This past week has been a busy one for my wife and me. Five people died who were either friends, acquaintances, or relatives. What struck me is how many were culturally Catholic, or the families of the deceased were Catholic in name only. Three of the five were of Hispanic descent. Spain's missionaries evangelized much of North and South America, and within a recent generation many who have a long Catholic background have lost their connection to the Faith.

This lose of Faith seems to have been replaced by a New Agism of self. Reading the obituaries, constructed by family members, provides the clue one needs only read to come to this conclusion. Obits do not only provide family connections, those who preceded the deceased and those who are still living, but a dissertation on the great person the deceased was. George is survived by his wife Lilian and two sons, Clement and Earl. George was a wonderful grandfather who loved his three grandchildren and gave them money. He worked in the car industry for 20 years where he always treated his customers with respect. He loved his favorite programs on television and his iced cold drinks. He loved to lay in his hammock on hot summer days with his iced cold drink and watch his beloved wrestling. He will be missed by his many friends whom he socialized with on a nightly basis. Internment is on Monday at 11:00 am at Curly's Chapel and Cemetery.

Who was this written for? George is dead and judged. Let's not get into the eulogies and photo galleries that seem to be de jour in the mortuary industry. Yes, someone has died, but it is really about the survivors, isn't it? Enough about me. What do you think of me?

When the world has forgotten God and His designs for us, we are headed on a path that ends in a precipice. Wasn't it Hemingway who wrote (maybe John Donne originated this),"Do not ask for whom the bell tolls, it tolls for thee?"

What's Happened to Thinking?

Recently I had a conversation with a Catholic friend about the election. The friends view was certainly a relativist's view, even though she would not agree with this assessment. Her opinion was that abortion and our military's actions were essentially the same, after all the military kills babies, too!

To say that I was flabbergasted would be an understatement. The abortionist has one mission: to kill a baby. A soldier does not have as his goal the death of an innocent person. 1.2 million innocent deaths every year cannot be compared to any other evil except euthanasia or genocide. How can we continue to bury our heads in soil soaked with blood?

How Touchy We Are!

Have you given any thoughts to how touchy many people are? Our culture in promoting tolerance seems to have encouraged the opposite effect. Every word is parsed, every tone misinterpreted, every facial expression or non-expression is judged. Yet, we are not to condemn certain behaviors, refer to God (at least the Christian God), mention traditionalism, life issues, and so on.

Almost 450 years ago the English and Welsh martyrs gave up their lives in gruesome fashion because they would not negotiate nor dilute their beliefs.

Election Year

"Anyone that [sic] wants the presidency so much that he'll spend two years organizing and campaigning for it is not to be trusted with the office." -David Broder

"War is a racket. It always has been...It is the only one in which the profits are reckoned in dollars and the losses in lives...Only a small 'inside' group knows what it is about. It is conducted for the benefit of the very few, at the expense of the very many. Out of war a few people make huge fortunes." -General Smedley Darlington Butler (about 75 years ago).

Global Warming?

It is a fact that humans are the cause of global warming. No, this is not a fact. There is a warming trend but many scientist dismiss the global impact by humans. The evidence seems to point to the sun.

There are plenty of studies right? What about the United Nations' study proving that a 'human fingerprint' was apparent in all this warming. From the book Unstoppable Global Warming by Dr. Fred Singer, "That statement was inserted in the summary of the IPCC's Climate Change 1995 for political, not scientific, reasons. Then the 'science volume' was edited to take out five different statements-all of which had been approved by the panel's scientific consultants-specifically saying no such 'human fingerprint' had been found."

You would not know about the disparity among the science community about the global warming subject. The media beats its agenda-driven drums to support this ideology. Why? Maybe some can obtain government grant money by stirring up fear. Just because someone has doctorate degrees does not infuse him/her with integrity. Who said, "Figures lie, and liars figure"?

Acceptable Bigotry

From the April 2008 issue of First Things we have this sagacious tidbit from Bill Mahr, "You can't be a rational person six days of the week and put on a suit and make rational decisions and go to work and, on one day of the week, go to a building and think your drinking the blood of a 2,000 year-old space god. That doesn't make you a person of faith. That makes you a schizophrenic."

Anything goes when it comes to Catholicism. Can you imagine what would happen if Herr Mahr were to take on the Muslims? We all know he won't because they would not accept his racist diatribes passively.

To quote Bugs Bunny, "What a maroon."