Different From My Usual Posts

But I feel like my Tea Party readers would enjoy this video:

Swine Flu

Sorry about not being to put up many posts recently. I was suffering from swine flu all last week and I have been playing catch-up with all my classes this week. Thank goodness for understanding professors!

There is not much going on around Franciscan these days. Mostly, everyone is winding down from Fall Break and bracing themselves for the end of the semester. So far there hasn't been any major Pro-Life events this week, but I am sure that will change soon. The Students for Life club here is not silent for long.

One thing has changed on campus and has garnered the attention of our campus newspaper. There is a branch of Feminists for Life that is starting a club on campus. I haven't gone to any meetings nor have I gotten any emails from them, but I am looking forward to seeing what this club is all about. Since the Students for Life club is so big here, I hardly have any influence there. So I am thinking about joining this smaller pro-life club in order to take on some more leadership-y roles. I will let everyone know how that goes!

Other than that, I am just about complete my monster of a theology paper. I know, I know, I shouldn't be complaining about theology classes at Franciscan. I am just saying that this paper is a lot of hard work (and hard research!). Ironically, my paper is about innocent suffering. Maybe I will post bits of it later.

1256447689848

Does anyone know...?

...who the patron saint of flying is? I know I have heard of a saint who could apparently fly. Might have been Lawrence, but I probably just made that up.

Anyway, Fall Break has officially started here at Franciscan University. I will be flying to visit my favorite Jesuits back at Spring Hill College before making my way back home to New Orleans. Hopefully everything will go well.

Patron of flight, whoever you are, intercede for me!

Pro-Life Pumpkins

from @MatthewWarner - (follow him on Twitter)

Give out more than just candy this Halloween, give out the message of life!

Send pictures of your pro-life pumpkin here.

The Mismeasure of Women

I don't know how I got onto the New York Time's website. One minute I was playing on Farmville and the next I was reading editorials. I must be my mother's daughter.

I came across this op-ed, published a few days ago and written by Joanne Lipman. "The Mismeasure of Women" attempts to explain how women have made so many gains in the past 30 years and how now, more than ever, women are facing a stalling of their progress.

Now, I am the last woman to define herself as a "feminist" and I cringe when I hear the word. No worries, this editorial does not make any claims like abortion has liberated women - it's not even mentioned. (I was surprised!) The piece merely states the reasons why women aren't making the advances they used to. However, I feel like Joanne Lipman left out some finer points about it.

I think the status of women could be improved if the view of femininity can be improved.
Women in the workplace are so often viewed by two extremes.

1) The progressive modern woman: Other women in the workplace see them as co-workers, colleagues, and sometimes bosses. They are looked at in respect and sometimes fear.

2) Ungodly evil woman: Ultra-conservative men and women see working women as women who are trying to be "like men." They are denying their submissive nature and femininity.

I disagree with both. Women in the workplace are just women that work. Not all women are called to have a job in the home. Just face it guys, some women are smarter than you and deserve your job because of that. Hire on merit, not on sex.

Women in the home are viewed by one of two extremes:

1) Oppressed, ignorant women: The more liberal and progressive women's rights groups see stay-at-home moms are being under the oppressive control of evil husbands.

2) Good, God-fearing women: Other stay-at-home moms (homeschoolers, ultra-conservative or religious) see their fellow unemployed women as fully embodying their womanly duties - educating children, cleaning the house, and letting their men be the big breadwinners.

I disagree with both. Stay-at-home moms are merely responding to a particular call. Some women make great teachers for their home-schooled children, but not all women are cut out for it. Everyone has different skills and intellects. Progressive feminists need to understand that staying at home is not oppressive, but it is a choice that women now have.

If only people could come to understand that femininity is not defined by what the woman DOES, but is at the heart of who the woman IS. All women are born feminine and no matter where they work, they bring that workplace something a man never can - something distinctly female. Maybe if the world could acknowledge the work that all women do - regardless if its in the home or in an office - women will finally have an equal place among men. For if women are viewed as who we are and not by what we do, we will no longer be restricted.

Not Evil, Just Wrong

Tonight at Franciscan University the new anti-global warming hysteria documentary, "Not Evil, Just Wrong" made its world premiere. I have no idea if "world premiere" refers to just this campus or to America or the world in general, that's just what the poster said.

