Mark P. Shea's Blog, page 1406

Okay. This is way funny

Creative Minority Report responds to the latest loopy conspiracy theory to come out of the Islamosphere: Mossad is setting sharks on German tourists to screw up Egyptian tourism trade!!!

Spielberg. Sounds *Jewish*!

Chutzpah

So David Frum--David Frum!--is starting up something called "No Labels", whose stated aim is to combat the "hyper-polarization" of American political debate by "calling out" politicians, media personalities, and opinion leaders who "recklessly demonize" opponents.

David Frum, who wrote the famous bull of excommunication called "Unpatriotic Conservatives" that recklessly demonized all those conservatives who dissented from the Thing That Used to Be Conservatism about the wisdom of the Iraq War.

The man has no shame.

Zac Alstin offers more common sense

...this time about marriage.

Most of our traditions have survived because they worked, and they worked because they reflected the reality of human nature and human life. If their substance is true, the commitments cherished by our ancestors will never die out. And we can therefore have confidence in the goodness and value of such institutions, even if the present generation cannot yet bring itself to trust them completely.

Prayer Request

A reader writes:

Please ask your readers to storm heaven for the life of a 20-year-old Fransican University student, Meghan Green, who is in critical condition following a major car accident. The accident took place at the entrance to the University. She was presumed dead at the scene - the Steubenville police chief actually called her family's parish priest in Scranton, PA, asking him to give her family the news - but was somehow (miraculously?) revived.

Father, hear our prayer for Meghan, that she be fully healed and restored to life to the praise of your Name. Grant that all who love her will be given consolation and peace and that her caregivers will work with skill for her healing. We ask this through Christ our Lord. Mother Mary, pray for her!

More Soviet Tactics

So they arrested Assange for not wearing a condom?

And here I thought he was guilty of "treason" according to Huckabee/Palin (hint: You can't commit treason against American when you aren't American) and/or was an "enemy combatant" according to Gingrich. Just a few days ago they were calling for his execution/assassination for revealing Hillary's efforts to get other people's credit card info and for making public our efforts to supply little boys and drugs to our valiant Afghani allies.

And now, *this* is what they arrest him for? Suddenly, he a perv or something?

Sorry, but this looks awfully reminscent of USSR tactics.

So: show me how this data dump endangered lives. Show me what the difference is between this and the Pentagon Papers? Show me why, if Assange is rightfully behind bars, the editorial staff of every American media outlet is not also behind bars?

You Know That Story Yesterday?

The one about your tax dollars going to pay for drugs and little Afghan boys?

Well, it turns out that our valuable contractors at DynCorp were doing the same stuff ten years ago in Bosnia.

Good to know that we are both exporting our freedom-loving values *and* becoming thoroughly multi-cultural, all while helping to forge an ongoing alliance between Caesar and Mammon that will keep your hard-earned money flowing into the pockets of a poverty-stricken defense budget that is hard at work finding work for children abroad. It's also so good to find that Caesar, having found a corporation with a reliable track record, demonstrates brand loyalty.

Prayer Requests and Praise report

A reader writes:

I need your prayers. My wife left me four months ago. I have been trying desperately to reconcile. I love her so much and I want to make things right. I have recently seen a glimmer oh hope but it is small. I ask your prayers so that the Lord would reignite in her the sacramental graces given to us on our wedding day. Please help.

Father, hear our prayer for the restoration of this marriage in love through Jesus Christ. Mother Mary and St. Joseph, pray for them!

Another reader writes:

My wife has been in hospital since Sunday the 28th, with blood work constantly coming up positive and doctors with no idea of what she is suffering from. Today we've found out she has a rare staph infection and myocarditis. The doctors feel confident she will respond to antibiotics and be out in a few days. So it could be much worse, of course, but she's still there and anything can happen.

I miss my wife and want her to come home. If not for me, please pray because of her. She is a good woman and I love her.

Father, hear our prayer for this woman's complete healing and grant consolation to her husband and skill to her caregivers. Mother Mary, prayer for them! We ask this through Jesus our Lord.

And, in happier news, a reader who asked our prayers recently writes:

MARK! Fantastic news!! Don is home from the hospital and resting. He may even come back to work this week. Thank God for His mercy! Thank you for praying.

Thanks be to God our Father through Jesus Christ our Lord!

Way to go, troops! Thanks for your faithful prayers!

The Onion Remains the Most Accurate Voice in Media

20,000 Sacrificed In Annual Blood Offering To Corporate America

WILMINGTON, DE—The nation looked on in reverence Friday as 20,000 citizens were decapitated, dismembered, and burned alive in the name of Corporate America, continuing the age-old annual rite to ensure bounteous profits in the coming fiscal year.

"Corporate America has always provided us with plenty," said High Priest James N. Cahill, who opened the ceremony by plunging the horn of a bull into a fair-haired child's abdomen and using the freshly spilled blood to write the current value of the Dow Jones Industrial Average upon sacred parchment. "JPMorgan Chase, General Electric, and all in the great pantheon of publicly traded entities will continue to watch over us so long as we appease them each year with human lives."

"The prophecies are clear," Cahill continued. "As we utter the hallowed incantations and make our humble sacrifices of flesh, so shall the shelves of retailers overflow with the most desirable consumer products."

Compare and contrast with this, or merely with this:

Speaking of Sola Scriptura Rubbish...

Frank Weathers has a nice insight about sola scriptura as "dead reckoning".

Herding Cats

A Truly Reformed guy tries to keep Post-Reformation Protestants all on the same page.

He fails.

I do the autopsy here.

Countdown to denunciation by James White in 5, 4, 3, 2, 1...