GoD And DoG by WJ Francisco

h/t The Deacon's Bench

A Catholic Perspective in Health Care

I've just read an excellent homily/article on Health Care from a Catholic perspective, and thought I would share it. With a h/t to Crossed the Tiber and Mary's Anawim here is a concluding quote:

Think about this: what area of human life involves more moral decision making than the human body and it’s health? In the end, beyond the questions of whether or not the bill passed by Congress will provide taxpayer support of abortion or euthanasia, we have to ask ourselves a much more profound question.

That is, are we turning over all the vast numbers of moral questions and decisions involved in health care to a government that will make the right moral decisions for us? Can we entrust our health care, and our family’s health care to a government presently dominated by people who don’t understand the dignity of life from conception until death, or that it’s wrong to experiment on embryonic human beings, or to clone human beings? or even the very meaning of the words “family” and “marriage”?

And even if all 537 elected federal officials were 100% pro-life and pro-marriage, subsidiarity forces us to pause and remember the huge government bureaucracy, full of lots of unelected people. With all due respect for the many good and hard working federal employees, a lot of federal employees have many strange ideas about morality that are very different from Christ’s.

Today we remember Christ’s power and desire to heal and care for the sick, and the serious responsibility that places on us as Christians. We cannot lightly shift this responsibility to others —whether they are our neighbor, or an insurance company or a government official. Let us pray that God will guide our nation in the debate over health care reform. And let us pray that all Catholics may be led by the wisdom of Christ, so wonderfully laid before us in the richness and fullness of the social doctrines of His Holy Catholic Church.

You can read the whole homily here.

Prayer to St. Joseph for the Unemployed

O Saint Joseph, we pray to you for those who are out of work, for those who want to earn their living or support their families. You who are the patron of workers; grant that unemployment may vanish from our ranks; that all those who are ready to work may put their strength and abilities in serving their fellowmen and earn a just salary. You are the patron of families; do not let those who have children to support and raise lack the necessary means. Have pity on our brothers and sisters held down in unemployment and poverty because of sickness or social disorders. Help our political leaders and captains of industry find new and just solutions. May each and every one have the joy of contributing, according to his abilities, to the common prosperity by an honorable livelihood. Grant that we may all share together in the abundant goods God has given us and that we may help underprivileged countries. Amen.

H/T Mary's Anawim

Contact your representatives

Our time is mostly filled with day to day activities. We are mostly concerned with work, family matters, driving here and there and then catching a few minutes rest when we can. Then of course there is the boob tube which seems to demand a lot of out time. We have responsibilities: work, family, friends and hopefully church.

One responsibility often forgotten and readily pushed aside is that of being a citizen. Many of us are disenchanted with politics. I surely can understand why. But the responsibility still clearly rests upon us. So many of us don't even bother to vote let alone know who the candidates are and what they stand for. When we do vote we often vote on party lines; not bothering to know the issues. We often dismiss our core values without a second thought. One example is so many good Catholics voted for pro-abortion candidates. What causes us to do that?

I think back on that prior generation, the Great Generation. So many fought, so many died so that we can enjoy our freedoms. Yet this current generation can't bother to vote or make an informed vote.

When is the last time you practiced your citizenship? When is the last time you read the constitution - have you ever read it? It you think that Washington stinks what have you done about it? When was the last time you contacted your representatives?

We just can't sit and let things happen. We are responsible as citizens as to where this country is going. First we must be informed. We need to know what is going on in Washington and our state legislatures. I dare say, most of us have no idea what issues congress or the senate are debating and voting on. To be informed we need to actively seek out information. That might be difficult as most of the news media is more interested in their ratings and their agenda than bringing us honest news. Most news time or print space is wasted on trashy tabloid stuff. So spend a little time to find a good news source, and I'm surely not referring to the "mainstream" (that is liberal) media or most newspapers. There are some good blogs out there. Just do a little searching.

Second, form your opinion. Here is an issue that interests me (most should). Gather information about it. Now check it out against your core values.

Third, let your opinion be known. Don't be afraid of offending anyone. Your informed opinion is just as valid as anyone else's. At times there are those who don't agree with me, but I find I'm respected because I am firm in my beliefs and not wishy-washy. More often then not you will find that your family and friends and acquaintances will agree with you. When they don't, being informed will help you have a constructive conversation about the issue and perhaps, just perhaps, you will convince them.

Letting your opinion be known includes contacting your senators and representative and state legislators. Being informed, gathering information, forming your opinion and letting your opinion be known can take, really, less than one hour a week. I don't think that is too much to give to become an active citizen.

Sarah Palin and the Health Care Debate

Pajamas Media has a good article, it starts:

Palin’s Advocacy: The Turning Point in Health Care Reform Debate

It was her timely intervention that put the Democrats off their game and turned the debate around.

September 18, 2009- by Mark Impomeni

For an uneducated, unsophisticated rube and former governor from a backwater state, Sarah Palin sure can drive a debate. With prospects for passage of his sweeping overhaul of the American health care delivery system fading with every speech, President Barack Obama is making it increasingly clear that Palin will be recognized, for good or ill, as perhaps the most prominent single political figure responsible for stopping it in its tracks.