I dragged my new Yankee friend to go watch it with me and I enjoyed every minute of it. Here' the breakdown:

The documentary dealt specifically with Al Gore and his misleading climate data, it worked to uncover all of the exaggerations that are putting human lives at risk. Now, I just finished the documentary about 20 minutes ago, and I have not done hardcore research into the filmmakers or their subjects. In fact, I can't name anyone in or involved in the movie, I didn't take note. However, here are some of the highlights of the film: (I will try to be as accurate as possible, so basically I will NOT be Al Gore)

1. Al Gore's worship of Rachel Carson and her work in "Silent Spring" is largely based off unscientific assumptions about DDT and its affects on the environment. DDT kills malaria infected mosquitoes and it DOES NOT cause breast cancer - something environmentalists argue a lot. The banning of DDT is disproportionately affecting poor, developing countries like Uganda because of the increase of malaria instances. DDT is harmful to birds, so its important to determine which is more important - bird lives or human lives.

2. The hottest year on record was 1934 (before SUVs, before the population boom, before airplanes, etc...), not 2006 like Al Gore says. NASA made the mistake and is very quietly correcting their data. VERY QUIETLY.

3. The "hockey stick" graph used to show the "dramatic increase" in temperature and carbon dioxide is flawed. The hockey stick graph is not statistically accurate and any set of data can be made to look like one. It has been discredited.

4. The ICPP's report on climate change determined that sea levels will rise about 20 feet within a few millennia, not a few years like Al Gore claims.

5. The ICPP includes only meteorologists and climatologists on their panel, but do not include geologists, biologists, and astrophysicists. All of these other fields of science are concluding that climate change is a natural process brought about by the earth itself, but they have been shunned from the ICPP. The view on climate change by scientists is anything but "settled."

Now, the film makes excellent cases for each of my points above and many more flaws about Al Gore's environmentalism are addressed. These are just a few that I managed to remember. I recommend the film for anyone interested in learning the truth about climate change. However, I also recommend everyone watch "An Inconvenient Truth" as well, for no other reason than to understand what "Not Evil, Just Wrong" is addressing. The problems make more sense when you have actually seen Al Gore's argument.

The film, while not labeling itself as being pro-life, definitely comes across as being pro-human. It does address the issue about overpopulation. It addresses exactly who we should get rid of first if the earth really is so overpopulated. Obviously, they keep this question rhetoric, and address it to people and politicians like Al Gore who believe the earth needs a reduction of humans. We all know Mr. Gore will not be first in line to sacrifice his own life for the sake of the planet. Most likely this will be the poor, the minorities, and those in still developing countries.

While I do believe the environment is important and that we should be stewards of the earth, I also believe that I and the rest of humanity are part of the environment. I do not believe we are a cancer that is infecting and killing the environment. Humanity is not the problem here. I want to protect our environment, but not at the expense of human life. I will gladly sacrifice the peaceful sound of birds outside my window if it means saving over 300 children a day from dying of malaria.

To find out more about the documentary, visit their website and find out how to host a screening of your own!

Thanks to FUS College Republicans for the viewing and the free snacks!

Huh?

Can a Biblical scholar explain this one to me?

I love Daniel Craig

...because I'm a good Catholic.

Pictured: 

What Jesus wants for us

Rosary

starting the procession

Trial run of mobile blogging

This post will be a test for my new mobile blogging app on my G1. I am on my way to the Marian Rosary Procession on campus, so I will also be testing pictures.

The Interwebz is back! And it's a Feast Day...

Since last Friday, I have been without internet in my dorm room. If you're a college student, you will understand how devastating that kind of problem is. If you're not, you will probably think I have an addiction. I don't. I just take FarmVille very seriously.

My guardian angels must have been looking out for me because the internet has decided to come back to Marian Hall!

And of course, today is the feast of the Archangels - St. Michael, St. Gabriel, and St. Raphael.

As you may or may not know, the Archangel is only one of the nine choirs of angels, the others including:

Seraphim
Cherubim
Thrones
Dominions
Virtues
Powers
Principalities
and Regular Angels

Each play their own role in the Kingdom of God, but the Archangels have the distinction of being the leading angels when it comes to revealing God's plan in salvation history.

They also announce critical events - like the Apocalypse and whatnot.

15 Abortions

If you talk to any pro-choice person, at some point in the conversation you will here this line:

"It's a very difficult choice. No woman WANTS to get an abortion. No woman LIKES abortion."

Unfortunately, if you look at the case of Irene Vilar, the above statement is absolutely false.

