Keep 'practicing', Madame Speaker

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is a self-described, "ardent, practicing Catholic". Transcript excerpt via Drudge:

STEPHANOPOULOS: Hundreds of millions of dollars to expand family planning services. How is that stimulus?

PELOSI: Well, the family planning services reduce cost. They reduce cost. The states are in terrible fiscal budget crises now and part of what we do for children's health, education and some of those elements are to help the states meet their financial needs. One of those - one of the initiatives you mentioned, the contraception, will reduce costs to the states and to the federal government.

STEPHANOPOULOS: So no apologies for that?

PELOSI: No apologies. No. we have to deal with the consequences of the downturn in our economy.

Here's the YouTube excerpt Drudge also linked.

March for Life pictures

I've uploaded pictures from Washington, DC last week to facebook in 4 albums:

Part 1 - http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=7828&l=e7790&id=1625663626
Part 2 - http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=7830&l=4650a&id=1625663626
Part 3 - http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=8090&l=ec947&id=1625663626
Part 4 - http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=8092&l=88970&id=1625663626

It was an awesome experience, and I'm especially grateful to have shared it with Calvin and other St. Jude and west-side friends.

Good night...

It's poignant and profound to reflect that this might be the last time this kid crashes on his old man.

March for Life

We marched with our group of west-eiders from the National Mall to the Supreme Court. The picture shows 3 blocks of Constitution Ave., packed with marchers. Earlier in the march, when we were at the other end of Constitution, that same area was just as full with the marchers in front of us.

Youth Rally Sold Out

The picture is of the outside of the Verizon Center, which is unfortunately as close as we're going to get to the Youth Rally, which was filled to capacity before 9 am. Plan B is Mass at the National Shrine.

Bus Ride and Vigil for Life

Calvin and I made the bus trip with 50 other pilgrims from St. Jude, Lourdes, St. Antoninus, St. Leo, Our Lady of Victory, and St. Bernard to Washington, DC for the March for Life tomorrow.
The bus ride was long (11 hours)...Somehow, we ended up in the rear of the bus with the younger set. Very well-behaved kids, but still noisy. Oh well - it certainly could have been worse.
After checking in to the Quality Inn College Park, we attended the Vigil Mass for Life at the incredible Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception. Though it's the largest Roman Catholic Church in the US, there was still an overflow crowd. Mass was beautiful, but the audio and video for the overflow crowd in the 'Crypt Church' was lousy. Still an incredible experience, though.
Tomorrow, we wake up early for 6:30 breakfast, catch the youth rally and 10 am Mass at the Verizon Center, and then attend the March for Life at the National Mall and Supreme Court.

What's Chinese for Catch-22?

Another tip to the Corner for this link from Mark Steyn:

This is a helluva story on some of the grislier consequences on the ChiComs' (demographically disastrous) one-child laws:

A court in central China has sentenced a woman to death for hiring someone to strangle her 9-year-old son so she could have another child with her new husband without violating population laws, a court official and reports said Friday.

And this next sentence is headspinning:

Li initially received a death sentence suspended for two years because she had suffered from depression after having two abortions due to the rules against her bearing another child, the reports said. Such sentences are often commuted to life in prison.

Check out the whole post. Steyn updated it with a reader comment that sums up the whole sad, Orwellian truth.

Celebrate (Sanctity of Human) Life (Day)

Wouldn't this be a nice way to mark the Sunday before the Roe v. Wade anniversary every year (h/t K-Lo and the Corner):

National Sanctity of Human Life Day, 2009
A Proclamation by the President of the United States of America

All human life is a gift from our Creator that is sacred, unique, and worthy of protection. On National Sanctity of Human Life Day, our country recognizes that each person, including every person waiting to be born, has a special place and purpose in this world. We also underscore our dedication to heeding this message of conscience by speaking up for the weak and voiceless among us.

The most basic duty of government is to protect the life of the innocent. My Administration has been committed to building a culture of life by vigorously promoting adoption and parental notification laws, opposing Federal funding for abortions overseas, encouraging teen abstinence, and funding crisis pregnancy programs. In 2002, I was honored to sign into law the Born-Alive Infants Protection Act, which extends legal protection to children who survive an abortion attempt. I signed legislation in 2003 to ban the cruel practice of partial-birth abortion, and that law represents our commitment to building a culture of life in America. Also, I was proud to sign the Unborn Victims of Violence Act of 2004, which allows authorities to charge a person who causes death or injury to a child in the womb with a separate offense in addition to any charges relating to the mother.

America is a caring Nation, and our values should guide us as we harness the gifts of science. In our zeal for new treatments and cures, we must never abandon our fundamental morals. We can achieve the great breakthroughs we all seek with reverence for the gift of life.

The sanctity of life is written in the hearts of all men and women. On this day and throughout the year, we aspire to build a society in which every child is welcome in life and protected in law. We also encourage more of our fellow Americans to join our just and noble cause. History tells us that with a cause rooted in our deepest principles and appealing to the best instincts of our citizens, we will prevail.

