Done with my break

Well, I just took an eight month break from blogging.

One big thing on my mind is a big change at my Parish. Fr. Freitag, Our pastor of 9 years, was transferred to another parish in the Archdiocese midway through his second term as our pastor. This was to fill a vacancy left at the other parish. His last week with us was at the end of June.

It is a difficult time for myself and my family because the departing pastor was the priest who helped me find my way back to the Catholic Church. His straightforward manner of presenting Catholic beliefs and practices were exactly what my wife (an evangelical Protestant) had been thirsting for since we met. She converted to the Catholic Church along with my oldest daughter, about 9 months after I returned.

I can't help but wonder how things would be different with the Catholic Church in the United States if all the bishops, priests, religious, and Catholic educators would simply present the faith without watering it down to make it more "palatable" or "friendly". It seems as if there exists a great hesitency in being straighforward about the faith. I think it's derived from a false sense of ecumanism, from being so worried about offending or challenging a persons ideas, beliefs, or conscience that people, (cradle Catholics, Protestants, and others) are left with an ignorance regarding what the Catholic Church actually teaches.

To highlight just two of the things my wife learned:

1: Jesus established a Church that was/is both visible and corporate, and entrusted the leadership of that Church with the Apostles. The Apostle Simon was specially called and placed by Christ as the leader of the Apostles and the Church. Simon's name was changed by Jesus to Cephas (Aramaic for rock). This showed that he was blessed and specially annointed by God for his new lifes role (the leader of the Church). No where in scripture does God change someones name without it being a blessing. A name change always indicates a calling, and defines a role that the individual will fill.

Abram to Abraham
Sarai to Sarah
Jacob to Israel
Hosea to Joshua
Simon to Cephas (Peter)

2: The Eucharist IS the body, blood, soul, and divinity of Christ. It isn't a symbol, it isn't somehow both bread & wine and body & blood (as it is for those who want it both ways) the substance of the bread and wine are completely transformed into the substance of Christ. This can only be believed through faith, because our physical senses fail us in discovering this truth. We are called to "...eat the flesh and drink the blood..." of Christ in order to have His life in us.

Those are only two of the numerous things that my wife had illuminated for her through Fr. Freitag and his RCIA program. Fr. Freitag ensured that everything taught was from, or derived from, the Catechism of the Catholic Church, or from Magesterial documents. My wife originally went to the RCIA classes simply to learn what it was that I believed. She didn't feel compelled to convert until about 6 weeks in to the class. This desire to convert came through the conviction of the Holy Spirit after having heard the truth of the Gospel in a faithful RCIA program. If only all RCIA programs told the truth without addition or subtraction based on some persons personal agenda and ulterior motives.

Thank God for good and holy priests such a Fr. Patrick Freitag. We wish him well at his new assignment with St. Monica's Parish on Mercer Island.

Westboro Baptist Church puts the "dam(n)" in fundamentalist

This Group makes me sick.


Now they have been sued and are in court for attacking a fallen Marine's funeral.


I hope they finally get what's coming to them. Here are some examples of their disgusting version of free speech and freedom of religion.

Pull Your Pants Up!!

I must be officially old. It drives me up the wall when I see guys (and sometimes girls?!?!) with their pants like this.

This is a funny campaign for a city to have to do on a billboard. I can't see this working though. At least Dallas is trying though.

Politicians and "Personal Faith"

I just read this article and thought it explained some things nicely.

Boxer Blames Bush For Fire Damage

Barbara Boxer, (yes it was difficult just to type her name) blamed President Bush, (watch the John Gibson video here) for the widespread fire damage because there would be twice as many guard troops and equipment to fight the fires if all those guard troops weren't deployed fighting that damn war in Iraq (that she voted FOR!!!).

What a load of crap. I looked into the facts, here they are;

California has somewhere between 21,000 and 25,000 National Guard members.

Currently about 3,000-4,500 of those troops are "deployed".

