WORLD CHAMPIONS!

It was a brilliant game, and no commentary is needed.

THE COLTS ARE AWESOME.

In the words of the owner, "while this is a glorious team, we give all the glory to God"

And in the words of the coach, "I'm proud to be representing the African-American coaches and the first African-American coach to win this, but more important, Lovie Smith and I are Christian coaches, and God was watching over us."

There's a quote that you won't find in many news sources.

Wednesday's Hero

This Weeks Hero Was Submitted By
Mark Bell


LCpl. Nicholas J. Manoukian
22 years old from Lathrup, Michigan
1st Marines 6th Batallion 2nd Marine Division
Oct 21, 2006


Here
is a website that LCpl. Manoukian's mother set up for her son
after he lost his life in Ramadi.

These brave men and women sacrifice so much in their lives so that
others may enjoy the freedoms we get to enjoy everyday. For that, I am
proud to call them Hero.
It Is Foolish And Wrong To Mourn The Men
Who Died. Rather We Should Thank God That Such Men Lived

This post is part of the Wednesday Hero Blogroll. If you would like
to participate in honoring the brave men and women who serve this great
country, you can find out how by clicking href="http://rightwingrightminded.blogspot.com"

So, a man is doing his Saturday morning errands, drives to the Post Office and purchases a book of stamps. As he's placing the stamps on his many bills, and he's pondering the dwindling of his paycheck with the mailing of these checks, he notices something strange. His $.23 stamp looks funny. The 3 is backward.

'Ah, I bet they screwed up when they were making this batch.' He purchases another book, and immediately checks to see if the 3 is printed correctly. It is.

He carefully removes all of the misprinted stamps from his bills and replaces them with the stamps printed properly. He takes the other book of stamps home, and spends the next four hours on the internet researching these mis-printed stamps. He joins a few e-mail lists dedicated to stamp collecting, and waits. Everyday he searches the discussion threads to see if anyone else comes up with the same stamps.

A month later, he sees it. The title read 'misprinted stamps are recalled'. He opens the thread to learn that his precious book of stamps have been recalled, and the lucky few who may have received the stamps hold something priceless in their hands. The post office was able to recall all but 10 books of stamps. He also notices that there are collectors scrambling to find and purchase these stamps. They are offering upwards of $25,000 for these rare and precious stamps that very few people possess.

This scenario made me think of those hundreds of parents who find out that their precious child is going to be differnet. He or she isn't going to have exactly the same things as other children. Perhaps they won't ever learn how to read, learn how to run, ride a bike, walk on their own. Those children who God has decided to will into being are one in a million. In every other scenario in life, we accept these circumstances as indications of a particular blessing. Yet, when it comes to children, we want them to be like clones, like so many postage stamps that are printed out in uniformity. Yet, it is the particularity of every child that really makes the world beautiful, that brings to each family something that isn't exactly like other families.

SWF Seeking...

Reason #243 that I have never found someone to marry. I've never read the London Review of Books Personal Ads.

Here is just a sampling:

I'm just a girl who can't say "no" (or "anaesthetist"). Lisping Rodgers and Hammerstein fan, femaile lecturer in politics (37) would like to meet a man to age 40 for thome enthanted eveningth. Box 2498

Employed in publishing? Me too. Stay the hell away. Man on teh inside seeks woman on teh outside who likes milling around hospitals guessing the illnesses of outpatients. 30-35. box 3287.

Male LRB readers. Drawing little faces on your thumbs, getting them to order meals, then shouting at them for not being able to pay is no way to win a woman. You know who you are. Men to 40 wtih working credit cards, reply to once-bitten, twice-bitten, three-strikes-and-you're-all-out F, 35. Box no. 1379

Don't reply to this ad - its a fake. Just like the man who place it. Deny nothing, regret all, but live to fight another day with phoenoenologically ahamed, melanin-deprived, scion of the patriarchal ruling class. (32, Worcester). Box 7590.

