Yuck!

Yuck to Obama meeting with the Pope.

And a major yuck to what Michelle Obama is wearing - even though I'll give her credit for wearing a chapel veil.

The Catholic Knight Says It's the End of the World

You know, when I first started blogging and was awash in the glow of traditional/conservative Catholic blogs (i.e. excited to know there were others out there who shared similar points of view), I was particularly excited about the Catholic Knight.

But over time, it started to dawn on me that he didn't have a very large blog following (at least outwardly, visually) and I wondered why? Slowly, it started to hit me as to the reason, but I persisted in reading his blog because he posed interesting ideas and viewpoints that challenged my worldview.

But I think my times of being challenged by the Catholic Knight are over, as it seems that I can now officially confirm (at least for myself) that his blog is a repository of conspiracy theories and scare tactics.

This most recent blog entry says it all:

"ALERT! Talk to your priest, get organized now, create social networks through your church, time is short!: The American economy is about to tank. The stock market will soon crash. Unemployment will sore through the roof. Soon after the value of the dollar will suffer hyperinflation as the reserve raises interests rates in an attempt to slow it's decline. The party is over. America is going into a Great Depression. It's time to get prepared. Set up networks within your parish church. We need to support each other to get through this. No man is an island. Pass this message on to as many Catholics as you can now, before it's too late."

OK, I admit, like many others, Obama scares the crap out of me and I worry about the future. I have a friend who wants to find the blueprints of her home so that she can find places to hide food in the rafters in the attic. (Note that I consistently tell her that we have to trust God and not let anxiety overcome us.) My husband's siblings send out about 30 emails a day warning of the next thing The One is up to that will completely change life as we know it. There is fear and paranoia all over the place.

But to post stuff like the Catholic Knight does really does nothing but to serve up undue paranoia and fear. For example, I recall a month or so ago, he was convinced that nuclear missiles were going to be launched at American targets or something similar.

In short, he posts lots of "helpful" and "heads up" type of information that at first glance seems to pose a legitimate warning to others, but that in the end usually amounts to nothing. (This is not to say that what he warns of couldn't actually happen.....) Yet his warnings are never coupled with credible sources that agree or share his perspective. Rather, he takes information and reinterprets is to represent something that was never intended in the first place. I mean, is the Catholic Knight the only one out there who thinks the stock market is going to crash? And if not, why isn't anyone else talking about it?

Maybe the Catholic Knight is, in fact, a prophet out in the desert. But I'm not convinced yet.

A Sober Commentary on Michael Jackson

As always, thanks to Ingrid over at Slice for keeping minds set where they should be:

"This.....mawkish, vomit-inducing spectacle in L.A. today over the death of a desiccated, prescription drug-abusing pop star demands a reality check.

This Fox News story details the response of a family who just lost a beloved son in Afghanistan. News reporters were too busy editing moving video collages of Jackson’s plastic surgery over the years to notice.

If the puerile, slavish media worship of Obama was/is bad, this Michael Jackson freak show is even worse. The permanent adolescents who populate the news desks these days are an embarrassment and a joke to the whole realm of hard news. North Korea launched 7 new missiles last week and you had to search to find news on it. The news bimbos were busy speculating about whether Bubbles the Chimp would make it to the “Memorial Service” and whether Elizabeth Taylor was on a suicide watch because the moonwalking love of her life had passed on.

When the end of America comes someday, and it will, our citizens will be glued to The Insider and TMZ, breathless to know whether the newly released Angelina Jolie bathing suit photos were doctored to show cellulite or whether they are authentic. For this, our founders pledged their lives, fortunes and sacred honor? God help this nation, and may we always remember the young people who have died in the service of their country, unsung and unnoticed, while Americans behave like fools over a dead singer with a proclivity for young boys."

TRAD Catholic Has Cameo Appearance in Public Enemies

I knew that blog title would get your attention!

But really, it's true. Well, in a small way.

If you go see Public Enemies, in the second restaurant scene, the waiter is played by my friend's husband, who is a dyed-in-the-wool Traditional Catholic, Latin mass and all.

That my friend is in the film is not anything to get too excited about (although in another way it is.) Large portions of Public Enemies were filmed throughout Wisconsin and thousands of people in our state were hired on as extras. So right now it's a lovefest in the dairy state, as people are flocking to theatres to see if they made it into the film or not.

My friend and her family are all aglow over her husband's inclusion in the film. They said they might put a star on the sidewalk in front of their house. It will likely be in chalk.

Science Question: Why Is the Sky So Much More Blue Up North?

Just got back from camping in the Upper Peninsula (U.P.) of Michigan. One thing that struck me while I was there (and I don't understand why I haven't mentally noticed before, seeing as I have been going to the U.P. almost every year since birth) is that the sky is literally 10 times more blue than it is down here in Milwaukee. Prinstinely brilliant blue.

Not imagining this.

Yeah, I know Milwaukee and the surrounding suburbs are a big city and all, and yes, Milwaukee is only an hour and a half north of Chicago. But it's not like it's a smogfest, as with (for example) Los Angeles. It's still Wisconsin, for heaven's sake - land of lakes and deer hunting, etc.

I'm thinking it has something to do with the U.P. being so far up north? I have occasionally seen the aurora borealis up there. Also, as an example from this weekend, the fireworks started at after 10 p.m., wheres around here, they start 9:30 ish. Which means that the U.P. is further north in the hemisphere, which has something to do with its proximity to the sun during certain times of the year?

Just wondering if some science-y type who reads my blog has an answer.

Happy Fourth of July!

For the time being, it appears that this still is a free country.

Hey Anonymous

You've got to do more than copy and paste a pre-fabricated argument against Christianity to get me to respond. I know you didn't write or think up any of that - it's not your writing style, nor did that list reflect your usual lack of sophisticated thought. Also, that list of arguments against Christianity was decidedly Protestant in nature, so you're barking up the wrong tree.

Also, since I've got your attention, the pedophile comments are getting old. If you KNEW anything concerning statistics as regards ACTUAL cases of confirmed priest abuse in the Catholic Church, you'd understand that such cases are the minority; the rest is hype promulgated by the media.

I don't know if I'm addressing the original Anonymous of fall-winter 2008 here or not, but if I am, you have got to be seriously lonely and/or stupid and/or just plain bored to come back and start this all up with me again. Really, get a life. (I question which Anonymous I'm dealing with here because the original Anonymous couldn't write a half a sentence without the "f" word.)

If I'm not talking to the original Anonymous, the "new" Anonymous needs to be aware that I've learned alot from my experiences with the original Anonymous, and mostly, I'm not gonna take your bait.

And yes, my priest loves my son, but not the way you wish.