Catholicae Testudines

Random Pope Benedict XVI Fact

I can't say that I've ever set up a personal ad, but apparently you get good results, like successors to St. Peter for children.

Making the blog rounds now is the story that Pope Benedict's parents met through a personal ad his father put out. Here's the story. Here's the ad.

“Middle-ranking civil servant, single, Catholic, 43, immaculate past, from the country, is looking for a good Catholic, pure girl who can cook well, tackle all household chores, with a talent for sewing and homemaking with a view to marriage as soon as possible. Fortune desirable but not a precondition”

Hat tip to Jimmy for the story.

Priorities

Concerning the Mel Gibson affair, does anybody find it odd that a bigger deal is being made about Gibson's anti-Semitic remarks rather than the fact that he was drunk, driving at 90 mph and swerving? Do people really think that anti-Semitic remarks are worse than endangering people's lives? It sure seems so.

Cut of the Week

Via Bill Cork.

Journalism

I'm glad to see that we've got a new commentor.  Especially since I've been itching to have a discussion with this one about both the purpose and the current state of journalism.  But in the meantime here's a link that makes sums up one of my views rather nicely, from the sodakmonk.

  "When we really wish to know how the world is going, it is no bad test to take some tag or current phrase of the press and reverse it, substituting the precise contrary, and see whether it makes more sense that way. It generally does....."           - The Well and he Shallows, 1935

           Acting on G.K.'s guidance, I decided to take some typical headlines found these days, and do his switcheroo on them.

          United States is a very unified country

          Few problems noticed with election process

          Presidential Vote in Ohio not very close

          US forces in Iraq face only scattered resistance

          Catholics in US: back to normal

To add a few of my own from the current crop of headlines from washingtonpost.com:
            "In Thailand, Waiting for Aid" becomes "Thailand Recieves Aid" and "Rebels Kill Two Dozen Iraqis" becomes "Rebels leave most Iraqis Alone."

Maybe a new addition to Pre-Cana classes?

I just saw this on a website, click on the picture and check out the second add.

School Bars Declaration Of Independence

Teacher sues for right to use documents that reference God

http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/1124041declar1.html

So who exactly gives us our rights?  Why do we have unalienable ones?

This seems likely to lead to either the loss of such rights, witness the rise of school speech codes.  Or it will lead to the rise of a sociopathic ethical system, might means right.  If you have patriotism without having a healthy fear of God, then it seems that the real reason we have rights is because we kill, imprison and expel those who say otherwise.

Political Discussions

Some hard earned lessons I'm recording here in case I should forget.

When discussing anything controversial, particularly when someone clearly has a strong opinion on the matter, do not lecture them. Try and phrase almost everything as a question. Try to maneuver them into a contradiction and then ask them how they would resolve it. Come across as if you think you could be wrong but are waiting for a really convincing argument. This is the only way that I've ever made headway in trying to convince to change their mind. Well crafted arguments rarely convice a passionate person. But a passionate person is often really interested in convincing you, take advantage of their energy and keep asking questions (why?, really?, how do you reconcile your position with this fact?, could you please define that term for me?, how do you reconcile you current statement with your previous statement?). In most discussions passionate people rarely listen to the other person. If you keep yourself in the interrogative voice, keep your sentence short people, and appear humble it seems to force others to listen. It's best if the person walks away thinking of great arguments to bring next time, it is often at this time that a person is most likely to change his mind. And when you can, try and transition from an argument, debate, or shouting match to a disputation.

''For true and false will in no better way be revealed and uncovered than in resistance to a contradiction.'' -- St. Thomas Aquinas

Update: Yes, of course I meant to entitle this, "Be like Socrates," read Euthyphro and learn. But I figured that many people wouldn't get it. After all unless you went to my high school it probably wasn't part of the curriculum.

Is it just me

or does Osama's rhetoric sound a lot like the rhetoric of the American left?

New from Card

I'm not as gifted a writer as Tom or Peter so I prefer to recommend well written pieces. Here are a pair from Orson Scott Card:
Dumb Science, Kerry's Religion
The Death of Shame

Highlights:

"When Kerry really believes something is wrong, he does not hesitate to call for laws to ban it. What he's really saying is that it's illegitimate to ban something you believe is wrong if -- and only if -- your belief in its wrongness comes from your religion.

So in his worldview, only religious people are forbidden to impose their beliefs about right and wrong on others. As long as you have no religion behind you, you can force your beliefs about right and wrong on anybody you want.

John Kerry says he's against "disenfranchising" people.

He really means, "except for people who believe their view of morality comes from God." Those people can just sit down and shut up, while the unbelievers make all the laws that rule their lives."

"I've heard Leftists complain that the thing that scares them most about George W. Bush is that he thinks he's chosen by God.

But that is not true at all. What Bush believes is that he is accountable to God. This serves as a check on him; it blocks him from doing anything that he believes God would not approve of.

Contrary to Leftist myth, he doesn't change his beliefs about God to fit what he wants to do; he conforms his actions to fit well-established beliefs about God's will. They mock him for having a black-and-white view of the world. But look at the result of not having such a view: The lying and cheating that are now endemic on the Left."

New Orson Scott Card Essays

One of my favorite non-Catholic writers updates his site with a pair of good essays:
Why We Are Winning and How We Can Still Lose
Hypocrisy and Cynicism in America

Oh and he recommends that you watch this video.

Best Part:

"Here's the greatest irony of all. The things that radical Muslims hate about the United States, apart from their simple jealousy of our wealth and power, are the aspects of American culture that are absolutely the product of the influence of the extremist Left.

Abortion. Sexual promiscuity. Pornography. Open support of homosexuality. Hostility to religion. Denigration of the male sex.

These are the things that radical Islam hates most about America, the reasons they use when they warn fellow Muslims against allowing Western culture to influence them.

Yet, in Al Qaeda's effort to install Osama Bin Laden (or, if he dies, some like-minded successor) as Caliph of all Islam, they find it useful to promote extreme Leftist governments in Western nations.

Why? Because they know Leftist governments won't fight them.

They know John Kerry will hand them the victory they can't win against a determined America.

Ultimately, they believe that Leftist governments will behave in such a way that the Leftist agenda can be swept away and replaced by Shari'a.

Such might be the result of hypocrisy and cynicism in America."