The Cardinals, The Bishops, Abortion, Communion: Confusion

The blogosphere–and the Web in general–has been reacting to the release of Cardinal Ratzinger’s letter taking a very strong line against pro-abortion politicians being given Holy Communion. I’d like to call your attention to a couple of pages in this regard.

First, there a Catholic World News story headlined US BISHOPS REJECTED RATZINGER’S ADVICE. Among other things, the article says:

Cardinal Theodore McCarrick of Washington, who heads a committee of US bishops studying possible responses to pro-abortion Catholic politicians, told reporters that the Ratzinger letter left the issue in the hands of the American hierarchy.

At their Denver meeting, the US bishops adopted a policy statement re-affirming the Church’s condemnation of legal abortion, but stopping short of any call for withholding the Eucharist from prominent abortion supporters. The bishops reportedly turned down a milder form of the resolution, backed by Cardinal McCarrick, which would have said that it was imprudent to deny the Eucharist to Catholic politicians. In conversations with the press, Cardinal McCarrick had hinted that the Ratzinger letter gave support to that position.

This article seems to draw a rather stark contrast between what Cardinal McCarrick said and what Cardinal Ratzinger said. How accurate is that contrast? That leads to the second page I mentioned:

Jamie Blosser, of The Magnificent Blossers, offers this page providing a point-by-point comparison between Cardinal McCarrick’s summary and what Cardinal Ratzinger apparently said.

Check it out and judge for yourself.

The Passion of the President

redblue175No, I’m not talking about Bill Clinton.

It occurred to me while reading this editorial about Michael Moore’s Bush-bash Fahrenheit 9/11 that something explains the boxoffice success that the film has enjoyed.

It’s no secret that American society today is quite polarized–the whole “red state/blue state” thing–with one group of folks standing for traditional American and Christian values and the other group standing for–well, hatred of traditional American and Christian values.

The first group of folks earlier this year made the incredibly moving film The Passion of the Christ a runaway boxoffice success. Following a pre-release controversy that was a marketing bonanza for Mel Gibson, its core audience was fully alerted to the film’s existence and, since the film was extremely well-made and a celebration of their faith, the audience turned out in droves.

That left a lot of the other folks feeling left out, though.

But they’re not left out any longer. Following a pre-release controversy that was a marketing bonanza for Michael Moore, the core audience for Fahrenheit 9/11 was fully alerted to the film’s existence and, since the film is apparently well-made and is a celebration of its audience’s faith, they are now turning out in droves.

In other words, Fahrenheit 9/11 is the blue states’ The Passion.

Of course, despite the fact that it’s more in line with Hollywood’s blue-state value system won’t mean that it’ll do the same boxoffice as The Passion. It won’t even be close.

In cinematic terms, casting Jim Caviezel as the Christ is far more interesting than casting George W. Bush as the Antichrist.

AP's Gitmo Info

Well, this is encouraging.

After the awful Abu Ghraib fiasco there has been a worry in some quarters that a similar scandal might erupt concerning the treatment of prisoners at Guantanamo Bay. (Remember all the hullabaloo over the Taliban and al-Qa’eda prisoners being taken there–gasp!–in shackles? Murderers and terrorists in shackles? The horror!) The scandal, if it were to happen, also might emerge in the press suspiciously close to this year’s presidential election. An “October surprise,” as it were.

Well, the folks at Gitmo apparently decided to get out ahead of that possibility and invited a group of AP reporters in to tour the facility.

The story is a relief. Nothing horrifically scandalous emerged from their visit. In fact, it was quite reassurring.

That’s not to say that those would might want to see a scandal couldn’t concoct one–nor is it to say that there may be things about conditions at Guantanamo Bay that haven’t yet come to light–but taking the story for what it is, it’s a relief. Unless something changes, the U.S. won’t have to endure an Abu Ghraib-like scandal coming from that facility.

AP’s Gitmo Info

Well, this is encouraging.

After the awful Abu Ghraib fiasco there has been a worry in some quarters that a similar scandal might erupt concerning the treatment of prisoners at Guantanamo Bay. (Remember all the hullabaloo over the Taliban and al-Qa’eda prisoners being taken there–gasp!–in shackles? Murderers and terrorists in shackles? The horror!) The scandal, if it were to happen, also might emerge in the press suspiciously close to this year’s presidential election. An “October surprise,” as it were.

Well, the folks at Gitmo apparently decided to get out ahead of that possibility and invited a group of AP reporters in to tour the facility.

The story is a relief. Nothing horrifically scandalous emerged from their visit. In fact, it was quite reassurring.

