Latest Planned Parenthood Video

The continuing obscenity that is taxpayer-funder abortion and the sale of fetal body parts continues to be exposed by the Center for Medical Progress. Their latest video is below.

On Monday, the Senate voted 53-46 to defund Planned Parenthood. All but two of the votes to defund the loathsome organization were from Republicans; all but two of the votes to continue funding were from Democrats.

The Democrats are the Party of Death and how any person (let alone a Catholic) can continue to vote for them indicates a moral failure on the voters part. I understand it certainly: the Democrats will give you free stuff, maybe even stuff you need, but that is not a sufficient reason.

PURE EVIL

Even I, born and raised in San Francisco, am shocked. I did not think that was possible. The story of the vicious murderers over at "Planned Parenthood" (the very name is as much a lie as "same-sex marriage") not only killing children but using them for spare body parts is all over the news. The horror was exposed by the Center for Medical Progress (whose website is down as I write).

Here is one report from Breitbart News:

The video is harrowing, like something out of a James Bond movie, where apparently, a top-executive at a major institution (that annually receives hundreds of millions in taxpayer dollars) blandly explains how Planned Parenthood will perform abortions in special ways in order to preserve body parts that will later be sold illegally; how the forceps are used, etc.. All over a meal and wine.

“We’ve been very good at getting heart, lung, liver, because we know that, so I’m not gonna crush that part,” Nucatola coldly explains. “I’m gonna basically crush [the unborn child] below, I’m gonna crush above, and I’m gonna see if I can get it all intact. … And for that reason, most providers will do this case under ultrasound guidance, so they’ll know where they’re putting their forceps.”

Here is the video:


Lila Rose, who has done so much to expose the evil of Planned Parenthood, writes:

“This investigation by the Center for Medical Progress reveals the unimaginable horror that is Planned Parenthood. The exploitation of human life, the cover-up, and the black market profiteering by America’s largest abortion chain is not only egregious and heartbreaking, but exposes how the abortion giant is corrupt to the core — from the CEO, Cecile Richards, down to the local clinic. As Live Action has investigated through the years, Planned Parenthood’s barbaric practices reveal their contempt for rule of law and human life. This latest expose of Planned Parenthood’s trafficking of baby parts for profit should be the final nail in the coffin for the abortion giant. Congress must take immediate action to stop all taxpayer funding of Planned Parenthood and end the bankrolling of this horrific human rights abuser.”

AMEN! There is petition up, urging Congress to investigate Planned Parenthood for the selling pieces of aborted babies. You can sign here.

Does Archbishop Cupich believe in the Real Presence?

On November 30, Archbishop Blaise Cupich of Chicago was interviewed by Norah O'Donnell on Face the Nation. O'Donnell asked about giving communion to pro-abortion politicians--that is, Catholics who are persisting in grave sin:

“So, when you say we cannot politicize the communion rail, you would give communion to politicians, for instance, who support abortion rights.”

Cupich responded:

I would not use the Eucharist or as they call it the communion rail as the place to have those discussions or way in which people would be either excluded from the life of the church. The Eucharist is an opportunity of grace and conversion. It's also a time of forgiveness of sins. So my hope would be that that grace would be instrumental in bringing people to the truth."

This reasoning obviously applies to any mortal sin: murder, rape, sodomy, you name it.

Speaking as an all-too-frequent sinner, I DO NOT receive communion when in a state of mortal sin. My frequent sinfullness has given me the opportunity to reflect on why:

Jesus in the Most Holy Sacrament of the Altar is in the same situation as Jesus on the Cross. As was the case at Golgotha, He is utterly defenseless, helpless For me, or anyone else, to receive Jesus when in a state of serious sin, is to attack an utterly defenseless Person.

That of course is presupposes a belief in the Real Presence of Jesus in the Sacrament. And reading the Archbishop's statement, I remind him  that the "time of forgiveness of sins" is during the sacrament of penance.

California forces Catholic Colleges to pay for abortion

The Democrats, the party of death, in action. Jerry Brown, a "Catholic", in action. Let it never be forgotten: the picture at left shows Brown with political ally and mass murderer (909 people killed at Jonestown) Jim Jones.

