Creative Minority Report

I Want to Hear the Abortion Jokes

2012-05-16T23:38:00.002-04:00

"Newt Gingrich’s campaign is so dead, Mitt Romney wants to baptize it and Rick Santorum wants to put it in a jar and show it to his kids."

That's the joke that Jimmy Kimmel was going to tell at The White House Correspondent's Dinner. He didn't, but only because an ABC News reporter told him that it could "cause the room to turn against him."

Yup. Jimmy Kimmel thinks dead babies are funny. It's a ghastly ghoulish joke in which I see no possibility of humor. None. But that's why I wish he would've told it.

Continue reading at The National Catholic Register>>>

Revolution Trailer

2012-05-16T23:22:00.002-04:00

A new show slated for the fall has me intrigued. I love me some post-apocalyptic corn-growing. Yessir.

Thoughts?

Lose weight so you can donate organs?

2012-05-16T16:07:00.000-04:00

A study done at the Hofstra North Shore-LIJ School of Medicine and Feinstein Institute for Medical Research showed that obesity is contributing to a "shortage of organs for donation." From Inquisitor.com

In an analysis of 104 potential kidney donors, researchers at the Hofstra North Shore-LIJ School of Medicine and Feinstein Institute for Medical Research found that 23 percent of the patients were classified as morbidly obese. A person who is classified as morbidly obese is not able to donate an organ.

What to do to get more organs? Get people to lose weight:

Obese people are largely considered bad candidates for organ transplantation due to the strain the surgery and healing will put on their bodies. At times, Obese donors are put on diet and behavior management programs and doctors chart their progress monthly to determine if their eligibility has changed. Only 3% of those who try to lose the weight and become donors succeed.

Sachdeva offered the following recommendation for obese participants:

“We need to target that 30 percent who are really motivated to lose weight. What can we do differently? We could put them in a more rigorous weight loss program, have closer follow-up, offer motivational support groups or even in some participants – if their BMI permits – consider bariatric surgery.”

So lose weight (even undergo bariatric surgery) so that you can become an organ donor?

I don't have an issue with organ donation per se, but I do take issue with the increasing tendency to see our fellow humans, not as persons in their own right, but as harvestable biological material.

Do I think it is any coincidence that some lawmakers are suggesting commuting sentences for prisoners who consent to be live organ donors? Or that the AMA wants to look at financial incentives for organ donation? Or that it is being proposed that your organ donor sticker on your driver's license supersede any other advanced medical directive or instructions you may have in place?

Once we began looking at some human lives as harvestable biological material, namely human embryos and those in a persistive vegetative state, then we all start looking like meat for the harvest as well.

Watch out. There are some people want you to lose weight not just so that you can be healthy, but so that your organs can be available for someone else as well.

Rebecca Taylor blogs at Mary Meets Dolly

Painful Video Alert: James Lipton Advises Romney on Relating to People

2012-05-16T13:37:00.000-04:00

This isn't just plain ol' asshattery. This is a crowning achievement that will be remarked upon with glee by asshats for generations.

James Lipton of "Inside the Actors Studio" lectures Mitt Romney on how to relate to people. You know, because when I think common man I think James Lipton. It actually says little about Romney but all you'll ever want to know about James Lipton, who not only criticizes Romney but Ronald Reagan too.

What a jerk.

I'm sure all of Lipton's friends will huzzah him for this pointed barb but I'm telling you that if I had a choice of watching this on YouTube again or watching skateboarders damage their junk on handrails, I'm choosing exploding junk on handrails every time. Yeah, it's that painful.

Awesome SBA Lists Mocks "War On Women"

2012-05-16T12:21:00.003-04:00

Obama "Strongly Objects" To Bill Protecting Military Chaplains From Gay Marriage

2012-05-16T12:12:00.002-04:00

Obama "strongly objects" to the House's attempt to put forth a defense authorization bill that would protect military chaplains from any repercussions from refusing to perform gay marriages.

(CNSNews.com) – The Obama administration “strongly objects” to provisions in a House defense authorization bill that would prohibit the use of military property for same-sex “marriage or marriage-like” ceremonies, and protect military chaplains from negative repercussions for refusing to perform ceremonies that conflict with their beliefs, according to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB).

