"A crowd of about 1,500 Muslims attacked and burned two churches in eastern Pakistan on Saturday following reports that a Christian man had desecrated Islam's holy book, the Quran, police said."

"Local Muslim leaders used mosque public address systems to urge Muslims to attack the churches"

More nonsense from the "Religion of Peace". Instead of falsely accusing Christians of things and then committing acts of violence shouldn't these people be doing something for the survivors of that horrible earthquake over there?

Candidate Class of 2005

"We will confront these cowardly terrorist groups that have no religion or conscience."

-King Abdullah of Jordan speaking of those who blew up the hotels in his country.


"The world saw with horror the attacks on innocent people in Jordan by killers who defile a great religion"

-President George W. Bush on those same bombers


"But saying they're Muslim is a subject of angry dispute"

-Article in the Washington Times on the rioters in France

The Religion of Peace.com

Thou shalt not steal!

"The woman at the center of the Roslyn School District scandal pleaded guilty Thursday as part of a deal that will keep her from serving some serious prison time."

Pamela Gluckin was from Bellmore, the town that was home to the Mepham High School rapists Ken Carney, Tom Diasparra and Phil Sofia.

Study finds U.S. Catholic teens less religious than Protestant teens

"I did not have sex with that woman. Ms. Lewinsky"

Hofstra University started their presidential conference on William Jefferson Clinton today. They will study his presidency for 3 days. In the end, all of Clinton's accomplishments as president, and there were some, will be forgotten and he will be remembered as a man of no integrity, a liar. Years from now, after he is dead, he will still be known as a liar. That is what he is. I do believe Clinton/Gore did some good things in their 8 years, especially in attempting to make the government more efficient and in keeping things fiscally straight. They also turned their party to the middle just as Reagan turned his to the right. Obviously the shape this country is in now is not where we were during the 1990's and we could use a little of the direction we had in those days. But I am sure there are men and women who can lead this country in this direction with integrity and honesty. I wish people who run for office, or lead companies would at least attempt to be honest.

Amy Welborn and Jeff Miller review Bad Catholics Guide to Good Living, the book that is the subject of our next Faith on Tap session.

WAL-MART BANS CHRISTMAS:
BOYCOTT LAUNCHED

I don't usually pay attention to boycotts, but The Catholic League gives reason # 2,456,891 to hate Walmart. This Big-Box Mart store is famous for low wages, treating employees like crap, and for forcing Mom and Pop stores to close down.

"Oh Big Box Mart, look what you’ve done to me,
He’s gotta start all over now, at the age of 53…

Oh Big Box Mart, my paycheck reminds me,
Your everyday low prices have a price, they aren’t free."

lyrics to the Jib-Jab cartoon featuring a Massapequa native via WalMart Watch

Update: 10/10/05 My mother sent an email to Wal-Mart - the Fogelman lackey as per The Catholic League. She received an email reply saying they believe the original response sent to the woman who complained was entirely inappropriate.

"The King's good servant, But God's first"

Dennis Dillon, a great Catholic, pro-life man, and awesome DA lost his re-election last night.

I went food shopping tonight at the local supermarket. My mother asked me to get a few items for the parish food pantry for Thanksgiving. This is a great thing the Church does now. When I was young, canned food drives for the poor were big, as canned food can be stored without spoiling and is relatively cheap. This led to lots of cans of lima beans and peas being collected. The ironic thing is that most people who are in need around here would have food stamps that would help to pay for these things, and the canned food is cheaper than most things. The really expensive stuff that can't be purchased with food stamps such as paper towels, toilet paper, etc.. would usually not be collected. The system our parish and many other local parishes use today is better - the items that are needed are printed in the bulletin most weeks. The items change from time to time as the needs vary. People can bring the items to Church and put them at each entrance into big wooden boxes, made by parishioners. The Church has a constant supply of household items that are truly needed by people. The bags of items at each entrance also remind people as they are going in and out of Church that people are in need, and everyone is uplifted a bit when they see how much stuff has been donated. Our parish helps out some local families that are in need and every once in awhile some volunteers with a truck come by and pick up the rest for one of the local shelters, or pantries in other parishes that are less wealthy. The system seems to work well, at times the bulletin will even ask that certain items not be donated as they have enough to last awhile.