From the San Francisco Chronicle:

Gov. Jerry Brown's administration has reversed an earlier decision to allow two Catholic universities to eliminate coverage of most abortions for employees, saying state law requires health insurance plans to cover all abortions.

The state had previously allowed insurance companies to offer plans to Santa Clara and Loyola Marymount universities that denied coverage for "elective" abortions, and allowed it only for abortions needed to save a woman's life or prevent serious health damage. Loyola Marymount, in Los Angeles, implemented its policy in January, while Santa Clara's was due to take effect next year.

Urged by abortion-rights groups and university employees to reconsider the issue, Brown's Department of Managed Health Care, in letters to be sent Friday to insurers for both universities, said the exclusions violate a 1975 state law that requires group health plans to cover all basic services - defined, by the law, as those that are "medically necessary."

"Abortion is a basic health care service," the department's director, Michelle Rouillard, said in the letter.
In addition, she said, "the California Constitution prohibits health plans from discriminating against women who choose to terminate a pregnancy. Thus, all health plans must treat maternity services and legal abortion neutrally."

Rouillard told the insurance companies to review all health plans, including those the department had previously approved, to make sure they comply with the law.

Wesley Smith writes: "What starts in California doesn’t stay in California. Forced abortion coverage will be the next front in the war against religious freedom."

Hobby Lobby's "Landmark victory for freedom" clarifies sides in Culture War

More positive fallout from the Hobby Lobby ruling are being noticed. Dennis Saffran, writing at City Journal calls it "a landmark victory for freedom" and notes that it may be used to defend "creative professionals" (read: bakers and photographers who do not want to be forced into supporting counterfeit "marriages").

Saffran writes:

"In sum, the immediate impact of Hobby Lobby—providing a religious accommodation to a handful of covered employers who object to a handful of covered contraceptives—will almost certainly be negligible. No hands will 'reach into a woman’s body,' and no one will be denied their free IUDs. Yet the decision may nonetheless prove a landmark victory for freedom, especially if it helps bring an end to other coercive efforts, such as the cases involving the creative professionals. At the least, Hobby Lobby carves out space for objections to modern political orthodoxy, thus infusing real meaning into the progressive mantras of 'tolerance' and 'diversity.'” 

Saffran seems to be correct--or at least some people are acting as if he is.

Yesterday's San Francisco Chronicle reported:

Alarmed by Hobby Lobby, LGBT groups dump job-rights bill

"Several leading gay advocacy groups said Tuesday they are abandoning the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, commonly known as ENDA, following the Supreme Court's Hobby Lobby decision last week."

Meanwhile, Senate Democrats are moving to pass a bill that would reverse the Supreme Court's ruling, according to Talking Points Memo:

"Senate Democrats are poised to introduce legislation as early as Tuesday to reverse the Supreme Court's Hobby Lobby ruling which exempted for-profit corporations with religious owners from the Obamacare mandate to cover emergency contraceptives in their insurance plans.

The legislation will be sponsored by Sens. Patty Murray (D-WA) and Mark Udall (D-CO). According to a summary reviewed by TPM, it prohibits employers from refusing to provide health services, including contraception, to their employees if required by federal law. It clarifies that the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, the basis for the Supreme Court's ruling against the mandate, and all other federal laws don't permit businesses to opt out of the Obamacare requirement.

The legislation also puts the kibosh on legal challenges by religious nonprofits, like Wheaton College, instead declaring that the accommodation they're provided under the law is sufficient to respect their religious liberties. (It lets them pass the cost on to the insurer or third party administrator if they object.) Houses of worship are exempt from the mandate."

Catholics who support the Democratic Party face an irreconcilable conflict between being Catholic or a member of that party. In my opinion, that's been the case for a long time.

Yuval Levin on the Hobby Lobby Case

Lots of commentary is being written on yesterday's Hobby Lobby ruling. The learned and always interesting Yuval Levin, writing at National Review, places part of the decision in a context he has written about before: how religious tolerance developed in this country and how it applies to institutions (not just individuals). This, of course, ties in to the Catholic principle of subsidiarity, which is in complete opposition to the totalitarianism implicit (& explicit) in today's Democratic Party. 