In a policy statement released Wednesday, the OMB outlined numerous objections to aspects of the fiscal year 2013 National Defense Authorization Bill (H.R. 4310). The bill was reported out of the House Armed Services Committee last week and is set to be debated in the House, beginning Wednesday.
Overall, it recommends that President Obama veto H.R. 4310 if its cumulative effects “impede the ability of the Administration to execute the new defense strategy and to properly direct scarce resources.”

The veto warning is not specifically linked to the two provisions dealing with marriage, but they are listed among parts of the bill which the administration finds objectionable.

Catholic Mom Refuses Abortion After Cancer Diagnosis

2012-05-15T22:33:00.001-04:00

This is the kind of story that's just too amazing to pass up. I know we see stories like this every once in a while but that doesn't make them any less amazing.

It's just so...counter cultural.

The Daily Mail reports:

A pregnant mother diagnosed with lung cancer who refused to abort her baby to save her own life has given birth to a healthy daughter and is now cancer-free.

Daniella Jackson, 21, was diagnosed with a tumour in her left lung shortly before discovering she was pregnant with her second child.

Doctors told Miss Jackson, who has never smoked a cigarette in her life, that they urgently needed to remove the 4cm-long tumour - a type usually found in people over 60.

However, medics at Nottingham City Hospital refused to operate while she was expecting and told her to terminate her pregnancy to save herself.
But Miss Jackson, a devout Catholic from Aspley, Nottingham, refused and gave birth to a healthy baby daughter.

Four weeks later, she was able to have the life-saving operation to remove half her lung. Now both mother and daughter Rennae, four months, are cancer free.

Ha! Obama Leads by 7...In Primary!

2012-05-15T19:26:00.002-04:00

The Weekly Standard is reporting that a new poll of Arkansas Democrats shows Barack Obama receiving support from only 45 percent of Democratic primary voters in Arkansas’s Fourth Congressional District.

Just 7 points behind him is his Democratic primary opponent. That's seven points behind with 17 percent undecided.

Please. Please. Let those folks come out and vote for Tennessee lawyer John Wolfe, Jr. This would be hilarious if he were to lose a state, especially the home of Bill Clinton.

Hey, Obama nearly lost to a prison inmate in West Virginia. That awesome story was ignored by the media but if Obama were to lose in Arkansas, he wouldn't be on the ballot. That would be something the media couldn't ignore.

Wolfe is anti-Obamacare and pro-traditional marriage. He said "the momentum is good.”

Wolfe is also competing against Obama in Texas’s May 29 primary.

Please. Please. Please. Let this happen. Just so we could laugh and watch the media try to spin this.

Chen Guangcheng's Nephew Arrested on Phony Murder Charges

2012-05-15T16:18:00.002-04:00

This is horrible. According to Spero, Chen Kegui, nephew of the blind human rights activist Chen Guangcheng, was arrested by police in Shandong on sham murder charges.

So while the media has reported that Gunagchang's life was going to essentially be Disneyland from this day forward, the reality is a bit different.

China has said that Guangcheng can go anywhere and do whatever he wants, but now China arrests his nephew to control him. This is shameless. He's reportedly been denied access to his family lawyer and his wife has been placed under house arrest.

Chen Kegui is accused of "intentional homicide" because during the dissident's escape, he used a knife in self-defence against agents and unidentified people who burst into his uncle's home, slightly wounding some of the attackers. Why he was charged with homicide is unclear since no one died.

But he could be facing the death penalty.

This is nothing short of a disgrace which stems from the tyrannical nature of China's government and the cowardice of the Obama administration which essentially forced him to leave the US embassy where he was hiding.

The Obama administration never knew what to make of Chen because he wasn't their kind of human rights activist. He stood up against forced abortion and sterilization. Now, if only Chen was standing up for free contraception, then maybe Obama would be all for him.

War In Europe

2012-05-15T11:42:00.000-04:00

I wish to once again be on record that I think the likelihood of war in Europe within the next 10 years is high. The economy and the political situation is going in the wrong direction. Mountains of debt, electing socialists, sticking their heads in the sand. What comes next? Scapegoating of course. Can't have a crisis with millions of very unhappy Europeans without a scapegoat.

I don't expect war in the WWII sense, but perhaps various civil wars that cross over borders.