In one of the most tragic news stories that I stumbled upon today (thanks, again, to YouTube), this woman I named above has suffered through 15 - yes 15 - separate abortions. Although statistics show that once a woman does have one abortion she is more likely to have another one (I think that number is about 45%), it is still hard to believe that a woman could actually go through that torturous ordeal more than once. Why did she do it? According to her autobiography:

She "needed another self-injury to get high."

Yes, because of this woman's disturbing childhood (a suicidal mother and two heroin addicted brothers) and abusive relationship, she was forced into this manic abortion state. Her husband was very stern when it came to having children by stating repeatedly that children ruined his sexual desire. Self-centered much? Of course she was forced to take birth control pills but as she became more and more addicted to abortion, she intentionally started skipping months. All of this occurred in the past 16 years, meaning this woman had abortions scheduled annually. Yikes.

I believe that instead of judging her or praising her (depending on what side of the abortion debate you stand), we should all just pray for her. It seems like she is far beyond any human intervention on the matter and given the troubling history of mental and social problems in her family, she may be unreachable for a very long time. It certainly is a shame that no one had reached out to help her sooner.

I have not read her book and I am not going to. Why? It's not because I am intolerant. It's not because I am judging her. I would love to get to know more of her story. However, this statement on her official website is why I cannot:

" 'Impossible Motherhood' is committed to eliminating the stigma of abortion by creating new ways to talk about abortion honestly and publicly."

All I can say is, may God help her and her family. I am going to the Tomb of the Unborn here at Franciscan tomorrow to pray for the 15 children that have lost their lives.

Mutant Robots from Outer space!!

... well ok, not from outer space.

In a recent interview, Dr. Ray Kurzweil dropped the news that he believes humans will become immortal in 20 years. How is this possible, you might ask?

We will become robots. DUH.

Or to put it in Dr. Kurzweil's term, "cyborgs."

I found the article about this prediction here at Telegraph.co.uk. I assume it's going to spark some interesting debates about bioethics and end of life issues. Not to mention the problem science is having playing God.

Here are some key sentences from the article:

"I and many other scientists now believe that in around 20 years we will have the means to reprogramme our bodies' stone-age software so we can halt, then reverse, ageing. Then nanotechnology will let us live for ever."


"Virtual sex will become commonplace." 


"So we can look forward to a world where humans become cyborgs, with artificial limbs and organs."

Dr. Kurzweil is talking about immortality based around technological advancements that would replace and "improve" on the human body. Effectively this is saying,

"Dear God,

Anything you can do, we can do better. We can do better anything better than you.

In your face,

Humanity"

It doesn't sound like a very nice statement, does it? I think the whole venture into "improving the human body" will lead to incredibly dangerous ramifications.

Come on, Dr. Kurweil, haven't you read any Michael Crichton?

American Universities

Being a student of higher learning, after my catechetics class, I went on YouTube. Although YouTube has a lot of really sketchy and ill-produced videos, there are some gems that can be found.

Today I discovered Steven Crowder. In a recent video, he went on campus to UC Berkeley (you know, the one with all the hippies) and uncovered what has happened to education in the hands of liberal professors.

The video highlights the failings of misinformation, revisionist history, and propaganda - all favorites of socialist, communist, and totalitarian governments. Oh, and also a big favorite among the liberal professors that make up 35% of all university professors.

Watch the video and see why its so crucial that American children learn REAL American history, before they get to the stage of mindlessly following anyone who calls themselves an "intellectual."

The Daily Show Gets it Right?

Since my mother is leading the New Orleans Tea Party, I hear about ACORN from time to time. to time. to time....

It gets mentioned a lot.

BUT FOR GOOD REASON.

So it's not news that they are a very corrupt organization that uses all our tax money for evil. Just about anyone involved in politics has seen at least one clip from Fox News unravelling all that. Most notably, a few weeks ago, the story broke about ACORN helping a man jump start his underage prostitution ring.

Wait, sorry, sorry, his "performance art" ring. My bad.

What may be news to a lot of Tea Party members, Fox News watchers, and Catholics is Jon Stewart's (the host of the Daily Show on Comedy Central) reaction. I was actually pleased.

Watch the September 15 show here.

In this show, Jon Stewart does nothing to defend ACORN (which I would have expected), but instead does what he does best - makes fun of them. AND he proves that Fox News is the only news network out there reliably showing what ACORN is doing to our community.

A+ to Jon Stewart.

Not a Good Start to the Weekend

News blurb from Culture War:


A recognized pro-life activist was shot and killed outside of a Michigan high school. 