Loaded tax exile Channel Islands resident seeks attractive well preserved soul mate. No objection to modest gold digger age around 25 below 40 a definite advantage. If you smoke it’s the garage. Tel 01481238667

My psychotherapist suggested I place this ad. Woman, 43. Not mental, despite whatever a fear of open spaces, the colour red, the sound of rain, plastic containers, beards, percussionists, birdsong and cornflakes may suggest Box no. 01/03

courtesy of Smithsonian Magazine February 2007.

Wednesday's Hero

Lt. Col. Michael E. McLaughlin
44 years old from Mercer, Pennsylvania
2nd Brigade Combat Team, 28th Infantry Division, Pennsylvania Army
National Guard
January 4, 2006


Sitting in the car with Lt. Col. Michael E. McLaughlin's 18-year-old
daughter, her father's friend of 21 years had just broken the news of his
death.

During years of friendship and service in the Pennsylvania Army
National Guard, Lt. Col. McLauglin and retired Capt. Brad Mifsud had a bond so
close that they promised each other if something were ever to happen to
either one of them, they would be there for the other's family.

Lt. Col. McLaughlin died when a suicide bomber rushed through a crowd
of Iraqi police recruits in Ramadi and detonated a bomb that also killed
a Marine and nearly 80 Iraqis. The day before the attack, Lt. Col.
McLaughlin said he was fully confident that Ramadi had finally turned a
corner in the insurgency. As hundreds of local men streamed into the
Ramadi Glass Factory on Wednesday to join the city’s long-defunct police
force, a wide grin spread over a pinch of tobacco stuffed into the
44-year-old’s lower lip.

"This may not look like much, but it's history," McLaughlin told a
reporter. "We're making history right here."

With a significant wound to the back of his head, Lt. Col. McLaughlin
turned to his injured personal security detail officers and inquired
about their well-being. Waving off medical attention, he asked them to
check on the soldiers under his command.

"In an act of extreme selflessness, he stated that he was OK, but to
concentrate on saving the lives of his men," said Col. Grey Berrier, a
close friend of Lt. Col. McLaughlin.

Lt. Col. McLaughlin died shortly after giving that instruction,
according to the Guard.

A long-time artillery officer in the Pennsylvania Army National Guard,
McLaughlin was assigned to Task Force 2-222 Field Artillery and was the
primary liaison between the 2-28 Brigade Combat Team and local tribal
and government leaders in Ramadi. His efforts were instrumental in
getting local sheikhs to support the recruitment drive and encourage more
than 1,000 area men to volunteer for the force, commanders said.

"Mike is a true hero in every sense of the word, and he died while
doing his job the only way he knew how - out front and with great
enthusiasm and courage," said Col. John L. Gronski, commander of the 2-28 BCT.
"This loss only strengthens our resolve to carry on and complete the
mission in order to honor his memory."

A gregarious wisecracker, McLaughlin said his hope was to one day
return to a peaceful Iraq, where he planned to walk the streets of Ramadi in
a traditional Arab "man dress," or dishdasha, and sip coffee and chai
with those sheikhs he had met during the war. McLaughlin said that one
particular tribal leader he had developed a close relationship with
dubbed him "The Sheikh of Sheikhs" - a nickname that was soon picked up by
fellow officers in the brigade.

These brave men and women sacrifice so much in their lives so that
others may enjoy the freedoms we get to enjoy everyday. For that, I am
proud to call them Hero.
It Is Foolish And Wrong To Mourn The Men
Who Died. Rather We Should Thank God That Such Men Lived

This post is part of the Wednesday Hero Blogroll. If you would like
to participate in honoring the brave men and women who serve this great
country, you can find out how by clicking here.

Why Does This Stuff Stick?

I had to bring the grill over to my parents house for a play0ff game barbecue. As I rolled the grilled through the dog yard, I noticed that only one kind of, ahem, "mud" was being picked up in the wheel. And I thought - after the week of rain that we've had, why do the wheels ONLY pick up dog dirt, and not the nice clean dirt that cleans easily.

Then, it reminded me of sin and immorality. Why does that seem to stick so much easier than virtue?

Remember when this was a novelty?