Here's a long excerpt from today's column (emphases added):

"The element of the Court’s decision that most perturbed many liberals—the suggestion that corporations could effectively be bearers of rights—was actually the least controversial question among the justices themselves. Only two of the nine justices, Ginsburg and Sotomayor, argued that for-profit corporations could not be considered legal persons capable of exercising religion for purposes of the Religious Freedom Restoration Act. The other two liberal justices, Breyer and Kagan, declined to join that part of the dissent written by Justice Ginsburg (though they articulated no view of their own on the question), and the remaining five justices affirmed the view that rights could indeed be mediated, and so in effect put into practice, through and by for-profit corporations. .

In one sense, this is a rather obvious point. As Justice Alito argued forcefully in his majority opinion, there is no reason why people should be expected to give up their basic rights when they incorporate a business. And Justice Ginsburg’s attempt to distinguish between profit-seeking and non-profit corporations on this front, made necessary by the fact that the administration did recognize the religious-liberty claims of some corporations and not others in this case, was the very model of a muddle. (It wasn’t as disturbing as her shockingly thin idea of what constitutes religious practice, though, and of what religious institutions are for.)

But in another sense, the standing of institutions, as opposed to individuals, as bearers of rights in our civil society is a complex and much-contested question, and a very important one. This is particularly so with regard to the exercise of religion, where we are the inheritors of a long tradition—the English common-law tradition of religious toleration—that has a very mixed record when it comes to protecting institutions rather than individuals.

I’ve taken up this question a couple of times around here in recent years, but to put matters very (very) simply, that tradition was born of efforts to find a way to provide protection for Jews and protestant dissenters in a nation with an established church but specifically not to provide much protection for Catholics. It did this in large part by distinguishing between individuals and institutions. Catholicism is an exceptionally institutional religion, with massive charitable and educational arms that are Catholic but are not houses of worship and that not only employ but also serve non-Catholics. Such arms are much more rare in other religious traditions, and used to be even more so. This distinction therefore in effect once allowed for broad toleration of just about all religious minorities in Britain except Catholics. It was supported by a line of reasoning evident over centuries, and given expression even in John Locke’s great Letter Concerning Toleration, which is one of the foundational documents of the intellectual tradition of liberal toleration.

The American offshoot of this tradition of toleration has tended to think a little differently about this question, above all because we have not had an established church in the United States. We have tended to take the absence of an Anglican monopoly on legitimate religiously-rooted social institutions to mean not that there could be no such institutions at all but rather that different communities of faith could build out different institutional forms and stake out for themselves a variety of roles in civil society and the private sphere. This has meant seeing some groups of people working together, and not just individuals alone, as protected by the various forms of the right of conscience and accepting as legitimate the idea that groups of people, as well as individuals, should whenever possible be protected from forms of coercion or restraint that violate their religious beliefs. And the extension of this attitude to corporations owned and run by people with religious convictions and in the service of those convictions has been perfectly natural.

The Obama administration has been pushing up against this American form of the tradition of religious toleration (which, being Americans, we tend to call “religious liberty”) in an effort to establish a public monopoly on the aims of social action. American progressivism has always wanted to clear out the space between the individual and the state and to confer rights only on individuals, rather than encouraging people to form complex layers of interacting institutions with diverse views of the good that each pursues with vigor and conviction. The HHS mandate, like so much of the administration’s domestic agenda, is intended to turn the institutions in that space, including private corporations, into arms of the government, carrying out the will of those in power."

Hobby Lobby Ruling: "The end of the beginning."

Today the Supreme Court ruled in favor of religious liberty, one of the foundations of our teetering civilization. Certainly we are happy with the ruling--because anything else would have been catastrophic.

But let's step back a little, historically. The fact that a government of the United States could blithely, without a second thought, compel U.S. citizens to violate their deeply held religious convictions, is outrageous. And remember: the HHS mandate not only violates the First Amendment, but threatened conscientious objectors with fines of $100 per day per employee. And for what? Free contraceptives.

Rush Limbaugh put this in perspective today:  

"In the Hobby Lobby case, narrow though it may be, the Supreme Court, by 5-4 majority decision, defended liberty. And it should be noted that even after this decision, birth control remains widely available. It is dirt cheap no matter where you want to go get it. The fact is, if you wanted to be entirely -- well, not entirely -- if you wanted to be somewhat negative about this, you could say that the most appalling thing about today's decision is that we had to even endure it, that we had to even go through this.

