Outside The Asylum

There are only 5 types of evidence in this world. From the least reliable to the most reliable, they are: -Eyewitness evidence -Replicated eyewitness evidence -Personally Replicated eyewitness evidence -Mechanically Replicated eyewitness evidence -Personal Experience If you eliminate all eyewitness evidence from your equation, you are left with only 1/5th what the world has to offer. If you allow some types of eyewitness evidence but not others- you only have to go up two levels to reach the realm of theology rather than science.

This article in OSV is why I like reading Mark Shea's stuff. He, like Blessed Pope John Paul The Great was is an equal opportunity offender to those who would put Mammon or Caesar above Christ. Read this article for such grand nuggets as: . Let us grant that the poor man who understands little about finance (which is why he is poor) bears responsibility for taking out the too-good-to-be-true loan because the bank gave him a free toaster, urged him to do it, and promised his dream of home ownership was within reach. What both movements do is illustrate G.K. Chesterton’s observation that the revolutionary generally has a pretty good idea of what is wrong but not what is right. And with those two quotes, Mark Shea proves himself to be a worthy American successor to Chesterton.

A very interesting story on the technology that the US Government is gearing up to use against it's own citizens. Oh, and on the plus side, in the new revision of paragraphs 1031 & 1032 of the NDAA2012, the military will at least need to convince a judge and serve you a warrant before they kidnap you in the middle of the night to make you disappear. Of course, once they have that warrant labeling you as a terrorist, you will have no rights at all.

120 years ago, Pope Leo XIII was battling both communists and capitalists for the souls of workers. Pope Benedict XVI spent his weekend still fighting that same battle , especially hitting on the subjects of solidarity and charity, which in our 21st century world are often derided as socialism and discarded. But more than that- he called upon Catholic Institutions to be an evangelical voice for Christ's gospel of unity and sharing in a world that all too often pits class against class, worker against owner, individual against society.

From Before It's News, so I ask you to check Sources on this article . But You Might Be a Terrorist if: You Are A Tea Partier You Are A Occupier You have more than 7 days of food stored in your garage You are missing a finger or a toe You own a flashlight You pay cash at hotels You text in public You have a Ron Paul bumper sticker You believe conspiracy theories You own silver or gold, in any form You own guns and ammo You served in a foreign war

To be pro-choice- is to be pro-violence. Violence against the unborn, is obvious, but also violence against women. The natural order of women is the exalted vocation of motherhood- the greatest thing any human being can be is a mother. Pro-choice feminism attacks motherhood directly- calling the housewife unfulfilled, somehow subservient to the man who has to work 2000 hours a year outside the home to pay for food, clothing and shelter. The philosophy of Margaret Sanger, more children for the fit, fewer children for the unfit, is the core of Eugenics- but is based on the false idea that mankind has any way to know who is fit and who is unfit. It is a peace based on the ultimate in violence- the violence against the weak, the violence of the bully.

Fact mirrors fiction in the Senate Vote on HR1540/S1867 - much like in the vote in Star Wars Episode III to change Chancellor Palpatine to Emperor Palapatine and grant him emergency war powers, this seemingly innocent budget allotment for the military allows the military to name anybody as a terrorist, conduct operations within the United States, hold people in military installations and judge them by military tribunals without the right of jury, in direct violation of the Bill of Rights. I never thought I'd say this, but I'm glad Obama is President and is likely to veto this. Just to channel Jeff Foxworthy to finish this off, You Might Be A Terrorist If: - You own an unregistered firearm - You participated in an Occupy Protest - You participated in a Tea Party Protest - You have ever criticized an American Corporation, the US Chamber of Commerce, or the World Trade Organization - You are pro-life and believe that human life is sacred between conception and natural deat...

This article at CatholicVote mirrored many of my initial wondering about the progress, or lack thereof, of Newt Gingrich's conversion to Catholicism. Most telling in this blog posting is a quote from an Esquire article with his 2nd wife, where she casts grave doubt on his conversion from the man she knew and married, to an affair with a Catholic intern, to his 3rd marriage and conversion. Note this might be the pot calling the kettle black, a bit- after all, his 2nd wife was once the intern having the affair that broke up Newt's first marriage.

