A really good podcast for the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe

Taylor Marshal has a reputation for being a bit of a traditionalist- but this history of Our Lady of Guadalupe, stretching back to the *first* appearance of a statue carved by St. Luke himself, is well worth listening to.  Click through to the blog post, and then click on this sentence to go to the link.

Washington County volunteer opportunity and important service

In September, the Senior Peer Outreach Line went live for Washington County older adults.
Community Counseling Solutions operates the line, which provides free peer support by
phone to reduce feelings of loneliness and isolation for adults 55 years old and up.
Seniors are matched with a friendly peer specialist and receive regular phone calls
that offer compassionate support and connection. One Washington County resident
shared that she dreaded the wintertime, but not this year now that she receives
weekly calls from her peer support specialist. The program is referral-based,
not a published number that community members call directly.
Call Community Counseling Solutions at 1-833-736-4676 to make a referral.
Or for more information, contact Washington County’s Kera Magarill at 503-846-3105.

My real opinion on Global Climate Change and Ecosin

What is really at the center is bias. The bias of ecoterrorism that always focuses on the United States as the great evil. We all need to plant 30 trees a year. But it doesn't help to criticize the people who are *already* planting 30 trees a year. What you need to do is target those people who are not yet planting 30 trees a year. Right now, the real reason that the Trump Administration withdrew from the Paris accords is that they appeared to just be taking the pollution out of the United States, Europe, and Canada and moving it to India, China, Africa and South America- with NO solution to the actual problem. In fact, making the problem significantly worse, as companies moved troublesome processes overseas, while keeping low-labor low-pollution processes at home. And still, global warming increased to the point that it became global climate change, and in 2004, we passed the tipping point to where methane being released from Siberia and Northern Canada became the most common greenhouse gas- and that release will continue even if you killed off every human being and stopped every industrial process worldwide. We are already past the tipping point. YES, we should continue to plant our 30 trees per year (I've given my $30 to that trees project that a bunch of Youtubers and the Arbor Day foundation have stared, have you?). Yes we should continue to get better at conserving. But we also are past the tipping point, and it's time to stop putting 100% of our energy into conservation and start putting at least some portion of our energy into adaptation. How do you adapt to a changing, chaotic world? By preparing. Store 25 years worth of food for your family (we have the preservation techniques NOW to do that). Make sure you have a clean water supply in your neighborhood. Invest in people, so that you will have people to help you when you are old. Have children. Make sure you have transportation that does NOT depend upon paying some oil company or electric company for fuel. Those who adapt will survive, those who do not adapt will die. THAT is the law that the church can't change, the basic law of all species, from the lowest dung beetle to the greatest elephant. The world will survive. Will your family survive? Depends on how well you can adapt, not how well you can conserve. No amount of conservation at this point will be enough to escape the rough ride ahead of us.

Why I am against alternative family structures

This post, found on ThemBeforeUs, kind of says it all.  When the point of family ceases to be children, selfishness takes over.

Thank you to all who helped with the Breakfast

This was crossposted by accident from my Knights blog.  I'm leaving it here in case anybody in the Portland, OR area wants to enjoy some yummy blueberry pancakes at St. John Fisher from 10am-12:30pm on October 20th.

Under the wise leadership of our Deputy Grand Knight Gene Andres, the breakfast at St. Clare's went off quite smoothly.  Thank you to all who volunteered.  Final results are:

$515 Gross
$358 Net
$179 donated to St. Clare
$179 kept for our council (money needed to cover Delta Drive activities next weekend- we hope anyway).

Next Breakfast will be at SJF on October 20th

The problem with community standards- Tolerance is a form of hate

Tolerance says, "You must allow me to have my way." Love responds, "I must do something harder: I will plead with you to follow the right way, because I believe you are worth the risk.

Still in Facebook Jail

Though my phone says I have less than 20 hours left, I'm still in facebook jail.  I suggest that this is why:

The stigma has changed.  Changed greatly.  Now instead of pushing us to be better people, the stigma is against anybody who thinks there is a right way to live.

Facebook community standards are self-contradictory- for they have become a form of hate speech.

Outside the autistic asylum thought for the day

Are you willing to be inclusive of heterosexuals in your fiction?

More on Facebook Community Standards

I'm in Facebook jail again, for pointing out that those who celebrate first deadly sin month are abusive.

I think I've let my anger get to me as of late.  Until October 8th, I can't post there.

From here on out I'm going to write screeds here, and just post links if anything at all.

Oh, and liberalism, especially the idea of "Community Standards" is abusive.

At least here, I can point out that Islam has a 1400 year history of violence, and that homosexuals are often quite abusive to all those around them.

The Gospel comes to Life: Fr. Illays and Facebook community standards.

On Sunday, September 29, we all heard the story of Lazarus and the Rich Man.

Well, I'm aware of one modern day Lazarus, begging the rich men halfway around the world, for a few dollars for bricks.

His name is Fr. Illyas Nawhab, and his blog https://philomenamercyhouse.blogspot.com/">The Philomena House of Mercy
has been blocked by Facebook for unknown reasons.
One possible reason is that he's trying to use international social media to raise money to build an orphanage.

And despite pictures, he's having problems doing so due to "violating Community Standards".

Yes, it's possible that a man posing as a priest is not entirely honest.  But from my time conversing with him, I believe Fr. Illyas is.  And I do believe, because he's posted pictures of them- that he has a family of brick kiln owners that he's also supporting with ordering building materials from them to build his orphanage.

$200 to us, is a bit of money, but no longer a large amount.  I've seen people spend that on a single dinner for their friends.

But in Pakistan, it's a tractor-trailer load of bricks.

So facebook, what do you have against charity?

We all need a spark of madness

I'm currently in facebook jail for pointing out that Islam has been into Terrorism for 1400 years, give or take a century.

It reminds me that a prophet has to be a little bit crazy to speak truth to power.

Like a famous citizen of early San Francisco.

Which blog does this go to?

It says, Outside the Asylum, but the last two things I posted here, went to the Knights of Columbus blog.

Unplanned the Movie: My review

We just saw this movie, in the last 3 hours. 

I've made no secret about being pro-life; but I've always avoided the gory details.  In this case, however, the gory details are essential to the story line, they are essential to Abby Johnson's story.  There has been a lot written elsewhere about the rating.  I've got to say that I too disagree with the MPAA on the rating of R- I saw nothing that exceeded the level of violence of other movies rated PG-13. 

Having said that, in the first 50 minutes of this movie, you will see depictions of the death of 30 people.  30 unborn children.  And the near death experience of one teenage mother whose abortion goes horribly, utterly wrong (after all, 1:1000 abortions end up with the mother in the emergency room, fighting for her own life).

The timeline was rather confusing- the first part of the movie jumped back and forth in time, not telling the story chronologically- first you saw the abortion that caused Abby Johnson to quit, then we jumped to 8 years earlier when she was still in college, then two years before that for her own first abortion and failed first marriage, then back to 8 years earlier, then progressing normally until we saw the abortion a 2nd time, this time with protesters right outside praying over barrels of "medical waste". 

Then of course came her resignation- her first time praying outside of the clinic she once ran- the silly lawsuit Planned Parenthood filed to try to silence her (which of course she won, after a rather confusing scene that was played for drama).

A very good movie to see, but given that it will soon be out of theaters, I recommend watching it as a family at home where you can pause the action to talk as a family when people watching it get upset.

Little Bobby Noyce Brings Home The Bacon

Immigration crazy idea of the day

Put visa issuance under the Bureau of Land Management, with orders to divest the federal government of as much land as possible.  Use homesteading rules- and only allow people in who are willing to work to improve the land over 5 years.