We had to sit on the edge of our seats to find out if people who own a for-profit company will also be allowed to exercise their religious views under our laws. The fact that that was up for grabs is an indication of where we are nationwide and where we're heading. I think it's just amazing, given that we're supposed to have freedom of religion enshrined in the Constitution, it should never have been an issue. The only reason it is is because we have a political party today conducting an all-out assault on the Constitution because they don't like it."  Emphases added.

I think that is the correct way to view today's decision. Yes, it is a victory--but we are taking back ground that should never have been lost in the first place. Our situation reminds me of Churchill's statement after the second battle of El Alamein. The Nazis still held most of Africa and continental Europe, so the great Englishman, while happy with the victory, knew it needed to be put in perspective:

"This is not the end, it is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning."

BREAKING NEWS: Pelosi Excommunicates Cordileone!

Hot from the boys over at Eye of the Tiber:

Pelosi Excommunicates Cordileone

June 17, 2014 by Admin

"Washington, DC––In an astonishing move today, Minority Leader of the House of Representatives and Mouthpiece of God in the United States Nancy Pelosi has excommunicated San Francisco Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone.

The move comes just a day after Pelosi sent Cordileone a letter asking him not to attend the National Organization for Marriage march in Washington D.C., calling the event “venom masquerading as virtue.” In response to the letter, Cordileone issued a response saying that the March for Marriage “is not anti-LGBT, but rather, it is a pro-marriage march.”

The letter of excommunication begins with Pelosi regretfully informing the San Francisco bishop that, due to actions displaying disdain and hate towards LGBT persons, “I, Nancy Pelosi, Mouthpiece of God Almighty, Secretary of Defense Against Bigotry, Director of the Office of Tolerance, and Ambassador to the Alpha and the Omega, hereby impose a ferendae sententiae, excommunicating you from my Catholic Church. I ask you to ‘evolve’ and to mend your bigot ways.”

“We separate him, together with his accomplices and abettors, from the precious Body and Blood of the Lord and from the society of all Christian people,” Pelosi told EOTT as she stroked the point of her long red tail. “We exclude him from our Holy Mother the Church in Heaven and on earth; we declare him excommunicate and anathema; we judge him damned, with the Devil and his angels, to eternal fire until he shall recover himself from the toils of the Devil and return to amendment and to penitence. So be it!”

At press time, Pelosi’s uncle, Screwtape, is very proud of her."

Obamacare: Here it is.

The injustice of the HHS contraception mandate is a small part of the Obamacare disaster. We ain't seen nothing yet.

From the Daily Mail:

"Hospital staff in Northern Virginia are turning away sick people on a frigid Thursday morning because they can't determine whether their Obamacare insurance plans are in effect.

Patients in a close-in DC suburb who think they've signed up for new insurance plans are struggling to show their December enrollments are in force, and health care administrators aren't taking their word for it.

In place of quick service and painless billing, these Virginians are now facing the threat of sticker-shock that comes with bills they can't afford.

'They had no idea if my insurance was active or not!' a coughing Maria Galvez told MailOnline outside the Inova Healthplex facility in the town of Springfield.

She was leaving the building without getting a needed chest x-ray."

More:

"A similar situation frustrated Mary, an African-American small businesswoman who asked MailOnline not to publish her last name. She was leaving the Inova Alexandria Hospital in Alexandria, Virginia with two family members.

'I had chest pains last night, and they took me in the emergency room,' Mary said. 'They told me they were going to admit me, but when I told them I hadn't heard from my insurance company since I signed up, they changed their tune.'...'Why is this so complicated?' she asked. 'I had my own private insurance last year, but they cancelled me in November. I'm not sure which end is up.'

Private industry estimates put the number of policy cancellations as high as 4.7 million in the last quarter of 2013, mostly involving health care plans that didn't meet the Affordable Care Act's strict minimum standards...."

More:

"President Obama has attracted widespread criticism, and a 'lie of the year' award from one newspaper's fact-checker, for promising that Americans who liked their health plans would be allowed to keep them.

Dr. John Venetos, a Chicago gastroenterologist, told the Associated Press on Thursday that he is seeing 'tremendous uncertainty and anxiety' among his patients who signed up for Obamacare plans but don't have insurance cards.

