Cool!!
A new Web site will make thousands of children's books from 100 different cultures available for free to Internet-savvy kids around the world.

The International Children's Digital Library (ICDL) is a 5-year research project to develop innovative software and a collection of books that specifically address the needs of children as readers.
Access to the library initially requires a direct Internet connection, such as a cable modem or DSL line. Those connecting by phone modems will be able to access the site in summer 2003.

The Wanderer reports:
A document is expected soon from the Holy See vetoing the admission of men with homosexual tendencies to the priesthood or the religious life.

Also, Why Do Catholics Oppose Capital Punishment But Support Abortion?

"It is an indictment of the ineffectiveness of Catholic teaching in the U.S. that most of the pro-abortion legislators in Congress wouldn’t be there except for votes by Catholics. The silence of the bishops about this puts the seal on the failure of those they leave unrebuked in this sin and crime, all the while many who vote for pro-abortionists brag about their pious concern for the rights and lives of criminals."

I vote pro-life because I think more people are killed by abortion than by capital punishment. If I can't have the perfect candidate to vote for, I pick the most pro-life one. This country isn't eutopia, you know.

An open letter to Republicans
If Republicans would cater to Catholic interests, they might get more of the Catholic vote.

For example, school vouchers or tax credits for private schools would interest Catholics. The Catholic Church in 1992 ran 52,828 kindergartens with an attendance of 5 million students, 80,612 Elementary and Primary Schools with 25 million students, 31,711 Secondary Schools with 13 million students, and 2 million students in its 6,400 Colleges and Universities. (I don't have current statistics.) This is a very sizable block of voters.

At the least, you could offer vouchers or tax credits when the child has a learning or physical disability. This would have the side effect of raising test scores in the publics school the disabled child attended if the learning disable child had low scores on standardized tests. Then Republicans could claim they have improved education as evidenced by higher test scores in public schools, since private schools are not included in these tests. Who could object to a government that is helping disabled children to get a better education? Who knows best what is good for this situation than the child's parents? This voids the issue of religious instruction in giving vouchers.

I'm paying $12,500 for Catholic school tuition for my three kids this year. My youngest's school costs $5200. It is a Catholic special school. We sent her there because she wasn't bad enough for the public special school district. Both the parish Catholic school and the local public school, though both excellent schools, could not meet her need for specialized instruction, discipline and assistance. We think we as her parents are the best ones to decide what is best for her. Luckily, with her grandparent's help, we can afford to get the best for her. But what about those who cannot afford it? Do their kids get left behind in a school that does not meet their needs?
Currently, the public school operates under the assumption that all kids will do well in the traditional learning environment. But that assumption is not true. Schools are not like assembly lines that turn out a uniform product because kids are not alike. Kids are treated as if a certain effort always gets the same results. Non-uniform raw materials will result in a non-uniform product. Kids have individual needs. We were lucky that we had a school available that meets her needs.

Why can't the government pay the same for my kid or at least refund the money I pay in property taxes for schools? My kid is a citizen too and she deserves equal assistance that other kids get from the school district? Even if I can afford to send her to a special school, doesn't she deserve similar financial support as rich or poor kids? If the government were fair, they would pay for education regardless where a child goes to school, just as they did for the GI Bill.

Anyway, I want Republicans to think about how to get more Catholics to vote Republican. I hope my ideas are helpful.

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch says:
The nation's Catholic bishops are slated to convene in St. Louis next summer to consider holding their first plenary council, the church's highest level of meeting since 1884. That 19th-century meeting in Maryland led to the development of the familiar (to Catholics of a certain age) Baltimore Catechism. There are nearly 400 bishops in the United States. Pope John Paul II would have to agree to any such meeting.

Heard on Jay Leno, Monday Night, November 18
"Al-Qaeda has issued another threat towards New York and Washington saying there will be more attacks if we do not convert to Islam. Convert to Islam? And you thought Jehovah Witnesses were pushy!"

CRISIS MAGAZINE SURVEY OF CATHOLICS, 2002 The results are very interesting.

Strange. I thought polygamy was against the law in this country. Scripture does not forbid it, though. The ban on polygamy is one of those Catholic traditions that became part of our laws. Even Sola Scriptura Protestants follow this ban as if it were in the Bible. I thought Mormons gave up the practice so that Utah could join the Union. I guess that's not true, if you read this.

Woman to bring suit against Mormon church
VANCOUVER -- Debbie Palmer, a women with eight children from three assigned marriages in a Mormon polygamist colony, is going to court in an effort to expose a lifestyle which she says leads to sexual, physical, psychological and spiritual abuse.