That's mostly from one unit, the 1st Brigade of the 40th ID.

around 85% of the California guard troops aren't deployed. A logical assumption would be that around 85% of their equipment isn't deployed either, (though you don't use army tanks and howitzers to fight fires).

Barbara Boxer is an ingnoramus attempting to make political hay from a tragic diasaster. What a Neo-Scalawag.

Christian Heritage Week

Much to my surprise, governor Chris Gregoire has declared that this week (Oct 21-27) as Christian Heritage Week. The News report on it is o.k. though there is some careful wording at the beginning of the article which establishes some opposition to the idea without coming out and directly opposing it. Here is the text of her proclamation:


WHEREAS, the Declaration of Independence declares that governments are to secure our
creator-endowed unalienable rights to “Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness;” and
WHEREAS, our country was founded in part because of the desire of people to have the
freedom to worship as they please;
NOW THEREFORE, I, Christine O. Gregoire, Governor of the State of Washington, do
hereby proclaim October 21-27, 2007 as Christian Heritage Week.

I appreciate this effort on behalf of Governor Gregoire.

Here is an example of Christian influence in the settling of Washington State. This was written in 1912. You have to page down to find the specific portion regarding Christian history.

Here are the current demographics of religion in Washington
The religious affiliations of Washington's population are:
Christian – 63%
Protestant – 29%
Lutheran – 6%
Baptist – 6%
Methodist – 4%
Presbyterian – 3%
Other Protestant or general Protestant – 10%
Catholic – 20%
Other Christian – 11%
Latter-day Saint; 3%
Other Religions – 5%
Refused – 6%
No religion – 25%

As with many other Western states, the percentage of Washington's population identifying themselves as "non-religious" is higher than the national average. The percentage of non-religious people in Washington is the highest of any state, and its Christian population is the lowest of any state.

All Clear!!

The Troll(s) have been identified. It was only a drill. It was good practice in the case of an actual Troll sighting or infestation. Let's go over the procedures again

1. identify the Troll(s) [they often work in pairs or groups, like wolfpacks]
2. give the Troll(s) a warning
3. begin shoveling up their feces [offensive posts]
4. enact security measures [turn on the comment approval button]

Thanks for the training to you Troll simulators.

reader comments will now be posted without delay.

Pets

A previous commentor accused me of hating cats back in the This Is Stupid post.

Anonymous said...
So... you don't like cats? Is that what you are trying to say?

Nothing could be farther from the truth. I love pets. Just last shift we had a fire where the home was pretty much a total loss. The residents were out of the area. We rescued their two cats from the basement after we found them while searching for people.

The cats were very scared, wet, hot, and one had the hair on his tail burned. Animal control would not come out to take custody of the cats until the next day, (the fire was around midnight). So we took the cats back to the fire station in the engine. I stopped at safeway on the way back and talked with the manager about getting some cat food. You see, we didn't have any money on us. So there I am standing in safeway at 2:00 AM wearing my dirty bunker gear asking the manager for a free bag of cat food. He gave it to me of course, (I paid him after I got off duty).

We cleaned the cats up, fed and watered them. The owners stopped by and retrieved their cats later. Many, many times I have seen the positive influence pets can have on people. They truly are a blessing on us humans. They give us an opportunity to put into practice stewardship over creation and can help lead us to a certain degree of faith and knowledge of God's love. Caring for another life and nurturing it can give us some insight in to God's care and nurturing of us. When those pets die, they leave us with a very real sadness.

A friend's pet recently passed. It was a cat and was so magnificent that it was named "The MagnifiCAT".

Here is a poem dedicated to pets and their owners.


Because I'm only human,
it's sometimes hard to be
the wise, all knowing creature
that my cat expects of me.

And so I pray for special help,
to somehow understand
the subtle implications,
of each proud miaowed command.

Oh, let me not forget that chairs
were put on earth to shred;
and what I like to call a lap
is actually a cat-bed.

I know it's really lots to ask
but please, oh please, take pity;
and though I'm only human,
make me worthy of my kitty!

