As the year ends

It's the traditional time to take a look back, but not just at 2008. This excellent article by Rich Lowry at National Review takes a long look back at our history. Read it and take comfort. Times might be tough right now, but we've seen terrible times before and managed to come through them alright. Here's a sample:

1837: In a real-estate bubble, people borrowed paper money to speculate in Western land. According to John Steele Gordon’s book An Empire of Wealth, land sales by the federal government were $2.5 million in 1832 and $25 million by 1836. President Andrew Jackson determined to prick the bubble by accepting only gold or silver as payment and succeeded all too well. Banks failed, Wall Street crashed, the price of cotton fell by half and 90 percent of the country’s factories closed. “The country suffered,” Gordon writes, “the longest economic depression in the nation’s history. It didn’t reach bottom until February 1843, fully seventy-two months after it began.”

I'm pretty sure we're going to go through some terrible times of our own, far worse than what we're experiencing right now. I pray we'll come out on the far side as we have in the past: free, united, strong, prosperous.

God bless this country.

Random thoughts

1) No bailouts. GM will never be able to get itself out of financial trouble as long as they have 6 retirees to every 1 worker, for which they must pay pension and medical insurance. It's a broken system. Bailouts won't help.

2) As GM goes, so goes the nation. We will be facing the same bankruptcy in a few years when baby boomers start to retire en masse. We will not be able to pay the Social Security and Medicare bills that are about to come due. Who's going to bail out the U.S.?

3) I predicted that this summer would be colder than usual and that I wouldn't get many tomatoes (a hot-weather crop). Well, I didn't get many that ripened on the vine, as predicted, but we did have enough green tomatoes to put a single layer in the bottom of three paper grocery bags. They slowly ripened, a few each day, and just two days ago we enjoyed the last delicious homegrown tomato.

4) Snow is beautiful. Snow is a huge pain to drive in. Is it spring yet?

5) One of my favorite things in the world is when all six of us are at home -- and in the same room! It just floats my boat. Could be one of the kids' bedrooms for a late-night chat, could be the family room for pizza and movie night. Could be our room for a "music party", where Tom is playing new music downloaded from iTunes so the whole family can gives thumbs up or down (or dance to it). Doesn't matter where it is, I just love it. The kids all know it, so sometimes one of them will say, "Hey Moooooom, look! It's your favorite thing!" I just smile.

6) Another favorite thing: when dinner is planned and cooked early in the day so that the last few hours before dinner are calm and relaxed. Take right now, for instance: I have time to sit and write this post while chili simmers on the stove. (Don't tell my husband; he's out snowblowing right now....)

7) This is terrible, but I admit to some schadenfreude about Gov. Blagojevich's arrest today. It's kind of fun to see a Democrat take a big, huge tumble. (OK, sorry, I know it's not very nice of me.) We've been following the story for a long time in the Chicago Tribune, wondering when the smoldering Rezko fuse would lead to a big explosion in the Illinois Governor's office. I like Jonathan Goldberg's take on it: Good old-fashioned corrupt politics-as-usual. Nothing kinky, nothing perverted. Just regular old criminal behavior in Cook County. And it's nice to know there are still good guys out to get the bad guys.

UPDATE: I'd forgotten that Blagojevich has young children. I'm very sad for them; as always, they are the innocents caught in the crossfire. Looks like that's already happened to them:

In 2006, the governors daughter ended up in the middle of an intense back-and-forth with reporters during the opening day of the Illinois State Fair.

As reporters grilled him about accusations that his administration gave preferential treatment to clout-backed job applicants, he picked up his then 3-year-old daughter Annie, who burst into tears.

Blagojevich and his wife later said the press acted out-of-line while the toddler was present. But Judy Baar Topinka, his Republican challenger at the time, said the governor should not have allowed his daughter to get caught in the scrum.

What a great (true) story! Score: Good guy, 1, Bad guy, 0

Oldest daughter came home today from her job as a Tae Kwon Do instructor with this amazing story, told by one of the students when he arrived at class this evening:

At about 4:30 this afternoon, the student was leaving the bank where he works (Bluemound and Calhoun area). As he walked toward his car he noticed a man get out of another car nearby and start to walk toward him.

Before he could reach his car, however, the man approached him, demanded, "Give me your money!", and pulled a knife out of his pocket.

"I don't want any trouble", said the TKD student, "so I'm going to reach in my pocket and get my money, OK?"

"Just give me your money!" said the robber.

The student pulled out his money clip and threw it on the ground. The robber reached down to get it, keeping his eyes on the student, and when his head was down about knee height, the student gave him a good heavy boot in the chin with a well-placed front kick.

The attacker groaned and grabbed his chin, at which point the student executed a perfect axe kick on the back of his neck.

That sent the robber sprawling to the ground; the student grabbed him by the arm, twisting it up behind his back, and then put his foot on the attacker's upper back.

By this time, people in the bank had seen what was going on and called the police.

The police showed up and, honest to goodness, said, "Thanks, we'll take it from here."

And get this: That Tae Kwon Do student, who defeated the bad guy and single-handedly brought him to justice, is 66 years old.

To the visitor from Orland Park (or thereabouts), Illinois:

I'm wondering if we know each other. I've noticed some repeat visits, and see that you're searching for me by name, so it can't be a random visit here.

We have some relatives in the Tinley Park area, and the IP address could be showing up as Orland Park which is right next door.

So, whether we know each other or not, I'd love it if you would leave a comment to introduce yourself. Or drop me an email: meswart at sbcglobal dot net. You don't have to, of course! Just sayin'.

It's always kind of interesting to browse through the Sitemeter stats. I also wonder who's been emailing a link to my "Public Schools: Part Four" post. I'm sure I'll never know.

But it's still interesting.

Timely Reagan quote

In an email from my dear aunt:

"Government's view of the economy could be summed up in a few short phrases: If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it stops moving, subsidize it" - Ronald Reagan

Catholic Bishops will fight FOCA

The bishops have said they'd rather close the Catholic hospitals than be forced into doing abortions, should Obama sign the Freedom of Choice Act as he said he would.

One has said he'd tell his hospitals to simply ignore FOCA, and be willing to be thrown into jail for it.

Bishop Paul Loverde of the Diocese of Arlington says he wouldn't go as far as other bishops who suggested closing Catholic hospitals but he would refuse to allow them to comply with the FOCA's abortion requirement.

Loverde doesn't have any Catholic hospitals under his purview, but he commented on what he would do if he did.

I would say, ‘Yeah, I'm not going to close the hospital, you're going to arrest me, go right ahead. You'll have to drag me out, go right ahead. I'm not closing this hospital, we will not perform abortions,and you can go take a flying leap,'" he said, according to a CNS News report.

I would hope all bishops would take this same approach. Make it a showdown; let Obama know the terrible consequences should he actually keep his diabolical promise to sign FOCA as his first presidential act.

More:

Both Pope Benedict and the late Pope John Paul II have not only decried abortion as state-sanctioned infanticide, but explicitly - and repeatedly - said it must be outlawed: There can be no compromise with such monstrous barbarism. Abortion is akin to the Jewish question in Europe during the 1930s: Should an entire class of people be denied their essential humanity?

Catholic supporters of Mr. Obama insist it is sufficient to reduce the number of abortions. They say it's time to put the polarizing debate over Roe v. Wade in the past, accept legalized abortion as a reality, and work toward compromise solutions such as promoting adoption.

This is like saying Western democracies should have come to terms with the Aryan racial laws of Nazi Germany, and sought to minimize the number of Jews sent to the gas ovens. The argument is morally repugnant and politically naïve. Ultimately, accommodation with evil never works. We learned that with Nazi Germany and with slavery in this country.

