A bunch of very disturbing stuff...

has my blood pressure spiking.

Let's start with the "little" stuff, shall we?

After a doctor's appointment yesterday, I stopped into a local eatery for breakfast.  I generally have a book with me for such occasions.  While I was reading and sipping my coffee a nice man came up and said, "It's so nice to see someone actually reading a book instead of having their face glued to a phone."

The sight of people sitting at a table with other people and all of them staring at phones is, in my opinion, just plain creepy. It's particularly offensive when the person is young - as in pre-teen.

The headline on Daily Mail today is  The wait is over... Launch of Apple's new waterproof and wireless iPhone 7 with NO headphone jack and a dual camera kicks off.  How many lemmings are going to rush to the store and spend hundreds of dollars for something that most people don't need?

A few articles down is  How long would it take your kids to notice you'd been replaced? Hilarious video shows children oblivious to the imposters in their home (until the wi-fi goes down) 

 It's actually an advert video for the Dolmio Pepper Hacker. It’s a functioning pepper mill with a twist. When you start to grind pepper it shuts off WiFi, TV's and other electronic devices in the home.

In the video we see a cute little pre-teen boy, sitting at the table wearing a wife-beater T-shirt, a big fake diamond earring in one ear, and so glued to his device that he is completely unaware that his family has been switched out for strangers.

The parents are urged to buy a device to shut off the internet access.  Is there any earthly reason the parents can't simply tell the little brat, "Put away your phone and while you're at it, go put on something appropriate for dinner?"

Moving on to the much more distressing stuff:

This article at Breitbart made me livid with fury:

Caterpillar Hires H-1B Foreign Graduates, Fires 300 American Professionals

Caterpillar is firing 300 American employees in Mossville, Illinois, even though it is continuing to recruit and pay foreign “H-1B” guest-workers to do the white-collar jobs sought by American professionals in the United States.

Caterpillar’s combination of white-collars layoffs and H-1B outsourcing matches the much-criticized decision by Carrier, a company in next-door Indiana, to outsource 1,400 blue-collar factory jobs to Mexico. read the rest so I won't be the only one pissed off.

 Over at Zero Hedge we have this:

 

If Donald Trump Wins US Election, Will Hillary Clinton Nullify Results Because Of Vladimir Putin?

Call it “Plan B”…It’s all being laid out, right at our feet . On Google and Facebook, during US late night shows, through CNN, MSNBC, the Washington Post and New York Times.

It will be the final death of whatever was left of American democracy.

The test run was accomplished with few casualties during the Democratic primaries, where Hillary Clinton and the DNC assured victory by rigging the entire voting process.

Debbie Wasserman Schultz lost her job as DNC Chair, but found a better job with the Clinton Campaign, and then won her Democratic primary Congressional District in Florida with little difficulty.

Bernie Sanders, who had the election stolen right from under his feet, fell quickly in line with his masters, and pathetically kissed Hillary’s ring in an embarrassing display of beta manhood.

Now we are all being prepared for the ultimate con. The Ocean’s Eleven of heists. The Presidency of the United States of America. The preparation is well underway. read the rest and ponder it.

The Pope Videos:

 

Pope Francis, in an effort to stay relevant and hip, has been putting out little useless videos every month.  Mostly they're just stupid.  But this month he published one that is scary.

To quote Restore DC Catholicism:

At the 1:00 mark we see the main thrust in the words flashing up: "For everyone to contribute to the common good and to build a society that puts the human person at its center."  Can the humanism be any more explicit?   It is God who should be at the center of society, not man.  But in this thing produced by the Vatican, we don't hear the Name of God or Jesus mentioned once.  This is the idolatry known as humanism, plain as day for all to see (provided no one is wearing rose-colored glasses).

Is it not enough for him to claim that not caring for the planet is some sort of sin?  Or that not using plastic is more important than the millions upon millions of babies being aborted every year?

Unfortunately, the majority of Catholics today know so little about their faith that they'll fall for this crap. Fortunately, the majority of Catholics are not watching these silly videos.



Those same un-catechized Catholics will part with their hard-earned money to help the "less fortunate" through the yearly collections for the USCCB (United States Conference of Catholic Bishops.)

I've cautioned for years to never give your money to these scam collections. 

Which brings us to:

The Money Trail: Why Catholic Bishops Are Silent on Hillary

Crickets.......

The silence about Hillary Clinton is deafening. One hears nothing but crickets from the U.S. Bishops and Cardinals about the democratic presidential candidate’s radical pro-abortion stance, but for the banished Cardinal Raymond Burke.