'They’re not sure if they have coverage,' Venetos said. 'It puts the heavy work on the physician.'

'At some point, every practice is going to make a decision about how long can they continue to see these patients for free if they are not getting paid.'"

Anyone could have foreseen this and many predicted it.

Bishops ask: Pray and Fast for those Challenging the HHS Mandate

 

 

Yesterday we posted about the exemption granted by Justice Sotomayor to the Little Sisters of the Poor and some other groups. But we noted there are plenty of others who have not received that relief--Notre Dame University, for one.

This week's intention for the U. S. Catholic Bishops campaign for Life, Marriage, and Religious Liberty is for those challenging the HHS mandate. Here is the bishop's email:

"We pray that all those who are challenging the HHS mandate - whether family-owned businesses or non-profit service ministries - would have the strength to keep fighting for religious freedom. 

This week, we continue to celebrate the Christmas Season, a time when we can reflect on the roots of our faith. It is a time when our faith becomes especially visible to the outside world, whether we decorate our yard with a beautiful Nativity scene or our home with a brightly-lit Christmas tree. When we consider how difficult it is to be Christian in some parts of the world, we are especially grateful for the gift of religious freedom in this country.

 Unfortunately, however, this freedom has come under threat lately. The federal government has chosen this January 1 to begin implementing its nationwide mandate forcing most Catholic universities, hospitals, and service ministries to violate Church teaching or face devastating fines. Faith-based organizations like these seek to practice what they preach. That is, they seek to live out the Gospel mandate to serve those whom Christ called 'these least brothers of mine' (Mt. 25:40) while adhering to the tenets of our faith-including promoting the sanctity of human life. We pray that the courts will uphold our ability to live out the Gospel in its entirety!"

Obamacare Contraception Mandate Halted--For Some

Many experts we respect call this good news, and we suppose it is, but we can't forget that there are any number of other institution that, I guess, as of today, are forced to comply with Obama's unAmerican, unconstitutional attack on the First Amendment's free exercise of religion.

From the Los Angeles Times:

"Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor granted a temporary exemption late Tuesday to a small group of Catholic nuns that shields it from having to comply with a part of President Obama's healthcare law that requires it to provide contraceptive coverage in its insurance plans.

She acted on an emergency appeal from lawyers for the group who said the nuns faced 'draconian fines' beginning on New Year's Day if they failed to comply with the law widely known as Obamacare.

Sotomayor gave the government until Friday to file a response in the case. Her order extends only to the group of nuns and does not apply more broadly to the Affordable Care Act and its requirements."

It's our understanding that Justice Sotomayor's ruling affects a number of other groups as well, but there are still others not involved in this particular case who will have to wait until the Supreme Court rules on the constitutionality of the HHS contraception mandate.

In any case, God bless the great work of the good people at the American Freedom Law Center who have battled tirelessly for freedom and justice!

John Podesta's Blood Libel: Democrat Compares Republicans to "Jonestown"

On Tuesday, John Podesta, a senior advisor to President Obama compared his political adversaries to Jim Jones, founder of the People's Temple.USA Today reported:

 "(in an article)... by Politico Magazine, Podesta is quoted comparing Republicans to the infamous cult led by Jim Jones, who was responsible for the 1978 cyanide poisoning of more than 900 of his followers in Guyana.

"They need to focus on executive action given that they are facing a second term against a cult worthy of Jonestown in charge of one of the houses of Congress," said Podesta of what Obama's White House team faces. Jonestown was the informal name of the settlement founded by Jones and his American followers.

On Wednesday, Podesta apologized for his impolitic comment.

'In an old interview, my snark got in front of my judgment. I apologize to Speaker Boehner, whom I have always respected.'"

As a native San Franciscan, I am quite familiar with the People's Temple. More than that, for a year, I attended Opportunity High, a public "alternative" high school, whose faculty were quite friendly to Jim Jones. A couple of years after I left, a large number of People's Temple children enrolled at Opportunity. A number of these young people were among the hundreds dead in Jonestown. A book has been written about the Opportunity High/Jim Jones connection by Opportunity teachers Judy Bebelaar and Ron Cabral. I remember both teachers well. Here's a timeline accompanying the book, called "And Then They Were Gone."