NOW, THEREFORE, I, GEORGE W. BUSH, President of the United States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim January 18, 2009, as National Sanctity of Human Life Day. I call upon all Americans to recognize this day with appropriate ceremonies and to underscore our commitment to respecting and protecting the life and dignity of every human being.

IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this fifteenth day of January, in the year of our Lord two thousand nine, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and thirty-third.

GEORGE W. BUSH

President Bush has done this each January since at least 2002. I don't know if any Presidents issued similar proclamations before then. I wonder what it would take to make this a permanent observance?

Help Wanted @ Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good?

From the Columbus Dispatch (tip, Jonah Goldberg at The Corner):

Ex-state official charged in online-prostitution case

Wednesday, January 14, 2009 10:52 PM

By Theodore Decker

THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH

Columbus vice detectives monitoring online discussions among clients of prostitutes for years have noticed a man posting under the names "Sullivant Guy," "Broad Street Guy," "Toby" and "God O Thunder."

The man, like many others on the sites, would trade information about street hookers and online escorts. He would recommend some prostitutes, issue warnings about others and give advice on ways to avoid law enforcement.

Detectives said today that they arrested the "go-to guy" behind those posts.

Robert Eric McFadden, who was the director of Gov. Ted Strickland's Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives until his transfer to another state job in fall 2007, was arrested in Dublin.

McFadden, 46, of 6290 Hyland Dr. in Dublin, was taken into custody on seven prostitution-related counts, including charges that he promoted a 17-year-old prostitute online.

The charges include compelling prostitution involving a minor, promoting prostitution and pandering. He is being held in the Franklin County jail pending an appearance in Municipal Court this morning.

Police said they have seized a computer and two vehicles. One was his wife's car, which detectives said was the setting for photos of the 17-year-old girl that McFadden then posted online.

Police have identified the girl, who is cooperating with the investigation.

Detectives said McFadden was one of the men involved in a hooker-review Web site that spawned what police called a raffle for sex last fall and the creation of a Brewery District brothel.

Police had arrested an academic adviser at Ohio State University, a sex-abuse caseworker at Franklin County Children Services and a real-estate agent in connection with the brothel.

Through that investigation they learned that McFadden had been promoting the girl, who already had been advertising her sex services online, Sgt. Stan Latta said.

It is unclear how McFadden was compensated, if at all, for furthering the girl's business, police said.

Vice detective Jeff Ackley, stressing that he was speaking only generally, said johns have been known to promote prostitutes in return for sexual favors.

Before joining the Strickland administration, McFadden served as field director for Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good.

He was hired in February 2007 to lead the Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives. He was paid $36 an hour but was transferred to the Department of Rehabilitation and Correction in late October that year, Strickland spokesman Keith Dailey said.

The Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives is charged with making it easier for such organizations to compete for public funding, encouraging partnerships among the groups and measuring the impact those partnerships have on needy Ohioans.

"It had become clear that he wasn't a good fit for the office," Dailey said. "It wasn't working out. The position was a leadership position. He wasn't the right person to lead such an important office."

McFadden, who told police today that he is unemployed, was laid off by the Department of Rehabilitation and Correction in March because of budget cuts.

Dispatch reporters Mark Niquette and Alan Johnson contributed to this story.

In addition to Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good (are pro-lifers and conservatives against the common good?), McFadden was past president of Catholics for Faithful Citizenship; worked for Catholics for Kerry in 2004; and was the State Faith & Values Outreach Director for Hillary Clinton in 2008.

It is widely held that many pro-life and conservative voters stayed home because of apathy, or voted Obama because of economy. The next time it's difficult for you to be inspired by the candidate your well-formed conscience should vote for, remember what positions this guy might have aspired to in a President Hilary Clinton administration.

Rest in Peace - Fr. Richard Neuhaus

The blog's been dormant as life has been a little too much to blog about lately. I've recently been missing it more and more, and considering what it would take to maintain the blog and other web resources for work and family. I'd even considered making it a New Year's Resolution, though I'm glad I didn't doom this good intention to the same fate as dozens of attempts to lose weight, quit drinking, etc.
What I've missed more than blogging is staying in touch with the writers that made me want to blog in the first place. It started with Fr. Kyle Schnippel's weblog 'Called by Name', where I 'met' Fr. Martin Fox, Rich Leonardi, Amy Welborn, and all the bloggers that are now my bookmarks, although I hardly seem to have the time to visit much these days.
Fr. Neuhaus' writing at 'First Things' and interviews on EWTN and Catholic Radio shaped my spirituality and my world-view. He lived and loved everything Catholic, and regardless of the subject, seemed to clearly articulate why Catholics believe and do what we believe and do. Here are links to what my others have written about the most articulate voice on the Catholic internet:
First Things post, K-Lo at The Corner (tip to Amy Welborn)
Washington Times obituary (tip to Rich Leonardi)
and a collection of other sources, some of which I'm not as familiar with, courtesy of CatholicCulture.org.
I can hardly hope to match Fr. Neuhaus' intellect or holiness, but I hope my writing might join countless others in appreciation and tribute, as his legacy continues to teach and preach. Let us pray now for his soul, and to one day join him, ready for death after a life, like his, well-lived.