GK Chesterton, on May 16, 1935, explained to the world why arguing for capitalism just creates more communists- and the solution. Which of these three methods do you prefer, and why? How Not to Do It G.K.'s Weekly May 16, 1935 G.K.C. There are two recognised ways of arguing with a Communist; and they are both wrong. There is also a third way which is right but which is not recognised. Now I have a notion that, for one reason or another, a considerable part of our time will be taken up soon by arguing with Communists. And I should like to sketch very roughly this notion of mine about the right way to do it. Curiously enough, the two commonest ways of contradicting Communism also contradict each other. The first consists of convicting the Bolshevist of all vices. The second, curiously enough, consists of convicting him of all the virtues. It actually consists of pitting all our vices against his virtues; or his supposed virtues. This is very much the more dangerous ...

And when they do, it's a good one. Here's some economic and Occupy myths that are common right now, and while their answers have a definite left wing bent, I think the truth is somewhere between the two. But a challenge. If you are a fiscal conservative, I challenge you to read the ENTIRE bibliography of this article: MYTH #1: The congressional Super Committee failed because both sides refuse to compromise. REALITY: The Super Committee failed because Republicans' number one, non-negotiable priority is to protect millionaires and billionaires from paying even one more penny in taxes.1 Democrats repeatedly offered to make deep spending cuts—far deeper than most progressives would like—in exchange for raising taxes on the wealthy and closing corporate loopholes, only to be refused again and again.2 So even though the vast majority of Americans say they want to protect Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid benefits, and raise taxes on the rich and corporations,3 that wo...

Sorry ladies, I'm leaving you entirely out of this post. Spurred by Newt Gingrich's campaign: I understand the concept of forgiveness. Of second chances. And third chances. And thirteenth chances. *But*- each chance makes trust harder. Each attempt, needs more effort. And when it comes to important stuff like my mortgage or who I vote for- I have to ask why I should trust a man who is paying alimony because he can't stay within his marriage vows. Such a man is simply not worthy of my trust. At all. And he needs to do something truly extraordinary to reverse it. Sorry Newt- you've done nothing making you worthy of being President. Obama hasn't either- but at least he could stay married to one woman.

This is a test of various ways to connect Facebook to Blogspot. This is only a test. Anything else you may have heard is entirely false. But apparently, the connection between RSS feeds and notes in Facebook is going away. I'm using the RSS Grafiti app instead. It's what I use to import blogs for Our Peaceful Place, and I just found out I can set it up to import to my wall as well. With any luck, in the next 24-48 hours I'll see this post on my facebook page twice- once as a note, once as a summary.

Among small-government conservatives, a dream exists. A dream in which instead of paying taxes to Washington DC, we give to our local churches, who in turn take care of the poor, the sick, the troubled. It's an interesting dream. But is it feasible? Mark Grey of CARA , that is the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate crunches the numbers- and finds that we'd have to *significantly* increase collections to even come close. The average registered Catholic Family only gives $10/week through the Church. Maybe $10 billion nationwide. The US Government spends nearly a trillion on social welfare- the Church would be $990 billion short. Only if Charity is a Duty instead of a Choice could this stand any chance of working.

I wasn't going to write this until next year- but finding several excellent articles on Hallowmas, which eventually became Halloween, All Saint's Day, and All Soul's day; I just had to write a blog posting on it. Since today is November 1st, it is appropriate to lead off with this excellent article from UCatholic on the history of the Solemnity of All Saints - how, during the persecution of the Emperor Diocletian. the number of martyrs exceeded the number of days in the calendar- and so diocese began to celebrate common days to remember their local martyrs. In the Fourth Century, as Christians began to clash with Northern European Druids, a bright evangelist recognized the similarity between the Druid Feast of Summer's End- Samhain- and the Communion of Saints, and so Hallowmas was born . It was another 600 years before the feast of All Saints finally removed the Druid death feasts, a remnant being trick-or-treating, which started with the Hallowmas tradition of grou...