That’s not to say that those would might want to see a scandal couldn’t concoct one–nor is it to say that there may be things about conditions at Guantanamo Bay that haven’t yet come to light–but taking the story for what it is, it’s a relief. Unless something changes, the U.S. won’t have to endure an Abu Ghraib-like scandal coming from that facility.

IDENTITY CRISIS

pic_medidcrisis1cvrEvery summer DC Comics has a major publishing event, which usually ties together heroes from across their line of publications. Most years there’s a lot of razzle/dazzle, but the results don’t live up to the hype.

This year is different.

If you have even the faintest interest in comics, even if you haven’t read one in years, GO BUY A COPY OF IDENTITY CRISIS #1.

I just finished reading the issue (which is still on the stands), and it is the best written comic that I’ve read in ages–even better than J. Michael Straczynski’s wonderful stuff on Spiderman.

It is powerful.

It will rip your heart out and stomp it into the ground.

Identity Crisis is a seven-issue limited series which is set in motion when someone who has been around for a loooong time in the DC universe is brutally murdered. This event forces to light a dark secret that several members of the Justice League have been keeping for years, even lying to fellow League-members to protect it.

The art is gorgeous, but for me the writing is what really makes or breaks a comic book. A few pages into IC #1, I was thinking “This is really well written.” And there’s a reason for that. It is penned by Brad Meltzer, who is a bestselling author whose “books have a total of almost six million copies in print, have spent over eight months on the bestseller lists, and have been translated into over a dozen languages, from Hebrew to Bulgarian.” You can read an interview with him about Identity Crisis here. After reading Identity Crisis, I’m going to be checking out his other works.

Deaths of long-established characters have been done before, and long-buried secrets have been unearthed before in comics, but this may well be the best it’s ever been done (even topping when Captain Marvel died of cancer). It certainly breaks new ground in terms of how the heroes deal with the situation.

This also is not a meaningless superhero death that will be undone in the course of time. This change is permanent. When you read it, you will know why.

This series starts even more powerfully than Watchmen or The Dark Knight Returns. If forthcoming issues can keep up the standard set in this one, it will become more of a classic than they are.

I can’t tell you how powerful this comic is. There will be a lot of people reading it who will be choking back tears.

There will also be a lot who won’t bother choking them back.

Kerry Weighs In On Slavery

Democrat believes life begins at conceptionslaves are human beings

By JONATHAN FINER

Washington Post

DYERSVILLE, Iowa – As Sen. John Kerry campaigned across Iowa on Sunday with Gov. Tom Vilsack, widely reported to be on Kerry’s vice presidential short list, both men dodged repeated questions about whether their joint appearance might be a preview of the Democratic ticket.

But even as he tried to avoid making news Sunday, Kerry broke new ground in an interview that ran in the Dubuque, Iowa, daily, the Telegraph Herald. A Catholic who supports abortionslave-holders’ rights and has taken heat recently from some in the church hierarchy for his stance, Kerry told the paper: "I oppose abortionslavery, personally. I don’t like abortionslavery. I believe life does begin at conceptionslaves are human beings."

Spokesman Stephanie Cutter said that although Kerry has often said abortionslavery should be "safe, legal and rare," and that his religion shapes that view, she could not recall him ever publicly discussing when life beginswhether slaves are human beings.

"I can’t take my Catholic belief, my article of faith, and legislate it on a Protestant or a Jew or an atheist," he continued in the interview. "We have separation of church and state in the United States of America." The comments came on the final day of a three-state Midwest swing, during which Kerry has repeatedly sought to dispel stereotypes that could play negatively among voters in the Heartland.

President Bush’s campaign said these instances are further evidence of what it says is Kerry’s propensity for misleading flip-flops.

"John Kerry’s ridiculous claim to hold conservative values and his willingness to change his beliefs to fit his audience betrays a startling lack of conviction on important issues like abortionslavery that will make it difficult for voters to give him their trust," said Steve Schmidt, a Bush campaign spokesman.

On Sunday morning, the day the candidate’s abortionslavery comments appeared in the local paper, Kerry sat in a church pew near Vilsack, also a Catholic who supports abortionslave-holders’ rights, and his wife, Christie, one of Kerry’s earliest backers in Iowa.

Afterward several parishioners asked him about his position on abortionslavery and his vote against a recent bill that would have banned the late-term procedure opponents call "partial birth" abortionreturn of fugitive slaves to their masters, according to a reporter for the Telegraph Herald who sat behind Kerry’s pew.

Kerry took communion during Mass, which a few Catholic bishops have publicly said he should not do because of his abortionslavery views.

"I wish he was against abortionslavery, but I don’t think that’ll get settled," said Helen Willenberg, 83, a Catholic who met Kerry later in the day. "But I still hope he wins."