Things are gonna get ugly. Europeans have been doing this forever and we are fools to think that they (or any humans) have evolved beyond this. No, things are gonna get ugly.

And you know what the US will do about it? Absolutely nothing.

Now if you buy me 7 or 8 beers sometime, I will tell you what I think comes after that. After that, things get really interesting. Another time.

Update: I say it here, it comes out there.
Victor Davis Hanson

Not since 1940 has Europe found itself so weak and incoherent in comparison to a unified and solvent Germany. And the present disconnect of nations that did most things wrong publicly demonizing Germans for doing most things right — while privately begging them for more bailout cash and guarantees — simply is politically untenable. If this continues, I would not be surprised to see a Mediterranean Franco, Salazar, Mussolini, or Metaxas emerge soon, albeit in pinstripes and with a tasteful villa on the Mediterranean.

The lead-from-behind U.S. is of little or no help.

Beautiful Vid: Ezekiel's Miracle

2012-05-15T08:59:00.001-04:00

This baby was born four months early and weighed something like a little over a pound. Check out this beautiful story.

A Tough Week for Anti-Christian Entertainment

2012-05-14T22:50:00.003-04:00

This has been a rough week for anti-Christian Hollywood.

First, a virulently anti-Catholic movie called "The Perfect Family" netted a whopping $14,301. That's right. $14,301. Kirk Cameron movies make more than that. I think Mel Gibson's "The Beaver" made more than that.

Hollywood must be stunned. Who'd a thunk that a movie that mocks Catholics and has all the star power that made VI Warshawski such a big hit, would become a failure.

And then the nasty "GCB" which, of course, stands for "Good Christian B*tches" got cancelled for dismal ratings. For those who didn't get to know GCB because they had less "episodes" than Lindsey Lohan, it was a lot like "Desperate Houswives" but without the redeeming values.

You'd almost start to think that Hollywood would start getting a clue that making a mockery of Christianity isn't the way to financial success.

But you've got to read a bit about this movie to really appreicate how absurd it really was. The Catholic Sentinel wrote about it:

The film's opening scene sets the perplexing and often sacrilegious tone.

Eileen Cleary (Kathleen Turner), supermom and "ultimate Catholic," is the altar server at Mass, assisting Msgr. Murphy (Richard Chamberlain, channeling his Father de Bricassart role from "The Thorn Birds"). It's time for Communion, and Eileen holds a platter of consecrated hosts. The monsignor turns to her, takes a host, then turns to the communicant and offers the Eucharist.

That detail -- entirely alien, of course, to the reality of Catholic liturgy -- is a pretty good hint that no one involved in this bilious project has any familiarity whatever with the life of the church they're attacking.

Distracted, Eileen brushes lint from her server's robe, jostles the platter, and several hosts fall to the ground. She proceeds to kick the body of Christ under the altar so the monsignor will not notice what's happened.

"The Perfect Family" sinks even lower. The parish announces the "Catholic Woman of the Year Award," setting up a vicious rivalry between Eileen and a den of superficially pious vipers. The award will be presented by the archbishop of Dublin, who will bestow the "prayer of absolution" on the winner, wiping away all her sins.

Here's the thing - if you're going to make fun of us, at least do it in an intelligent manner. At least make it funny because it's true, not funny because it's mocking a caricature that the elites conjure up in order to make it easy to dismiss them.

Note to the elites: If you read Jen Fulwiler, Simcha, Sherry Antonetti or LarryD you know that Catholicism can be funny. If you want to make fun of us, make fun of US, not a straw man. 'Cause I'll be honest. We make fun of you guys all the time.

Homophobia-phobia

2012-05-14T15:01:00.001-04:00

What if you went to a casino, sat down at a blackjack table, put up your chips and won 32 hands in row. You would naturally think that either a)the game is fixed in your favor or b)you are the luckiest person in the world. Either way, it is good to be you. So what would you say to the person who won 32 hands in a row cashes in his chips, hides the money in his mattress, and will never come within 10 miles of the casino convinced that he can never ever win?

You would think that such a person was negative beyond belief and a scaredycat. But what, instead of just chips and money, with every winning hand you protected real people, real souls, and real institutions and the only cost of losing was a little temporary unpopularity? Wouldn't you put your chips for that 33rd hand?