Usury leads to poverty of the spirit, both for borrower and lender. For the borrower, it also leads to poverty of the pocketbook. In both cases though, it puts the lie "she who dies with the most toys, wins" into the mainstream. Abortion, now that rape, incest, and medical conditions have been thoroughly discredited, is largely about poverty of the spirit: Being unwilling to share your toys with a child you are the biological parent of. This goes both for the socialite rich teenager whose father doesn't want the scandal of a pregnant teenager in the family, and the poor single mom who has to choose between birth for another child or feeding the ones she has. Likewise, quite often the original sexual union that produces an "unwanted" child is using another person as a toy- for recreational sexual gratification- and this too is poverty of the spirit. Thus Usury, and all of it's attendant ripples in society, is one of the major causes of abortion.

Yes, this is from a liberal-leaning newspaper with a decidedly anti-Catholic bias especially on the child sex scandals, where they're perfectly willing to say, hold the Pope responsible for some priest hired by the Jesuits working in a native Eskimo village in Northern Alaska; but not willing to do the same with the President of the United States and a schoolteacher in Montana. But having said that- this article on things everybody thinks they know, is extremely interesting.

Flat Earth Friedman is back this time claiming that it's a good thing that the US Senate is putting a scare into China- "But, Lord in heaven, do not let the House pass this bill. That would trigger a trade war in the middle of our Great Recession." What good ole Thomas- who fails to be as skeptical as his namesake- has failed to notice is that we've BEEN in a full fledged trade war for 40 years- a war of the elite globalists like himself against the average American worker. And for 40 years, we've been losing- and that debt, that massive, massive trade debt built out of 40 years of trade deficits, is the primary cause of the Great Recession. China has it right. We decry their protectionism- but that's exactly what we *should* be doing ourselves. We don't need to get China to stop revaluing their currency to their interests, as much as we would like to. We need to revalue OUR currency to OUR interests in defense. We don't need China to open thei...

It appears that the GOP has adopted this as their new economic slogan. But they're not the only ones- remember all those $600 Trillion in Derivatives that brought Lehman Brothers down and started the Great Recession? Turns out that instead of unraveling these CDOs and other exotic banking products, all that has been done is to concentrate them into five large American banks. And those are the same banks that the Occupy Protest is now targeting for massive deposit withdrawals . Can you say "double dip depression"?

And they're back. Four rich people making an argument about how they should be allowed to grow richer off of free trade , on the same page as the ultimate example of why workers will NEVER profit from increased business . Free trade is the tool psychopaths have used to drain the wealth of America for 40 years. Stop believing the lie.

I see the government and corporations as one and the same, since every politician I can name, got elected on corporate campaign contributions. I don't see the corporations as private businesses. A private business is one guy on his own property with no employees (or only occasional contracted help, who themselves are self-employed) turning out a product which he then sells directly to consumers (the web has brought back many such businesses, and in 1776, such businesses compromised over 90% of the American economy). As soon as the business has employees, it becomes a government- the business is governing over private decisions- which is why the state and federal governments require corporate charters and corporate governance regulations. The current depression was caused by relaxing those regulations for political purposes, both on the left (Democrats wanting more home and property ownership for minorities and the poor) and on the right (Republican destruction of banking regula...

Two very interesting articles on autism today. The first is hope for all of us HFAs trained in high technology- it seems that companies are now actively recruiting Aspies , having noticed the particular traits of these engineers bring cost savings to a development team that neurotypicals simply cannot match, especially in the areas of testing, debugging, and test-driven development. The second is the realization and conversion of a mother from the cure side of the debate to the neurotypical side , realizing that maybe sometimes an ounce of prevention is worth fifty pounds of ineffective cures. This is a significant political swing to the neurodiversity side of the debate- one that will allow for more adult HFAs to realize their potential.

