June 2006 – Page 4

The Obesity Epidemic

It’s no secret that in the developed world there is a widespread problem with . . . being widespread.

I have to struggle with weight issues myself, and it’s certainly something I’m familiar with.

The question is what is causing this, and there are several obvious factors that undoubtedly play a role, such as the fact there is just a lot more food available today than there was in the past and the fact that the American diet is loaded with insulin-provoking carbohydrates, and particularly lots of refined, "Give me Type-II diabetes, please!" carbohydrates like those in flour and table sugar.

Dietary conditions are not the only reason that people struggle with weight issues. There are also hormonal and even genetic influences that incline certain individuals toward obesity.

And then there may be something else.

The obesity "epidemic" may be part epidemic in an unexpected sense.

It turns out that there is at least one virus that may be related to weight gain in humans.

EXCERPT:

Unpublished studies in humans show that 20 to 30 percent of overweight people are infected with adenovirus-36, compared to about 5 percent of the lean population.

GET THE STORY.

The Unreconstructed Family

If a list of qualifications were drawn up for a stay-at-home mom, some radical secular feminists would add to the list "Intelligent human beings need not apply":

"Linda Hirshman, a feminist US writer on cultural issues, has told the world why she thinks staying at home with the children is an occupation ‘not worthy of the full time and talents of intelligent and educated human beings.’ She complains at length that the feminist movement, while making some gains in public life through legal activism, has largely failed in the one area where it counts most: the family.

"She upbraids women who stay at home for failing the feminist agenda, saying, ‘They do not require a great intellect, they are not honored and they do not involve risks and the rewards that risk brings.’

"Writing in the November 2005 edition of The American Prospect [sic, it was the December 2005 issue], Hirshman admitted that the real intention of the feminist movement was not ‘equality,’ but to destroy what she calls ‘the unreconstructed family’ of a husband and wife rearing children. She writes that the goal was to see as many women as possible abandoning family life for high-level professions and politics."

GET THE STORY.

It wouldn’t surprise me if radical secular feminists of the Hirshman mold would prefer that children be hatched from pods and raised by Big Brother. In any event, such sentiments certainly demonstrate the raw hatred of children that makes more understandable — though not any more excusable — the commitment of radical secular feminism to abortion. After all, if Intelligent Human Beings cannot be bothered to raise children, why should the IHBs among us suffer the indignity of bringing preborn children to birth in the first place?

Confidential Aside to Lifesite.net: It would be extremely helpful to your readership to provide links to the articles in question. I thought that there was only one link — to The American Prospect article — to search out. Turns out there were two. The older article from TAP and a recent article from The Washington Post, the Post article and not the TAP article per se being the reason why the current brouhaha is raging.

Feel The Solstice!

St. Augustine of Canterbury, as distinguished from his more famous predecessor, may have supposed that however bad the state of religion had become in England that at least the Brits were no longer pagan.

If so, he’d be wrong.

St. Augustine of Canterbury, pray for them:

"Cloudy skies, dense fog and spurts of rain did not seem to dampen the energy of smiling revelers who bobbed and swayed to cheerful beats with arms outstretched and shouts of ‘Feel the solstice!’

"About 19,000 New Agers, present-day druids and partygoers gathered inside and around the ancient circle of towering stones [of Stonehenge] to greet the longest day in the northern hemisphere as the sun struggled to peek out against a smoky gray sky at 4:58 a.m. …

"’This is the nearest thing I’ve got to religion,’ said Ray Meadows, 34, of Bristol, England. The solstice ‘is a way of giving thanks to the earth and the universe.’

"Meadows, wearing a wreath of pink carnations over long pink hair-wrapped braids, identified herself as a fairy of the Tribe of Frog."

GET THE STORY.

"A fairy of the Tribe of Frog"? Just how exactly does one become a Fairy of the Tribe of Frog? Is one born a frog and become a fairy? Is one adopted by a tribe of fairy frogs? Inquiring minds want to know.

Photo Caption

SOURCE.

STARTING CAPTIONS:

1) Rodent Vampirism In Action

2) "You are getting very, very sleepy. . . . And when you awake, you will act like . . . a squirrel!"

3) World Rodent Wrestling Federation Smackdown!

4) "No! It Is I Who Will Eat You!"

Finding God In The Human Genome

The scientist who led the team that cracked the human genome is set to publish a book detailing an even more shocking discovery:

The existence of God.

Francis Collins was an atheist until he was 27. He became a believer, in part, due to the influence of C. S. Lewis’s Mere Christianity.

"[Collins’] book, The Language of God, to be published in September, will reopen the age-old debate about the relationship between science and faith. ‘One of the great tragedies of our time is this impression that has been created that science and religion have to be at war,’ said Collins, 56.

"’I don’t see that as necessary at all and I think it is deeply disappointing that the shrill voices that occupy the extremes of this spectrum have dominated the stage for the past 20 years.’

"For Collins, unravelling the human genome did not create a conflict in his mind. Instead, it allowed him to ‘glimpse at the workings of God.’"

GET THE STORY.

Soak The Vatican?

Following the sex abuse scandal here in the U.S., there has been an attempt by civil lawyers prosecuting sex abuse cases to try to name the Vatican as a defendant in these cases, which would mean that it could be slapped with millions and millions of dollars in special, general, and punitive damages.