Ms. Palmer, 47, intends to ask the B.C. Supreme Court this week to consider a class action against the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on behalf of women who say they have suffered as a result of the religion's communal, polygamist lifestyle.

At least 25 wives, and possibly as many as 200 from communities in Canada and the United States are expected to be part of the unprecedented lawsuit against the well-established religious institution.

The lawsuit could shatter a 55-year long silence by authorities who have ignored repeated attempts by women for help.

Polygamy is illegal, but the government has adopted a hands-off approach to the community. B.C. Attorney-General Geoff Plant says a guarantee of freedom of religion protects church members from the law.

Ms. Palmer said the rural community currently has about 200 men and 600 women and children. Bountiful is affiliated with polygamist Mormon communities in Utah and Arizona, with a population of between 20,000 and 30,000 people.

She said she is aware of about 50 girls who have been brought across the Canada-U.S. border in the past three years to be married to men at Bountiful. About 25 girls from Bountiful have been sent to Utah and Arizona for marriage, she said."

I saw Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets Friday. This book is so far the most allegorical of the four books. While some people denounce the books as evil, I see it as a morality play of sorts. I think that Hogwarts symbolizes heaven, Harry's foster parents house symbolizes earthly trials, Dumbledore symbolizes God the Father, Mr. Weasly symbolizes the pope, the phoenix symbolizes the Holy Spirit, the sorting hat symbolizes free will, the baskalisk symbolizes Satan while Harry symbolizes St. Michael the Archangel. The prejudice against mudbloods symbolizes the evil of racism. Learning about magic symbolizes learning about the supernatural. The mystery within a mystery format symbolizes how the supernatural is a mystery that we cannot understand in this Muggly, earthly existance. The whole series is the story of good vs evil. Harry is always on the side of good, not evil. Harry is his most intelligent, creative, fullest self when he is at Hogwarts. I think we too will be our best self when we are in Heaven.

Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), when interviewed by Matt Lauer, said she is a conservative Catholic. If that is true, the Pope is Protestant! She doesn't vote that way in Congress. I have this strange idea that conservative Catholics would be pro-life and pro-family.

Sometimes the news makes me scratch my head at the irony when two stories show opposite views on the value of human life.

Heart op on unborn child hailed a success

A pioneering heart operation performed on an unborn baby 18 months ago has been hailed a success by surgeons. The micro-surgical technique allowed the mother to carry her child to full term, avoiding premature birth-related complications. Doctors from London's Hammersmith Hospitals NHS Trust and the Royal Brompton and Harefield NHS trust developed a technique of dilating underdeveloped pulmonary valves while the baby was in the womb. Abnormal closure of the pulmonary valves means that blood cannot circulate freely through the heart. This prevents growth of one side of the baby's organ, causing life threatening complications during pregnancy."

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Contrast the above story with this one:

PETA Crashes Victoria's Secret Show
NEW YORK (AP) - Victoria's Secret doesn't put on a typical fashion show. Besides strategically draped models, Thursday's show featured musical numbers, acrobats and even a runway showdown between a model and anti-fur protesters.
Activists for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals rushed the stage as Gisele Bundchen strutted down the runway in a beaded bra and panties, thigh-high black stockings and red strappy heels. The four female protesters, carrying signs that read "Gisele: Fur Scum," shouted at the supermodel as she calmly completed her runway turn.
The dramatic confrontation was oddly fitting in a show that featured tried-and-true black lace numbers as well as everything from clear go-go boots with Day-Glo lingerie to fur caps paired with moccasin boots. And wings, lots of wings."

I guesss saving furry animals must be more important than saving the unborn babies, according to some. The priorities in this country need realignment.

While I'm thinking about downloading free software, try Pixia to create graphics. It's a blast!

I'm trying to overcome the stereotype that Catholics don't know Scripture. Scott Hahn says Protestants don't have extra brain cells for doing this, so I'm out to prove him right. I found some free software that lets me make flash cards and quizzes to help me learn. It's called Lamp Light Scripture Study. Download it and give it a whirl. Impress your Protestant friends!

From the "Things aren't so Bad" Department
If you think the Roman Catholic Church is getting too liberal, check out the real Liberal Catholic Church.
"I have heard that the early Bishops of the Liberal Catholic Church were Theosophists. What is Theosophy and is a belief in it required in the Liberal Catholic Church International?