His soul, his family and the soul and family of the murderer are in my prayers - they should be in yours too.

Week in Review

Since the school year is still in its beginning stage, a lot of clubs and organizations on campus have been hosting preliminary and educational meetings to welcome new students (and newly interested students) into their ranks. Of the many, I decided to attend two: Students for Life and College Republicans.

I think it might be the same club.

Ok, so there are some differences but central to each is the culture of life movement. I haven't been on campus very long, but I feel as if these two clubs probably work together a lot (along with Democrats for Life).

So really, the hard part is trying to choose which club I want to be the most active in. As one of four or five active members of the Students for Life club back in Mobile, I feel a special calling to be a leader here as well. The only problem? The ENTIRE CAMPUS is in Students for Life here. How would a transfer sophomore, not belonging to any households, really get any recognition at all? I could join core team, but some of their commitments conflict with my class schedule. So it looks like participation in Students for Life will be limited to prayers outside the abortion clinic in Pittsburgh.

At least it's a little more than what I accomplished in Mobile - although our few members were certainly strong enough to hold that club together and keep it as a recognized voice in Mobile (if not only with the 40 Days for Life people...)

So maybe College Republicans?

They do a lot of pro-life work - usually in conjunction with Students for Life - and they have cake on Ronald Reagan's birthday!

Also, I want to make sure I will go with them to protest the G-20 Summit in Pittsburgh! My mother would be proud.

Is there a Tea Party in Ohio?

A Little Laughter

Sunday...

It happens to all of us.

{postsecret}

Our Lady of Prompt Succor

Hasten to Help Us!

Today marks the 4th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina's landfall and subsequent destruction New Orleans.

The city is in considerately better shape now, although many places still bare the scar of the storm. However, with time, they have moved from painful reminders to bittersweet memories of a strange and turbulent time in the Crescent City. But even after all of these years, its impossible to forget the images, smells, and feelings from that day. It's still possible to hear the deafening quiet I came back to a few weeks after the storm - when many people were still away in Houston or Atlanta. It's still possible to recall that awful scent from the very depths of Satan's lair that is the refrigerator left alone without power for a month. (Don't open it, I beg you!) And it's still possible to visualize the National Guardsmen and HUVs rolling down the streets of Mid-City.

New Orleans as it was and as it is will always remain a unique place. Even to this day, as I am stowed away in middle-of-nowhere, Ohio, people still come to talk to me about the storm and what its like to live in the most interesting city on Earth.

Oh and GO SAINTS!

Ministry Fair

Last night the Franciscan University of Steubenville hosted their annual ministry fair. The fair consisted of multiple departments of ministry including chapel, evangelization, outreach, and mission trips.

I arrived about 20 minutes early and already the JC Williams Campus Center was packed with students and presentations. I was immediately attracted to the mission trip set up in the Atrium. What really caught my eye was the advertisement for the mission trip to New Orleans, my sweet hometown. We were listed right along with Belize and Jamaica. Nice. Of course I signed up. The trip goes down to New Orleans during Spring Break, so even if I do not go with Franciscan, I am going to be in the area anyway. Maybe I'll just stop by.

I was the first one to sign up for more information about that trip, but hopefully a lot more people were interested. Although the area has seen vast improvement since 2005, there are many neighborhoods and people still looking for a little extra assistance. It never hurts. After witnessing the insurance fiasco at my summer job at the law firm, I can still see the need present.

Apart from the mission trips, the chapel ministries tables were swamped. It was near impossible to get anywhere close to the Eucharistic Minister sign up with fighting a few people off. (Or distracting them with free root beer floats.) Of course, with its popularity comes a series of hoops to weed a few people out - including a mini-reflection paper and such. If I ever get around to filling that out, I can start trying to participate in the very active and popular chapel ministry program here at Steubenville.

Although I haven't seen any of the previous ministry fairs, I would comment that it seemed to be quite a success. By 7:45 it was hard to move throughout the campus center - each floor was packed! I like to like it was because of the eagerness of holy people looking to serve the Lord, but it could have been because of the free root beer floats too.

Back in the Saddle Again

Ok, so I decided to take a summer break from blogging. Even though you would think that summer allowed more time to do unpractical and unimportant things, my summer did not. I finished working at the law firm about two weeks before the vacation would end so that I would have time to see the friends that I had missed all last year and during the summer. I also needed to take some time to start packing so I could go to....