Author Unknown

SOCAL FIRES!!

Hot dry Santa Anna winds are fanning the flames in Southern California. I'm glad I don't work down there. What a madhouse.

Some things I've learned in my short 13 years as a firefighter:

1. When you are driving code (red lights and sirens) don't expect people to yield the right of way.
2. Corollary to #1; When driving code, expect other drivers to do the most ridiculous and unexpected things with their cars. (I actually had a lady come to a complete stop in the middle of the road and put both hands over her ears while closing her eyes.)
3. Whenever you go to an apartment complex for a medical emergency, someone will come up to you and announce that they are the manager. Then they will ask you what’s going on. After you tell them it’s none of their business (by politely informing them that it’s a private medical matter) they will again remind you that they are the manager. Then you tell them “o.k. are you their doctor? Because they don’t need their landlord right now.”
4. Those curbs with the red paint that appear to say “NO PARKING, FIRE LANE” actually say, “Park Here IF You Are More Important Than Other People”.
5. In an emergency situation the general public makes SSD’s, SNAP STUPID DECISIONS. In other words, put them in a situation where immediately making a good decision is necessary due to an imminent threat to life or property and they will make a bad decision.
6. People don’t like to leave their homes, their pets, or their “stuff” behind.

Blog Trolls

Sorry for the delay in seeing your posts. I have some Blog Trolls
(see definition 1) who have decided that making witty and or insightful comments aren't enough.

I will be very tolerant of opposing viewpoints and commentary. I'm not looking to simply have a blog where everyone agrees with me and or eachother. But when the opposing commentary begins to degenerate into simple baiting, name calling, dead horse beating, or defamation, I won't let it stand.

So on an interim basis, I will be approving all comments before they are posted. Don't sweat it though, I won't censor authentic comments simply because I don't agree with the idea. It just may take some time before you see your comment on the blog.

What did they know, and when did they know it?

Not sure what to believe in this whole saga. I just smell something "funny".

Here we go again.

81st Brigade put on alert for Iraq/Afghan deployment.











One thing will be different this time howver. My brother won't be there to make them look good. (Hey Anonymous. This is what a real live Sergeant First Class in the United States ARMY looks like)

Holidays? Sea-Tac

I just read this story. I remember the big flap last year.

I only have one question. What holidays are the port of Seattle intending to honor with this display of birch trees? Kwanza? Channuka? Christmas? Winter Solstice? As far as I know none of those holidays use icey birch trees as a symbol of their holiday.

Who's Kid's are they?

This story makes me sick.

Why is it that parents must give specific permission before their child is able to receive OTC cold, or pain medication? Why is it not necessary to receive specific parental permission before giving a minor child birth control medicine, some of which contains powerful hormones? How is it possible that this would be medically prudent?

This is simply a trampling of parental rights. It's all politics and not at all medical.

Those who favored the plan said it isn't about encouraging premature sex, but protecting kids who don't have strong support from their parents.
"Unfortunately, not every child is getting the kind of parental involvement that is going to help keep them safe," said Richard Verrier.

What a load of sophistry.

Sea Story II

Time for another Sea Story,

I was a fire controlman in the Navy. What a fire control technician does is pretty cool. We maintain and operate the digital fire control system. In other words, we do all the repair and maintenance on the system that is used to track contacts from all the different sensors (sonar, radar, periscope). And we operated the fire control system by determining the range, course, and speed of different targets after evaluating the bearing data over time. Then we would figure out how to shoot those targets with torpedos, (or tomahawk missles).

Our watchstanding involved maintaining current solutions on all contacts in order to provide the Captain with an overall picture of the tactical situation.

Whenever we went to periscope depth we had to do specific things to ensure that we were certain of the "solutions" on all contacts. The Captain would come up to the control room and the OOD would inform the captain of where he believed all the contacts were. The Captain would then give the OOD permision to come to periscope depth. After several years onboard I had developed a reputation of being very good at this part of my job, (getting solutions). The Captain would receive the report from the OOD and we would begin our ascent to persicope depth. The OOD would be riding the scope and the Captain would lean down and quietly ask me, "allright, what are these guys really doing?" It was nice to have the Captain have that much trust and respect for my abilities.