This rather interesting posting about modern politics, religion, and science comes close, but rather misses the bulls-eye of the target. Yes, it's true that some politicians seem to feel the best way to protect religion is to be skeptical of scientific claims until they are proven beyond any shadow of doubt. And it's doubly true that every rational religion requires several centuries worth of scientific evidence before they will allow science to affect doctrine. But what everybody is missing is that being skeptical about science, IS science. Skepticism is the scientific method at ti's best, requiring strong evidence to change the model of the universe as we know it, before we act upon new theories we need experimentation to prove whether or not the experiment is true. And thus we should praise the skeptical politician who say, believes in theistic evolution (the idea that God uses the radiation of the sun and natural elements to mandate experimental mutations in specie...

A response to a letter to the editor in the Oregonian today : It has been 40 years since international trade was profitable for the United States. Repeated trade deficits have been in the papers and on the news for my entire life. America holds $16 Trillion in consumer and governmental debt on a GDP of only $13.5 trillion. Suzanne Bonamici gets that- John Wilkins does not. He repeats David Ricardo's Comparative Advantage theory- that while America could make everything we need right here in the United States, it's better to import cheaper goods from elsewhere. That mathematical model may be sound- but it has not matched reality in 40 years, and because of it we have a permanent 10% unemployment rate, invasive species ruining our waterways and farmland, and greater debt. I would much rather have a Tesla Motors factory here, and have Intel make my cell phone from the atom chip up to the Meego operating system, than continue to live with the problems of International Trade...

Hidden in this article on labels and the damage and good they can do is a useful gem for any parent of an autistic. Yes, encourage obsessions. But also encourage children to stretch in their obsessions. Did Temple's mother notice her daughter's affinity for animals before sending her to the aunt's farm? Maybe- but that week on the farm was the push Temple needed to turn an obsession into a career. I similarly remember my first computer- a TI-99/4A. It had a cartridge slot- but my parents wouldn't buy me any games. I had to loved the computer- but had to learn to program if I was going to have any games. I remember my first three games, very primitive- an adaptation of the infamous Space War (typed in from '99er Magazine! Then modified until I ran out of memory!), a choose-your-own-adventure I came up with on my own about strawberry fields (errors in that program taught me the proper use of if-then-else and variables, especially since I hated typing long w...

Do you like Curry? Would you like to do something about the Homeless? Come to the Our Peaceful Place Benefit Dinner, October 22, 2011, at 6pm. Prince of Peace Lutheran Church, 14175 NW Cornell Rd, Portland, OR 97229. Suggested donation $15 for individuals, $50 for families, $500 for a business to sponsor a table. For tickets- email opp_giving@comcast.net

Fire can be good, Fire can be bad. Good fires, burn up what we don't want and give us heat. Firewood, garbage, unwanted vegetation. Sometimes in the past, unwanted and dangerous people. Bad fires, burn up what is good- houses, businesses, material we need for some other purpose. This applies to the imagery of the Catholic afterlife as well- the good fire of purgatory burns away what is left of our sin- so that Heaven can be preserved *as heaven* for other people. The bad fire of Hell burns up all but the sin, leaving us alone with our sin for eternity. It also applies to our own behavior here on earth- passion is said to burn, but there is both the passion of sin, which takes pleasure in the moment to destroy our lives in the long run, and the passion of virtue, which takes pain in the moment to make our lives better in the long run. A long time ago, I noticed that evil is stupid- for it destroys what is most profitable in the long run. This also applies to economics- for instan...

Our Peaceful Place Annual Benefit Dinner Appeal from Our Peaceful Place on Vimeo . Watch the video. Then come to the dinner! Prince of Peace Lutheran Church in Beaverton on Cornell, October 22nd, 6pm. $15 for individuals, $50 for families, $500 for businesses that want to sponsor a table. All the Indian Curry you can eat! All food is donated, so every penny goes to our work with the homeless!

Just came across a couple of interesting Alternative Histories . Did the Crusades happen when and where you think they did? And if this has you doubting your history and running to the books to disprove Michael Voris (like it did me) only to find out that every historical fact was fact, then what about this ?