Franciscan University of Steubenville!

I have finally made it into the wilds of Ohio! Although technically I moved in on Thursday, I did not figure out how to work the internet until late last night. This required numerous treks (really, treks, there are so many hills!) back and forth from my room to the campus center and to the RAs office. But alas, I have found the internet and can start blogging again!

Classes haven't started up yet, but that will change come Tuesday. Right now, I am stuck going through yet another Orientation. Orientations - they have their goods and their bads. Some parts seem repetitive and unnecessary, but other aspects I have found are quite helpful. Franciscan has organized small groups within the dorm buildings to meet nightly and go over the day. I am happy to say that these small groups are a great improvement over the most awkward small group of all time I had to endure at SHC. Who's idea was it to put my gay ex-boyfriend in the same group as me? Who? Not cool, Jesuits.

I am living in Marian Hall this year, which is the oldest and hottest dorm on campus. Seriously, there is no air conditioner or coke products in the vending machine. Ohio, what is going on?

The room is small, but sweet. The place is full of possibilities for feminine bonding. Although some of the rules seem a bit strict for me (no boys except during open hours, but only with the door open!) but at the same time, I understand where they are going with them. (Feminine community, once again). That should be interesting - and challenging for when my boyfriend comes to visit me from Mobile in October. Will he even be allowed to do the actual visiting part? I guess that will just take careful planning.

I shall post pictures of my dorm room shortly, to give everyone a feel for what Marian Hall is like. At first I was a little disappointed, but I think the mold is growing on me.

(Just kidding - there is no mold...just moths.)

You Know it is Hurricane Season When...

...daddy drags out the MREs.

pictured: survival

Thus, there is the Prayer for Renewal which was recently passed out by the Archdiocese of New Orleans.

God our Father, Creator of all life,

and new life in Christ Jesus,

we stand before you, strengthened by faith,

with gratitude for the many blessings

you have bestowed upon our Archdiocese.

Embraced by love

in the person of your Son, Jesus Christ,

we offer deep appreciation for all that nurtures and strengthens us

in our individual and parish journeys of faith.

Give us an openness

that will enable us to undertake

the mission and ministry that you want for us

in your Church.

Through the intercession of Mary, our Mother,

send forth your Holy Spirit

to heal hearts that are broken.

Give us the courage to become all

that you have called us to be.

Make us a vibrant and evangelizing Church,

grounded in the Eucharist

and in service to one another.

We ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen

Our Lady of Prompt Succor

St. Louis King of France

St. Martin de Porres

St. Vincent de Paul

St. Katherine Drexel

St. Juan Diego

Vietnamese Martyrs

Blessed Frances Xavier Seelos

Pray for us.

woot woot.

Little Happiness at Work

The past two weeks at the law firm have been very stressful. Considering the social justice aspect of the class action law suit I am working on, I have been feeling extra spiritual pressure to help our 80,000 clients. 3, 082 of them could not be located to be sent incredibly important affidavits or they returned the affidavit incorrectly (making them useless). 

My boss put me in charge of getting those affidavits back to those 3,082 people that have been mistreated by insurance companies during Hurricane Katrina. Keep in mind, these people are elderly, poor, uneducated, disabled, or illiterate too. It was a big responsibility.

Alas, it has been accomplished! With a little extra grace and patience, all 3,082 have been located and have had affidavits mailed to them. 

And my brother and I stuffed and processed every single one of them.

WHEW!

Now that that phase of the class action is over, I can relax and start enjoying my job and summer. (Hopefully this will include more blog posts)

During my Dorito break last Friday, I wandered into the kitchen and opened a bag of the cheesy treat - which, by the way, comes in spicy flavors now. Sitting at the floral-topped table, I glanced over the the stove,

 where many meals are cooked by the sole female attorney in the office, and saw this:

Isn't that a nice reminder?

And later on in the day, while opening the mail I came across this stamp:

So the week ended well at the firm and hopefully we will be receiving those 3,082 affidavits back in the mail in the upcoming weeks. 

Maybe they will have nice stamps.

I am a disgusting consumer...

..of the T-Mobile G1 phone.

I just got the new phone over the weekend and I am absolutely freaking out over having the internet (*gasp*) on my phone. (I can be on facebook while carefully concealing my phone under my work desk!!)

With the hundreds and hundreds of applications, I can play solitaire and scan barcodes to find cheaper versions of what I am buying...

...and I can be on facebook!