California Democrats would like everyone to forget their ties to Jim Jones and the People's Temple. Why let them rewirite history? Here's a short lesson:

San Francisco Mayor George Moscone, Democrat, Jim Jones, Lt. Governor Mervyn Dymally, Democrat.

California Speaker of the Assembly (later San Francisco Mayor) Willie Brown, Democrat, at left.

Jim Jones is at far right.

California Governor Jerry Brown, Democrat, and Jim Jones,

Again, Mayor George Moscone, Democrat, with Jones.

Letter from "gay saint" Supervisor Harvey Milk, a Democrat, in support of Jones.

First Lady Rosalyn Carter (center), wife of Democratic President Jimmy Carter, with Jones (right).

We have written about this before, here.

Mainsteam Media=Democratic Lapdogs

Some years back the famous libertarian blogger Glenn Reynolds observed (I'm quoting from memory) that if you care about a free press, you should always vote Republican, because the mainstream media is so committed to the Democratic Party they will not do their jobs when a Democratic administration is in power.

The nightmare of Obamacare (following the nightmare of Benghazi and the nightmare of the IRS's deliberate and selective targeting of conservative, pro-life and Tea Party groups) bears this out. You don't need to censor the press, when they are willing to your bidding for free.

The Obamacare disaster, in which millions of Americans have lost their health care insurance as a result of government action, is, in my opinion, one of the biggest stories of our lifetimes. Millions of Americans have had their health insurance cancelled. The number may go as high as 52 million.This should be the lead story every day in every press outlet in the country. Michael Goodwin of the New York Post took the New York Times to task for this on Sunday, November 10:

New York Times' Obama cheerleading harms the nation

"As watchdogs became lapdogs, the presidential bubble grew impenetrable, isolating him from ordinary Americans and the trickle-down pain of his policies.

From the broadcast networks to MSNBC and most large papers, Obama got the benefit of every doubt. The double standards were a daily disgrace so routine, they mostly provoked a shrug instead of outrage.

Mr. Goodwin continues (although I think he is being way to generous to the press--imagine if Obamacare had happened, for instance, under the last President Bush):

"The ObamaCare debacle is the exception that proves the rule.  Wall-to-wall complaints are forcing the media to report that the law’s Web site is a lemon and that its rules are causing millions of people to lose insurance plans they liked.

The mainstream media is acting only because the story is too big to ignore. Had it been mildly skeptical sooner, it could have exposed the law’s destructive rules and prevented the disaster."

The Democratic pollster Patrick Caddell was even harsher on the mainstream media's coverage of the Benghazi disaster, where four Americans, including our Ambassador to Libya, were murdered. Mr. Caddell thinks the bias is specifically for President Obama, rather than for Democrats in general:

Dem Pollster Pat Caddell: MSM is Threatening Future of Country

“First of all, we’ve had 9 days of lies…If a president of either party…had had a terrorist incident and gotten on an airplane [after remarks] and flown off to a fundraiser in Las Vegas, they would have been crucified…it should have been, should have been, the equivalent, for Barack Obama, of George Bush’s “flying over Katrina” moment. But nothing was said at all. Nothing will be said. [...] It is [unacceptable] to specifically decide that you will not tell the American people information they have a right to know. [The MSM] has made themselves the enemy of the American people. It is a threat to the very future of the country; we’ve crossed a new and frightening line on the slippery slope, and it needs to be talked about.”

California's Poverty Rate Highest in Nation

The Party of Death holds every statewide office and has supermajorities in both the Assembly and Senate. So why are they not helping the poor?

Aaron Sankin writes in the Huffington Post:

California Poverty Rate Highest In Nation Based On New Census Department Figures

California has a poverty rate of 23.5 percent, the highest of any state in the country, according to figures released this week by the United States Census Bureau.

The only other geographic region with an equivalent poverty rate is the District of Columbia, with 23.2 percent. The second most poverty-stricken state was Florida, at 19.5 percent.

The recognition of California's shockingly high poverty rate comes as a part of a shift in the way the Census Bureau measures its data. When the government began examining poverty back in the early 1960s, the line for determining who fell underneath the threshold was determined solely by looking at food costs.