One of my favorite childhood memories was going to the Mall. It was almost an hour away, and there was only one within driving distance from us. We'd walk around all the shops, and get those few things that we really needed, and had waited to get until we could make the trip.

On the way home, we'd stop at McDonald's - which was always a huge treat. Then, Mom would take a different route home by the bay and we could see all the boats in the water. Sometimes we'd even see windsurfers out on the lake.

Its funny that McDonald's isn't considered a treat anymore. Its the thing you substitute for food when you're too busy for a real meal. I remember saving the fries for last, and wanting to be the last one who would finish so that it seems like I had more. AND, if you were lucky enough to get the ones at the bottom of the bag you had really made it.

I wish Mickey D's was more rare.

*GRAPHIC* Long, Disgusting... and Important

Murdered to Order
Opponents of stem cell research see their worst fears realized in the
Ukraine.
by Ryan T. Anderson
12/28/2006 12:00:00 AM


The Drudge Report recently highlighted a shocking story from the BBC
that centered on "disturbing video footage" of
"dismembered tiny bodies." "Healthy new-born babies" in the Ukraine,
"the self-styled stem cell capital of the world," have
allegedly been killed "to feed a flourishing international trade in
stem cells."

Apparently this isn't an isolated problem. The Council of Europe
"describes a general culture of trafficking of children snatched
at birth, and a wall of silence from hospital staff upwards over their
fate." Imagine the horror of young mothers who "gave
birth to healthy babies, only to have them taken by maternity staff."
What happened to these newborns was anybody's guess,
but recent footage obtained by the BBC may provide insight into their
fate: "The pictures show organs, including brains, have
been stripped--and some bodies dismembered."

The BBC report comes as a complete shock to most readers. But to those
steeped in biotech news and bioethical literature, the
latest out of the Ukraine is only a partial shock. While no one
expected baby-snatching in maternity wards, it seemed inevitable
that the business of stem cell research would, at some point, produce
an abomination of this kind.

At least publicly, supporters of various embryo-, fetus-, or
infant-killing programs have always argued that these options were
reluctantly chosen, out of dire necessity, and only on the least-human
of subjects--so-called "spare" embryos, "unwanted"
pregnancies, and gravely disabled newborns.

And so at first the abortion lobby argued that fetuses aren't human.
Then, as embryology and developmental biology decisively
demonstrated that an unborn child is most definitely a complete, though
immature, human being, the rhetoric shifted to
discussions of competing rights and interests between the mother and
her unborn child, along with appeals to the right to
privacy. It was conceded that the decision for abortion is tragic, and,
though it entails the ending of a life, sometimes it is an
absolutely necessary result of the conflicting needs between the mother
and child. And it was insisted that it is best if doctors
and women are allowed to adjudicate these situations, in private, for
themselves.

Intellectual defenders of abortion painted a picture of simply ceasing
a pregnancy: The unborn child has no inalienable right to
inhabit the mother's womb. A woman doesn't make a choice to kill,
simply a choice to end pregnancy--to remove the unwanted
baby from her body. Her body, her choice.

Yet this didn't prove to be satisfactory. The further claim was made
that the "right" to an abortion consisted in the right to an
"effective abortion." And an effective abortion entails not the ending
of a pregnancy, but the death of a child. Witness the
phenomena of partial-birth abortion and born-alive abortion.

But the issue of stem cell research can not appeal to any of these
claims of women's welfare, privacy, or "the right to choose."
Though the case of embryonic stem cells doesn't pose a direct
competition of rights or interests--unborn embryos do not pose a
threat to anyone--public arguments were made about competing interests
of patients: "You pro-lifers are favoring embryos over
Parkinson's victims." When these arguments prove ineffective, defenders
of embryo-destructive research turn to a utilitarian
one: embryos can be put to better use as raw material for biomedical
research.

Even here, however, the public arguments are always made that human
embryos merit a certain amount of respect and
dignity--even if killing is still acceptable--and that the choice to
destroy embryonic human beings is always made reluctantly,
with the hope that new technologies will soon be developed that make
their destruction unnecessary.

