A Voter’s Choice!

Turns out there is a pro-life candidate running for governor. He is a write-in and his name is Randy Stufflebeam.

A Neutral Information Source

Check out Vote Smart to get some comprehensive information on the issues that matter most to you.

Some Dismal Choices to Make

Because this is the issue I care most about and I know some of you do too . . .

The Illinois Citizens for Life publishes General Election Information for the upcoming November election.

I love this group and the information they publish. It makes voting pretty easy for me.

Since neither candidate for governor is pro-life and there is little else redeeming in their political outlooks, I refuse to vote for either Topinka or Blagojevich. I haven’t figured out yet whether it is more worthwhile for me to bolster the Green Party numbers or abstain from voting for governor altogether. Does anyone know which would make more of an impact in the stats?

I am also voting quite enthusiastically for Peter Roskam. Ironically, Tammy Duckworth’s flyers convinced me to do so. She sent a stream of mailers bemoaning the fact that “Roskam doesn’t support abortion!” and “Roskam doesn’t support embryonic stem cell research!”

She convinced me. Roskam it shall be. With gusto.

My Purpose

	Your super-secret codename is: AURAL
	Your mission is… Sniper all of the ballons at the Macy’s day parade
‘What is your codename and mission?’

(A last hat tip to Barbara Walker.)

High Flying Adored

You are Amelia Earhart Adventurous and boundary breaking. You believe that you can do anything, and do not hesitate to take risks to achieve a big goal. You like to problem solve, when a problem comes up. Take this quiz

(Hat tip to Barbara Walker.)

My Campaign Slogan

	Elect Laura!
	Grape soda gives me special powers
‘What will your campaign slogan be?’

(Hat tip to Barbara Walker.)

My Obituary

‘What will your obituary say?’

(Hat tip to Barbara Walker.)

“But We Use a White Sheet!”

A London woman who procured an abortion is shocked . . . shocked . . . to hear how her baby was treated after the procedure.

Addenbrooke’s Hospital, in Cambridge, said it was no longer able to afford the dignified disposal at a local crematorium of foetuses from unwanted pregnancies.

Instead, they are being burnt in the hospital’s main incinerator – which is normally used for rubbish and clinical waste . . .

One local woman, who asked not to be named, said after the heartache of deciding to have an abortion she was mortified to find the hospital had used the same furnace they burn rubbish in to incinerate her terminated baby.

She said: “I am furious and very hurt. Imagine my horror when I discovered that my baby was incinerated in the same furnace as the hospital rubbish.”

The level of her hypocrisy is beyond my ken. Why on earth should she care about the disposal of her unwanted child? And if she does indeed consider the disposal of “her baby” to be so outrageous, how could she possibly justify dismembering it and sucking it out like a tumor? Without being too Godwin about it, her attitude is akin to a Nazi insisting that exterminated Jews be properly dressed after being dragged out of the gas chambers. It’s sick.

The hospital has a different policy for miscarriages, of course. Those fetuses are most certainly disposed of with dignity. And the hospital is quick to point out that the incinerator is scheduled especially for these cheap cremations, overseen by two specialists in bereavement care. But why should the hospital care? Do they take such pains with the other “clinical waste” they generate? Must bereavement specialists be present for the disposal of excised cancers?

Could it be that on some level both the woman and the hospital acknowledge that an abortion is the destruction of a human life and that to avoid negative press, they must treat it as such?

(Hat tip to Janice.)

Treacherous Waters

Dave Rumoro sent me an article about American faith. Ostensibly, most of us believe in God, which makes sense from a “natural law” standpoint.

The following statistic caught my eye:

Asked whether God favored the United States, only one-fifth of respondents said they agreed. Evangelical Protestants were the most likely to agree, with 26 percent saying they think God favors the country.

I have a fuzzy opinion on this point. From my interaction with fervent Protestants, I know that many hold the United States in the exalted position of being clearly favored by God as evidenced by its militaristic might and overflowing prosperity.

This position presents some difficulties for me. First, as a Catholic, I believe (1) that God’s favor is extended to His faithful servants and that (2) those servants are frequently exalted through suffering. At the same time, I believe that (3) all good things are from God and know that (4) His favor was manifested in the militaristic might and overflowing prosperity of the Jewish nation in Old Testament times.

So while I acknowledge that God’s favor is frequently expressed in earthly blessings, I still lean quite heavily on the fact that His “good and faithful servants” must (almost universally) endure some extremely harsh life trials. (As St. Teresa of Avila said to Christ: “No wonder you have so few friends!”) Sacrifice is necessary for our own perfection and (I think) it’s foolish to read the blessings of this life as a sign of our “favor status” with God. America is a blessed nation, to be sure, but why would we count on those blessings as any level of salvific assurance?

Any thoughts?

Veritatis Splendor

I didn’t think the Tridentine Mass was all that controversial. St. John Cantius celebrates it in Chicago.

The priests of England and Wales are among those sometimes given permission to celebrate the Old Mass according to the 1962 Missal. Tridentine Masses are said regularly at the Oratory and St James’s Spanish Place in London, but are harder to find outside the capital.

The new indult would permit any priest to introduce the Tridentine Mass to his church, anywhere in the world, unless his bishop has explicitly forbidden it in writing.

I suppose this seems landmark or something, but – from my perspective – this new indult simply reinforces that it is as it always was: namely that those who wished to celebrate the Latin Tridentine Mass were given the means to do so.

It seems to me that the traditional form of liturgy is simply receiving a healthy, vigorous groundswell of support. But it’s not a radical departure.

Ah, well. Maybe it will help reconcile the Lefebvrists. Who knows?