But there is one tiny thing that bugs me about the G1:

The lack of Jesus-y applications I can play with!!

Searching the market for applications, I found 0 hits with key words like:

"catholic"

"pope"

"vatican"

"USCCB" (ok, that one isn't that shocking...)

And I only found 9 hits with the key word: "Jesus" - 5 out of the 9 were Mormon Jesus things. The only Bibles I could find were from the Latter Day Saints and the King James Version.

It is very sad to see such a nifty phone so Jesus-unfriendly. I did find one cool application called "Pray," but the disclaimer clearly states as you install the app "these prayers are not sent anywhere." Excuse me? Then, exactly, what is the point now? *sigh* It could at least read, "these prayers are not sent to any electronic or mobile device, but are instead hurled upward into the heavenly realm to God or your saint of choice - for intercession purposes only."

Yes, that would be much better. 

At least I can download pictures of Jesus from the internet to set as my background...

...and upload them to facebook, too!

Franciscan University of Steubenville

After spending a year in muggy Mobile, surrounded by Jesuits, beaches, and way to many people with alcohol problems, I am finally transferring to breezy Steubenville, Ohio.

This past week (June 4-6) I spent traveling and meeting my new university face-to-face.

And I am happy to report that I think we will get along splendidly.

The trip up was less than amazing, however. I was scheduled to arrive on the campus of Franciscan University by 4:30 PM but did not see my new home until after 9:30. Why the five hour delay? Oh, that's because I flew with an airline with less than helpful workers. However, on the first plane to D.C. (to catch a connection to Pittsburgh), I did get the opportunity to meet the First Lady of Louisiana.

She is very pretty.

And polite when dealing with weird people that won't stop talking to her on her airplane.

Bill Jefferson was there too.

I can now die happy that I have achieved the most New Orleans moment in the world.

Anyway, my thoughts on the campus:

1. It has a lot of hills. It puts Spring HILL College to shame in that department.

2. My dorm room looks very small. :[

3. The Campus Center and Cafeteria are large and awesome.

4. I miss the Gothic chapel at SHC and will try my best to go to Mass at a very modern church.

5. The walking Stations of the Cross was very nice.

6. My fellow students were very welcoming, more so than I have experienced at my previous college.

7. Ohio does not have good seafood.

8. I will have to walk uphill in the snow to go to class. Yikes.

9. I am happy that I learned that rain-boots are not sufficient for snow.

10. I am going to have very interesting classes (Geology!)

My future home: Marian Hall

These 40 Hour Work Days...

...are really getting to me.

I have been deprived of internet for weeks! And therefore, my poor blog is suffering from neglect - one thing I was really hoping to avoid when I started working.

Well, I promised to blog about the New Orleans Tea Party Memorial Day Picnic. It went very well, even though every time I set my pro-life booth out it started raining. Once I would pack it up in a frenzy and dash under the pavilion, the heavens would clear and the sun would come out. And that's how it went about 4 different times. 

But, even though I was secluded in the corner of a pavilion far-off from the actual festivities like an after-thought, I still had a good number of visitors. I talked to a few war veterans (including a woman from the Iraq War), an Indian couple who spoke very little English, and I met a family that recently adopted a crack baby. The child was about tow years old and her mother had recently been incarcerated. Luckily, the child's recently pro-life grandmother and aunt took her in. Her name is "Journey," which was very fitting for the poor child. I had included a basket of 10 week old fetuses on my table and she immediately recognized them as "babies!!" Of course, she had to have one. It was adorable.

Her family also let me use there tent for shelter the third time I was rained out on.

Ben and I with some new Patriot friends

My mother is creating a video highlighting the days events, especially the salute to veterans that we did. (I got to read the prayer! Hopefully, there are no pictures as my eyes were wide with terror of the impending storm coming, seeing as my table -which as at least 500 ft away from where I was standing - was completely uncovered. It loves to rain when my booth is out in the open. )

I will post that video when I can.

Which may be a month from now, the way things are going at work.

GAH...

But I don't like universal health care, USCCB.

*sigh*

I Promise

I will blog about the New Orleans Tea Party Memorial Day Picnic as soon as I can. This whole 8:00 - 5:00 job thing needs to be integrated in my college-schedule-oriented mind.

I hate time management! 

Um...

DUH.

It's the Weekend!

Never have I appreciated weekends more...

Check out this hilarious blog. It's enjoyment.