Now, however, we are seeing more and more clearly that this is all a
hoax. Sure, people like Princeton's Peter Singer have
argued for a long time in defense of infanticide. But no one ever
considered infanticide a real possibility; Singer's arguments
always seemed to be an eccentric intellectual exercise. Recent
developments abroad and at home, however, force us to
reconsider. Sadly, the BBC report out of the Ukraine is just the latest
in a long line of startling developments in this trend.

In July of 2005, the Slate magazine science reporter William Saletan
argued in a five-part series titled "Organ Factory: the
Case for Harvesting Older Human Embryos" that given the current
acceptance of embryo destruction there is no reason to limit
it to the early embryo. He pointed to studies from around the world
arguing that seven-week old embryos are what researchers
really want. And Saletan made the case that they should have them:
"Don't be scared. We don't have to grow a whole new
you. . . . an embryo cloned from one of your cells would need just six
or seven weeks to grow many of the tissues you need.
We already condone harvesting of cells from cloned human embryos for
the first two weeks. Why stop there?"

And in the startling conclusion to part five, Saletan made clear that
nothing should stand in the way of science: "But if all you
want is tissue, who cares? You can tell yourself what we already tell
ourselves about unwanted in vitro embryos: They're
doomed anyway. Patients' lives are at stake. We can't let personal
morality get in the way of science. We can't wait."

The Princeton philosopher Robert P. George, arguing the other side of
the issue, picked up on Saletan's article and noticed a
frightening development right in his own backyard. Under the title
"Fetal Attraction: What the Stem Cell Scientists Really Want"
in the pages of THE WEEKLY STANDARD, George rang the alarm bell warning
that embryonic stem cell research was leading to
the macabre practice of "fetal farming." He noted that blastocyst-stage
embryonic stem cells are therapeutically unusable
because of their tendency to produce tumors when injected into
subjects. Claims that they will cure people are pure hype.
Nature herself, however, stabilizes stem cells in the normal
gestational process, eliminating the tumor-formation problem by
what appears to be an extraordinarily complex system of intercellular
signaling; a complex system scientist were having trouble
replicating.

George warned that this would lead some scientists to demand the right
to create human clones and gestate them in female
volunteers or artificial wombs to the late embryonic or even the fetal
or infant stages before killing them to harvest non-tumor-
forming stem cells:

"My suspicions and sense of urgency have been heightened by the fact
that my home state of New Jersey has passed a bill that
specifically authorizes and encourages human cloning for, among other
purposes, the harvesting of 'cadaveric fetal tissue.' A
'cadaver,' of course, is a dead body. The bodies in question are those
of fetuses created by cloning specifically to be gestated
and killed as sources of tissues and organs. What the bill envisages
and promotes, in other words, is fetus farming."
That was last year in New Jersey. This year in Missouri a provision was
passed that created a constitutional right to human
embryo cloning--provided the cloned embryo isn't transferred into a
woman's womb--while also creating a constitutional
mandate to destroy human embryos. More startling, however, was the
window intentionally left open for fetus farming. If the
technology of artificial wombs is perfected, cloned embryos can be
developed in artificial wombs and then harvested not only
for stem cells, but for developed cells and even organs. This, it
appears, is what the doctors in the Ukraine are after. What
guarantee do we have that they aren't after the same thing here?

Ryan T. Anderson is a junior fellow at First Things. He is also the
assistant director of the Program on Bioethics and Human
Dignity at the Witherspoon Institute of Princeton, NJ.

© Copyright 2006, News Corporation, Weekly Standard, All Rights
Reserved.

Wednesday's Hero

Every once and awhile I'll do a Wednesday Hero that doesn't profile a single soldier. Sometimes it's been two or three from the same unit, sometimes it's been an entire group of soldiers like the Navajo Code Talkers. I even did an organization once, Operation Iraqi Children. This weeks Wednesday Hero is one of those sometimes. This weeks Wednesday Heroes are the parents of soldiers.