Read the whole article here.

Planned Parenthood: Doing evil with our tax dollars

Planned Parenthood - the organization to which Obama made a solemn promise he'd sign the Freedom of Choice Act as soon as he was in office - is willing to help a "13-year old girl"cross state lines to get an abortion so she can go right back to her "31 year old" boyfriend statutory rapist. All in violation of the law, using our tax dollars to do it.


Indiana Planned Parenthood Covers Up Sexual Abuse of 13-year Old - The most amazing videos are a click away

Yes, it was an undercover operation, so there wasn't a real 13 year old and a real 31 year old.

This time.

Public Schools: Part Four

Victor Davis Hanson on the public schools:

The K-12 public education system is essentially wrecked. No longer can any professor expect an incoming college freshman to know what Okinawa, John Quincy Adams, Shiloh, the Parthenon, the Reformation, John Locke, the Second Amendment, or the Pythagorean Theorem is. An entire American culture, the West itself, its ideas and experiences, have simply vanished on the altar of therapy. This upcoming generation knows instead not to judge anyone by absolute standards (but not why so); to remember to say that its own Western culture is no different from, or indeed far worse than, the alternatives; that race, class, and gender are, well, important in some vague sense; that global warming is manmade and very soon will kill us all; that we must have hope and change of some undefined sort; that AIDs is no more a homosexual- than a heterosexual-prone disease; and that the following things and people for some reason must be bad, or at least must in public company be said to be bad (in no particular order): Wal-Mart, cowboys, the Vietnam War, oil companies, coal plants, nuclear power, George Bush, chemicals, leather, guns, states like Utah and Kansas, Sarah Palin, vans and SUVs.

He's absolutely right. During a discussion immediately after 9/11, my college students weren't able to articulate how we were any different from the Islamic terrorists. Another student couldn't distinguish between the rights of humans and the "rights" of animals. A little girl recently told my teen daughter that "Christopher Columbus was a very bad man", and another little boy was overheard saying, "The earth is ugly and getting uglier!!!" Just a few off-the-cuff examples; I'm sure you can provide many more of your own.

Another paragraph from the same article on what would help save the public schools:

Four years of high-school Latin would dramatically arrest the decline in American education. In particular, such instruction would do more for minority youths than all the ‘role model’ diversity sermons on Harriet Tubman, Malcolm X, Montezuma, and Caesar Chavez put together. Nothing so enriches the vocabulary, so instructs about English grammar and syntax, so creates a discipline of the mind, an elegance of expression, and serves as a gateway to the thinking and values of Western civilization as mastery of a page of Virgil or Livy (except perhaps Sophocles’s Antigone in Greek or Thucydides’ dialogue at Melos). After some 20 years of teaching mostly minority youth Greek, Latin, and ancient history and literature in translation (1984-2004), I came to the unfortunate conclusion that ethnic studies, women studies—indeed, anything “studies”— were perhaps the fruits of some evil plot dreamed up by illiberal white separatists to ensure that poor minority students in the public schools and universities were offered only a third-rate education. [Emphasis added.]

I agree. Virtually all of the homeschoolers I know teach their children Latin. It's a touchstone to the past, to the foundations of our civilization. Besides that, it's the language of our Church.

So, again: It's not the teachers who are the problem in public schools (with the exception of the lousy ones, but you find that in all professions). It's the curriculum.

Previous posts on this topic:

11/05: "Today" (initial comments)

11/19: "Public Schools: 'Take your kids out immediately'"

11/19: "Public Schools: Part II"

11/23: "Public Schools: Part III"

First Sunday in Advent!

The beginning of the new liturgical year: a time of joyful hope, anticipation, preparation and prayer; a time of getting ready for the coming of Our Lord in our hearts as we celebrate his coming to earth as a tiny infant.

Some thoughts from Fr. Z at "What Does the Prayer Really Say?":

It is now the season of “the Coming”, Advent. It is a time of muted joy in anticipation of remembering liturgically the First Coming of the Lord as an infant at Bethlehem. Advent is also, more significantly, a reminder that the Lord will have a Second Coming. Like lightning across the heavens Christ will come from the East as just Judge and King of fearful majesty. During Advent Holy Church dons purple vestments, in parallel with Lent before Easter. From ancient times all feasts had penitential vigils. Advent purple is an outward sign of our joy-infused penitential preparation for both Comings, though especially for our sacramental veneration of the Word Incarnate, the Christ Child.

This morning we made some beautiful beeswax Advent Candles (pictures forthcoming here if I get time for it!) and asked our new pastor to bless them after Mass. We set up the Jesse Tree (this one, from the same company that makes the beeswax candle kits, which we made last year). Now that my genius husband has fixed our color printer, I'm going to print out this Liturgical Year Wheel.

So, we're off to a good start. Of course, it's only the first day of Advent.... and it always goes so fast.... but I'm hoping that this year we'll really live the Advent season and appreciate all the Church teaches us about it.

Quick links

Extra busy these days, with homeschooling and preparing for Thanksgiving here. So just a few quick links.

First, the uplifting:

• "What Every Child Should Know About Thanksgiving" by Newt Gingrich. I'm going to print it and read it aloud to my own kids.

• The full text of President Lincoln's Thanksgiving Day Proclamation.

Now, the downers:

• A gripping read that explains the economic collapse. It's a house of cards, folks, and it's only begun to tumble.
  

• More doom and gloom, if you can stand it. But that last part, about Russia taking back Alaska? I don't think so, comrade. Not while Sarah Palin is Governor.
  

Something to think about

Found on a Yahoo list (The History Place):

In the aftermath of this election, let's be reminded of these wise words.

"You cannot help the poor by destroying the rich.
You cannot strengthen the weak by weakening the strong.
You cannot bring about prosperity by discouraging thrift.
You cannot lift the wage earner up by pulling the wage payer down.
You cannot further the brotherhood of man by inciting class hatred.
You cannot build character and courage by taking away men's initiative and independence.
You cannot help men permanently by doing for them, what they could and should do for themselves."

--Rev. William J.H. Beotchker, 1916

Herb Kohl on FOCA

I wrote to Sen. Kohl expressing my opposition to FOCA. I explained that it would undo years of work by citizens who favored reasonable laws regarding abortion, such as parental notification, a waiting period, restrictions on late-term abortions, etc. These restrictions were approved by state legislatures, reflecting the will of the people.

The reply (which I pretty much expected, but which raises my blood pressure nonetheless. Why do I have to have this guy for my senator, especially when our other senator is just as bad?)

Dear Mrs. Swart:

Thank you for taking the time to contact me. I appreciate hearing from you.

As you know, Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA) reintroduced the "Freedom of Choice Act," S. 1173, on April 19, 2007. This bill would protect a woman's freedom to choose to bear a child or terminate a pregnancy, consistent with the Supreme Court's 1973 ruling in Roe v. Wade, along with other verdicts that respect a citizen's privacy. It would also prohibit the interference of the government in these decisions.

I recognize that abortion involves difficult and ultimately personal decisions, and with this in mind, I believe that the government should not regulate in this area. While I do not like abortion, I do not believe that it would be wise to return to the days when women who sought abortions were treated as criminals. Instead, I will continue to work to encourage alternatives to abortion. Although we may come to agree on some of the surrounding issues, I'm afraid that we will not agree on the ultimate question of whether women should retain the legal right to make their own decisions about having an abortion.

I appreciate your strong convictions on this issue, and I hope we can communicate about other matters on which we are more likely to find agreement.




Sincerely,


Herb Kohl
U.S. Senator

Public School Series: Part Three

More about Bill Ayers and the radicalization of the public schools, from the City Journal article I'd linked previously.

