Do Not Click The Links

I am in deadly earnest. These links will open up new windows (or possibly tabs, depending on your browser), of aborted children, kept by Priests for Life. These are real life images, and one college-age kid said that they were more violent than anything he'd ever seen in any movie or video game, EVER. Having finally looked at them I have to agree. I sincerely believe that only a sociopath could view these images and not have his heart broken and his head twisted up. It is beyond my imagination that one could perform abortions for a living and NOT have one's conscience seared to slag.

DO NOT let children see them.

Aborted at nine weeks
Aborted at ten weeks
Aborted at eleven weeks

I have to stop now. It's just too painful for me to look at any more. If you're sure you want to carry on, this page has text links to both the images I've linked to here and the pathologist's reports that authenticate them.

Blessed Virgin and Holy Innocents, pray for us!

Entertainment

Because he had an article at Catholic Exchange, I decided to visit Fr. Longenecker's blog, finding this post at the top. He provides sterling commentary both on drawing the good from popular entertainment and separating the dross and dreck from the diamonds in the rough. That is what I have tried to do, both in my life, and in my commentary on popular entertainment here. I admit that I do nowhere near so well as The B-Movie Catechist. A man who can draw important lessons from watching the Garbage Pail Kids movie deserves recognition and appreciation for demonstrating that God can make good come forth from anything, no matter how vile or miserable.

More Culture of Death

I know, I know, I never post twice in one day. But part of the reason I do this is to drain annoyingly recurrent thoughts from my head.

Let me propose a hypothetical situation here. Suppose the Fire Chief of Detroit decided upon a novel community outreach program. All women in the Department would engage in marching drills on stage in all the strip joints on Eight Mile Road (there are at least a dozen) in full dress uniform. Any who refused would be disciplined and written up.

Suppose these women firefighters were subjected, for hours, to sexual innuendo from the male spectators, along the lines of "hold my hose," "you can put out my fire," "you're making me hot," "give me mouth-to-mouth," and "blow my hose," along with sexual gestures and some spectators exposing themselves. And when they ignored the sexual invitations and innuendo of the spectators, the crowd turned hostile and angry.

Wouldn't that constitute a hostile work environment under current sexual harassment law? Would not people all across America, from every spot on the political spectrum, leap to their defense and decry the Fire Chief's actions? Of course they would.

Now, by changing two details, this goes from hypothetical to recent history. The first: instead of marching drills on the stages of strip clubs, the firefighters in question rode their trucks at a walking pace in a gay pride parade. The second: the firefighters were men, not women.

Sexual harassment is vile, regardless of the victims or the perpetrators.

China: Stronghold of the Culture of Death

This article, posted on Catholic exchange, got me thinking about China today. The conclusion I reached was this:

Mao Zedong was the most evil man of the 20th century, and perhaps of all time thus far. He doesn't get the press that Hitler and Stalin did, in part because he looks so inoffensive -- like a poet, say. And part is because the People's Republic of China is nowhere near so careful to keep records as the NSDAP, or even the Soviet Union. And part is because the PRC remains essentially closed, with the Communist Party controlling almost everything that is known about what happens, and has happened, there. But regardless, Mao Zedong is responsible for more death and inhumanity than anyone else you can name.

Mao Zedong is responsible for the deaths from the Revolution, from the Great Leap Forward, and the Cultural Revolution. It's estimated that the Communist Party of China is responsible for one hundred million deaths.

One hundred million. That's 100,000,000. That's between seven and eight times as many as the NSDAP (granted, Hitler only had about 12 years, compared to 50 for the PRC). And I'm not counting all the forced abortions and other deaths resulting from the One Child Policy and its enforcement. The One Child Policy is easily the most evil and inhuman of all of the excuses for mass murder and democide that China has ever instituted. And because of it, China is the first civilization to accept infanticide and child abandonment since Pagan Rome.

And now the chickens are starting to come home to roost. Each child, as it enters into the workforce, will have two parents and four grandparents to care for. China has declared war on children in order to prevent them from being a drain on productivity. The time will come, and shortly, when the People's Republic decides that the old are also a drain on productivity and wealth. And when it does happen, you can be sure that a policy of geriatricide will follow.