In 32 states the issue of gay marriage has come before the electorate and 32 times that electorate chose to protect marriage and define it as the union of one man and one woman. So it peeves me to no end when I read ...

Continue Reading @ The Reg>>>

Bishop Morlino Defends Paul Ryan

2012-05-14T12:47:00.000-04:00

If you've been paying attention lately to some priests and bishops, you might think that Congressman Paul Ryan had been caught beating old women, kicking dogs, and cutting in front of your kids in the cafeteria line.

This lunacy has everything to do with Ryan's budget which is hardly draconian but actually deals with the issue of the insanely high deficits we're running to fund this ongoing party we're throwing ourselves.

I have to wonder where's the USCCB press release on the immorality of putting our grandchildren in debt?

Bishop Morlino is Paul Ryan's bishop and he said in this video from EWTN that Ryan is "a fine Catholic gnetleman." He said he trusts Ryan and he's a "very responsible lay Catholic" and "makes his judgement very much in accord with all the teachings of the Church."

I, for one, am very glad to see this.

The part pertaining to Ryan starts at about 3:45 seconds in.

Somebody Has To Clean The Glass Ceiling

2012-05-13T22:22:00.000-04:00

Equality. Now if you are one of those traditional minded folk, you hear the word equality and the next word that pops in is opportunity. For the progressive mind, opportunity is for naught. They don't' respect choices, they respect statistics. But statistics never tell the whole story.

Case in point. Bay Buchanan and Norah O'Donnell on the choices women have today.

This is the difference. Liberals don't want choices for other women. They want all women to make the same choices they have. Any time another woman makes a different choice, it is a glass ceiling.

Ok, fine. This works out just fine. Somebody has to clean the glass ceiling and it certainly isn't gonna be a man. Fictitious oppression, after all, is a full time job.

Newsweek Cover: Obama The First Gay President

2012-05-13T22:00:00.001-04:00

You have to see Newsweek's latest cover. This is hilarious. These guys are just beclowning themselves something terrible in order to help Obama. But do they really think this cover helps?

Let's remember, this is a country where California, the most liberal state in the union voted down same sex "marriage."

And what's with the rainbow halo?

And look who wrote it, Andrew Sullivan. Ha! You've got to give it to these guys, Newsweek is fully embracing their irrelevance.

Stallone and Pope Gregory IX - Together at Last

2012-05-13T16:37:00.000-04:00

Come on. Tell me that doesn't look exactly like Sylvester Stallone in one of Raphael's masterpieces of Pope Gregory IX approving the Vatical Decretals, according to Yahoo.

It looks like Rocky is wearing Adrian's hat from Rocky I.

Find your embryos on Craigslist!

2012-05-12T23:44:00.000-04:00

What do you do when you have created 18 extra IVF embryos and you don't want to destroy them or give them away to just anyone? You put them on Craigslist of course! From WhoTV.com:

After struggling for years to have children the McCrea family had their prayers answered, and then some, thanks to In Vitro Fertilization. Now the family is sharing their extra blessings....

Deb had nearly signed on the dotted line to donate those leftover 18 embryos to a fertility clinic, but something just didn’t seem right.

“When my daughter was born, I went months and months just thinking I just don`t want to sign, I`m just not ready to sign them yet,” Deb explained, “I don`t want to give up that right to see pictures of that child and compare that child to ours, and see what they would have looked like and if they`re healthy and happy, so I always kind of pushed them to the side on the counter.”

So Deb took matters into her own hands, with the goal of fulfilling her other dream of surrogacy- in a different way.

“One day I was just looking on Craigslist and I saw that they had a discussion forum, “ said Deb McCrea, “and I thought why don`t I look on here and see if there`s anybody that`s in that process right now that might be interested in donating and having more of an open adoption of the embryos.”

Just hours after posting, Deb received her first response from a lady in San Francisco, and the interest kept growing from there.

“I think one thing that surprised me was how many people that there really are out there that are looking for something like this. So it really surprised me the response she got after she posted that,” said Kevin McCrea.

Deb then drew up paperwork detailing how this “open adoption” would work. The couple receiving the embryos would be required to give the McCrea’s a picture and update on the child or children every year. Ideally, the McCrea’s would like to be involved in the children’s lives as much as possible....