These people sacrifice just as much, if not more, than the soldiers themselves. They, in many cases, are having their babies leave home for the first time in their lives. While most parents only have to adjust to them moving a few miles away or going off to college, these Blue Star Parents have to watch their children go off to a very dangerous situation and can only hope and pray that everything will turn out okay. I don't have children of my own, so I can't even imagine what that is like. We have a few Blue Star Parents in the blogroll, so to them, and every parent of a Hero, I tell you we all stand with and support you and your family.There's a site that everyone should check out if they haven't already. Blue Star Mothers Of America.

These brave men and women sacrifice so much in their lives so that others may enjoy the freedoms we get to enjoy everyday. For that, I am proud to call them Hero.
We Have Every Right To Dream Heroic Dreams.
Those Who Say That We're In A Time When There Are No Heroes, They Just Don't Know Where To Look

This post is part of the Wednesday Hero Blogroll. If you would like to participate in honoring the brave men and women who serve this great country, you can find out how by clicking here.

Wednesday's Hero

Sgt. Roy A. Wood
47 years old from Alva, Florida
ODA 2092, Company C, 3rd Battalion, 20th Special Forces Group
(Airborne)
January 26, 2005



Sgt. Roy A. Wood, a Special Forces medical sergeant, was fatally
injured when the vehicle he was riding in was involved in a traffic accident
near Kabul, Afghanistan, during a return convoy from Qalat to Bagram
Air Base.

His 24-year military career with the Army Reserve and Army National
Guard was distinguished and unique. After receiving a commission as a
second lieutenant in 1979, he was first assigned to the Army Reserve’s
421st Quartermaster Company (Light Airdrop Supply).

While assigned to the 421st, he received training as a quartermaster
officer, a parachute rigger, and participated in both basic airborne and
jumpmaster courses.

In January 1982, he left the 421st to begin an association with U.S.
Army Special Forces that would last until, and beyond, his death.

His first SF assignment was to the Army Reserve's 11th Special Forces
Group (Airborne) at Fort Meade, Md., where he served in the 3rd
Battalion’s Company A as the detachment executive officer for Operational
Detachment-A 1175.

In May 1983, he became Detachment Commander for ODA 1175 after
returning from the Special Forces Detachment Officer Qualification Course.

In October 1984, he left ODA 1175 to become the Company Logistics
Officer.

He served in a variety of positions at the 11th SFG over the next 11
years, including operations officer and support company commander.

After four years at USSOCOM, he served a year with the Army Reserve’s
73rd Field Hospital in St. Petersburg, Fla., before switching from the
Reserve to the Army National Guard and renewing his association with
Special Forces.

He was assigned to 3rd Bn., 20th SFG in December 2001, where he served
for a year as the Battalion Surgeon, supervising medical coverage of
three Special Forces companies and one support company.

In December 2002, he resigned his commission to become a Special Forces
medical sergeant on Operational Detachment-A 2092, Co. C, 3rd Bn., 20th
SFG.

He, with ODA 2092, was mobilized in July 2003 in support of Operation
Enduring Freedom.

At the time of his death, he was pending appointment as a Special
Forces warrant officer, a position in which he would have served his team as
an assistant detachment commander.

During his service, he received the Army Commendation Medal, the Army
Achievement Medal, the Army Reserve Achievement Medal with Silver
Hourglass device, the National Defense Service Medal, the Army Service
Ribbon, the Basic Parachutist badge, the Parachute Rigger badge, the Ranger
tab and the Special Forces tab.

Sgt. Roy Wood leaves behind a wife and two children.

These brave men and women have given their lives so that others may
enjoy the freedoms we get to enjoy everyday. For that, I am proud to call
them Hero.
We Have Every Right To Dream Heroic
Dreams.
Those Who Say That We're In A Time When There Are No Heroes, They Just
Don't Know Where To Look

This post is part of the Wednesday Hero Blogroll. If you would like
to participate in honoring the brave men and women who serve this great
country, you can find out how by clicking here.