There are a number of legal barriers that have thus far prevented this from happening to the Holy See, but recently a judge in Oregon expressed openness to naming the Vatican as a defendant.

Other legal barriers could still prevent that from happening, though the fact that Oregon is located in the ever-crazy 9th Circuit could help facilitate the matter.

My guess is that one or another factor will intervene to prevent the Holy See from being soaked in this case, but only time will tell.

In the meanwhile,

JOHN ALLEN HAS A GOOD GUIDE TO THE INS-AND-OUTS OF THE SITUATION.

More On The Schiavo-Centzone Marriage

Ed Peters has a new piece up about the canonical implications of the marriage of Terri Schiavo’s husband Michael to his live-in girlfriend after he bumped off Terri.

For those who may not be familiar with the issue, canon law provides an impediment known as crimen (Latin, "crime") that provides that "Anyone who, with a view to entering marriage with a certain person, has brought about the death of that person’s spouse or of one’s own spouse invalidly attempts this marriage."

How, then, could the Diocese of St. Petersburgh allow Michael Schiavo (a Lutheran) to marry his mistress (a Catholic) in a Catholic ceremony after Schiavo brought about Terri’s death?

Good question. Let’s hope it gets answered.

In the meantime,

GET THE STORY.

Crashing The Party

When the Colorado House of Representatives decided to honor the ninetieth anniversary of Planned Parenthood’s presence in the Rocky Mountains, one pro-life representative decided to bring along a special guest for the occasion. State Representative Ted Harvey asked Gianna Jessen (pictured at left), a singer, pro-life activist, advocate for those with cerebral palsy, and — oh, yes — an abortion survivor, to help him mark the event. Harvey first introduced Ms. Jessen, told the House of her victory over her disability, had her sing, then lowered the boom by telling "the rest of the story":

[Harvey said to the House]: "The cause of Gianna’s cerebral palsy is not because of some biological freak of nature, but rather the choice of her mother.

"You see when her biological mother was 17-years-old and 7-and-a-half months pregnant, she went to a Planned Parenthood clinic to seek a late-term abortion. The abortionist performed a saline abortion on this 17-year-old girl. This procedure requires the injection of a high concentration of saline into the mother’s womb, which the fetus is then bathed in and swallows, which results in the fetus being burned to death, inside and out. Within 24 hours the results are normally an induced, still-born abortion.

"As Gianna can testify, the procedure is not always 100 percent effective. Gianna is an aborted late-term fetus who was born alive. The high concentration of saline in the womb for 24 hours resulted in a lack of oxygen to her brain and is the cause of her cerebral palsy.

"Members, today, we are going to recognize the 90th anniversary of Rocky Mountain Planned Parenthood…"

BANG! The gavel came down.

GET THE STORY.

(In the Giving-Credit-Where-Credit-Is-Due Department, nod to The Sacred Weblog of the Universal Inquisition for the link.)

For more information about Gianna Jessen, CLICK HERE.

The Continental Divides

Whenever I drive across New Mexico, I’m on the lookout for a little sign by the side of the road unceremoniously announcing "Continental Divide"–a sign like the one on the left (only that one’s actually in North Dakota rather than New Mexico).

Growing up, I had the idea that the continental divide was a the highest mountain ridge on the continent so that it divided the continent into two sides that sloped away to the ocean.

Well, that and it was a John Belushi movie.

But if you go and see the continental divide, you may find that you’re not at a mountain ridge at all. There may not even be a mountain ridge in sight. Where you are may be flat.

That’s the way it looks at the continental divide in New Mexico, and it looks pretty similar at the location in North Dakota.

Even more confusingly, when you’re at the continental divide there can be higher points of land on either side of it, within sight.

What’s the explanation?

The explanation is that the continental divide isn’t a ridge made out of the highest land on the continent. It’s an elevation of land that separates two watersheds, so that rain falling on one side of it will tend to find its way toward one ocean and rain falling on the other side will tend to find its way to another.

That means that the continental divide will tend to be high ground, but it doesn’t all have to be mountainous (it can be in relatiely flat countryside) and it doesn’t have to be the highest thing in the area. There can be higher points on both sides, there just has to be a depression between the higher point and the continental divide so that the flow of water toward the ocean isn’t thwarted.

Now here’s a new twist: There isn’t just one continental divide in North America. There are four (click to enlarge).

The one everybody thinks of as "the Continental Divide" is actually the Great Continental Divide, but there are three others, depending on what body of water a watershed is sloping toward–whether it’s the Pacific Ocean, the Arctic Ocean, the Labrador Sea, the Atlantic Ocean, or the Gulf of Mexico.

I was surprised at how much of the United States is in the watershed leading to the Gulf of Mexico. I’d kind of assumed that water on the east sid of the Great Divide would flow toward the Atlantic, but oh yeah, there’s another bunch of mountains in the way, so it’s going to go down into the Gulf.

Other continents also have continental divides, though they’re not always as clearly demarkable as they are in North America, so GO NORTH AMERICA! We’ve got FOUR, CLEARLY DEMARKABLE divides!

LEARN MORE.

AND MORE.