The McCrea’s have chosen 2 couples, one in Chicago and one in Florida, and have given them 9 embryos each. The couple in Florida is planning a pregnancy try on May 10th and the couple in Chicago is planning for some time in June.

Imagine knowing that your biological parents made way too many offspring in a lab, didn't want you themselves and so found some adoptive parents for you on Craigslist. And it's Catholics who have crazy ideas about procreation?

Hat tip: BioEdge

Rebecca Taylor blogs at Mary Meets Dolly

Wow! Video: Abortion Clinic Owner Tells All

2012-05-12T10:28:00.000-04:00

Foundation Life has this amazing video of former abortion clinic owner Carol Everett explaining all. It's horrifying.

Here's just one quote: "We had a whole plan to sell abortion, and it was called sex education.”

Another thing she says is they dispensed contraception that if the girl didn't take it at the same time everyday was essentially useless.

She also tells about "counseling" and how it was really just a hard sell.

This is horrifying but pro-lifers must watch this to remind themselves what we're up against. Big Abortion is big businiess.

The Crime Of Public Christianity

2012-05-11T15:36:00.000-04:00

In jolly ol' England, the crime of public Christianity cannot go investigated. So it that Big Brother has sent threatening missives to an Anglican blogger for the crime of having an ad for traditional marriage. The blogger in question, writing under the pseudonym and guise of the long deceased Archbishop Cranmer, treats the demands of ominous sounding "Advertising Standards Authority" with the proper dose of derision.

Apparently there have been a number of complaints about one of the advertisements His Grace carried on behalf of the Coalition for Marriage. He has been sent all manner of official papers, formal documentation and threatening notices which demand answers to sundry questions by a certain deadline. He is instructed by the ‘Investigations Executive’ of this inquisition to keep all this confidential.

Since His Grace does not dwell in Iran, North Korea, Soviet Russia, Communist China or Nazi Germany, but occupies a place in the cyber-ether suspended somewhere between purgatory and paradise, he is minded to ignore that request. Who do these people think they are?

The advertisement in question is reproduced above. His Grace would like to make it clear to the ASA that he is reproducing this allegedly ‘offensive and homophobic’ advertisement as an educative illustration of allegedly offensive and homophobic advertising; not as an offensive and homophobic advertisement per se. Naturally, His Grace apologises in advance to all those who find this educative illustration offensive and homophobic, for it is never his intention to be either offensive or homophobic. But those of you who do find it offensive and homophobic are free not to visit His Grace’s blog whenever you wish.

ht Opinionated Catholic

Patrick On EWTN's Register Radio @ 2pm ET

2012-05-11T09:59:00.000-04:00

I will be on EWTN Radio this afternoon as part of a roundtable discussion on the Register Radio program discussing the Georgetown debacle.

The Audio is up, you can listen here!!

Great Vid on The Georgetown Scandal

2012-05-11T08:20:00.001-04:00

Check this out from The Cardinal Newman Society about the Georgetown scandal.

If you haven't signed your name to protest Georgetown's selection of Kathleen Sebelius, the architect of the contraceptive mandate, please do so now by clicking here.

The War Inside The SSPX

2012-05-10T23:42:00.002-04:00

We have long speculated that there are deep divisions within the SSPX and the sides are lining up both for and against the looming regularization of the Society. We need speculate no longer. Rorate has published a letter from Bishop Fellay, Superior General of the Society of Saint Pius X (FSSPX /SSPX), and the other two members of the General Council, First Assistant Fr. Niklaus Pfluger and Second Assistant Fr. Alain-Marc Nély. The letter is addressed to The Most Reverend Tissier de Mallerais, Williamson, and De Galarreta (aka the likely holdouts)

We only get to see one side of this conversation, but one can only surmise what must have been the contents of the missive the holdouts sent to Bishop Fellay. This letter is in response to some previous letter.

I reprint in part...

Menzingen, April 14, 2012

The Most Reverend Tissier de Mallerais, Williamson, and De Galarreta

Your Excellencies,

Your collective letter addressed to the members of the General Council received our full attention. We thank you for your solicitude and charity. Allow us in our turn, with the same concern for justice and charity, to make the following observations.

First of all, the letter indeed mentions the gravity of the crisis gripping the Church and precisely analyzes the nature of the ambient errors that pullulate in the Church. Nonetheless, the description is marred by two defects in relation to the reality in the Church: it is lacking in a supernatural spirit and at the same time it lacks realism.