Why are they sitting mute on the sidelines? How could they be conflicted between an abortion laden democratic platform and the most prolife republican platform ever? Seems like an obvious choice for Catholics. After all, St. John Paul II described life as “the most basic and fundamental right and the condition for all other personal rights.” What’s going on?

When in doubt, follow the money. This ecclesial trail is flush with cash. read the rest and witness the astonishing amount of money the feds give the USCCB.  

Now that your blood pressure is spiking, allow me to close with something guaranteed to calm you down:
 

Transcript of Donald Trump Military Policy/Objectives Speech…

Posted on September 7, 2016 by sundance

 

Donald Trump delivered a policy speech today in Philadelphia outlining his military  perspectives and vision for U.S. military engagement moving forward.  You can find the transcript HERE and below.

However, something a little different.  Along with the transcript below we are going to present pictures of recent military and foreign policy events which Donald Trump seemed to specifically refer to.  read the rest

Sadly, I have to agree with this assessment of the latest from the USCCB...

because they haven't figured out that you can't have it both ways.

While I think our bishops are moving in the right direction, they still have a ways to go.

U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops and Spending Cuts

Posted by Tad DeHaven at Cato

House Budget Committee chairman Paul Ryan (R-WI) and Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) are pushing back against criticism from the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops over the GOP’s proposed cuts to domestic spending programs. They should.  read the rest

Catholic Bishops double down on support for Obamacare...

and therein lies the problem.

Because if there is any single thing that will sink this country, it will be Obamacare.  These guys need to wake up.

Bishop Blaire Refutes White House Press Secretary’s Claim That Bishops Never Supported Health Care Reform

February 14, 2012

WASHINGTON—The White House press secretary, Jay Carney, said in a press briefing at the White House on February 13, “...I would simply note with regard to the bishops that they never supported health care reform to begin with...”
“This is not the case,” said Bishop Stephen Blaire, chairman of the Committee on Domestic Justice and Human Development for the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB).

“Since 1919, the United States Catholic bishops have supported decent health care for all and government and private action to advance this essential goal,” Bishop Blaire said.“Long before the current battles, the Catholic Church was persistently and consistently advocating for this overdue national priority.”
In the recent health care debate the USCCB called universal and affordable health care “an urgent national priority and moral imperative.” The USCCB’s criteria insisted reform should be truly universal, protect human life and conscience and not discriminate against immigrants. “The USCCB opposed the final legislation because it failed this test, a judgment sadly but clearly borne out by the failure of the law and the recent regulation to protect conscience and religious liberty,” explained Bishop Blaire.

“I hope those who made or repeated this false statement will correct the record and report the bishops’ long and consistent record of support for health care which protects the life, dignity and consciences of all, especially the poor and vulnerable.”  source

I've had a long day and I'm tired.  To comment on this would not be prudent in my present condition. 

USCCB NOT endorsing PeolsiCare

The USCCB has NOT issued a statement in support of PelosiCare

I am a bit appalled at the number of people who have picked this misrepresentation up and are running it down the field.  Even Politico has now changed their article title to "Bishops endorse the amendment" 
with this update at bottom of article "UPDATED: Headline corrected."  This morning that same article title said something giving the impression that the bishops had signed off on the bill with a headline that said Bishops endorse the Bill.


I have read, and reread. the letter from the bishops. They have made it quite clear that they are for reform but at no time do they support this bill.

"The nation and the Congress are now engaged in an intense and much needed national discussion on how to provide affordable and accessible health care for all. We are not experts on health care policy and cannot assess every provision of legislation as complex as this proposal. However, health care legislation is not just political, technical, or economic, but also moral. Health care reform is about life and death, who can take their children to the doctor and who cannot, who can afford decent health care coverage and who are left to fend for themselves."

While I may think the USCCB is a useless organization and their leanings toward "social justice" ignore some pertinent points, I must defend them in this matter.

I suggest that bloggers and news aggregators correct this misrepresentation.  I have always felt the biggest danger to the blogosphere is people not acting as real journalists and fact checking what they write.

Update:

From Hot Air:  Catholic bishops endorse Pelosi Plan with Stupak amendment?

Notice the question mark?

"Now that Pelosi has allowed the Stupak amendment to come to a vote today, a rider that would more forcefully ban any federal funding for abortion coverage, the USCCB has announced that it will endorse the Pelosi plan, according to Politico:"

And the comment section is full of the most virulent anti-Catholic comments.  When their statcounter is low they love to start a Catholic bashing post.  I suggest all you ex-Catholics and people that call yourselves Christians, tend to your own churches. 

Political Polliwogs & Partisan Pygmies

Conservatives have hit the "big time" in labels...