Here's an imagined conversation between a random post-modern American Protestant and Jesus Christ- on things Christ Got Wrong: First off I’d like to thank you Jesus for saving me by dying on the Cross. I know you suffered a lot for me. Of course those silly Catholics think that just because we’re supposed to be like you suffering has a purpose. Which reminds me I think it’s time that we rebooted your franchise. It’s been 1500+ years and your brand could use a refresh.We’ve grown a lot since your time and so we’ve come up with Christianity 2.0, those Papists call it Protestantism, which fixes the problems with the old Christianity. Like that eat your flesh thing. I mean really. Did you have to say it so many times? What were you thinking? You can’t have really meant it because after all we’re not cannibals. Clearly your Apostles got it wrong when they taught everyone that the Eucharist was really you. But then they weren’t as educated as we are. Even you admit that a lot of ...

This post on the Distributist Review, reminded me of Tom Woods' review of Caritas In Veritate in Taki's Magazine, in which he claims that the Holy Father has no say in economics at all . But if we Catholics are to believe in a monarchy of God's Kingdom at all- with Jesus Christ as the Once and Future King- then His Kingship *should* rule over *all* of our lives, not just some. Therefore, perhaps long before we consider monetary policy, we need to consider what use an economy is at all- and what we want out of it. Only with the end in sight, can we plan a way to get there.

First, it's a myth that 47% of Americans don't pay taxes- 86% do, it's just that it isn't all federal income tax. Which led me to ask, are there any other crony capitalist myths used by the GOP to get social conservatives like myself to vote for billionaires? Turns out there's no job creation in the 10 years of Bush tax cuts , which means trickle down economics no longer works.

A very interesting article today in the Washington Examiner- showing the strong link between rich neo-conservative libertarian capitalists, and same-sex marriage. It appears that homosexual liberals in New York State, have rich Wall Street Republicans to thank for putting the money behind their movement, that overruled the people (after all, when you put same-sex marriage to the popular vote, it always fails) and bought several legislators to get it passed. This explains why many conservative Catholics in the New York Legislature voted for same-sex marriage. This explains why the right to private property so often seems abused on Wall Street. This is why our religious liberty is being abused- because certain people at the top believe freedom and liberty means the right to do whatever they want, regardless of who else it hurts. This is liberty, abused. No different than abusing cocaine.

What will it take to prove to Those who worship capitalism that maybe, just maybe, Christ wanted something better for us? That maybe, just maybe, Christ wanted a system where the POOR rule, and the RICH can choose between political power and money but not both? I've gotten kicked off the Acton Institute Powerblog because they have no faith in Christ, only faith in Capitalism.

Under $1/serving, IF you order in major bulk They have an introductory $10/12 servings deal , and their 400 serving deal goes down to under $.88/meal. For you survivalists out there, I can't find a better deal.

Don't trade liberty for security they say. Well here's why- there is no such thing as security in the United States anymore. Not for individuals anyway, not economic security. Yes, I've lost another contract. Be a programmer, you'll never go hungry. Well, I guess I won't, but only because I've invested in tangibles- my latest being a smoker so that I can preserve the fish and game I catch. At least now I'll have time to catch up of Knights of Columbus stuff and my boat hobby. Of course, now I don't have the money. I wonder what used car batteries go for on craigslist?

Here it is the end of June, and I hadn't published a single crazy idea this month. Mainly because I've been busy making one of my crazy ideas a reality- a Knights of Columbus Council at ultra-liberal, ultra-progressive St. Clare's Catholic Church in Portland, OR. They've got a Dignity Chapter, they've got a men's club for the school, they've even got a group of older men who do something called the "Men's Morning of Reflection", but nothing for the common male parishoner who is slightly more conservative. And our eucharistic minister schedule shows it- it's about 75% female. Orthodox guys at St. Clare's are being scared away from the faith- and that's why I believe we need a Knights council there. In other crazy news- V2.0 of my experiments towards a solar electric boat will be ready for sea testing (well, small shallow bay testing anyway, and Detroit Lake testing) in time for my vacations at the end of July @ Nehalem Bay and...