The description lacks a supernatural spirit. To read your letter, one seriously wonders if you still believe that the visible Church whose seat is at Rome is indeed the Church of Our Lord Jesus Christ, a Church horribly disfigured, to be sure, a planta pedis usque ad verticem capitis, but a Church that in spite of all still has as its head Our Lord Jesus Christ. One gets the impression that you have been so scandalized that you no longer accept that it can still be the true Church. For you, it would seem to be a question whether Benedict XVI is still the legitimate pope. And if he is, there is a question as to whether Jesus Christ can still speak through him. If the pope expresses a legitimate will concerning us which is good and which does not order anything contrary to the commandments of God, have we the right to neglect or to dismiss this will? Otherwise, on what principle do you base your actions? Do you not believe that if Our Lord commands us, He will also give us the means to carry on our work? Now, the pope has let us know that an abiding concern for the regularization of our situation for the good of the Church lies at the very heart of his pontificate, and also that he knew very well that it would be easier both for him and for us to leave things as they stand now. And so it is indeed a decided and legitimate will that he is expressing.

With the attitude you recommend, no room is left for the Gideons or the Davids or for those who count on the Lord’s help. You reproach us with being naïve or fearful, but rather it is your vision of the Church that is too human, and even fatalistic. You see the dangers, the plots, the difficulties, but you no longer see the assistance of grace and of the Holy Ghost. If one grants that Divine Providence leads the affairs of men while safeguarding their liberty, it is also needful to admit that the gestures in our favor over the last several years are also under its guidance.

A few more key quotes before I recommend you read the whole thing. Bishop Fellay suggests that the holdouts are among those

"Within the Society, some are making the conciliar errors into super heresies, absolute evil, worse than anything, in the same way that the liberals have dogmatized this pastoral council. The evils are sufficiently dramatic; there is hardly any reason to exaggerate them further (cf. Roberto de Mattei, Une histoire jamais écrite, p. 22; Mgr. Gherardini, Un débat à ouvrir, p. 53, etc.)."

Ouch.

Then Bishop Fellay tells them that he has kept them out of this discussion purposefully because they are wearing there tin foil hats. I paraphrase of course.

You cannot know how your attitude these last months--quite different for each one of you--has been hard on us. It has kept the Superior General from communicating and sharing with you these weighty matters, in which he would have so willingly involved you had he not found himself before such a strong and passionate incomprehension.

The lines have clearly been drawn and they are not wholly unexpected. Certain people get used to and then come to prefer being separate. I think this is why the Pope is so insistent on resolving this now, for the good of souls.. I am most interested to see how the faithful line up.

Do read the whole fascinating letter.

Pelosi Says Catholicism "Compels" Her to Support Same Sex "Marriage."

2012-05-10T23:07:00.001-04:00

This story sickens me. Is Nancy Pelosi's Catechism just different from everyone else's?

Yesterday, Pelosi told reporters that her Catholic faith "compels" her to "be against discrimination of any kind" and thus for same-sex marriage.

Answering a question about how she correlates her Catholic faith and her public stance in favor of gay marriage, she said:

"My religion has, compels me--and I love it for it--to be against discrimination of any kind in our country, and I consider this a form of discrimination. I think it’s unconstitutional on top of that."

Continue reading at the National Catholic Register>>>

Fr. Robert Barron Named Rector of Chicago's Mundelein Seminary

2012-05-10T18:37:00.000-04:00

The new evangelization comes to Chicago!

Cardinal Francis George, Archbishop of Chicago, announced today that Fr. Robert Barron, widely known as founder of Word on Fire Catholic Ministries, will become the Rector/President of Mundelein Seminary and it's mother institution, the University of St. Mary of the Lake.
     Fr. Barron has become a household name not only to CMR readers, but around the world with his ten-part series, Catholicism, as well as his YouTube videos, articles and books. A scholar, preacher, teacher and unapologetic advocate of the New Evangelization, Fr. Barron speaks often that Catholics should be "happy warriors" for the Faith.
     According to a statement released on the Word on Fire web page, his appointment will take effect on July 1, 2012, succeeding Msgr. Dennis Lyle, who has served as Rector/President for the last six years.