Theosophy is a school of thought founded in the late 1800’s. Its purpose was study comparative religion and mysticism. Some of its basic principles are belief in the eastern concepts of reincarnation, karma, vegetarianism and abstention from the use of alcoholic beverages. While many of the Liberal Catholic Church’s early Bishops did, in fact, hold theosophical ideals, a belief in them is neither required nor forbidden in the Liberal Catholic Church International. The LCCI respects the freedom of individual conscience on these issues, as in others. There is a branch of Liberal Catholicism in America known as the “Liberal Catholic Church, Province of the United States of America,” that does require its clergy to profess a belief in the teachings of Theosophy. We are not part of that branch."

As mentioned on www.drudgereport.com:
Catholic Bishops Say Roe v. Wade Has Left 'Trail of Broken Hearts' - Young People Understand Women Deserve Better Than Abortion
WASHINGTON, Nov. 13 /PRNewswire/ -- While Roe v. Wade remains, for now, the law of the land, the pro-life cause is winning the minds and hearts of the young, according to a statement passed by the U.S. bishops at their fall meeting today."

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Pro-lifers give women a real choice.
For example, Our Lady's Inn is an emergency shelter for pregnant women in St. Louis. I created their web site. Pro-choice folks, if they were worthy of the name, should give women more options than just abortions.
In the process of establishing Our Lady's Inn, I met my husband. Pro-life volunteer work pays!

My son, Tim, is 13 now. Another teenager in the house. I wonder whether the most challenging years are ahead of me. All my friends have given me dire warnings that the worst is still to come. I'll try to enjoy parenting along with its challenges one day at a time. If I thought I'd have to have the courage to deal with the next five years right now, I think I would crawl in a bomb shelter and wait for it to blow over. I trust in God to give me the grace as I need it. What other alternative do I have? It's trust or be toast.

Governments have this bad habit of tinkering with society and mucking up everything. I thought the USA was the only place this happens, but I was mistaken. Here's an example from India:

Low-caste Hindus in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu are threatening to embrace Christianity, Buddhism or Islam to protest a new law that outlaws religious conversion.

A bill passed into law by the state legislature last month penalizes those who convert to a religion other than Hinduism with imprisonment and a hefty fine.

"The bill runs foul of Article 25 [25] of the Indian Constitution, which grants freedom of conscience and free profession, practice and propagation of religion to every Indian citizen," the group said.
Dominic Emmanuel, director of New Delhi Catholic Archdiocese, called the measure, "an assault as much on civil rights as on human dignity."

One last thing to say about the elections --- The unions and blacks have gotten everything from the Democrat party that they ever will get. The fake carrots the Dems put in front of their noses will never be real until there is consensus among all parties that it needs to be. I think folks have figured out that fake carrots will cost too much and are not going to happen. You can fool some of the people some of the time, but not enough of the people enough of the time to win elections forever. The day of reckoning has arrived.

St. Louis Archdiocese has a new Youth Ministry web site at http://www.stlyouth.org/.

Lumen Verum Apologetics has some good articles. It has a 30-Part Course in Defence of
the Catholic Faith

About time!!!!

Republican Leader Promises Partial-Birth Abortion Ban

WASHINGTON, Nov 7, 02 (CWNews.com) -- The new Republican majority will push a partial-birth abortion ban through the next Congress, a key Republican leader has promised.

Senator Trent Lott, the Mississippi legislator who will head the Republican majority in the Senate, said that when the new Congress convenes, "We will move the partial-birth abortion bill."

"I will call it up, we will pass it, and the President will sign it," Lott promised during a post-election interview on American Family Radio. "I'm making that commitment; you can write it down."

Catholics can make a difference. Evidence? Read this:
Religious vote credited in GOP wins
By Larry Witham
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
A mobilized conservative religious vote probably swept Republicans to victory in Georgia and the Carolinas on Tuesday and pro-life Catholics and Protestants made the difference for the GOP in Missouri, political analysts said yesterday.

Exit-poll data from Voter News Service that asks voter religious affiliations and values is not yet available, but election-watchers nevertheless pegged some victories to religious-motived voting.
"We were very happy that 74 percent of religious conservatives voted for the pro-life Saxby Chambliss for U.S. senator in Georgia," said Ronn Torossian, media director for the Christian Coalition. "Our voter guides had a great influence."
John Green, an analyst of religion and voting patterns at the University of Akron in Akron, Ohio, said Republican victories for the U.S. Senate in North and South Carolina turned on similarly motivated voters.

Deal Hudson, publisher of Crisis magazine and analyst of Catholics in the GOP, cited Fox News exit polls showing that 16 percent of voters saying they were in the "conservative Christian political movement," most of them Republicans.
After the economy, abortion was the next topic picked by Missouri voters as the "issue that matters most," and 80 percent of voters picking that concern were Republican.
While many religious leaders have stirred a debate on the morality of a pre-emptive strike on Iraq, it did not seem to be a moral issue for religious-minded voters, Mr. Green said.
"I don't think the prospect of war in Iraq had much effect on this election," he said. "That's been a debate in the more elite religious circles, and I think even people who attended churches are mostly concerned about national security."