It’s a remarkable story. A failedvice-presidential candidate and resigned governor — unfairly viewed by many as a cruel joke – reached from beyond the political grave her elitist critics prematurely dug for her and her political future to thwart a popular president prematurely regarded by the same elite that shunned her as perhaps the most gifted politician this nation has ever produced. If Sarah Palin were a sitting governor, a failed presidential candidate, or even a state legislator, her influence in the health care debate would not be as unexpected. It is the fact that she is a private citizen, completely out of politics save for a small political action committee, that makes this story unique.

How did she do it? That’s where the story gets even more remarkable.

Read the rest here.

Prayer and Renunciation

"a minor friar" had a good post today. See below. Be sure to visit his blog here.

Some strong words today on prayer and renunciation:

When in the Our Father we pray, Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven, we must take the words on earth as first of all applying to ourselves. Even on the natural level we have enough incentive to reject our own will in favor of God's will--for we have spent enough time carrying our own selves as a burden to know that our own will is neither trustworthy nor directed to genuine joy, freedom, and perfection.

This is why it is critical for us to take advantage of as many of the small opportunities to renounce our own will in the course of a day. Not that these miserable little penances really matter--and we shouldn't dwell on them as it is too much an occasion of vainglory--but they are what can train our spoiled minds and intentionality. They are the little acts that tone our spirit for the greater renunciations, the ones that really matter.

Betraying our dead

Ralph Peters, New York Post, has a really good column. It starts:

Betraying our dead

By RALPH PETERS

Last Updated: 10:39 AM, September 11, 2009

Posted: 1:13 AM, September 11, 2009

Eight years ago today, our homeland was attacked by fanatical Muslims inspired by Saudi Arabian bigotry. Three thousand American citizens and residents died.

We resolved that we, the People, would never forget. Then we forgot.

We've learned nothing.

Instead of cracking down on Islamist extremism, we've excused it.

Instead of killing terrorists, we free them.

Instead of relentlessly hunting Islamist madmen, we seek to appease them.

Instead of acknowledging that radical Islam is the problem, we elected a president who blames America, whose idea of freedom is the right for women to suffer in silence behind a veil -- and who counts among his mentors and friends those who damn our country or believe that our own government staged the tragedy of September 11, 2001.

Instead of insisting that freedom will not be infringed by terrorist threats, we censor works that might offend mass murderers. Radical Muslims around the world can indulge in viral lies about us, but we dare not even publish cartoons mocking them.

Instead of protecting law-abiding Americans, we reject profiling to avoid offending terrorists. So we confiscate granny's shampoo at the airport because the half-empty container could hold 3.5 ounces of liquid.

Instead of insisting that Islamist hatred and religious apartheid have no place in our country, we permit the Saudis to continue funding mosques and madrassahs where hating Jews and Christians is preached as essential to Islam.

Instead of confronting Saudi hate-mongers, our president bows down to the Saudi king.

Instead of recognizing the Saudi-sponsored Wahhabi cult as the core of the problem, our president blames Israel.

Instead of asking why Middle Eastern civilization has failed so abjectly, our president suggests that we're the failures.

Instead of taking every effective measure to cull information from terrorists, the current administration threatens CIA agents with prosecution for keeping us safe.

Instead of proudly and promptly rebuilding on the site of the Twin Towers, we've committed ourselves to the hopeless, useless task of rebuilding Afghanistan. (Perhaps we should have built a mosque at Ground Zero -- the Saudis would've funded it.)

Instead of taking a firm stand against Islamist fanaticism, we've made a cult of negotiations -- as our enemies pursue nuclear weapons; sponsor terrorism; torture, imprison, rape and murder their own citizens -- and laugh at us.

Instead of insisting that Islam must become a religion of responsibility, our leaders in both parties continue to bleat that "Islam's a religion of peace," ignoring the curious absence of Baptist suicide bombers.

Instead of requiring new immigrants to integrate into our society and conform to its public values, we encourage and subsidize anti-American, woman-hating, freedom-denying bigotry in the name of toleration.

Instead of pursuing our enemies to the ends of the earth, we help them sue us.

Read the rest of it here.

Rasmussen Reports - Healthcare

A Review of Public Opinion on Health Care Reform Prior to the President's Speech

Posted using ShareThis

Admonitions

It is not lawful to take the things of others to give to the poor. It is a sin worthy of punishment, not an act deserving a reward, to give away what belongs to others.

Saint Francis of Assisi
Admonitions to the Brethren

H/T Portiuncula: the Little Portion

Ephesians 6:12 (NAB)

For our struggle is not with flesh and blood but with the principalities, with the powers, with the world rulers of this present darkness, with the evil spirits in the heavens.

If Aesop were alive today

It is not widely known that Aesop (floruit circa 550 B.C.), a visionary writer if there ever was one, composed two versions of the story of the Ant and the Grasshopper. The traditional version used to be very widely known — you’ll see in a moment why it is out of favor today — and it can be outlined briefly:

The ant works hard in the withering heat all summer long, building his house and laying up supplies for the winter.

The grasshopper thinks the ant is a fool and laughs and dances and plays the summer away.

Come winter, the ant is warm and well fed.

The grasshopper has no food or shelter, so he dies out in the cold.

MORAL OF THE STORY: Be responsible for yourself

Now read the current version of the story here.

9-11 - No Words Needed

Samuel Barber - Adagio for Strings, op.11

Remember

Jack Webb Schools Barack Obama on Healthcare

ABC's John Stossel Destroys/Pulverizes/Crushes Obama's anti-American 'Health Care' Plan

Thanks to The Intellectual Redneck for bringing this video to my attention.