Hard Summer

I read an interesting quote over at “And sometimes tea” it’s from from Mason Cooley, and goes like this “Writing about an idea frees me of it. Thinking about it is a circle of repetitions.”
And so I beg your patience while I try it out.
It’s been a hard summer. Death is everywhere. A friend at church who died in a car accident on the way to choir practice. My youngest son’s den leader dying from cancer. My oldest son’s assistant scoutmaster on the last leg of his earthly journey, also from cancer. I am not new to this. My dad died when I was 20. I’ve had a grandmother die and the lady who was like a second mother to me, who kept me while my parents worked from the time I was 6 weeks old till I was in 5th grade died last summer. Her husband and two boys, again like a second family, having preceded her. Less than a month after returning from Iraq, a friend of mine was shot down and killed. It was at that point that this death thing got really hard. Don’t get me wrong, when a boy loses his dad, he never gets over that, but lately it just seems to be piling up. My dad had a bad heart and had a heart attack and a stroke before his second heart attack finally took him as he walked/jogged his dailey 2 miles (I think this proves exercise is bad for you but I could be wrong). He was 55.
As young as that is, and it’s younger every year, I could kind of explain that, I guess I saw it coming. And maybe that’s why this summer has been so hard, and why my friend getting shot down was so hard- I didn’t see it coming and it doesn’t make sense. To quote my 13 year old after a visit to his assistant scoutmaster in the hospital. It sucks. He is leaving behind an 18 year old boy and a wife. Our den leader leaves behind a wife and 3 boys under 8, one born just this last December. My pilot friend a 3 year old and a wife. My son is right. It sucks. and I hurt all over sometimes and the hurt stretches, like an ugly un-healed scar, all the way back 24 years. My comfort in this, is that God thinks death sucks too. I once read a translation of Jesus’ reaction to Lazarus’ death as something akin to “the snort of war horse,” God hates death. It’s not the way He intended and some day, the pain will be gone and the tears will be dried. In the mean time, God weeps with us.

when a “quality of life” ethic trumps human dignity in the healthcare system

Editor’s Note: In Part I of Annie’s Story (http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2008/jun/08061911.html), Bugos told the story of Annie Farlow, a girl who was born with Trisomy 13, and who died at only 80 days of age, devastating her parents and siblings. In Part II Bugos relates the Farlow’s experiences, after Annie’s passing, with the health-care staff who had cared for their daughter, and the disturbing discoveries they made about the circumstances surrounding their daughter’s death.
TORONTO, ON, June 20, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The Farlows tried to focus on funeral arrangements.
“Within days, I sensed that something wasn’t right,” relates Annie’s mother, Barbara Farlow. “I didn’t think that the decision-making process was appropriate. How could it be that we were told Annie’s trachea was fine and she had pneumonia in the emergency department, and then 24 hours later this diagnosis had been reversed in the ICU? We had been exhausted, and I felt that we had been forced to make a decision in a coercive and inappropriate manner.”…

…After two hours of reviewing the records on her dining room table, the nurse turned to Mrs. Farlow and said, “I’m sorry, but what happened wasn’t right.” Hours before Annie’s death, a “do not resuscitate” order had been placed in Annie’s records, without her parents’ knowledge or consent….(more)

Comic Relief

George Carlin was a funny guy. I like some of his stuff, “why do they lock gas station bathrooms? do they think someone might clean them?” Funny stuff. And it is really no surprise that the article in the newspaper concentrated on his pushing the boundaries of comedy and language. Everyone loves a bad boy, I guess.
“The whole problem with this idea of obscenity and indecency, and all of these things — bad language and whatever — it’s all caused by one basic thing, and that is: religious superstition,” Carlin told the AP in a 2004 interview. “There’s an idea that the human body is somehow evil and bad and there are parts of it that are especially evil and bad, and we should be ashamed. Fear, guilt and shame are built into the attitude toward sex and the body. … It’s reflected in these prohibitions and these taboos that we have.”
No, Mr Carlin, you are wrong. There is no idea out there that the human body is somehow evil and bad or that parts are especially bad and we should be ashamed. In fact, we “superstitious” Christians proclaim it “good” even very good, because God called it thus. But also claim limits on it’s use and abuse and overuse. The fear, guilt and shame spring naturally from the misuse of God’s gift. We instill prohibitions, or would, to restrain our appetites and thus save us from ourselves and for the good which God has for us ordained. I hope you have now relearned this.
May God have mercy on you and on us.