Now, whenever we were at periscope depth at night time, the control room would be "rigged for black", meaning all the lights would be out. This made it hard to see. The seat I was in was within arms length of the persiscope. Now, usually when the scope was out there would be a crowd of 5 or so people standing around the periscope station waiting to "take a turn". I always found this to be annoying because they would be bumping in to me. It was usually the J.O.'s who were there to get experience (or say they were they for official reasons when they really just wanted to see outside). So I started to play a game. Remember it was dark?? Well, I would reach over in to the group and pinch one of them on the butt. Usually the guy on the scope. I did this for a couple of years (about three or four patrols) without ever getting caught. I got J.O.'s, the CO, the XO, the NAV... whoever. Then on my last patrol, we were at periscope depth, rigged for black. The Captain was on the scope. I was reaching my hand over and was just about to pinch... and the Captain says in a low voice, "fire control, if you touch me... you'll be down in my stateroom later accross a green table from me" (meaning I would go to Captains Mast [non-judicial punishment]). "Aye Aye Captain" I say.

After we came down from periscope depth the Captain came over to me with a grin on his face and basically told me that he had known all along that it had been me doing it and that I should never assume that the Captain doesn't know what's going on. But, the gig was up and I should find something else to do now.

The Last March of the Ents

Read this story and tell me if it gives you the creeps also.

I just think that we may be starting something that we will lose control of.

Next thing you know, we'll be having this in our backyard...

Sea Story

My First Haircut

Life on a submarine for a new sailor (Non-qual, dink, scumbag, puke, nub) is very interesting and full of excitement. Even the most mundane of activities has an exciting air for a non-qual. I remember my first day underway. This is after I had awaken from a long sleep following finishing up my tour as a Crank (a guy on K.P. duty AKA cooks slave). I had quals to work on. So... being the smart non-qual that I was , I headed back to Machinery Two. As fortune would have it, there was a crowd of about 7 A-Gangers in AMR third level. I walked in and announced that I was ready for a checkout on some system (can't remember which one). Well, the COB (Chief of the Boat, [command Master Chief for you skimmers]) happened to be in the room shooting the breeze with the guys. He said I could have a checkout under one condition. I had to sit in the stool and everytime I got a wrong answer they would; spin me in circles, stop my spinning by grabbing my hair, cut off a handful of hair with the COB's pocketknife. Sounded good to me...


I didn't know as much about the system as I thought I knew. Wow!! there's a lot of little specific information to know for even the simplest equipment on a submarine. Like, "How many times did I have to retap the thread on the third bolt securing that pump to the deck?" I sure had a great haircut though. I looked like a Chernoble survivor! I walk up to the computer room which is just past the XO's and CO's staterooms. The XO notices me and gasps.


XO- "Sailor!? What happened to your hair?

ME- "I got it cut XO." (ask a dumb question...)

XO- "What the hell was used to cut your hair?"

ME- "It was a knife."

XO- "Did you do it yourself?"

ME- "No sir, it was done by some other people."

XO- "Who did this to you?"

ME- "You know sir, I'm so new that I can't really remember who they were."

XO- "You're not that new... Who was it!!?"

ME- "Sorry sir, I'm just not sure."

XO- "OK, where did it happen?"

ME- "Again sir, I'm so new that I don't really know my way around well enough. I'm not sure where I was."

XO- "Bullshit! You're dismissed!"


I took off and went and hid in DPER (pronounced deeper [the computer room]). Within 20 seconds you here over the 1MC, "Chief of the Boat, report to the XO's stateroom!" Well you could hear the XO explaining to the COB that he had better get to the bottom of the story regarding my haircut.