Blogs Partcipating In Wednesday Hero

Right-Wing & Right Minded
Hooah Wife &
Friends
Yankee Mom
Bear Creek
Ledger
Mail Call! Supporting The Troops
Yeah,
Right, Whatever
CrosSwords
Gazing
At The Flag
Gawfer
Ohio
Military Reserve
DeMediacratic Nation
My Point
A Day In The
Life Of.....
Blue Star
Chronicles
Prying1
Pet's Garden
Blog
Pictures From
My World
Freedom,
GUNZ, Glory and EBYJO
Gunz Up
Say No To
Politically Correct B.S.
Did You Ever Get The Feeling
A Rose By
Any Other Name
My
Weekly Thoughts
Rightwing
Guy
Trying My Best
To Support The Troops
American And
Proud
Maryannaville
Not Ready For My
Burqua
Perry Nelson's
Website
A
Fresh Start
Right On!
Echo9er
Befuddled
Potpourri
Conservative
Cowboy
Petrus
Pettifog
Tanker
Brothers
Chicagoray
Gop3
ArmyNGntcfamily
Soldiers' Angels New York
My
Republican Blog

Stripes or Solids???

While I try to take seriously the trials and tribulations of my teenage students, I just had no sympathy today.

The high school students are headed out tomorrow on a field trip. They will go to the state house, a chinese-american-french fusion cheap buffet for lunch, and then to see the movie, The Nativity. Since its a field trip, we're allowing the kids to NOT wear their uniforms, but have set a reasonable standard of no immodest clothing, and no blatant logos or advertising.

"So, what can we wear? Just plain colors?"

"Well, no... you can wear stripes or anything other clothing that doesn't have a picture or a logo on it."

"Stripes? You want me to wear stripes?? Fine, I'll wear stripes."

Okay... I tend to think this child perhaps had a traumatic experience with a prison uniform... but who can say.

I'm taking pictures tomorrow :)

It's Beginning to Look alot Like Christmas

While working on our school's Christmas program, I found this quote from Pope Benedict XVI and thought I should pass it on:

God’s everlasting "today" has come down into the fleeting today of the world and lifted our momentary today into God’s eternal today. God is so great that he can become small. God is so powerful that he can make himself vulnerable and come to us as a defenceless child, so that we can love him. God is so good that he can give up his divine splendour and come down to a stable, so that we might find him, so that his goodness might touch us, give itself to us and continue to work through us. This is Christmas: "You are my son, this day I have begotten you". God has become one of us, so that we can be with him and become like him. As a sign, he chose the Child lying in the manger: this is how God is. This is how we come to know him. And on every child shines something of the splendour of that "today", of that closeness of God which we ought to love and to which we must yield – it shines on every child, even on those still unborn.

To read the whole homily, its here.

My Sister's Dog

I'm sitting at the computer, asking for blog post suggestions... in honor of my sister who is just returning from the jungles of Nepal... this post is in honor of her "dog" Bonnie. The reason that "dog" is in quotes is that she's not really a dog. Well, she is in the accident of nature sort of way. However, her intelligence and manner indicate that she is more like a queen.

She disdains the lowly nature that usually indicates the K9 type. Despite the fact that she too, is fuzzy and walks on four legs, she is among that breed that doesn't have a tail - by nature. She hates those furry barking things with tails.

She doesn't bark, she speaks. And if you're not listening, she keep on barking until you do.

She can tell time. I know this to be true because if the four dog dishes that we have are not completely full every night at 8:00pm sharp, she "barks" for lack of a better word until you fill them. And, she adjusts for daylight savings time.

She's an excellent travelling companion. She likes to ride shotgun in order to look out the window and stay on the lookout for any unsavory characters... like a good shotgun should.

Her favorite part of riding in the car is going to the Dunkin Donuts drive-through. She always gets a treat... usually a plain doughnut, but sometimes Boston Creme.

She also loves the ocean, and knows that its near when she about 10 minutes away. She likes to watch dog shows on TV, and gets especially excited when there are Olde English Sheep"dogs" featured.

She hates baths, lightening storms and people who promise walks but don't give them. She also hates packing since she knows that someone will be away for long periods of time.

