The problem with Skepticism

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.

A great Year In Review Article

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.

You Might Be A Terrorist If Part III

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.

Rerum Novarum 120th Anniversary

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.

You Might Be A Terrorist If, Part II

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

The violence of the peacemakers

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.

So this is how a Republic Ends

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 death
- You have farmed, raised, or consumed marijuana
- You believe there is only one reality and only one morality that fits that reality
- You are homosexual
- You bash homosexuals
- You have any mental illness as described in the DSM-V, including Oppositional Defiant Disorder when you were between the ages of 2-4 or 12-18.
- You adhere to the belief structure of any given religion to the exclusion of other religions
- You are against War or the Death Penalty (giving aid and comfort to terrorists)
- You are not John McCain

Good luck everybody, if Obama fails to veto this, and for this post, I have no doubt that by 2018, after they get done arresting everybody else in the country, I'll be joining you all in the internment camps for writing a blog posting opposing the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2012. Happy new military dictatorship, everybody. --------------UPDATE And if you think the above paragraph is cynical and satire- then read this Before It Is News Report on KBR putting out request for proposals for building MORE FEMA camps.

Why I can't trust a man who can't keep his vows II

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.