On Abortion and Racism

My mother likes Tea Parties (yes, with capitals). She considers herself a Patriot launching the next American Revolution - and she is doing it with the help of the New Orleans Tea Party. I am sure you have heard of the Tea Party people before, so I won't go into details about Glenn Beck, 912 Project, the Constitution, or any of that stuff.

So this Memorial Day, my mother's Tea Party is organizing a patriotic picnic, complete was a tribute to the Vets at 2:00. Guess who gets their own little booth at the picnic? And guess what it's going to be about?

I am running the booth about Abortion, covering topics ranging from racism to 14th Amendment. I just finished putting together my pamphlet (of which I hope to have 300 copies of by Sunday) about Planned Parenthood's connections with racism.

You can view the document here, but I do think you need an Adobe account. I am working on uploading the file into Blogger, but I am really not a computer savvy person.

I should be finished with the Constitutional pamphlets by tomorrow and will also provide links for those.

Wish me luck, this is a lot of work (hence the lack of blog posts recently).

I Really Don't Like Barack Obama

There is really nothing more to this post.

He just really gets on my nerves.

Pictured: The President and I (but with more love)

Update: This also annoys me.

On Patience

Pieter Brueghel the Elder: The Seven Virtues - Patience

There is no greater example of "do what I say, not what I do" than the relationship between patience and myself.

Let's just say we get along as well as I get along with my ex-boyfriend (which is not at all).

Recently, I have been straining myself to the very edge to keep from losing my patience at a new job I started at a law firm. Without going into too many details, my job consists of fielding phone calls for a class action lawsuit. When I first accepted the job, I was thinking to myself, "dude, I get to be Erin Brockovich - sans premarital sex and early 90s apparel." 

I soon learned why she was such a hero in the world of lawyers: class action lawsuits suck, not because its long and potentially worthless, but because when you deal with a lot of people in a lawsuit, a lot of them turn out to be difficult.

And by difficult I mean unable to understand the following on their own:

_____________________ (Print Name Here)

Oh, and it only gets better when some people yell at you - you, the person trying to win them $5,000 or more -  because you can't tell them when they moved to Dallas (information that has nothing to do with the lawsuit at hand). Those were my favorite phone calls.

Can you understand why the virtue of patience has become so relevant to my life now? It's more than just waiting in a very long line in the grocery store when the snowball stand closes at 6:00 and it's already 5:56. No, no. Patience has a lot to do with compassion - at least when it comes to practicing patience with people. In fact, I think patience is just compassion's pseudonym. Without being able to feel for another's situation or problem, it would be impossible to practice patience with them. Without empathy or compassion, in fact without charity, patience would be completely lost. Charity (love) is inherently tied with this virtue - which shouldn't be a shock to anyone that learned about Catholic theology through the phrase "God is Love" (aka all of my fellow post V-II peeps out there). 

And it takes a lot of grace to use those important virtues when answering phone calls for a law firm, let me just tell you that. 

I'm not one to push for the canonization for any lawyer, but that Erin Brockovich - she was a saint.

Who Is That Guy?

I couldn't tell it was supposed to be Jesus, could you?

Oh and yeah, it's real.

A Photographic Collection of Pope Benedict's Trip to the Holy Land (so far)

Because he is zee Pope!

Je veux un mantilla, s'il vous plait

L'orthodoxie! La beaute!

The Conspiracy Channel

I have a love/hate relationship with  the History Channel. 

Today, it was about 1hr 56min. of hate and 4 mins. of love because that's how it long it took them to say something nice about the Catholic Church in their special on Angels & Demons.

The hypothesis (if I may call it that) of the 2hr special states, "the Catholic Church and the scientific world are at war." Already I am less than a happy camper. My immediate reaction was,

"Where are they getting this? Has anyone from the History Channel actually studied history, specifically the story of Saint Thomas Aquinas and the Medieval Synthesis? Anyone? Come on!!"

It being the History Channel, I was sure the answer was no -

 - at least for the first hour and fifty-six minutes of the program. 

Finally, a Catholic priest was given the chance to correct a few points and reference the work of one of my favorite saints, Saint Thomas Aquinas. The "Dumb Ox," as he was lovingly called by his classmates, articulated what came to be known as the Medieval Synthesis. Specifically, he stated that both faith and reason came as gifts from God and could not be contradictory. In fact, human reason is a form of revelation that comes from God. If one could not reconcile a principle of faith and a valid, logical conclusion, then one is simply not looking hard enough or one has not looked at the right question or angle. 