Given the utilitarian bent of the government, I'm betting the old will be shipped off to concentration camps, forced at gunpoint to do very hard labor on short rations or less, so as to wring from them whatever production is possible. And veneration of the old used to be a pillar of the Chinese culture. Communism is destroying everything that was worthwhile in Chinese culture.

Pray for the Chinese!

36% of the Top 100

The Top 100 Reasons Burt Gummer is Better than MacGyver

Americans have a fascination with how-to, and even more so with improvisational technology. The popularity of shows like "This Old House," "Junkyard Wars," "Battle Bots," and yes, "Tremors: The Series" all reflect this fascination. But, of course, the first show to use improvisational technology as a gimmick was "MacGyver."

But let's face it. MacGyver was nowhere near as cool a character as Burt Gummer, the tough guy of "Tremors." Nothing about the show was as cool as "Tremors." And so, in tribute to Burt Gummer and all the people who've composed and posted their lists of the top 100 reasons why the original and Next Generation Star Trek captains, first officers, science officers, chief engineers, and doctors are better than each other, I'm posting this.

I know, I don't have 100 reasons. But hey, I came up with 30 all by myself in a day or two, and a couple more while typing this up, so I'm sure there must be at least that many. Maybe my four readers, if they've seen both "Tremors: The Series" and "MacGyver" could add some more.

36. Two words: Excessive force.
35. There is absolutely nothing contrived about Burt Gummer.
34. When Burt Gummer meets an obvious nutcase, he says so.
33. Burt Gummer is a serious opponent, while MacGyver is only an annoyance.
32. When something's out to kill Burt Gummer, he kills it first.
31. Other people actually want to be like Burt Gummer.
30. Burt Gummer has backups and reserves of everything.
29. You can readily believe that Burt Gummer could survive naked in the wilderness with nothing more than a Leatherman.
28. Burt Gummer remains devoted to his first wife.
27. Burt Gummer cynically uses the forces he hates against each other for his own benefit.
26. "Tremors: The Series" is nothing like "Knight Rider."
25. Burt Gummer doesn't have hateful animated middle-aged chain smoking DMV clerks lusting after his body.
24. Burt Gummer is not politically correct.
23. Burt Gummer worries more about his own welfare than that of his foes.
22. Burt Gummer likes weapons and is proud of it.
21. The people who turn to Burt Gummer for their safety are nearly as clever, inventive, and tough as he is.
20. Burt Gummer doesn't have to narrate himself to get his exposition done.
19. Burt Gummer's 4 wheel drive would eat MacGyver's Jeep Wrangler for breakfast.
18. Everyone in Burt Gummer's community is a working entrepreneur.
17. Burt Gummer would never wear his hair in a mullet.
16. Burt Gummer can inspire even lifelong federal bureaucrats to take decisive and necessary action in a crisis.
15. Burt Gummer isn't a pansy.
14. Burt Gummer tries simple solutions first.
13. Burt Gummer doesn't need a stream of babes to prove his manhood.
12. When Burt Gummer gets stuck with a youthful twerp, he turns the situation to his advantage.
11. Burt Gummer is famous, but he doesn't let it go to his head.
10. Burt Gummer treats lethal menaces as such.
9. Burt Gummer and his neighbors cooperate well, in spite of their diversity and individualism.
8. Burt Gummer doesn't take unneccessary risks.
7. Burt Gummer knows Hollywood tough guys for the idiots that nearly all of them are.
6. Burt Gummer works for a living.
5. Burt Gummer makes contingency plans.
4. Burt Gummer lives in an environment that would kill MacGyver.
3. Burt Gummer sniffed out a secret underground lab from hundreds of miles away by following graboid tracks.
2. Nobody could ever just slug Burt Gummer.
1. One word: GUNS.

If you want to debate any of these, go ahead. But if you want to post the top 100 reasons why MacGyver is cooler, post on your own blog. I'll even give you a freebie: If anyone said "maggot DNA" on MacGyver, it would be pointed out that maggots are the larval form of flies.

Quick thought

God grants prayers, certainly. But not those born of pride.