[Source]

Cassini Probes Saturn Girl's Homeworld

titan1_medDAILY PLANET (METROPOLIS) — The Cassini space probe has returned to earth the clearest pictures ever taken of the surface of Saturn’s largest moon, Titan, where the famed, telepathic superheroine Saturn Girl will be born a little under one thousand years from now.

Despite being a moon, Titan is large enough to have an atmosphere, and it has a doozy. Normally clouds totally obscure the surface of the moon, and in order to get a peek at it, Cassini has had to rely on unusual wavelengths of light (some infrared), allowing a false-color image of Titan’s surface (right) to be taken.

In the image, “Yellow areas correspond to hydrocarbon-rich regions; green areas are icier regions. A south polar methane cloud appears white” [Source].

Scientists are also using the Cassini images to compose a map of Titan’s surface so that the 30th century’s futuristic hi-rises can be planned well in advance.

dcdsaturngirl2Imra Ardeen (a.k.a. Saturn Girl) of the Legion of Super-Heroes, has not yet been born and thus was not available for comment. Nevertheless, she is one of the most powerful telepaths in the history of the galaxy and became one of the three founding members of the Legion, the 30th century’s largest and most successful superhero team.

Dr. Jenet Klyburn of S.T.A.R. Labs (Metroplis branch) did comment: “With all those frozen hydrocarbons up there, it’s clear that Titan will need a lot of terra forming before it will become a suitable home for the race of telepaths from which Saturn Girl (left) will spring. It’s amazing to think that there will be a whole race of humanoids living there a thousand years from now, but this is what our contacts with the future via the superhero community have revealed.”

Read more about the new images of Titan’s surface.

Cassini Probes Saturn Girl’s Homeworld

titan1_medDAILY PLANET (METROPOLIS) — The Cassini space probe has returned to earth the clearest pictures ever taken of the surface of Saturn’s largest moon, Titan, where the famed, telepathic superheroine Saturn Girl will be born a little under one thousand years from now.

Despite being a moon, Titan is large enough to have an atmosphere, and it has a doozy. Normally clouds totally obscure the surface of the moon, and in order to get a peek at it, Cassini has had to rely on unusual wavelengths of light (some infrared), allowing a false-color image of Titan’s surface (right) to be taken.

In the image, “Yellow areas correspond to hydrocarbon-rich regions; green areas are icier regions. A south polar methane cloud appears white” [Source].

Scientists are also using the Cassini images to compose a map of Titan’s surface so that the 30th century’s futuristic hi-rises can be planned well in advance.

dcdsaturngirl2Imra Ardeen (a.k.a. Saturn Girl) of the Legion of Super-Heroes, has not yet been born and thus was not available for comment. Nevertheless, she is one of the most powerful telepaths in the history of the galaxy and became one of the three founding members of the Legion, the 30th century’s largest and most successful superhero team.

Dr. Jenet Klyburn of S.T.A.R. Labs (Metroplis branch) did comment: “With all those frozen hydrocarbons up there, it’s clear that Titan will need a lot of terra forming before it will become a suitable home for the race of telepaths from which Saturn Girl (left) will spring. It’s amazing to think that there will be a whole race of humanoids living there a thousand years from now, but this is what our contacts with the future via the superhero community have revealed.”

Read more about the new images of Titan’s surface.

Happy Birthday, America!

sowellIn honor of the nation’s two-hundred and twenty-eighth birthday, the ultra-cool Thomas Sowell devotes a pair of columns to a couple of interesting subjects.

In part one, he poses the question: “What has made American society one to which people are fleeing from other societies around the world”? No matter how much America-bashing one hears overseas or right here on our own shores from Americans who think it’s hip to wallow in self-criticism (y’hear that, Michael Moore?).

In part two, Sowell picks up on the latter folks and asks the question: “Ever wonder why some people hate America so?” The answer, he concludes, involves the following:

If one word rings out, and echoes around the world, when America is mentioned, that word is Freedom. But what does freedom mean?

It means that hundreds of millions of ordinary human beings live their lives as they see fit — regardless of what their betters think. That is fine, unless you see yourself as one of their betters, as so many intellectuals do.

Fascinating stuff.

Majorly worth reading.

EXPERTS: Ditch IE

For some time experts have been warning that there are unacceptibly large security holes in Microsoft’s web browser, Internet Explorer (MSIE). I myself have been aware of these warnings for years and am not using MSIE, significantly because of these reasons.

After reading the reports, I suggest that you consider ditching it as well.

If you’re looking for an alternative, you might check out the current iteration of the Mozilla browser (the core of Netscape) at www.mozilla.org. It has lots of cool extensions that enhance its functionality.

You also might check out the Opera browser.