America’s historical ideal of public schooling as a means of assimilating all children (and particularly the children of new immigrants) into a common civic and democratic culture is already under assault from the multiculturalists and their race- and gender-centered pedagogy. Now Ayers and his social justice movement, by dismissing the civic culture ideal as nothing more than “capitalist hegemony,” subvert the public schools even further—while subsidized by the taxpayers, including the capitalists who supposedly control the schools.

On politicizing science, rather than actually teaching science:

Teaching science for social justice? Let Teachers College professor Angela Calabrese Barton, the volume’s [Teaching Science for Social Justice] principal author, try to explain: “The marriages between capitalism and education and capitalism and science have created a foundation for science education that emphasizes corporate values at the expense of social justice and human dignity.” The alternative? “Science pedagogy framed around social justice concerns can become a medium to transform individuals, schools, communities, the environment, and science itself, in ways that promote equity and social justice. Creating a science education that is transformative implies not only how science is a political activity but also the ways in which students might see and use science and science education in ways transformative of the institutional and interpersonal power structures that play a role in their lives.” If you still can’t appreciate why it’s necessary for your child’s chemistry teacher to teach for social justice, you are probably hopelessly wedded to reason, empiricism, individual merit, and other capitalist and post-colonialist deformities.

What about math?

Accordingly, Gutstein has relentlessly politicized his math classes for years, claiming that this approach has improved his students’ math skills while making them more aware of the injustices built in to capitalist society. One lesson, for example, presents charts showing the U.S. income distribution, aiming to get the students to understand the concept of percentages and fractions, while simultaneously showing them how much wealth is concentrated at the top in an economic system that mainly benefits the superrich. After the class does the mathematical calculations, Gutstein asks: “How does all this make you feel?” He triumphantly reports that 19 of 21 students described wealth distribution in America as “bad,” “unfair,” or “shocking,” and he proudly quotes the comments of a child named Rosa: “Well I see that all the wealth in the United States is mostly the wealth of a couple people not the whole nation.”

No wonder that so many people have fallen for the hoax of man-made global warming, or can't do enough basic math to realize that they can't afford the mortgage they just signed.

Bracing words for Catholics

Fr. Dwight Longenecker doesn't mince words, or make nice, or beat around the bush. At all. So his essay today on InsideCatholic.com is a little hard to read; it speaks the truth more forcefully than we're used to hearing.

Here's one paragraph that I believe to be prophetic:

In the next 20 years, this sort of Catholic [read the whole article for an explanation] will become extinct. As America descends further into decadence and decline, the lines will be drawn between the forces of darkness and the forces of light. People will have to choose whether to serve God and His Church or the dark side. Catholics will have to choose to be fully committed or not. If they choose to be Catholic, let them be informed and involved and integrated. If they choose to leave the Church, then they should be honest and stop referring to themselves as Catholic.

Go read the whole thing. And pray that you will always choose the right side in the battles to come.

Prophetic words from Spes Salvi

I picked up my copy of Spes Salvi this morning and it fell open to this section:

Action and suffering as settings for learning hope

35. All serious and upright human conduct is hope in action. This is so first of all in the sense that we thereby strive to realize our lesser and greater hopes, to complete this or that task which is important for our onward journey, or we work towards a brighter and more humane world so as to open doors into the future. Yet our daily efforts in pursuing our own lives and in working for the world's future either tire us or turn into fanaticism, unless we are enlightened by the radiance of the great hope that cannot be destroyed even by small-scale failures or by a breakdown in matters of historic importance. If we cannot hope for more than is effectively attainable at any given time, or more than is promised by political or economic authorities, our lives will soon be without hope. It is important to know that I can always continue to hope, even if in my own life, or the historical period in which I am living, there seems to be nothing left to hope for. Only the great certitude of hope that my own life and history in general, despite all failures, are held firm by the indestructible power of Love, and that this gives them their meaning and importance, only this kind of hope can then give the courage to act and to persevere.

Prophetic words: "a breakdown in matters of historic importance." I believe we are on the verge of such a breakdown. But since my hope is not in this earth - not in governments, or politicians (thank goodness), or in the stock market (ditto) - I have reason for real hope, which gives reason for true joy.

Public Schools: Part Two

In a previous post, I said that the public schools are controlled by the ultra-leftists in the NEA and the universities.

Here, in an article by Sol Stern, is just one bit of evidence for that claim:

As I have shown elsewhere in City Journal, [William] Ayers’s politics have hardly changed since his Weatherman days. He still boasts about working full-time to bring down American capitalism and imperialism. This time, however, he does it from his tenured perch as Distinguished Professor of Education at the University of Illinois, Chicago. Instead of planting bombs in public buildings, Ayers now works to indoctrinate America’s future teachers in the revolutionary cause, urging them to pass on the lessons to their public school students.

[snip]

Ayers’s influence on what is taught in the nation’s public schools is likely to grow in the future. Last month, he was elected vice president for curriculum of the 25,000-member American Educational Research Association (AERA), the nation’s largest organization of education-school professors and researchers. Ayers won the election handily, and there is no doubt that his fellow education professors knew whom they were voting for. In the short biographical statement distributed to prospective voters beforehand, Ayers listed among his scholarly books Fugitive Days, an unapologetic memoir about his ten years in the Weather Underground. The book includes dramatic accounts of how he bombed the Pentagon and other public buildings. (emphasis added)

More to come.

Public Schools: "Take your kids out immediately"

In a prior post, I made some off-the-cuff suggestions about what we (meaning, we conservatives) should do next.

One of my suggestions was this:

If you still have your kids in public school, take them out immediately. We simply cannot have any more children brainwashed by the leftists in charge of government schools and textbooks. Send them to private schools, or better yet, homeschool them. You can do it, trust me. You certainly won't do any worse than most of the public schools, and you'll probably do much better at teaching your children the truths of faith and freedom. More about this later.

Of course, this was a rhetorical statement. I certainly don't expect everyone to pull their kids out of public schools. But I do believe that conservative parents, especially Catholics, should do everything possible to keep their children out of government schools.

That post attracted some attention from a nephew on my husband's side who left a comment.

Here, slightly edited, is my emailed reply to him:

I'm really sorry you were hurt and saddened by my post, as it wasn't directed at you or any teacher personally. And I'm very aware of all the teachers in the family, including my own mother, aunt, and several friends, besides all the teachers on your side of the family! :)

If you read my post again, you'll see I said nothing about teachers, at all. That's because my complaint is not with the teachers, but with the curriculum, which has been driven by the leftist agenda. I didn't have time to fully develop this idea on the blog, however, which is why I said "more to come later" in that post.

In a nutshell, my concerns about curriculum include anti-American propaganda, historical revisionism, and the neglect of civics and economics. Maybe not in every school, but in far too many.

As I'm sure you can tell if you've read any other posts, we were really discouraged by the outcome of this election. I believe that 40 years of left-leaning curriculum in the public schools is a big part of the problem.

I'm well aware of the good that many teachers do, and of the great sacrifices that many of them make and how much they care for their students. I know many teachers who put in long hours, spend their own money for supplies, and make a wonderful difference in the lives of children.

I just wish those same wonderful teachers had a much different curriculum to use. But since the schools and textbook publishers aren't about to change any time soon, then the next best thing is for conservative parents to pull their kids out and exercise their right to choose a different form of education. That's what I was getting at.

One other point: The NEA is a liberal organization, always supporting candidates I'm opposed to, and annually issuing a resolution condemning homeschooling. I believe that the liberal agenda of the NEA and their opposition to school choice is also a part of the problem with public schools.