She's the queen of this house, that's "fer sure".

Silent Crusade

Check out Against All Heresies for an article on the recent sale of a Roman Catholic Church to be used as a mosque... for the handsome sum of $150,000. (Who can buy anything for that these days?) After reading her post, I tried to find a Church in Turkey that Islamist say Mohammed turned around with his thumb to make it into a mosque. I couldn't find any information on that... but I did find the historical precedent for changing churches into mosques. It usually happened right after a battle that the Christian Crusaders lost:

Umayyad Mosque in Damascus, one of the first churches converted into mosques
According to the early Muslim historians, the towns that surrendered without resistance and made treaties with the Muslims received permission to retain their churches and synagogues, while in the towns taken by conquest Jewish and Christian places of worship were seized by the Muslims. Modern historians do not consider the process of transformation of churches into mosques to be as regular as the Muslim historians describe it, but in the course of time, the Muslims appropriated many churches to themselves.[1] From the beginning of the Muslim conquests, the Christians had ceded (sounds so innocent, and unbloody) to the Muslims half of their churches, which were turned into mosques.[4] One of the earliest examples of this kind was in Damascus, where in 705 Umayyad caliph Abd al-Malik took the church of St. John from the Christians and had it rebuilt as a mosque, which is now known as Umayyad Mosque; overall, Abd al-Malik is said to have transformed ten churches in Damascus into mosques. The process of turning churches into mosques was especially intensive (you mean, like the villagers were whipped and beaten into submission to do it?) in the villages, with the gradual conversion (that's nice) of the people to Islam. During his persecution of the Copts, Abbasid caliph al-Ma'mun turned many churches into mosques, both in Cairo and in Egyptian villages, which had no mosques in the earlier generations of Islam. Fatimid caliph al-Hakim converted numerous churches and synagogues into mosques. During the Reconquista christian warriors would just as often appropiate and convert mosques to churches as the Muslims would convert them to their capture.[5] The chief mosque in Palermo was previously a church. After the Crusades, several churches were turned into mosques in Palestine.[1] Ottoman Turks converted into mosques nearly all churches, monasteries, and chapels in Constantinople, including the famous St. Sophia cathedral, immediately after capturing the city in 1453.

Since we are following tradition here, I wonder how they'll ceremonially accomplish the following:

To make the buildings fit for the mosques, the Turks destroyed the icons, plundering their precious plating in the process, and defaced the frescoes.[6] The Ottoman sultan Mehmet II was the first to perform a Muslim prayer in what had previously been the St. Sophia cathedral.[7]

Superbowl Halftime Show

I just read the attached article that indicates Superbowl fans this year will be "treated" to a performance by Prince.

Hasn't the NFL figured out that football fans don't want a rock star - we want a good ol' Country Music performer. Preferably Lee Greenwood singing Proud to be an American. We don't want Prince, Janet Jackson, geriatric Stones or any of the other crazy washed up performers that they've been billing for the last 20 years.

I remember the year that they said it was going to be in 3-D and you had to get special glasses. Of course, we didn't have special glasses and it was basically a guy riding around the field on a motorcycle. Totally lame-O.

I love football. It represents America. Its the perfect symmetry of brute physical strength, intimidating mind games, and clever plays. Its like a ballet with 300 lb. linebackers. Grace, beauty, intelligence.

Why sully it with the likes of Prince??

There's No Place Like Home

So, my parents have moved to the "States" from Ireland and are with us while they buy their new house. So, yesterday we took them on a tour of "small town" America (the names have been changed to protect the innocent).

You can drive through this town, blink twice and you've missed the whole thing. We have one blinking light, a four-way stop and a factory. We have 6 police officers, three cop cars and a cop SUV. We also have a McDonald's and a Dunkin Donuts... but the old-timers prefer the cafe, and the pub. This town is so far from modern America that you almost need a passport to get here.

