And I thought Paul Potts Video Was The Best Of The Year

Thanks Betty for a heartwarming two minutes! This is the best video of the year! I bet you watch it three and four times. It just makes you smile!

Here’s all about Carolyn Scott and her golden retriever, Rookie. Neither Rookie or Carolyn are rookies! She has a website on the Human-Canine Bond.

Diana’s Last Words

The legacy of Princess Diana’s tragic death 10 years ago continues as the inquisition into the cause of the car accident in the Parisian tunnel showcases her final moments.

Volunteer firefighter Damian Dalby, speaking to the London inquest by videolink from the French capital, said he ran towards the crashed Mercedes in a bid to help. “There was smoke emanating from the vehicle,” he said.

A photographer was standing next to the car’s rear door but “he did not stop me from doing my assistance job,” Dalby said.Dalby, who did not realize at the time that the woman was Princess Diana, told jurors that she said: “Oh my God,
Oh my God.”

Hollywood Texas Ranger Supporting Huckabee

I’m glad to see someone from Hollywood supporting the best conservative out there. One that both moderates and conservatives can stand behind and elect: Mike Huckabee.

Now, Chuck Norris, of the “Walker, Texas Ranger” [edited show title] fame, is so encouraged by former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee that he wrote a column laying out issue by issue why he wants America to follow his lead and elect Mike Huckabee the President of the United States in 2008.

I believe in Norris’s column so much, I am reprinting it here in entirety so that you don’t have to go hunting for it.

A short time ago, I wrote in jest about what I would do if I am elected president. Of course, that was written all in good fun.

Like most of you, over the summer and into the fall, I’ve been watching, listening, studying and praying about who could lead this country as our next president.

I won’t leave you in suspense. Though Giuliani might be savvy enough to lead people, Fred Thompson wise enough to wade through the tides of politics, McCain tough enough to fight terrorism and Romney business-minded enough to grow our economy, I believe the only one who has all of the characteristics to lead America forward into the future is ex-Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee.

Newt Gingrich called Mike “very effective … if Huckabee can find money, he will be dramatically competitive almost overnight.” Bill Clinton called Huckabee the “only dark horse that’s got any kind of chance … He’s the best speaker they’ve got.” There is even a pro-Huckabee swell rising among the younger generation.

Who he is (before what he can do)

More than anything he has done or can do, however, it is first who Mike is that impresses me most.

Part of our backward culture is reflected in the fact that we measure and value people by what they do, instead of first who they are. As a result, we nominate charisma, cast votes for articulation and repeatedly elect too many paper-thin corrupt politicians. Of course, I want a president who gets things done, but I first want one who has lived a life of integrity, commitment, truthfulness and respect. Mike is that man.

Mike hasn’t lived an isolated, out-of-touch life like so many politicians. He was raised in Hope, Ark., with a dad who was a firefighter and always had a second job. Mike and his sister grew up poor, not privileged. He was the first person in his family to graduate from high school. And he worked two jobs in college and graduated in two-and-a-half years. He is an outdoorsman too – an avid fisherman, hunter and a long-term member of the NRA.

Mike is a committed husband and father. He has always prioritized his family before politics. His wife, two sons and daughter speak his highest praise.

Mike has also faced unique adversity, from helping a young wife endure the trials of spinal cancer to aiding the victims of hurricane Katrina as the governor of Arkansas. He has a heart for helping and will fight for the causes of average citizens. He is known for having a compassionate heart, genuinely caring for all people.

Mike is also a respected and fearless leader, and he does not cower to the cries of any majority or minority. He doesn’t abandon his values for what’s expedient. Like our Founding Fathers, he’s not afraid to stand up for a Creator and against secularist beliefs. At the same time, he doesn’t fear offending Christian leaders who give up their values in pursuit of electing their “team leader” just like everyone else.

A track record toward the presidency

Mike Huckabee has already proven his ability to lead our citizens as a lieutenant governor for three years in 1993 and governor of Arkansas for the following 10 years. Time magazine called him one of the best governors in America.