More to come.

"Obama is apocalyptic"

Here's an article about the Cardinal's talk.

"Catholics weep over these words; we weep over the violence concealed behind the rhetoric... For the next few years, Gethsemane will not be marginal. We will know that garden."

h/t Standing On My Head.

An inspiring story of conversion: from abortionist to pro-life activist

A friend emailed me this link. It's an amazing story; click below to watch the video and follow the link above for more.

Pray for the parish in South Carolina

You may have heard about the brave parish priest in South Carolina, who said that Catholics who voted for Obama ought to go to confession before receiving Holy Communion. (Here's the AP story about it, but remember, it's AP: no guarantee of accuracy.)

I received the following email from a friend today. It was sent from a member of the parish (whose name I'm withholding) to a group of her friends, who then passed it on to my friend.

Please pray for my parish priest, Fr. Jay Scott Newman, and for Catholics everywhere. In Sunday's bulletin column [it's been taken down from the website], Fr. Newman wrote that Catholics who voted for Obama should not receive Communion until they have gone to confession and done penance. The letter is actually very good--he urges us to pray and support the new president in all that is moral. He is not going to refuse communion to anyone, but he says that it is his duty as our shepherd to speak the truth.

This has made national news, and he is being persecuted for it. Many of the comments on the news sites have been downright demonic. I myself have been contacted through the parish web site with messages of protest and mild threats.

[snipped to remove some identifying information]

Even some of my family members, who are not Catholic, are angry about this and have let me know so. There is even talk about possible violence at Mass this Sunday. I have to take my children to the church for youth choir practice this afternoon, and I'm a little nervous because I'm sure there will be protesters.

Pray, pray, pray....I'm afraid Catholics are not going to have it easy in America from here on out.


God bless,
*****

Fr. Dwight Longenecker has more here about the new anti-Catholicism, as well as a sample of some of the vicious hate mail he's been getting about this issue.

Price of a barrel of light, sweet crude fell again today

Gas is $1.99 a gallon here; saw it for the first time today.

That is definitely sweet.

Of course, it's not going to save me the same amount of money we've lost in our 401K's and elsewhere.

But I'll take whatever silver lining I can find these days.

Or whatever light, sweet crude lining I can find.

A "heated debate", or an angry mob?

The following is a video of a pro-gay-marriage protest in Palm Springs on November 9.

Ihave a few problems with the narrative: One of the reporters called it a "heated debate" (hardly a debate), and toward the end, one says there's a lot of anger and hate "quite honestly, on both sides". I only see anger and hate on one side. Watch it and see for yourself.

Fascinating conversation today

Stopped in at my neighborhood gas station this morning, and instead of paying at the pump, I went inside to try to use the last $8 on a Visa travel card that we'd purchased for our daughter's trip to Korea this summer.

So, as I attempted to get the card to work, I explained to the Middle-Eastern-looking gentleman at the counter all the trouble we'd had with it.

That led to a lively discussion about travel (he's been all around the world and this country, and was happy to talk about it), which led me to ask, if he didn't mind, where he was from? Pakistan, he said.

And that led to what was, hands-down, the most fascinating conversation I've ever had in a gas station. (Sure, the list of conversations in gas stations is pretty short, but this also ranked among the most interesting conversations I've ever had with strangers, and there have been lots of those.)

He told me he came here 20 years ago, sponsored by his brother who was already here. His family in Pakistan was very poor, just scraping by. He started working in convenience stores when he got here because, he explained abashedly, "that's how my family always got started here in America: convenience stores."

Being part of a stereotype seemed to cause him some discomfort, but in my view, what does it matter? As I told him, immigrants come here for opportunity; what does it matter how you get a foothold? What matters it that you do it.

(And that you come legally and start off by respecting our laws; I just had to put a plug in for that.)

Now, he told me, he owns six gas stations.

"I've worked hard," he said. "I didn't put money in the stock market; I took a different approach. I'm working on paying off my mortgage and saving money. We cut corners on expenses; we don't spend a lot of money on stuff we really don't need. I have no other debt. I am saving my money to help my four kids go to college. That's what I want for them: education. I don't want them to work in convenience stores.

"Nothing wrong with that", he continued as he reached for a pack of cigarettes for the customer who'd just walked in, "but I want them to get an education, get a good job, a better job than I have. It's not just about making money; I want them to get a job where they can really help people.

"My nephew is going to Marquette," he continued. "My two brothers and I are helping him; he's my sister's son, and we all saw that he was smart, he had potential. He wants to be an engineer. So, we help him, $10, $20, whatever we can. He's not my kid, but I want to help him, too. It's good for a kid with potential to get an education. It's good for America."

Wow: "It's good for America". To hear someone say that, to think far beyond himself and his family and think about what's good for America, well, that's a beautiful thing. I guess it shouldn't surprise me to hear that sentiment from an immigrant.

Sarah Palin

We all should be appalled at what was done to Sarah Palin.

Mainstream media carried out a character assassination on a decent, honorable American citizen who had the courage to run for national office.

She's smart, but was made to appear stupid; a savvy conservative, made to appear a backwoods hick; an experienced and extremely popular Governor, made to appear just a "housewife" with nothing to qualify her for the office of Vice President.

This woman ought to be praised to the heavens for the amazingly classy, composed way she behaved while subjected to unrelenting hate during the entire campaign, and even now.

As my husband said, dozens of reporters in Alaska, tearing through dumpsters, trying to pay people to dish the dirt... and they got nothing. Nothing! It was all nothing more than petty jealousy, liberal elite snobbery, and worse: the unmasked hatred of the Party of Death for anyone who so clearly personifies a Culture of Life.

First words out of my mouth when she was selected for Veep were "Wow! That's fantastic!" I still believe I was right about her.

A good friend told me that she just wasn't ready for the national stage. I disagree.

She was ready for us. The liberals weren't ready for her.

h/t The Other McCain

I am post-racial

I judge candidates not on the color of their skin, but on the quality of their ideas.

Thus, I condemned Obama for his radical ideas on abortion, the economy, and national security.

And I praise Alfonzo for his excellent ideas on the same.

Besides, he's hilarious!

(h/t for this particular video to Anchoress, check out his other stuff here.)

You really have to watch this video: Shariah law & Shariah finance

This is the next great attack on our country. Watch this and pass it along to absolutely everyone you know. (There's a plug at the end for donating to Act for America, but that's only a few seconds at the end.) This needs to get into the mainstream media.

h/t an email I received today from Act for America.

Sharia law in our banking system?

To me, this is terrifying.

The U.S. Treasury Department is submitting to Shariah - the seditious religio-political-legal code authoritative Islam seeks to impose worldwide under a global theocracy.

As reported in this space last week, Deputy Secretary of the Treasury Robert Kimmitt set the stage with his recent visit to Saudi Arabia and other oil-rich Persian Gulf states. His stated purpose was to promote the recycling of petrodollars in the form of foreign investment here.

Evidently, the price demanded by his hosts is that the U.S. government get with the Islamist financial program. While in Riyadh, Mr. Kimmitt announced: "The U.S. government is currently studying the salient features of Islamic banking to ascertain how far it could be useful in fighting the ongoing world economic crisis."

Read the whole thing. And remember, if this is what's happening under the Bush administration, just imagine what we'll get under the Barack Obama administration.

To a "useful idiot for the demon of this age"

Barbara R. Nicolosi tells it, with righteous wrath, some very plain language, and a graphic, but truthful, photo, so please only go there if you're 16 or older and can handle it.

She writes in response to someone who was encouraging her to vote for Obama:

I have received your heartfelt appeal for me to consider voting for Barack Obama. As a Christian, I find your message way beyond galling, and into the realm of the surreal.