So, we started the day with a lunch at the local diner. Its a brick building one end, and a stainless steel car on the other. No credit cards are accepted... just cash or a local check. You can see everyone from teenagers to older folks and everyone in between. We even saw Santa Claus come in with his wife and enjoy a nice meal. AND SO CHEAP!! It cost lest than $40 for four of us to have a filling, excellent meal.

At our next stop, we entered a store to be greeted by both owners. They are a husband and wife team who travel around the world, collecting jewelry, clothing and other items to sell in this small town shop. We purchased some Christmas gifts, chatted with the proprietors and viewed items from England, Russia, Poland, Nepal, India and South America.

We then went to German John's bakery where we chatted with the owner who learned all she knows from her own father. We saw traditional German cakes, bread and an 11 foot long bread crocodile!! My sister had an epiphay regarding a Christmas present, and gathered everything she could find in the store. The proprieter welcomed us to the village, and sent us on our merry way to the CHOCOLATE FACTORY!!!!

In this little store there are chocolate geese, sports equipment, truffles, chocolate molds, firemen, and every conceivable chocolate object you can imagine. Cherry codials for Mom, sugar-free chocolates for Dad and a giant chocolate Noel for me and Kathy.

The last stop of the day was Gibson's Pewter Shop. Mr. Gibson learned the trade from his father and makes early American replica's of Pewter bowls, goblets, plates and other pewter items. Again, the proprietor meets you in the shop, greets you and chats about the products, the weather and the skills that goes into each product.

There's very few towns like this left in America.

HAPPY ST. NICHOLAS DAY!!!

I hope that there will be candy in my shoes!!!

Here's a great site on St. Nick: origins, relation to Santa Claus, etc.

"For indeed, St. Nicholas, lover of the poor and patron saint of children, is a model of how Christians are meant to live. A bishop, Nicholas put Jesus Christ at the center of his life, his ministry, his entire existence. Families, churches, and schools are embracing true St Nicholas traditions as one way to claim the true center of Christmas—the birth of Jesus. Such a focus helps restore balance to increasingly materialistic and stress-filled Advent and Christmas seasons."

Flying Muslims

Yeah, but not on a red carpet. This article is entitled "Muslims Seek Prayer Room in Airport."

What bothers me the most about this headline is that anyone who has searched out the chapels in airport knows that they are used by Muslims. How do we know this? There's a huge arrow pointing East in the guestbooks. I have been to the airport chapels in Chicago (O'Hare, not Midway), Philadelphia, Dallas, Newark and others.

To find the chapel is usually a hassle. You have to find a comprehensive map of the entire airport. Its usually in a Mezzanine somewhere that is impossible to drag your thousand pounds of luggage to. Sometimes - notably in Dallas - it's outside security. So, if you have a layover, you might exit to use the chapel, and then wait in the security line for an hour, possibly missing your flight.

I once had to go to Mass in an airport to fulfill my Sunday obligation just before jumping on a plane to go to Ireland. Afterwards, the priest had snacks and drinks laid out for the travellers while he chatted with us. It was very nice, and I got the impression that not too many people attend Mass here.

Oftentimes, the Blessed Sacrament is reserved in these airports as well, so its always a good idea to go pay a visit to a tabernacle that is little-visited.

Back to the Muslims - this story is just another example of a marketing campaign to draw the Muslims in a sympathetic light and painting them as victims.

It hurts when someone that you love lets you down. It hurts even worse when you're in love with an entire football team, and they let you down.

The NY Giants, sporting their fiery red "away" uniforms were tied with Dallas 20-20 with 1 minute left in the game. After the kick, Dallas gained 41 yards with a pass to Terrel Owens. The field kick wasn't much of a challenge to their newly signed Grammatico, Grammatica, whatever the heck his name is - he didn't live up to his poor reputation anyway.

I like the new uniforms... but the defense is disappointing.

I think I'm wearing... Communism!?!?

A recent conversation was related to me that went something like this:

"Women should not wear pants ever. Women who do wear pants are supporting..., they're supporting... Well, supporting communism! Don't you think so?"

"Well, I think I'm wearing communism."

Is it any wonder that I'm too wild for the traditionalist? Yes, I too wear communism.