I guess being called a "political polliwog" or a "partisan pygmy" is a step up from "radical racist right-wing terrorist Nazi bitter clinger." And who pray tell has decided to hang even more labels on people who believe it is not the job of government to interfere and attempt to control every aspect of their lives? Why, that would be the editor and communication director of the Idaho Catholic Register, Mr. Michael K. Brown.

In his opinion/commentary piece in the latest issue of the official newspaper of both the Diocese of Boise and of our bishop, Michael P. Driscoll entitled, "Partisan Hardliners Send Students the Wrong Message", he starts out by saying:

"During the last few weeks, the tenor of political debate in this country has become shrill and uncharitable. Partisanship at its worst threatens to poison the political environment and calmer voices must prevail."

I'm going to have to assume from this opener that he considers himself a calmer voice. Mr. Brown then proceeds to lambaste any parent who objected to Obama's school speech. It didn't sound very calm to me when he said:

"If the political polliwogs worked so persistently to shut down a message from the president to millions of young Americans, how nefarious are the forces at work to destroy or poison the attempts to pass universal health care?

"Nefarious" and "poison" are pretty strong words, Mr. Brown. They make it quite clear that you, sir, are the one who is partisan.

Moving on to another article in the paper, picked up from the Catholic News Service and written by Effie Caldarola, this one is disingenuously titled, "Ensuring Universal Health Care is Our Religious Duty." Quoted is the same old MSM-endorsed statistic of 46.3 million people without health insurance. It's a number that has not only been proven over and over to be misleading, but just flat wrong. She also claims that the USCCB (United States Conference of Catholic Bishops) endorses cradle-to-grave health care, as long as it doesn't include abortion. Well guess what, Effie, it does contain abortion and you and I will be paying for it.

In her article, Mrs. Caldarola quotes Bishop William F. Murphy of Rockville Centre, N.Y., chairman of the bishop's Committee on Domestic Justice and Human Development (emphasis mine):

"Genuine health care reform that protects the life and dignity of all is a moral imperative and a vital national obligation."

In another publication Bishop Murphy noted (emphasis mine):

“We strongly oppose inclusion of abortion as part of a national health care benefit.” But then he emphasized the priority the church placed on coverage for the poor, calling health care “not a privilege but a right." source

And yet we have other bishops saying:

“The Catholic Church does not teach that government should directly provide health care,” Bishop Nickless of Sioux City wrote, adding, “Any legislation that undermines the vitality of the private sector is suspect.”

The USCCB does not speak for me as a Catholic, since they have funded an untold number of organizations over the years that promote or provide abortion and contraception or are communistic front groups. In the past ten years the USCCB has given approximately 7 million dollars to ACORN.

Mark in Spokane reported a few days ago on this development when he wrote:

"Read all about it here, and prepare to throw up. Not only has the Catholic Campaign for Human Development, the "social justice" project set by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, been funding ACORN to the tune of millions of dollars, it has been funneling money to organizations that support abortion rights, same-sex "marriage," and artificial contraception."

And then today we have this from Mark:

The Catholic Church's version of ACORN? Is that what the Catholic Campaign for Human Development has become?

LarryD over at Acts of Apostasy, has this to say:

[...]
"I think it's high time the bishops' conferences, both here in the US and in Canada, disband. Voluntarily, forcibly...either way is fine with me. Despite any good they might promote - which is arguable - time and time again they make decisions that defy understanding." read the restIt is quite clear that the Idaho Catholic Register has an agenda. It shamefully supports a president who is aggressively pro-death. This is the same president who has stocked his cabinet and "czar" positions with the most disreputable of cafeteria Catholics, and refused to speak at Georgetown University until the symbol for Jesus was covered.

I'd give you links to the articles from the Idaho Catholic Register but since their website hasn't been updated since around 2007, that will be impossible. Instead the resources (can you say money?) of this diocese have been used to purchase post-it notes for folks to write out their ideas for a diocesan pastoral plan, "All at the Table," that has been TWO years in the making.

As my readers are well aware I tend to shy away from criticizing priests and bishops. After reading the newspaper yesterday, I told my husband to throw it away. He slyly put it on my desk realizing that after a day or two of stewing over this, I would finally write something.

Let me conclude to any and all Catholics or Christians reading this:

• It is not your "religious duty" to support universal health care
• Health care is not a vital national obligation
• Health care is not a right
  
• You can still go to heaven if you don't give money to the annual Campaign for Human Development
• The USCCB is a organization that has about as much credibility as the United Nations.
• ...and most importantly, the Holy Spirit will always protect the Church, even against the onslaught of bishops that are overly invested in the concept of social justice instead of doing the real work of a bishop.
  

Question:

How many other Catholics are being misled by their diocesan newspapers? Any feedback you could give would be much appreciated...