About 30 minutes later the messenger of the watch finds me and tells me to report to the Goat Locker (Chiefs Quarters). I walk in and find the COB and about 6 other chiefs sitting around in their lounge area. There is a stool, a towel, and some haircutting clippers. The COB sits me down and begins to cut my hair. He and the other chiefs visit with me, asking me questions about my childhood and my plans for the future. In the end the COB tells me, "You need to get out there and familiarize yourself with the boat and the rest of the crew now." Then he grabbed my qual card and signed it off for the system that my original "pocketknife checkout" had been for.



That COB saved my butt about a year in the future when I did something dumb on base. He had the reputation as being a mean old hardass. But, he took care of "his boys". Since the day I didn't rat him out, I became one of "his boys". That XO never did like me. But that's OK.

This Is Stupid

So I'm watching the news out of PRS, (The People's Republic of Seattle), and they ran this big story about a family cat that had been shot. It was very serious and reporters were out on location to bring us the latest on this very important news event. The News reported that the cat had been shot and that the ".22 caliber bullet was still lodged in the abdomen" (of the cat). Now, most everybody is appalled that someone in the PRS was using a .22 to shoot cats. That is a dangerous thing since a .22 projectile travels with such high velocity.

NOW FOR THE REST OF THE STORY... It's not what the news said that's important here, it's what they didn't say, or chose to leave ambiguous so as to encourage us to believe something that wasn't true. Watch closely the video at the news link, at 40 secs into the video they show an x-ray of the "bullet" lodged in the cat. It's a .22 cal PELLET, shot from an AIR POWERED PELLET GUN. Now technically any projectile is a bullet, whether it's shot from a sling-shot, a hunting rifle, or a pellet gun. But here I think they wanted us to believe that something happened that didn't; That some crazed lunatic is out shooting a .22 caliber rifle in the PRS.

What's the agenda??? probably another brick getting set in the wall that is being erected to usurp our constitutional right to keep and bear arms.

The lady probably didn't follow the laws for controling your animals in the PRS anyway (leash laws). The person with the pellet gun was probably tired of having cat crap from her "Daisy Mae" in their flower bed. After never receiving a good response from the owner or the animal control folks they enacted a little "frontier justice".

Sorry if I sound cold but... I grew up on a farm, if you don't keep your animals on your own property, they're fair game. What happens if you don't is your fault.

News on the USS Virginia

Check this out.

Applause for "The Vatican"

This story has so much possibility for discussion. I will focus on on one thing however.

Referring to homosexual activity as something that is "against Vatican teaching" shows a lack of understanding of what the Catholic Church is, and what the Vatican is in regards to the Church.

There aren't several different Catholic teachings regarding homosexuality. There is only one teaching, click here to see what that is. Any "Catholic teaching" that is presented or offered regarding homosexuality that differs from the one at the link, is simply a personal opinion that is in error.

Jesus Christ established a Church. A visible Church with an official organization and leader. The Catholic Church recognizes itself as that Church and teaches that the fullness of God's revelation subsists within the Catholic Church.

The Bishop of Rome is the successor of the Apostle Peter as the Earthly head of Christ's Church. The Bishop of Rome maintains his "government" at a place named Vatican City. The Bishop of Rome (the Pope) maintains sovereign leadership over the Church. The Holy Spirit protects the Church from the Pope teaching in error with regards to matters of faith and morals (Papal invalibility).

I have found that when the media reports that "The Vatican" has made some "declaration", "announcement", or "determination" it is insinuating that it is only the Vatican that is saying something, and that the rest of the Church or other teachers in the Church, have seperate yet equal opinions or positions. They prop up "The Vatican" or "The Pope" or "The Roman Curia" as being simply some type of ignorant tryanical government that doesn't really speak for the people.

As Jesus told the Apostles, "He who rejects you, rejects Me."

The Church is Apostolic, has been since before the Catholic Bishops canonized scripture in the 400's. The Apostolic Church has but one voice, the Pope and the Bishops in communion with the Pope.