Recently, in arguing the difference between Five Pillar Muslims and Six Pillar Islamics, I had an opportunity to do some more research in the area that started with my previous post Why the Muwahiddun Sect of Islam is Dangerous . If you haven't read that, this won't make much sense. But if you have, I've got more information on the true War of Reformation in Islam. Islam schismed very early, within a couple of hundred years after the death of Mohammed. This diagram shows the standard, what we might call orthodox schools of Islamic Thought: These are all Five Pillar schools of thought- in that they hold to the five precepts that every Muslim must do in their lifetime to be a good Muslim. Shahada (Professing Monotheism), Salat (the five daily prayers), Sawm (fasting at prescribed times), Zakāt (Charity to the less fortunate), and Hajj (Pilgrimage to Mecca). Despite other differences, these are the ONLY five things a Muslim must do by the primary sects, schools, and...

It may be the Asperger's. It may be that while I'm quite intelligent, a 156 IQ is not enough to understand high theology. But "the stain of Original sin" seems to be defined in the Church more by what it is NOT, than what it IS. It's not sex, though that's an easy mistake to make from the common version of the story of Adam and Eve. It isn't women- though a woman is said to have brought it into the world, that's only an allegorical myth. It isn't even, strictly speaking, disobedience, though that too plays a role. But here's my thought- and it might only be because I'm finally, at 40, growing some scrupulosity. And because I live in a country with a culture that everywhere you look, somebody is abusing freedom to commit evils and crimes against his fellow man, instead of working together. Original Sin is the Abuse of Free Will. It is the use of free will, regardless of original intent, to harm another human being. Note I did...

Or the history of American psychiatry as a snake-oil scam. This isn't meant to put down those who need services- this is meant to show how we got to a point where there are very few sane people and increasing numbers of insane people with every revision of the Diagnostic and Statistician's Manual For Mental Disorders. The Diagnostic and Statistician's Manual of Mental Disorders, got it's start way back in 1952, due to the extreme involvement of psychiatrists in draft boards during WWII and Korea. Originally called the "Medical 203 War Department Technical Bulletin", the DSM-I had gone through revisions pushed by the US Navy and the Army, attempting to express "present day concepts of mental disturbance". In 1949, the World Health Organization of the United Nations pulbished ICD-1, the first International Statistical Classification of Disease, which became the numbering system for the DSM-I, which was approved in 1951 and published in 1952. Upon...

The last in my series on Subsidiarity and the Culture of Death. Just taxation, should be all from just three sources: Tariffs, Tribute, and User Fees. Property owners, Business owners, and certain others use the majority of services that Governments have as absolute duties. Property owners first- Tribute. This is mainly about police services, social services, and the commons within a community. As such- counties and cities should rightly collect this tax- and no higher form of government should be involved in the initial collection. Local property taxes should do. Then business owners- small businesses are good for government, as they reduce the need for social services. But big businesses are bad for government- they externalize costs to the rest of the community, and this is where Tariffs come into play. Counties and cities, once again, should be the primary collectors of this tax at their borders. This can be done with toll roads. Finally- Usage taxes. Special serv...

Bet you thought Roe V. Wade was only about abortion. It isn't. Oh, abortion is what it is known for- but it had a secondary effect. It expanded the Interstate Commerce Clause to Intrastate Commerce. It claims that Congress has the right to regulate business transactions that occur entirely internally to a State. This is a MAJOR grab of federal power- and while not the first, prevents lower and smaller government from taking absolute power locally. Subsidiarity is a Catholic ethical concept that can be simply stated as "Big Government creates corruption, so any just duty of government should be carried out with the smallest economic unit of government available". Austrian economists have a tendency to agree- that's what SMALL government is all about. So therefore- even pro-choice libertarians, should seek the reversal of Roe V. Wade. Not because it's against abortion- but because it's against subsidiarity.