As governor, Mike led the citizens of Arkansas through difficult conditions. He balanced the budget each year, enhanced technology in commerce, was tough on crime, used tobacco lawsuit monies to better health care, initiated a toll-free hotline to report tips on government corruption and 16 times had to endure the long nights of the soul before he gave permission for executions to proceed. He also initiated the ARKids First program , cutting the number of uninsured children in half.

It’s not a coincidence that four out of the last five presidents we’ve had were governors because they proved their abilities, perseverance and heart for running our country by serving in those state capacities. As New Man men’s magazine (July/August 2007) said, “His proven ability to cast a compelling vision, as he did while governor, that transcends party, ideology and class might enable America to unite and begin to heal, an especially important goal at this point in our history.”

Where he stands, and what he will do

Mike Huckabee will fight for the issues that lead us safely, and with prosperity, into the future. Here are several of his positions in his own words (to read or watch Mike speak about the issues, click the title)

• Reviving healthcare – “The health care system in this country is irrevocably broken. … As president, I will work with the private sector, Congress, health care providers and other concerned parties to lead a complete overhaul of our health care system.”
• Implementing a FairTax – “I support the FairTax. As governor of Arkansas, I cut taxes and fees almost 100 times, saving the taxpayers almost $380 million. I left a surplus of nearly $850 million, which I urged should go back to the people. Our massive deficit is not due to Americans being under-taxed, but to the government’s over-spending.”
• Creating more choices for education – “I believe that every child should have the opportunity for a quality education that teaches the fundamental skills needed to compete in a global economy. … Test scores rose dramatically when I was governor of Arkansas because of my education reforms.”
• Stopping illegal immigration –”My number one priority is to secure America’s border.”
• Winning the war on terror – “I believe that we are currently engaged in a world war. This war is not a conventional war, and these terrorists are not a conventional enemy. … With a focus on renewed diplomacy and inclusion, we can accomplish the goals of our nation without having to go it alone.”
• Saving marriage – “I support, and have consistently supported, passage of a federal constitutional amendment that defines marriage as a union between one man and one woman. … As governor of Arkansas, I led the successful effort to pass a similar state constitutional amendment in 2002.”
• Protecting the right to life – “I support, and have always supported, passage of a constitutional amendment to protect the right to life.”
• Achieving energy independence –”The first thing I will do as president is send Congress my comprehensive plan for energy independence. We will achieve energy independence by the end of my second term.”

(I will address the whys of these and other positions in upcoming articles)

An ordained minister as president?

Does the fact that Mike Huckabee served as an ordained minister create a disadvantage to his election or presidency? Not if one knows Huckabee and history.
First, many may not realize there was an active clergy (Presbyterian minister John Witherspoon) among the signers of the Declaration of Independence – and that two others had been previously ministers. Others were sons of clergy. Virtually all were Protestant Christians.

Signers of the Constitution even included Abraham Baldwin, a minister. “Williamson, Madison, and possibly others, had studied in this field but had never been ordained.” And again, most signers of the Constitution were also Protestant Christians, except two, Carroll and Fitzsimons, who were Roman Catholics.

Being honored to share this bi-vocational duty as minister and politician with some of those early patriots, Huckabee has advanced and fine tuned his people and oratory skills. And most o

In all, it has taught him to put others first. Isn’t that what we want in a leader?
Mike is a compassionate Christian conservative. Though solid in his faith and standing for traditional family values, he’s not an uncaring extremist. He lives what he believes, and respects others’ beliefs even when they disagree with him, committed to a republic that was founded upon the free exercise of religion.
In all respects, Huckabee meets our Founders’ recommendations for president.

The David among them

The one question that remains is: Can Huckabee win the nomination? The presidency?

As with the other candidates, Huckabee has, and will continue to have, his hecklers: “He hasn’t raised enough money.” “He’ll never beat Hillary.” “Our society is too prejudice and paranoid to vote for a once Baptist minister.” “He’ll never out-race the top four Republican candidates.”

