a formal declaration of war, and really does not differ in substance from the formal declaration of war issued in 1941.

JOINT RESOLUTION

To authorize the use of United States Armed Forces against those responsible for the recent attacks launched against the United States.

WHEREAS, on September 11, 2001, acts of treacherous violence were committed against the United States and its citizens; and

WHEREAS, such acts render it both necessary and appropriate that the United States exercise its right to self-defense and to protect United States citizens both at home and abroad, and

WHEREAS, in light of the threat to the national security and foreign policy of the United States posed by these grave acts of violence, and

WHEREAS, such acts continue to pose an unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security and foreign policy of the United States.

WHEREAS the President has authority under the Constitution to take action to deter and prevent acts of international terrorism against the United States.

Resolved by the Senate and the House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,

Section 1.

SHORT TITLE

This joint resolution may be cited as the ''Authorization of Use of Military Force.''

Section 2.

AUTHORIZATION FOR USE OF UNITED STATES ARMED FORCES

(a) That the President is authorized to use all necessary and appropriate force against those nations, organizations, or persons he determines planned, authorized, committed, or aided the terrorist attacks that occurred on September 11, 2001, or harbored such organizations or persons, in order to prevent any future acts of international terrorism against the United States by such nations, organizations or persons.

(b) War Powers Resolution Requirements

(1) SPECIFIC STATUTORY AUTHORIZATION: Consistent with Section 8(a)(1) of the War Powers Resolution, the Congress declares that this section is intended to constitute specific statutory authorization within the meaning of Section 5(b) of the War Powers Resolution.

(2) APPLICABILITY OF OTHER REQUIREMENTS: Nothing in this resolution supercedes any requirement of the War Powers Resolution.

December 8th: Feast of the Immaculate Conception

Tomorrow is a holy day of obligation. Don't forget to go to Mass!

Remember Her?

Get the good news about Sophia's recovery process here.

Pray for All Our Men Going to War...

...especially Maj. Paul O'Leary, OPL.

Prayer to Obtain Favor Through the Intercession of Servant of God Vincent Capodanno

May God, who has offered healing and strength through the hands of His only Son, Our Lord, and through Christ's many servants, grant me the favor of His healing hand through the intercession of His servant, Fr. Vincent Capodanno, priest, missionary and chaplain, who always sought to heal and comfort the wounded and dying on the field of battle. May I be granted this request on my own field of battle, I pray in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

December 7, 1941: Up to the Neck and In to the Death

By December, 1941, England had been fighting for her life for more than two years. At this point, she was no longer alone: Soviet Russia was now also in the war against Nazi Germany, though England was bleeding herself white in order to send aid to her new and dubious ally. But on December 7th, everything changed. Here is an excerpt from Churchill's account of the Pearl Harbor attack from the twelfth chapter of Volume 2 of his war memoirs, The Grand Alliance. The paragraph breaks are mine.

No American will think it wrong of me if I proclaim that to have the United States at our side was to me the greatest joy. I could not foretell the course of events. I do not pretend to have measured accurately the martial might of Japan, but now at this very moment I knew the United States was in the war, up to the neck and in to the death.

So we had won after all! Yes, after Dunkirk; after the fall of France; after the horrible episode or Oran; after the threat of invasion, when, apart from the Air and the Navy, we were an almost unarmed people; after the deadly struggle of the U-boat war -- the first Battle of the Atlantic, gained by a hand's breadth; after seventeen months of lonely fighting and nineteen months of my responsibility in dire stress, we had won the war. England would live; Britain would live; the Commonwealth of Nations and the Empire would live.

How long the war would last or in what fashion it would end, no man could tell, nor did I at this moment care. Once again in our long Island history we should emerge, however mauled or mutilated, safe and victorious. We should not be wiped out. Our history would not come to an end. We might not even have to die as individuals. Hitler's fate was sealed. Mussolini's fate was sealed. As for the Japanese, they would be ground to powder. All the rest was merely the proper application of overwhelming force....

No doubt it would take a long time. I expected terrible forfeits in the East; but all this would be merely a passing phase. United we could subdue everybody else in the world. Many disasters, immeasurable cost and tribulation lay ahead, but there was no more doubt about the end.

Then Churchill assesses America's will to fight, in a passage that it is good for friends and foes -- and most of all, us -- to recall now that, sixty-six December 7ths later, we are again at war:

Silly people -- and there were many, not only in enemy countries -- might discount the force of the United States. Some said they were soft, others that they would never be united. They would fool around at a distance. They would never come to grips. They would never stand blood-letting. Their democracy and system of recurrent elections would paralyze their war effort. They would be just a vague blur on the horizon to friend or foe. Now we should see the weakness of this numerous but remote, wealthy and talkative people.

But I had studied the American Civil War, fought out to the last desperate inch. American blood flowed in my veins. I thought of a remark which Edward Grey had made to me more than thirty years before -- that the United States is like "a gigantic boiler. Once the fire is lighted under it there is no limit to the power it can generate."

Being saturated and satiated with emotion and sensation, I went to bed and slept the sleep of the saved and thankful.

Good Question

In an age when conservation and "alternative energy sources" are urged upon us as a means of covering up failed liberal energy policies solution to our present fuel woes, renowned economist, author, professor and conservative commentator Thomas Sowell asks:

Since electricity is generated mostly by burning coal, has anyone calculated how much pollution is created by electric cars, even though none of that pollution comes out of their tailpipes?

I'm listening for a response from the liberals, but so far all I hear is crickets chirping.

"Pappy" Birthday

Today would have been the 95th birthday of Gregory "Pappy" Boyington, member of the Flying Tigers, leader of the famous Black Sheep Squadron, and, incidentally, a native of Coeur d'Alene, Idaho. Although his personal life was less than stellar (plus, he didn't look a thing like Robert Conrad), Boyington was an authentic war hero, earning the Navy Cross and the Congressional Medal of Honor. Here is his Medal of Honor citation:

MAJOR GREGORY BOYINGTON

UNITED STATES MARINE CORPS RESERVE

for service as set forth in the following CITATION:

For extraordinary heroism above and beyond the call of duty as Commanding Officer of Marine Fighting Squadron TWO FOURTEEN in action against enemy Japanese forces in Central Solomons Area from 12 September 1943 to 3 January 1944. Consistently outnumbered throughout successive hazardous flights over heavily defended hostile territory, Major Boyington struck at the enemy with daring and courageous persistence, leading his squadron into combat with devastating results to Japanese shipping, shore installations and aerial forces. Resolute in his efforts to inflict crippling damage on the enemy, Major Boyington led a formation of twenty-four fighters over Kahili on 17 October and, persistently circling the airdrome where sixty hostile aircraft were grounded, boldly challenged the Japanese to send up planes. Under his brilliant command, our fighters shot down twenty enemy craft in the ensuing action without the loss of a single ship. A superb airman and determined fighter against overwhelming odds, Major Boyington personally destroyed 26 of the many Japanese planes shot down by his squadron and by his forceful leadership developed the combat readiness in his command which was a distinctive factor in the Allied aerial achievements in this vitally strategic area.

/S/ FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT

Pappy Boyington died in 1988 at the age of 75, and is buried at Arlington National Cemetery.

Living Images

During World War I, Arthur S. Mole and John D. Thomas campaigned to boost America's war effort by photographing, from heights, images created by thousands of uniformed troops. Here, for instance, is a human shield (back before that term came to mean idiots who travel to foreign countries in order to prevent us from firing on our enemies). There are 30,000 guys in this picture!

Here is the Statue of Liberty, with 18,000 men.

And here's one for the Caveman. Semper fidelis!


H/T Norm de Plume.