This will be the first of three articles- and this is the only realistic one- on how to move from the culture of greed, culture of death we currently have, to a culture of justice as far as taxes are concerned. A recent post on facebook got me thinking about this in a new way for me; on why consumption taxes are more just than income taxes, but like the gay agenda, I do not believe the evidence leads to the conclusion most libertarians and fiscal conservatives think it does- because like usual, these groups are thinking "what's my situation and how can I move the pain to somebody else?" when what we should be really thinking is "how can we band together as Americans, and make this sustainable for all?". My fellow Americans, we have a debt habit. We are being unjust to our own future, charging ahead on the credit cards our children will have to pay. And we're making sure there are fewer children- so each child will not only have to pay for his parents, b...

The Economic Cost of Abortion and the generation immediately preceding it is staggering. The lost of 30% of Generation X & Y has caused a major depression, and by 2037, Social Security will be flat broke. Here is a modest, four step proposal to fix the problem: Step 1. Make FICA a flat tax on all earnings, with no cap. Step 2. Raise retirement age for non-disability payments to 88. Step 3. Make abortion illegal. Step 4. Issue 12 million green cards for illegal aliens already living here, and 42 million green cards for new immigrants, to replace our working age population murdered by abortion.

Though this is a review of Rob Bell's Book Love Wins , I'm going to start out with six much more Catholic Quotes: "The Bible, sacred Tradition, and the writings of the earliest Christians testify that the Church teaches with Jesus’ authority. In this age of countless competing religions, each clamoring for attention, one voice rises above the din: the Catholic Church, which the Bible calls "the pillar and foundation of truth" (1 Tim. 3:15). " Pillar of Fire, Pillar of Truth , Catholic Answers "The need for integrity obviously becomes necessary after death, for entering into perfect and complete communion with God. Those who do not possess this integrity must undergo purification. This is suggested by a text of St Paul. The Apostle speaks of the value of each person's work which will be revealed on the day of judgement and says: "If the work which any man has built on the foundation [which is Christ] survives, he will receive a reward. If a...

In a pro-life discussion recently, I suggested that we could eliminate the deficit & provide full funding for WIC for every child between conception and 5 years old with a mere 5% increase in the top marginal tax rate. That got me the comment that it would raise real income taxes to more than 51% on the wealthy- but tax brackets don't work that way. Here is how tax brackets *really* work. , with a handy calculator that I will deconstruct below- but of course, this leaves out the now nearly 20% FICA taxes, right? Not quite- FICA doesn't have an infinitely large top tax bracket- FICA ends at $106800 of income- it tops out at $21300 per individual earner. So let's do some calculations on what demographers now tell us is the top of the upper middle class- a single businessman, sole proprietor, earning $500,000/year (to earn more you have to be a hedge fund manager or have a lot of capital in investments). According to the Calculator on the MoneyChimp site that m...

I am a Knight of Columbus. As such, my moral compass points to Charity. Always. That was challenged on facebook today- and I'd like to preserve a few links here. The first has been posted here before- the letter, two years ago, I found on George Tiller's website that proved to me that if abortion is allowed to continue, we will soon have genetic eugenics against autistics. A neat set of graphs showing why the financial bubble happened and why it can be attributed to the rising gap between the rich and the middle class. A quote from Ronald Reagan, who continues to amaze me how Catholic he really is, given that the reputation of St. Ronnie as put forth by libertarians and Republicans simply isn't: "In this present crisis, government is not the solution to our problem; government is the problem. From time to time we've been tempted to believe that society has become too complex to be managed by self-rule, that government by an elite group is superior to go...

The following treaty should be enacted worldwide. This solution is based on 21st century technology and good Catholic teaching on the subject; and it comprehensive. The primary objection to immigration is the unfair advantage that a group traveling from a country with low standard of living have over the native workers in a country with a high standard of living. This objection is borne in the idea that economic refugees will return to their home country to retire, not in luxury, but certainly at a much cheaper standard of living than anybody in the first world enjoys. The is a licit argument, and I attempt to address it below. The USCCB, in their Pastoral Letter, _Strangers No Longer_ in 2003 (strange, I've been unable to find a link to it) put forth 5 values they wished to be addressed in immigration: 1. Persons have the right to find opportunities in their homeland. 34. All persons have the right to find in their own countries the economic, political, and social opportu...