In the decades since, there's been increasing criticism this benchmark, as it doesn't take into account tax rates and assistance programs such as food stamps, child care expenses and medical costs. In examining its most recent data, the Census Bureau considered these previously ignored factors, deemed the "supplemental poverty measure."

These new metrics have yielded quite different results than in past years. Under the traditional definition of poverty, for example, California's rate is 16.3 percent.

"We're seeing a very slow recovery [nationally], with increases in poverty among workers due to more new jobs which are low-wage," University of Wisconsin-Madison economist Timothy Smeeding told the Associated Press. "As a whole, the safety net is holding many people up, while California is struggling more because it's relatively harder there to qualify for food stamps and other benefits."

The Golden State's jump between the supplemental and conventional measures was the largest swing of any state, and the Sacramento Bee attributes it to California's high cost of living...."

Read the whole thing.

House Tells Obama Administration: Let Military Chaplains Practice the Faith!

It's good news from The Hill, via Catholic Vote, but is is outrageous that it is necessary:

"Furloughed chaplains should be able to give prayer services on a volunteer basis, according to a House vote on Saturday.

Furloughed chaplains should be able to give prayer services on a volunteer basis, according to a House vote on Saturday.

The House resolution approved in a 400-1 vote argues the Obama administration should allow contract chaplains who have been furloughed to continue offering prayer services on a volunteer basis.

Right now, chaplains who do so could be charged with trespassing or arrested because of the government shutdown.

The only "no" vote came from Rep. Bill Enyart (D-Ill.).

The resolution, from Rep. Doug Collins (R-Ga.), is a response to an op-ed from John Schlageter, general counsel at the Archdiocese for the Military Services. On Thursday, Schlageter claimed that it would be illegal for contract chaplains to minister on base if they have been furloughed, and could face arrest if they ignore that.

Republicans were outraged at this possibility, and quickly developed the resolution on Friday in response.

"The First Amendment rights of our military do not sunset with the lack of appropriations or even a shutdown," said Rep. John Fleming (R-La.)."

Obama Regime Threatens to Arrest Catholic Priests for Celebrating Mass

From Fox News:

The U.S. military has furloughed as many as 50 Catholic chaplains due to the partial suspension of government services, banning them from celebrating weekend Mass. At least one chaplain was told that if he engaged in any ministry activity, he would be subjected to disciplinary action.

“In very practical terms it means Sunday Mass won’t be offered,” Archbishop Timothy Broglio of the Archdiocese for the Military Services told me. “If someone has a baptism scheduled, it won’t be celebrated.”

The Archdiocese for the Military Services tells me the military installations impacted are served by non-active-duty priests who were hired as government contractors. As a result of a shortage of active duty Catholic chaplains, the government hires contract priests.

Broglio said some military bases have forbidden the contract priests from volunteering to celebrate Mass without pay.

“They were told they cannot function because those are contracted services and since there’s no funding they can’t do it – even if they volunteer,” he said....

Broglio said some military bases have forbidden the contract priests from volunteering to celebrate Mass without pay.

“They were told they cannot function because those are contracted services and since there’s no funding they can’t do it – even if they volunteer,” he said.

How any Catholic can vote Democratic any more is inconceivable.

SB 131 Passes Senate: ALL "Aye" Votes Are Democrats

On September 6, the California State Senate passed SB 131, which targets Churches and other non-profits, but exempts the public sector constituencies of the Democratic Party. We have posted on SB 131 before. The bill has the potential to bankrupt the Catholic Church in California, and has been opposed by legal experts and all sorts of nonprofit organizations.

Every single "Aye" vote was cast by a Democrat.

They were Senators Beall, Block, Corbett, De León, DeSaulnier, Evans, Hancock, Hernandez, Hill, Jackson, Lara, Leno, Liu, Monning, Padilla, Pavley, Roth, Steinberg, Torres, Wolk, and Yee.

Seven of the eight "No" votes were Republicans. They were: Senators Anderson-R, Berryhill-R, Gaines-R, Huff-R, Knight-R, Vidak-R, and Walters-R. Senator Ron Calderon, a Democrat, also voted "No."

Ten Senators did not vote.

The party of death. How any Catholic can still vote Democrat (confession: I was a registered Democrat until 1988) is a mystery to me.