[snip]

I guess it takes an intellectual of Obama's stature to render the above image obscure and subject to debate. Above your pay grade to say what that is, IS IT?! Above your pay grade??!!! A flipping five year old can tell you what that is, you gutless hypocrite. It's a little dead person.... Looking out for the little guy, huh, Obama? Gonna take care of the poor? It's not quite going to be UNIVERSAL health care is it, Senator?

[snip]

And don't you effing dare try and convince yourself that Jesus is somehow indifferent to your lukewarmness about abortion or that the war in Iraq somehow balances out the Democrat party's obsession with abortion rights. Don't you dare try and duck the ramifications of your vote in this matter. You must own the screams of the unborn echoing back to heaven in the way that the German people had to own the stench of the burning flesh of the death camps. Own it. Because you are a useful idiot for the demon of this age.

"Useful idiots", indeed.

(h/t my friend Michele)

Today

So last night I wasn't ashamed to admit I cried. Well, today, of course, I'm embarrassed that I admitted it! Oh well. Chalk it up to the 1/4 Irish in my blood, along with a glass of red wine which helped drown my sorrows.

I still believe what I said, however: America is lost. We've lost our understanding of freedom and what it means to be an American. We've lost our moral bearings completely (well, not completely, as gay "marriage" bans passed in California and Florida). We've lost our economic freedom because we're indebted to the tune of trillions of dollars.

Today, it's time to figure out what we're doing next.

Michele Malkin says "gird your loins, conservatives".

Feminine-Genius says "God's will in all things", and also encourages us to:

• Pray and work to defend the marriage bond;
• Pray and work to defend the sanctity of all human life;
• Pray and work to restore life-giving collaboration between men and women;
• Pray and work to restore cherished devotions and a Catholic culture.
• Stay close to the sacraments and allow God to use use you as He will.

The Anchoress has a huge round-up of reactions.

My thoughts:

• I'm thankful that we had a peaceful election (though I can't say I'm sure it would have been that way had the outcome been reversed, based on the attacks, bullying, and intimidation that happened during the campaign).
  

• Since we might not always have talk radio or conservative blogs, we should start planning other ways for conservatives to stay connected to each other.

• If you still have your kids in public school, take them out immediately. We simply cannot have any more children brainwashed by the leftists in charge of government schools and textbooks. Send them to private schools, or better yet, homeschool them. You can do it, trust me. You certainly won't do any worse than most of the public schools, and you'll probably do much better at teaching your children the truths of faith and freedom. More about this later.

• Figure out what you personally can do to build a culture of love and life. More about this later, too.
  

Back to work here ... a house to clean, kids to take to various things, and supper to cook... the beauty of quotidian activities.

Tonight

Not ashamed to admit I cried. I've never done that before over an election. Ever.

It's not because "my side" lost; it's because America is lost.

God have mercy on us.

Even better clip of Ronald Reagan's great speech

Thanks to Rich for this one; he got it from the Weekly Standard.



May he rest in peace.

Election Day, at last

A gorgeous day here in Wisconsin: warm, sunny, with brilliant red, orange and yellow still on the trees and bushes.

I've had a beautiful day enjoying my rights as a free American. I went to Mass with the kids to pray for the country, as is my First Amendment right.

We came home and had a great morning homeschooling, as is my God-given right and duty as a parent, using my own choice of curriculum without state interference, as I may lawfully do in my Wisconsin.

After lunch with the kids, I went to pick up our college daughter her Catholic University to go to a doctor's appointment in our state-of-the art, envy-of-the-world, non-socialized health care system.

Then we went to vote, as is our right as women under the Nineteenth Amendment. Breeze in, breeze out; there were people voting, but nobody in line. It was peaceful and orderly, as it always should be in America, and as I pray it always will be, today and forever.

Now, I'm sitting here for a few minutes blogging, once again exercising my First Amendment rights.

I'm staying very calm today: not too much coffee this morning, no Fox news AT ALL, just occasionally checking Drudge for any flashing red and blue lights (nothing yet, but a big red headline saying exit polls show Obama big... well, surprise, surprise, but I don't trust the exit polls, I'll wait for the actual poll results, thank you), and mostly just waiting till this evening when I'll break my fast from wine and spirits and indulge in a nice glass of something or other, either to celebrate, or to drown my sorrows.

And I'm still praying! I hope you are, too. If McCain wins, it truly will be a miracle. If he doesn't, well, that means that our prayers will be answered in other ways, but never for one minute do I believe that our prayers went unanswered or that they were in vain.

Keep praying, everyone. "Oh Mary, conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee!"

Prayer for today

O Virgin of Guadalupe,

Your appearance in Mexico changed the course of human history.
Human sacrifice ceased and millions were converted to Jesus Christ.
Pray for our nation now.
Guide our elections through your gracious intercession.
Change hearts and minds to uphold the dignity of all human life.
Stem the tide of moral degeneration and defend the sanctity of marriage.
Protect our nation from terrorism, war and natural disaster.
May goodness triumph over evil.
May candidates committed to God's truth be elected and re-elected
And may our nation prosper, though Jesus Christ, Our Lord. Amen.

"A rendezvous with destiny"

Pray tonight, begging for God's mercy on our country.

And take heart from the words of Ronald Reagan, perhaps our greatest president:

You and I have a rendezvous with destiny. We will preserve for our children this, the last best hope of man on Earth, or we will sentence them to take the last step into a thousand years of darkness.

So why didn't we hear about this during the campaign? "Electricity rates will skyrocket!"

h/t Maureen, though I first heard about it somewhere else yesterday... sorry, can't remember where!

Electrifying

It got me when I first heard it the night of the convention, and it gets to me now. It starts at about 2:26 on the counter.

Another good video

h/t Billbuzz. Which, by the way, is a great blog, and if you're getting depressed by the Obamamania, go read it! If I get more time, I'll post a little bit of their stuff.

Adorable, you-betcha!

Priceless, indeed

File under "Hope"

Good article, especially the part about how the Obamanists have skewed the polls. h/t Isn't It Rich

A spirited campaign has been made to infiltrate many pro-Hillary sites and discredit them. A more disorganized, but genuine effort has also been made to sow doubts among the unapologetically right wing sites such as redstate.com. Don’t you guys get it? This has been the Obama campaign’s sole strategy from the very beginning! The only way he wins is over a dispirited, disorganized, and demobilized opposition. This is how it has been for all of his campaigns. What surprises me is that everyone has fallen for it. You may point to the polls as proof of the inevitability of all of this. If so, you have fallen for the oldest trick in the book. How did we skew these polls, you might ask? It all starts with the media “buzz” which has been generated over the campaign. Many stories are generated on the powerful Obama ground game, and how many new voters were registered. None of this happens by coincidence. It is all part of the poll-skewing process. This makes pollsters change their mixes to reflect these new voters and tilt the mix more towards Democratic voters. What is not mentioned or reported on is not the “under-reported cell phone users or young voters” we hear so much about. What is underreported is you.

[emphasis mine]

The email I just got from the McCain campaign: More reason to hope!

Just got this email from the campaign. I'm telling you, there's reason to be extremely hopeful! If McCain loses, it'll be a heartbreaker by a very small margin. But I really think it's possible he'll win. Dick Morris thinks so, too.

Iowa - Our numbers in Iowa have seen a tremendous surge in the past 10 days. We took Obama's lead from the double digits to a very close race. That is why you see Barack Obama visiting the state in the final days, trying to stem his losses. It is too little, too late. Like many other Midwestern states, Iowa is moving swiftly into McCain's column.