It is this concept that has become so utterly lost on modern society and a source of great pain for my former history professor, Father Borbridge S.J. Frankly, it's becoming one of my major pet peeves in addition to ridiculous juxtaposition:

That is a monstrance. That is the Hadron Collider.

Yeah...they went there. 

Happy Mother's Day

Honoring our Mother in Heaven

Since the beginning of the month of May, I have been going to the May Crownings of the various churches I attend - one in Alabama and one in Louisiana.

On May 3rd, to celebrate the close of CCD, the children from all the grades came together to honor Mary at my parish in Alabama.

St. Ignatius Parish

Mobile, Alabama

Unfortunately, it being CCD, few children showed up for the final class time and the ones that did forgot about the May Crowning. Some did come with their families and brought flowers from their gardens, which was very nice. I was disappointed that they didn't play my favorite Mary song, Bring Flowers of the Rarest, and opted for some weird "modern and charismatic" song. Ick. I never liked guitars.

Coming home from college and moving back into my New Orleans home, I was really glad that my home parish saved the Crowning for Mother's Day - which I thought was very appropriate. The cantor had laryngitis and so, once again, I was without my favorite hymn. *sigh*

But the altar was very nice.

St. Anthony Mission/St. Joseph Parish

Gretna, Louisiana

I think I enjoy the inside Crownings more, especially because they occurred within the context of a Mass.

Archbishop Burke is a Beast

Even FoxNews noticed it.

Oh, and the 57% a Catholics that support Barack Obama's work so far are making the rest of us look bad. That needs to be stopped.

A Small Apology

Things have been coming to a close at SHC. Studying  and packing and unpacking and organizing and reorganizing have eaten my days. I have a few events that I would like to write about, including:

Rock for Life

My Brother's Confirmation

Things I Learned my First Year at a Jesuit College

Speaking at a Constitution Rally

Setting up a Nice Shrine in my Bedroom

and possibly other things that I know I took pictures of and will post...

May Magnificat

May is Mary's Month, the school I teach at will be having May Crowning this Sunday, May 3rd. Here is a poem by a Jesuit who likes alliteration.

May Magnificat

by Gerard Manley Hopkins

MAY is Mary’s month, and I

Muse at that and wonder why:

Her feasts follow reason,

Dated due to season—


Candlemas, Lady Day;

But the Lady Month, May,

Why fasten that upon her,

With a feasting in her honour?


Is it only its being brighter

Than the most are must delight her?

Is it opportunest

And flowers finds soonest?


Ask of her, the mighty mother:

Her reply puts this other

Question: What is Spring?—

Growth in every thing—


Flesh and fleece, fur and feather,

Grass and greenworld all together;

Star-eyed strawberry-breasted

Throstle above her nested


Cluster of bugle blue eggs thin

Forms and warms the life within;

And bird and blossom swell

In sod or sheath or shell.


All things rising, all things sizing

Mary sees, sympathising

With that world of good,

Nature’s motherhood.


Their magnifying of each its kind

With delight calls to mind

How she did in her stored

Magnify the Lord.


Well but there was more than this:

Spring’s universal bliss

Much, had much to say

To offering Mary May.


When drop-of-blood-and-foam-dapple

Bloom lights the orchard-apple

And thicket and thorp are merry

With silver-surfèd cherry


And azuring-over greybell makes

Wood banks and brakes wash wet like lakes

And magic cuckoocall

Caps, clears, and clinches all—


This ecstasy all through mothering earth

Tells Mary her mirth till Christ’s birth

To remember and exultation

In God who was her salvation.

Why Jesus Had So Many Women Followers

The Shroud of Turin is scheduled to be on public display between April and May of 2010, according to the Catholic News Service. 

It reminds me of the day in my junior year religion class when we discussed the Shroud of Turin. Thinking it was a pretty big deal already, when my religion teacher showed me the image of the inverted 3D Christ taken from the Shroud, I pretty much lost my mind. 

Jesus was kind of a hunk

Hopefully, I will be able to see the actual Shroud. I really really want to do that.

Even Richard Brautigan Gets It...

The Pill Versus the Springhill Mine Disaster

When you take your pill
it’s like a mine disaster.
I think of all the people
lost inside of you.

OMG Does This Really Exist!?!?

 "The Truth" by Painter Michael D'Antuono

which will be unveiled on President Obama's 100th Day in Office at NYC's Union Square.

The Liberals are done with being subtle.

UPDATE: Apparently someone knocked some sense into this guy