Amazing 70-year-old color photos

Great depression era pics over at Mental Floss, oh yeah, in COLOR…too cool.
…. the Library of Congress has just created a Flickr page, on which they’ve posted nearly 2,000 color slides — many of them hauntingly beautiful. The photographers worked for the Farm Security Administration and the Office of War Information, for whom many famous black-and-white pictures were taken around the same time (the iconic “Migrant Mother,” for instance).
But rather than sending you off to pick through thousands of these photos on Flickr — something of a laborious process — we’ve compiled our favorites here. These are portraits almost as compelling as “Migrant Mother,” but even more vivid — almost hyper-real — for their eye-popping color. (In fact, they hardly seem like historical photos at all.) For whatever reason, they’ve remained obscure until now, and we thought they deserved a little extra attention.

Senior Curial Cardinal says Humanae Vitae Was a "Defense of the Dignity of Women

As a protestant this is a challenging teaching but the more I read the more I regret some of my past decisions…
ROME, June 20, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Pope Paul VI’s reassertion of Catholic doctrine on artificial contraception, the encyclical Humanae Vitae, was a “defence of the dignity of woman” said a senior curial cardinal.
“The encyclical is not simply a ‘no’ to contraception but also a defence of the dignity of woman against whatever might degrade her greatness as a person, wife and mother, reducing her to an object of pleasure,” said Giovanni Cardinal Re, speaking to a meeting in Rome of the American Academy of Fertility Care Professionals. The conference theme was this year’s 40th anniversary of Humanae Vitae, CNS, the news service of the US Bishops’ conference, reports. (more)

Euthanasia Provider to Alzheimer’s Patients: The Best Remedy is Death

The culture of death …
SYDNEY, June 20, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Euthanasia provider and activist Dr. Philip Nitschke has released controversial statements that essentially instruct anyone who believes they are suffering from Alzheimer’s disease to avoid obtaining a diagnosis in favour of seeking a doctor who can help them commit suicide as quickly as possible. These comments come on the heels of yesterday’s New South Wales jury ruling that convicted two women for the “euthanasia” death of a 71-year old Sydney man, Graeme Wylie, in 2006. (more)

Brownouts On The Way

From Forbes:
What happens when you don’t build more power plants? Get ready for spiking electricity rates, brownouts and even blackouts as demand soars
If you think runaway oil prices are upsetting, just wait for what’s in store for electricity. Similar forces are in play. Demand is rising fast; supply is not. The cost to get coal and natural gas out of the ground is going up, and to that expense must be added the cost of the carbon permits that Congress and the presidential candidates are contemplating. Environmentalists are getting power plants scotched. China is sucking up energy. Leave such dynamics in play long enough, and price spikes in electricity follow. But that’s just the beginning. We may be facing brownouts (voltage reductions) and even rolling blackouts. (more here)

Is President Bush considering becoming Catholic?

He could do worse…From the IgnatiousInsight:
Okay, okay, okay: take out a few pounds of salt. Be ready. After all, it comes from a British newspaper (The Telegraph). But here it is, via CNA:
Vatican City, Jun 13, 2008 / 05:50 pm (CNA).- Today as President Bush and Pope Benedict XVI met at the Vatican, the English newspaper, The Telegraph reported that Bush may be considering converting to Catholicism at the end of his presidential term.
The Telegraph indicated that various Italian newspapers have been commenting on the news, especially Il Foglio.
Il Foglio explains that the circulating rumors could be correct: “anything is possible, especially for someone reborn like Bush.” Yet, similar to former Prime Minister Tony Blair, “if anything happens, it will happen after he finishes his period as president, not before. It is similar to Blair’s case, but with different circumstances.”…(more)

Doctors Who Almost Dissected Living Patient Confess Ignorance about Actual Moment of Death

By Matthew Cullinan Hoffman PARIS, France, June 12, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A Parisian whose organs were about to be removed by doctors after he had “died” of a heart attack, revived on the operating table only minutes before doctors began to harvest his organs. The 45 year-old man,...(more)

Strange lights over Texas

From the LA Times:
Stephenville is the largest town in Erath County, Texas, where cows tend to outnumber people. But the town became famous after scores of people reported seeing UFOs earlier this year.
UFO sightings in the town of Stephenville set off a furor of theories, media coverage, even T-shirts. But was there an explanation? (More)