I'm delighted that pro-life Jim Talent won his Senate race over pro-abort Carnahan. My hubby and I have campaigned for him for 10 years. This year we did a voter registration drive, handed out literature, and volunteered to be at the polling place. St. Louis County had a 68.8% turnout when we usually get 33% in an off-year election.

I can really gloat though. Jim won by 1%, only about 24,000 votes. That's not a landslide. But a Republican Senate & House will be great.

Perhaps now the Senate will get something done instead of obstructing progress. Maybe some judges will be approved and we'll get a ban on partial-birth abortion. A new budget and Homeland Security should be passed too.

The Missouri State house has a Republican majority for the first time in 48 years. Term limits forced a lot of incumbents to retire or run for something else. The incumbent advantage disappeared. Maybe some new ideas will come with the election of new faces.

Hope is restored. The political scene and the pro-life cause look better than it has in a long time.

Bush Demands Zero Tolerance for Kiddie Porn
By Terence P. Jeffrey

Child pornography, the Supreme Court has ruled, can be a good thing.

The point was made in Ashcroft v. Free Speech Coalition, an April decision demonstrating what a dark and destructive force the court has become.

Ashcroft was decided 6 to 3, with Justices William Rehnquist, Antonin Scalia, and Sandra Day O’Connor dissenting. It struck down the Child Pornography Prevention Act of 1996. This law was enacted by a Republican Congress and signed by Democratic President Bill Clinton with little controversy. It reflected a bipartisan consensus: zero tolerance for child pornographers.

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Media Makeover for Sniper Suspects
By Ann Coulter

After all the speculation about the sniper terrorizing Maryland and Virginia, at last we have some cold hard facts. He is a Muslim. He converted to Islam 17 years ago. He changed his name to John Muhammad. He belonged to Louis Farrakhan’s Nation of Islam. He cheered the terrorist attack of September 11. He registered his getaway vehicle with the DMV on the anniversary of September 11—writing down the time of registration as 8:52 a.m.

Naturally, therefore, the mainstream media have decided the crucial, salient fact about sniper John Muhammad is that he is a Gulf War veteran. Thus, the New York Times described the snipers as: "John Allen Muhammad, 41, a Gulf War veteran, and John Lee Malvo, 17, a Jamaican."

Inasmuch as the nation is at war with Islamic terrorists, you might think it would be of passing interest that the sniper is a Muslim. But you need a New York Times decoder ring to figure out that Gulf War Veteran John Muhammad is a Muslim. The main clue is the Times’ repeated insistence that Islam had absolutely nothing to do with the shootings.

Wrestling with the freakish development that a practitioner of the Religion of Peace is a killer, the Times has even rushed to print with the completely unsubstantiated speculation that John Muhammad had recently rejected Islam. Experts explained that a "rapid and bizarre change in religious beliefs" is common among "serial killers." One doctor said a change in religious beliefs before committing violent crimes is "a fairly well-known phenomenon in clinical psychiatry," adding that he "was not diagnosing Mr. Muhammad’s condition."

His condition? He’s a Muslim. That’s his condition and his diagnosis. It may be time to update the DSM-IV by adding "Jihad Impulse-Control Disorder" to its index of official diagnoses.

Opinion: Church Intimidation by the Left
Gary Bauer
President, American Values
Yet again, the "religious Left" in America is trying to intimidate pastors, squelch debate and discourage voter participation in the political process. Yesterday, we received a copy of a letter from the Interfaith Alliance urging pastors to reject voter guides from six specifically identified organizations, including the Christian Coalition, Focus on the Family, and the Campaign for Working Families.

Evidently, the Interfaith Alliance decided to expand their intimidation campaign this year beyond churches. The letter we received yesterday was sent to a soup kitchen run by a Christian ministry.

So, there you have it, my friends - the "religious Left" in America is attempting to disenfranchise even the poorest Americans. They are threatening the tax-exempt status of soup kitchens if they dare provide voter information to the folks who desperately need their services. What hypocrisy!

And that's really what this is all about - hypocrisy. While the Interfaith Alliance and other groups of their ilk try to appear "non- partisan," the pastors who received this letter were asked to reject voter guides only from conservative organizations. There was no similar request to reject voter guides from NARAL, Planned Parenthood, the Sierra Club, etc., etc, -- only conservative groups were specifically mentioned.