The Southwest - It is no secret that Republican candidates in the Southwest have to focus on winning over enough Latino and Hispanic voters in Nevada, New Mexico and Colorado to carry them to victory. John McCain has overcome challenges Republicans face, and has made up tremendous ground in these states with these voters. For these voters, the choice has become clear, and you have seen a big change in the numbers. John McCain is now winning enough voters to perform within the margin of error - putting these states within reach.

Colorado - Barack Obama tried to outspend our campaign in Colorado during the early weeks of October and finish off our candidate in Colorado. However, after our visit early this week, we saw a tremendous rebound in our poll position, and Colorado is back on the map.

Ohio and Pennsylvania - Everyone knows that vote rich Ohio and Pennsylvania will be key battlegrounds for this election. Between the two: 41 electoral votes and no candidate has gotten to the White House without Ohio. Senator McCain and Governor Palin have been campaigning non-stop in these key battleground states and tonight Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has pumped up our campaign at a rally in Columbus. Our position in these states is strong and undecided voters continue to have a very favorable impression of our candidate.

Now, none of this is 100% convincing. But it's pretty good.

"Dear Mr. Obama"

If I heard right, this is the number one video on You Tube right now. Hat tip to my good friend Beth who emailed it to me.

Optimism -- and a call for prayer

Some optimism. I think it's very plausible. (h/t Neo-NeoCon)

Don't lose hope, and don't believe the polls! Just go on Tuesday and VOTE for McCain/Palin!!

And keep praying!

"If my people, upon whom my name has been pronounced, humble themselves and pray, and seek my presence and turn from their evil ways, I will hear them from heaven and pardon their sins and revive their land." 2 Chronicles 7:14

My suggestion, humbly submitted for your consideration:

• This weekend, go to confession, if you haven't recently.
• Keep praying the rosary, and the prayer to Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal ("Oh Mary, conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee.")
• Offer up your Masses this weekend for the election, and go to Mass on Monday and Tuesday if you possibly can.
• Keep making little sacrifices of various things and offer them up.
• Some churches are having all night vigils. Contact your local parish to see if they are.
  

The only thing that will save this country is prayer, repentance, sacrifice. Hearts need to be changed: we need to turn away from sin and turn back toward God. We need to beg his mercy for the terrible sin of abortion and all the other immorality, the greed, the corruption, the pride, the sacrilege and heresy.

I am haunted by what Father Corapi (and others) have said: Where there is moral collapse, there is economic collapse, then government and military collapse.

We are on a terrible path.

God have mercy on us all.

Obama's record on Life Issues

A friend emailed this to me. If you follow the link to the site, you can email the document to your pastor for distribution at church. It's OK, really! The document doesn't advocate either for or against any candidate; it simply sets out the record of Obama's votes on life issues.

Barack Obama on the Issues of Importance to Catholics - Upload a Document to Scribd

Why won't Obama start by spreading around his own wealth?

That's easy. Because Obama is a Socialist, and Socialists only want the power to take other people's wealth so they can control who is punished and who is rewarded, or should I say who becomes dependent on them.

But still, shouldn't Obama give at least a few dollars out of his own millions to his half-brother in Kenya, who lives on a dollar a month, or his half-aunt living in poverty in Boston?

Remember what he said during that softball interview with Harry Smith, before jetting off to Hawaii to visit his ailing grandmother: "If you're not caring for your family, then you're probably not the kind of person who's going to be caring for other people."

Encouragement, hope, and prayer!

I came across this Australian blog yesterday and, I'm not ashamed to say, got tears in my eyes.

There are people all around the world praying for us!

And this is so cool:

Eduardo Verastegui, producer and lead actor of the 2007 American film Bella, met with Senator John McCain on October 17 in Miami, where they discussed the human rights at stake in this presidential election. Now Verastegui is using his star power – and more – to help McCain and Governor Sarah Palin win the votes of Latinos.

[snip]

"I [Verastegui] said more than 45 million babies have been killed by abortion in America and more than 200,000 Latino babies are killed by abortion each year. I told everyone that we need to put an end to this and, when I finished, I went to John McCain and I said, ‘Senator, thank you for your commitment to life. I’d like to give you something.’ I gave him a Miraculous Medal blessed by Pope Benedict XVI and he was amazing. He said, ‘Thank you so much! Look what I have here in my pocket.’

Then Sen. McCain took a medal out of his pocket that he carries everywhere and it was a Blessed Mother Teresa medal. He said, ‘Eduardo, now I am going to keep both.’

Verastegui also gave McCain’s wife, Cindy, a Miraculous Medal. He said, “I was touched when I found out that the McCains adopted one of their daughters from Mother Teresa’s orphanage in India. There is nothing more beautiful than to give children homes with families who will love them. I hope that one day that I can do the same.”

An idea to pass along: One of the moms in our homeschool group said that her family prays the St. Michael prayer every time they see an Obama sign. Sadly, I see too many signs to be able to say that prayer, but I'm able to say a very short one ... the Miraculous Medal prayer:

"Oh Mary, conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee."

The Obama Bombshell Audio

This is going all around the blogosphere today. Listen to Obama talk about redistribution of wealth:

I've said all along - starting back in April! - that Obama is a Marxist. Will the rest of the country realize it in time? Or will the abomination of "voting early and often" make it all too late?

Bill Whittle has a fantastic essay here (and by the way, we better start praying for the guy who found the above audio, because the Obamanists are about to come down on him, hard), and Michele Malkin is on it, too.

A former Marxist ought to know

From a former "Marxist-feminist-postmodernist ideologue", now a priest, on why he's opposed to Obama:

I understand the party-line of the movement:

-- destroy the notion of objective truth with appeals to diversity, difference, and multi-cultism;
-- eliminate the possibility of rational discourse by elevating the affective above the rational;
-- convert all public political discourse into emotive appeals to race, gender, class, and sexuality;
-- define "freedom" as "freedom from constraint" and never as "freedom to do what is right;"
-- attack all secular opposition as "oppressive, self-centered, and fearful;"
-- attack all religious opposition as "superstitious, fundamentalist, and ignorant;"
-- use "white liberal guilt" to attack economic growth and prosperity;
-- feed over-educated narcissism with the prospect of ruling, finally, and ruling more than the meager resources of an English/women's studies department at a state university."

Why do I oppose Obama? Simple. His political positions are evil.

h/t Dad29.

Obama's connections: Almost unbelievable

Sometimes I feel that we're in the middle of a nightmare. How could it possibly happen that a guy with such unsavory associates (here comes the litany) -- Rezko, Ayers, Farrakhan, Wright, Phleger, Odinga, ACORN, Raines, Johnston -- is *this close* to being elected President?

Here's information about yet another frightening associate of Obama's:

h/t Gateway Pundit

Fr. Corapi calls for a Rosary Novena

Father Corapi was a successful businessman in LA and Hollywood, then was a homeless drug addict. Eventually he converted, turned his life around completely, and became a priest (ordained by Pope JPII). He's just an amazing guy, very inspiring. You can find out more from his website or watch his show on EWTN.

He's calling for a rosary novena from Monday, October 27 to Tuesday, November 4. Please forward this to as many people as you can. Thanks!

A Call for a Rosary Novena
By Fr. John Corapi

Among the most important titles we have in the Catholic Church for the Blessed Virgin Mary are Our Lady of Victory and Our Lady of the Rosary. These titles can be traced back to one of the most decisive times in the history of the world and Christendom. The Battle of Lepanto took place on October 7 (date of feast of Our Lady of Rosary), 1571.