I was thinking about these types of comments the other day when I recalled another leader in ancient times that didn’t match up in the line up: King David. Seven men were poised and paraded for the position of king, but David was left in the field shepherding because he wasn’t “a frontrunner in the polls.” They overlooked the best because they were too busy judging by outward appearance. But God appointed David king.

It’s time to quit choosing our leaders based solely upon charisma or one strong suit, and move back to being a culture which esteems and elects its leaders because of character and qualifications. It’s substance, not pizzazz, we should want in a leader.

Mike Huckabee is the real deal.

Huckabee in ’08!

Friends, it’s time for people to get off the bench and onto the playing field. If we are going to see a man like Mike Huckabee elected, it’s time to rally behind him, support him financially, pray for him daily and spread the word of his character, platform and experience.

So can a man who was raised in a poor background from Hope, Ark., become governor then president? As Mike says, “Our country has already proven that!” What I would ask is: Give Hope another chance! This time, they want to send in the real cavalry.

Keep Hope alive! Join my wife Gena and me by electing Mike Huckabee in ’08!

If you truly believe that Mike Huckabee espouses your own values and beliefs, then you need to tell everybody you know about Mike Huckabee and why you are going to vote for him. Support Mike Huckabee financially – he has to be able to get out and speak to the voters and that costs money that the big guys have, but Huckabee doesn’t. This is your chance to make a difference in the history of the United States. Don’t pass on it and expect the country you love to stay the same.

Proof You Don’t Threaten Israel

Before and after satellite photographs of Syria’s nuclear reactor building that they denied having. Well, they don’t have it anymore.

The Syrians reported an attack by Israel in early September; the Israelis have not confirmed that. Senior Syrian officials continue to deny that a nuclear reactor was under construction, insisting that Israel hit a largely empty military warehouse.

But the images, federal and private analysts say, suggest that the Syrian authorities rushed to dismantle the facility after the strike, calling it a tacit admission of guilt.

“It’s a magic act — here today, gone tomorrow,” a senior intelligence official said. “It doesn’t lower suspicions; it raises them. This was not a long-term decommissioning of a building, which can take a year. It was speedy. It’s incredible that they could have gone to that effort to make something go away.”

Any attempt by Syrian authorities to clean up the site would make it difficult, if not impossible, for international weapons inspectors to determine the exact nature of the activity there.

Officials from the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna have said they hoped to analyze the satellite images and ultimately inspect the site in person. David Albright, president of the Institute for Science and International Security, a private group in Washington that released a report on the Syrian site earlier this week, said the expurgation of the building was inherently suspicious.

“It looks like Syria is trying to hide something and destroy the evidence of some activity,” Albright said in an interview. “But it won’t work. Syria has got to answer questions about what it was doing.”

The striking difference in the satellite photos surprised even some outside experts who were skeptical that Syria might be developing a nuclear program.

“It’s clearly very suspicious,” said Joseph Cirincione, an expert on nuclear proliferation at the Center for American Progress in Washington. “The Syrians were up to something that they clearly didn’t want the world to know about.”

Cirincione said the photographic evidence “tilts toward a nuclear program” but does not prove that Syria was building a reactor. Besides, he said, even if it was developing a nuclear program, Syria would be years away from being operational, and thus not an imminent threat.

Gordon Johndroe, a White House spokesman, declined to comment on the satellite pictures. The new satellite images of the Syrian site were taken by DigitalGlobe, in Longmont, Colorado, and SPOT Image Corporation, in Chantilly, Virginia. They show just a smooth, unfurrowed area where the large building once stood.

The desolate Syrian site is located on the eastern bank of the Euphrates River some 90 miles north of the Iraqi border and 7 miles north of the desert village of At Tibnah. An airfield lies nearby. The new images reveal that the tall building is gone but still show a secondary structure and a pumping station on the Euphrates. Reactors need water for cooling.

The purported reactor at the site is believed to be modeled on a North Korean model, which uses buildings a few feet longer on each side than the Syrian building that vanished.