Fighting nerd

"Cummo, 25, graduated from Chaminade High School in Mineola and has a biology degree from Nassau Community College. Might that be why was he the last guy picked when they chose up sides? "He's got glasses and a unibrow and he wears socks with his sandals," says East Meadow's Matt Serra, Cummo's Brazilian jiu-jitsu instructor and a UFC veteran. "But he's very deceiving. When it comes down to it, he's a very good fighter."

I am into macho rough and tumble stuff as much as the next guy (as long as I am not involved) but Ultimate Fighting just seems wrong.

At the talk at Hofstra last night, one science professor mentioned Heisenberg's Principle of Uncertainty and said something like Heisenberg misinterpreted the implications of this. I wasn't sure what he meant but I remember a physics professor telling our class that he actually came to believe in God after learning the Heisenberg Principle. I don't remember exactly why - but this page has all kinds of info on Heisenberg.


Einstein photo via martha, martha...

I saw a talk last night at Hofstra University that featured Archbishop Joseph M. Zycinski, Ph.D. of Lublin, Poland. He spoke on "The Evolutionary Genesis of the Human Person in the Evolving Universe." He was only able to answer a few questions and then had to rush off to Newark airport, because apparently he had been summoned to Rome. He seemed to not want to talk about Intelligent Design at all, but one of the young people there asked about it after he had left. Bishop Murphy was there and tried to answer a couple of questions but he really couldn't speak much on science and religion as that is not his field. Anyway, one gentleman said that the randomness of the universe seemed to preclude miracles and the existence of a God. He cited the tilt of the earth's axis as being just right for life, the distance from the sun, etc... but I have seen these very same things mentioned as things that point to a God.

I understand Zycinski also spoke at the seminary on Sunday. I think Bishop Murphy is really using his influence to get some good speakers to our seminary, as I have noticed both Fr. Groeschel and Cardinal Dulles gave talks there over the past couple of years. This is quite the change from the days when Fr. Richard McBrien was invited there. Bishop Murphy continues to impress...

Ex-Mouseketeer gets busted

In a way, that is like a secular "Ex Altar Boy" type of headline.

Dr. Thomas Woods Jr. gave a good talk Wednesday at the Nassau Community College Center for Catholic Studies. He spoke on his book "How The Catholic Church Built Western Civilization". It started with a necessary reminder of the great contribution of the Church to science. The factoid that stood out was that 37 craters of the moon are named after Jesuit priests. Woods connected the Christian belief in an ordered universe following natural law with the advancement of the scientific method. He spoke briefly on economics, universities, and Catholic charity. I didn't get a chance to ask why he didn't seem to include Catholic contribution to Western Literature in his book. There were a lot of high school students in the audience and I wonder what they thought of the talk. I don't remember being interested in Catholicism as much when I was their age, and don't think there would have been as many opportunities to hear good, solid talks such as Dr. Woods'.

Dr. Thomas Woods Jr. will be speaking on his book "How The Catholic Church Built Western Civilization" on November 2nd from 7 PM to 9:30 PM at Nassau Community College.

For the locals:

Blogging today from Pennsylvania after the funeral Mass of my Uncle/godfather. He was a quiet, very decent and humble man, like my father. Rest in Peace.

Ann Rice, author, has apparently come home to the Catholic Church, thanks be to God. She may have dropped in on St. Blog's as well.

Someone from the Diocese of Rockville Centre looked at Gen X Revert. That could be bad, although their visit time was 0 seconds so maybe I have nothing to worry about. In all seriousness, there have been a few times when I have been surprised to be told by someone that they read my blog. Gen X Revert is anonymous so how do they find out I am me? Anyway, it always shakes me up a bit because I always think about what I write and whether it was uncharitable, stupid, wrong, or mean. I always have to remind myself to watch what I write, mainly because my sense of humor is sharp. Please keep in mind that my blog is just a hobby, a personal thing and if I ever write anything that strikes you as unChristian (not just sharp criticism, etc..) please let me know.