All that is left is a veto of this unjust legislation by Governor Jerry Brown. Ask him to veto this bill!

http://govnews.ca.gov/gov39mail/mail.php

AL-QAEDA LINKED SYRIAN REBELS ATTACK CHRISTIAN VILLAGE

And Obama wants us to side with THESE guys. From the AP via Breitbart:

(AP) Syria rebels attack regime-held Christian village
By KARIN LAUB
Associated Press

BEIRUT
A nun and activists say rebel fighters have attacked a regime-held, predominantly Christian village, commandeering a mountaintop hotel and shelling the ancient community from there.

The nun, who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals, says the assault began around dawn Wednesday with a suicide bombing at a regime checkpoint outside the village of Maaloula.

She says she's heard firefights and regime airstrikes. The nun, speaking by phone from a convent in Maaloula, says regime troops are deployed at the village's entrance, while rebels have commandeered the Safir hotel overlooking Maaloula and surrounding caves.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights confirms the attack and says the rebels are from the al-Qaida-linked Jabhat al-Nusra."

Texas to Pass Pro-Life Bill?

That's what Politico is reporting. The Texas Senators are preparing to vote now, God bless them!

Meanwhile, according to the Associated Press, the supporters of the culture of death had brought bottles of urine and feces, presumably to throw at people. The bottles were confiscated by state troopers. Similar to the culture of death demonstrator's who chanted "Hail Satan!" last week.

The freedom to murder a child is "Sacred Ground" for Nancy Pelosi

Our Democratic congresswoman Nancy Pelosi is trumpeting her "Catholicism" again. From LifeSiteNews:

"In response to a question today from a reporter about a late-term abortion ban that is being proposed in Congress, Democratic Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi said that the issue of late-term abortion is 'sacred ground' for her.

'As a practicing and respectful Catholic, this is sacred ground to me when we talk about this,' Pelosi said. 'This shouldn't have anything to do with politics.'"

Murder does not have anything to do with politics. The agreement that we are not free to murder another person is one of the preconditions that allows politics to come in to being. 

Here, once again, is the open letter to Nancy Pelosi that our dear departed Fr. Malloy wrote in a January 2007 parish bulletin at Saints Peter and Paul:

From the Pastors Desk

Nancy, you are fooling yourself and I fear fooling many good Catholics. You are simply not in sync with the Catholic Church. Until you change your non-Catholic positions, you should stop calling yourself Catholic. Your record shows that you support embryonic stem cell research, Planned Parenthood, contraception, family planning funding, allowing minors to have an abortion without parental consent, and are against making it a crime to harm a fetus, etc. etc.

The fact that you favor married priests and women priests certainly would not classify you as conservative, but your answer to the question are you a conservative Catholic was:
“I think so. I was raised in a very strict upbringing in a Catholic home where we respected people, were observant, were practicing Catholics, and that the fundamental belief was that God gave us all a free will, and we were accountable for that, each of us. Each person had that accountability, so it wasn’t for us to make judgments about how people saw their responsibility and that it wasn’t for politicians to make decisions about how people led their personal lives; certainly, to a high moral standards, but when it got into decisions about privacy and all the rest, then that was something that individuals had to answer to God for, and not to politicians.”

That sounds fair and tolerant, but your record belies high moral standards.

The NARAL rates you 100% pro-abortion. Your statement: “To me it isn’t even a question. God has given us a free will. We’re all responsible for our actions. If you don’t want an abortion, you don’t believe in it, [then] don’t have one. But don’t tell somebody else what they can do in terms of honoring their responsibilities. My family is very pro-life. They’re not fanatics and they’re not activists. I think they’d like it if I were not so vocally pro-choice.”

Do we not elect politicians to make laws that help people honor their responsibilities, such as protecting life itself? Can politicians not tell someone else not to kill? If you can kill a baby in the womb, Nancy, why not outside of it? Oh wait, you are in favor of partial birth abortion, so-called because the baby sticks out of the “mother” about halfway, while the “doctor” sucks out the baby's brain. That seems comparable to the choice the Nazis made killing six million Jews.

Yes, Nancy, we (together with your pro-life family) would all like it if you were not so vocally pro-choice, i.e. pro-death. Until your choice is in line with Catholic doctrine, please, Nancy, do not receive the Eucharist when you attend Mass.

Rev. John Malloy, SDB

San Francisco, CA