This proved to be the most crucial battle for the Christian forces against the radical Muslim navy of Turkey. Pope Pius V led a procession around St. Peter’s Square in Vatican City praying the Rosary. He showed true pastoral leadership in recognizing the danger posed to Christendom by the radical Muslim forces, and in using the means necessary to defeat it.

Spiritual battles require spiritual weapons, and this more than anything was a battle that had its origins in the spiritual order―a true battle between good and evil.

Today we have a similar spiritual battle in progress―a battle between the forces of good and evil, light and darkness, truth and lies, life and death.

If we do not soon stop the genocide of abortion in the United States, we shall run the course of all those that prove by their actions that they are enemies of God―total collapse, economic, social, and national. The moral demise of a nation results in the ultimate demise of a nation. God is not a disinterested spectator to the affairs of man.

Life begins at conception. This is an unalterable formal teaching of the Catholic Church. If you do not accept this you are a heretic in plain English. A single abortion is homicide. The more than 48,000,000 abortions since Roe v. Wade in the United States constitute genocide by definition. The group singled out for death―unwanted, unborn children.

No other issue, not all other issues taken together, can constitute a proportionate reason for voting for candidates that intend to preserve and defend this holocaust of innocent human life that is abortion.

I strongly urge every one of you to make a Novena and pray the Rosary to Our Lady of Victory between October 27th and Election Day, November 4th. Pray that God’s will be done and the most innocent and utterly vulnerable of our brothers and sisters will be protected from this barbaric and grossly sinful blight on society that is abortion. No woman, and no man, has the right to choose to murder an innocent human being.

May God grant us the wisdom, knowledge, understanding, and counsel to form our conscience in accordance with authentic Catholic teaching, and then vote that well‐formed Catholic conscience.

Please copy, email, link and distribute this article freely.

God Bless You
Fr. John Corapi
www.fathercorapi.com

Best article I've read in a loooong time...

.... at least in terms of some hopefulness about the election. Instapundit links, saying they're taking a bold stand against conventional wisdom. Indeed.

Go read it all. A few 'graphs to whet your appetite:

The point is simple: Don't believe the Obama hype coming out of the mainstream media. If the media were truly objective and unbiased, they would be covering the race much differently. Instead of trying to browbeat the country into voting for Obama, they would be analyzing the issues and factors that favor and disfavor both candidates. Instead of focusing on college students and intellectuals, they would be focusing on working-class and middle-class voters, especially "Hillary Democrats." These voters may very well determine the election. Yet this huge story is being ignored by the MSM.

[snip}

Well, there is another story out there that the MSM refuses to address. A huge story. One that could, and I think will, significantly affect the outcome of this race. I'm referring to the widespread phenomenon of registered Democrats openly supporting John McCain. There are numerous "Democrats for McCain" type organizations. There are numerous websites and blogs written by Democrats touting McCain's candidacy. There are pro-McCain grassroots efforts being led by Democrats. And we all know friends or relatives who are Democrats, who voted for John Kerry in 2004, and who are no fans of President Bush - but who are going to vote for John McCain this year.

Finally, some tough questions for Biden!

h/t The Other McCain

The Resistance

First, there was the video I posted yesterday. If that doesn't make your blood run cold, nothing will.

Then yesterday, Obama said this: "I mean's there's going to be a certain wing of the Republican Party that is, you know, dug in and resistant to the notion that we need to change direction."

So does Obama agree with Ayers on what should be done to those who resist? (Watch the video again if you need to clarify.)

Yes, I think it's official: The Resistance has begun.

Chilling video: Bill Ayers, the Weather Underground, and the Revolution

h/t The Other McCain. This was the video I referenced in my previous post.

It looks like this is the documentary from which the above clip is taken.

UPDATE: I'm watching the first part of the documentary right now; it's fascinating because it was done before the fall of the Berlin Wall and the "end" of communism. But of course it really wasn't the end. We still have Bill Ayers and his "fellow travelers". Michele and Barack Obama should know.

Marquette Professor supports Bill Ayers

A quick check of this online petition in support of Bill Ayers found that one Marquette professor, Jack Winters, apparently has signed it.

I just sent him a polite email expressing my disappointment, as a Marquette alum, that a Marquette prof would sign such a petition. I also explained why the petition is fundamentally wrong in its assumptions (Bill Ayers is not being "demonized", and the issue is not one of "academic freedom").

I'll let you know if I hear back from him.

I first heard about this petition on Fox news this morning, but I see The Other McCain is all over it, too.

Be sure to read this post, play the video, follow the links. Absolutely chilling.

Video: Obama and Ayers

This was emailed to me by my cousin, whose husband used to be an FBI agent.

Don't trust the polls!

The Other McCain says it's hopeless, the election is over, Obama has won.

But Instapundit links to D.J. Drummond (I linked his name so you could browse all the articles he's written on the subject of the polls this year), who says:

The polls are wrong this year, very wrong.... I wrote earlier about the fact that of the major polling groups handling national and state polls, all of them are based deep in pro-Liberal, anti-Conservative territories....

There has been unprecedented manipulation of demographics, corrupting even the raw data to the point where effective resolution of public opinion is doubtful.

So, could I be wrong? I have to be honest and admit that I could. But in that case, we'd have to ask why the polls do not generally agree with each other, why Gallup is trying to spin three different models at the same time to get a grasp of the picture, why McCain and Obama are both so interested in Pennsylvania, yet neither is working very hard in Ohio right now. We'd have to explain why McCain-Palin rallies are now attracting thousands more people than Obama-Biden rallies, why Letterman suddenly found it cool to have McCain on his show and SNL decided they wanted Palin on theirs. We'd have to explain why there are not a lot of Obama signs visible, but we hear about his army of lawyers getting ready. We'd have to explain why McCain and Palin appear to be so relaxed while Obama and Biden look like they're worried. [emphasis mine]

A prayer for our country

O Most Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of Mercy, at this most critical time, we entrust the United States of America to your loving care.

Most Holy Mother, we beg you to reclaim this land for the glory of your Son. Overwhelmed with the burden of the sins of our nation, we cry to you from the depths of our hearts and seek refuge in your motherly protection.

Look down with mercy upon us and touch the hearts of our people. Open our minds to the great worth of human life and to the responsibilities that accompany human freedom.

Free us from the falsehoods that lead to the evil of abortion and threaten the sanctity of family life. Grant our country the wisdom to proclaim that God's law is the foundation on which this nation was founded, and that He alone is the True Source of our cherished rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

O Merciful Mother, give us the courage to reject the culture of death and the strength to build a new Culture of Life.

From an email sent by Stan Williams.

More hope! Plus, we always have the OTHER Joe (Biden, that is)

The National Review Online points to this Battleground Poll: Obama, 48, McCain, 47.

I don't hear the fat lady yet, do you?

But I do hear Joe Biden running his mouth, saying wonderful things to help McCain.

"Mark my words. It will not be six months before the world tests Barack Obama like they did John Kennedy. The world is looking," Biden said.

"Remember I said it standing here. if you don't remember anything else I said. Watch, we're gonna have an international crisis, a generated crisis, to test the mettle of this guy. And he's gonna have to make some really tough -- I don't know what the decision's gonna be, but I promise you it will occur. As a student of history and having served with seven presidents, I guarantee you it's gonna happen," Biden continued.

Thank you, Senator Biden, for subtly reminding everyone that if that happens, and if Obama wins, we'll have a guy in the Oval Office who is completely inexperienced and naive.

Whew! Thank you, Drudge!

This morning I got another dose of downer along with my cup of Joe. (In honor of Joe the Plumber, I henceforth shall refer to coffee as Joe, capital J.)

The downer? Drudge reported that the Nickolodean kids' vote was in favor of Obama, 51% to 49%.

