Plank, Meet Speck

1. This really frosts me. A number of "Catholic" members of Congress have written a letter to the Holy Father expressing their "concerns" about the removal of the excommunication of the bishops of the Society of St. Pius X. Yet our New York representatives who signed that letter have collectively voted pro-life only 25 times out of a total of 445 possible votes; the majority of all signatories have a 100% NARAL rating. What hypocrites, unable to see the gigantic plank in their own eyes, presuming to lecture the Holy Father about an act of mercy to remove a mote from the eye of another. Have these people never read the parable of the Good Samaritan? The Levite and the Priest are not the heroes of the story. Please pray for their conversion of heart, for the path they are on is the path to destruction.

2. More backlash from the Mexico City Policy decree: the president of Catholic University calls it a "betrayal", and the public doesn't like it. The fact is that people don't like our government spending our money to promote killing children.

3. More madness from across the pond. A British government official in charge of some kind of environmental stuff says that couples who have more than two children are “irresponsible”. Okay, so which one of my kids would he like me to murder so he can be "green"? Also, in a case where a child is put up for adoption due to his mother's addiction, a court denies custody to his grandparents, so that the child can be given to a homosexual couple.

4. Over in the UK they also like to study the bloody obvious, such as this report that blames much of the problems of children on "excessive individualism", namely "a belief among adults that the prime duty of the individual is to make the most of their own life, rather than contribute to the good of others". In other words, selfishness hurts other people. It hurts the selfish person too. What a shock.

5. Check out this trailer for an upcoming movie about Mary. Looks and sounds interesting.

6. Hadley Arkes pays tribute to Joe Biden, the Empty Man.

7. Posted yesterday at my official ArchNY blog about the politics of principle, in memory of Jack Swan, one of my mentors. Some people read these Varia and have suggested that I'm too "partisan". Read the blog to see what's really going on.