Ugh. Is that a harbinger of things to come? Kids, after all, usually reflect what they hear their parents talking about at the dinner table, right?

So I spent the next half hour talking myself down off the ledge, metaphorically speaking. And then I checked Drudge again:

[NICKELODEON KIDS PICKED KERRY WITH 57%]

Ha!! So the kids aren't always right!

I'm waiting for the Weekly Reader kids' vote, due out next Wednesday, October 29. They were right last time; in fact they've been right 12 out of the last 13 elections.

Never give up hope. Keep praying. And if you can, get out and work for McCain! I just signed up yesterday to work the few hours I have available.

If you missed SNL last night...

For my friends and relatives who didn't stay up to watch, here's Sarah Palin's appearance on Saturday Night Live.

I think she did really well. And let's see if her rallies start to include a call-and-response cheer: "Obama?" "AYERS!"

Always be hopeful

This race is not over, no matter what the media wants you to think about it.

Consider this, regarding the accuracy of polls:

In 1976, Jimmy Carter narrowly beat Gerald Ford 50.1 percent to 48 percent. And yet, on Sept. 1, Carter led Ford by 15 points. Just weeks before the election, on Oct. 16, 1976, Carter led Ford in the Gallup Poll by 6 percentage points -- down from his 33-point Gallup Poll lead in August.

Reading newspaper coverage of presidential elections in 1980 and 1984, I found myself paralyzed by the fear that Reagan was going to lose.

In 1980, Ronald Reagan beat Carter by nearly 10 points, 51 percent to 41 percent. In a Gallup Poll released days before the election on Oct. 27, it was Carter who led Reagan 45 percent to 42 percent.

In 1984, Reagan walloped Walter Mondale 58.8 percent to 40 percent, -- the largest electoral landslide in U.S. history. But on Oct. 15, The New York Daily News published a poll showing Mondale with only a 4-point deficit to Reagan, 45 percent to 41 percent. A Harris Poll about the same time showed Reagan with only a 9-point lead. The Oct. 19 New York Times/CBS News Poll had Mr. Reagan ahead of Mondale by 13 points. All these polls underestimated Reagan's actual margin of victory by 6 to 15 points.

From Ann Coulter's column of October 15, 2008.

Today's laugh: Must-See video!

Who knew John McCain was so funny?

Part Two (you really have to watch to the very end; it made me laugh out loud!)

And another great ad: Joe the Plumber!

Poor Joe the Plumber. Daily Kos has posted his address online (I refuse to link to them), and the Democratic Underground has begun a huge smear campaign against him. Nice.

At least the truth about Obama is starting to come out, finally, and slowly, but hopefully not too late. (Probably not too late at all: Drudge just had a headline of "SHOCKER! Gallup has Obama at 49%, McCain at 47% with likely voters" - within the margin of error.)

This ad is one step in the right direction.

Obama: Not ready for the oval office

The sad state of affairs

I agree:

You have to pinch yourself – a Marxisant radical who all his life has been mentored by, sat at the feet of, worshipped with, befriended, endorsed the philosophy of, funded and been in turn funded, politically promoted and supported by a nexus comprising black power anti-white racists, Jew-haters, revolutionary Marxists, unrepentant former terrorists and Chicago mobsters, is on the verge of becoming President of the United States. And apparently it’s considered impolite to say so.

h/t Crossing Ninevah.

Treacher has some great advice!

H/T the Anchoress. Feeling sick about the election? Here's what Dr. Jim prescribes:

Read a book. Rake some leaves. Watch that Netflix DVD that's been sitting on top of the TV for a week. Get some actual work done. If you're really jonesing, you can even resort to talking face-to-face with another human being. (If it drifts into politics, though... split!) The important thing is to avoid all of this crap for one whole day. It'll still be here when you get back.

You can do it. You have to do it. Doctor's orders.

But before you go. Really, truly, seriously. If you think that they're right? That this is all over? Listen: They are trying to psyche you out. Don't be too proud to admit it's not your idea.

A question for Mr. Obama:

If you want to make sure "the next guy" has an equal chance, and if you believe in "spreading the wealth around", then why don't you share some of your vast wealth with your half-brother in Kenya who lives on a dollar a month?

Obama campaigned for his genocidal, Marxist cousin in Kenya

It's not enough that Obama is a Marxist who hangs out with domestic terrorists (Ayers), America-haters (Wright), and convicts (Rezko), but he also campaigned for his genocidal Marxist cousin, Raila Odinga, in Kenya.

Read this from the Washington Post. It's chilling. (h/t/ The Other McCain)

By mid-February 2008, more than 1,500 Kenyans were killed. Many were slain by machete-armed attackers. More than 500,000 were displaced by the religious strife. Villages lay in ruin. Many of the atrocities were perpetrated by Muslims against Christians.

The violence was led by supporters of Raila Odinga, the opposition leader who lost the Dec. 27, 2007, presidential election by more than 230,000 votes. Odinga supporters began the genocide hours after the final election results were announced Dec. 30. Mr. Odinga was a member of Parliament representing an area in western Kenya, heavily populated by the Luo tribe, and the birthplace of Barack Obama's father. ...

Initially, Mr. Odinga was not the favored opposition candidate to stand in the 2007 election against President Mwai Kibaki, who was seeking his second term. However, he received a tremendous boost when Sen. Barack Obama arrived in Kenya in August 2006 to campaign on his behalf. Mr. Obama denies that supporting Mr. Odinga was the intention of his trip, but his actions and local media reports tell otherwise. ...

Mr. Obama's judgment is seriously called into question when he backs an official with troubling ties to Muslim extremists and whose supporters practice ethnic cleansing and genocide. It was Islamic extremists in Kenya who bombed the U.S. Embassy in 1998, killing more than 200 and injuring thousands. None of this has dissuaded Mr. Obama from maintaining disturbing loyalties. [emphasis mine]

God save us. Please, pray for this country!

ACORN Fraud and Obama

Does it make your blood boil to know that ACORN has gotten tax money so it can subvert the American system?

How about this story, that all of ACORN's registrations in Lake County, Indiana, were fraudulent? ALL of them?

And what about Obama's campaign giving ACORN $800,000, and initially lying about it to the FEC?

Do you like this video of Obama saying that he will let ACORN and groups like it "shape his agenda"?

Obama was ACORN's lawyer, a trainer for them, and a big supporter. He's been funneling money to them, making promises. And now that this is finally starting to get some media coverage, guess what? He's throwing them under the bus, just like he did Rev. Wright and Bill Ayers.

But all this goes far beyond just an indictment of Obama's poor judgment and dishonesty. It threatens to undermine our system. It threatens to undo the confidence we have in our elections, the knowledge they are fair and honest, and that no matter what happens, there will be a peaceful and orderly transfer of power.

Will it continue? I'm not alone in worrying. The Anchoress:

The ACORN disgrace is not being “covered” right now. It’s being “spun.” The press - whose charge it is to report on events without prejudice - cannot bring itself to seriously look at the fact that ACORN has utterly corrupted voter registration in some states - in Pennsylvania, a former State Supreme Court Justice says she is “not confident we can get a fair election” in the state come November.”

I don’t know about you, but I find that pretty chilling. There is some indication that we’ve come to an end of our long and admirable history of peaceful transitions, decided by the electorate of the nation. What is happening, state-by-state in this election (and has been happening more and more each election cycle) is the gradual dissolution that right which we hold most dear: our right to self-determination. And it is happening, “from the inside,” as we see in Ohio, which - as I write this - has just received permission from the sixth circuit court of appeals to make voter fraud easier, instead of more difficult. There goes Ohio. [emphasis mine]