Albright called the Syrian site “consistent with being a North Korean reactor design.” Imad Moustapha, the Syrian ambassador to the United States, denied in an interview last week with The Dallas Morning News that his country was trying to build a reactor.

“There is no Syrian nuclear program whatsoever,” he said. “It’s an absolutely blatant lie.”

Later in the interview, he said, “We understand that if Syria even contemplated nuclear technology, then the gates of hell would open on us.”

Russian Serial Killer Is Smarter Than Pro-Choice Advocates

Bragging that he was almost God and that he took the most valuable thing in life from people: their lives. Alexander Pichushkin, a Russian serial killer that murdered people in a “chessboard’ fashion, displayed a sincere arrogance at his murder trial.

He earlier claimed to have taken 63 lives during a five-year killing spree, but on Thursday he said he had killed 60 people because three of the attempts had failed.

Prosecutors could only find evidence to charge him with 48 murders and three attempted murders.

Most of the victims were killed killed in southern Moscow’s sprawling Bittsa Park from 2001 until Pichushkin’s arrest in 2006.

Pichushkin on Thursday mocked the efforts to bring him to justice, from the investigation carried out by “blockheads” to the five-week trial.

“A huge number of people have been trying to decide my fate. Meanwhile, I alone decided the fate of 60 people,” he said in a final statement from the reinforced glass defendants’ cage.

“I was prosecutor, judge and executioner. I decided who was to live and who was to die. I was almost God,” he said.

Judge Vladimir Usov responded by saying: “There is a difference: You acted illegally.”

Pichushkin said: “I did not break any laws. I was above them.”

He told the judge he never robbed his victims, but took “only the most precious thing,” their lives.

“I’m interested exclusively in human life. Because life is the most valuable thing,” he said.

If only Democrats and pro-choice advocates realized the same thing?

UPDATE on Maine’s Sexually Active Children

UPDATE: Portland, Maine health departments have not been following the law and reporting sexual abuse of minors.

Portland’s school-based health centers have not been reporting all illegal sexual activity involving minors as required by law, but they will from now on,city officials said Thursday.

Cumberland County District Attorney Stephanie Anderson questioned the health centers’ reporting practices after the Portland School Committee decided last week to offer prescription birth control at the King Middle School health center.

The King Student Health Center has offered comprehensive reproductive health care, including providing condoms and testing for sexually transmitted diseases, since it opened in 2000. The school serves students in grades 6 to 8, ages 11 to 15. Maine law prohibits having sex with a person under age 14, regardless of the age of the other person involved, Anderson said. A health care provider must report all known or suspected cases of sex with minors age 13 and under to the state Department of Health and Human Services, she said. Abuse also must be reported to the appropriate district attorney’s office, Anderson said, when the suspected perpetrator is someone other than the minor’s parent or guardian.

“When it’s somebody under age 14, it is a crime and it must be reported,” Anderson said. “The health care provider has no discretion in the matter. It’s up to the district attorney to decide.”

Anderson said she contacted Portland officials after she learned that some employees of the health centers, which are operated by the city’s Public Health Division, believed they could decide whether a child’s sexual activity constituted criminal abuse.

In fact, if a child under age 14 was having consensual sex with someone of a similar age, health center employees weren’t reporting it to the proper authorities, said City Attorney Gary Wood. Anderson said doctors and other health care providers in private practice may falsely believe they have similar leeway, but they must follow the same laws.

“It’s clear that it’s going on all the time,” Anderson said. “Either the law is going to be enforced or it needs to be changed. I don’t think a law should be routinely violated.”
Portland’s six school-based health centers had no formal policy on reporting sexual activity involving students under age 14, said Douglas Gardner, director of Portland’s Department of Health and Human Services.

Gardner said it’s unclear whether any health center employee failed to report suspected cases to the state Department of Health and Human Services, but they did fail to report cases to Anderson’s office.

“Moving forward, we will report to the letter of the law,” Gardner said. He noted
that the reporting issue applies to few students. Five King students reported being sexually active last year, and school officials said they were all ages 14 and 15.

Although Portland officials intend to comply with the law, exactly what the law requires remains unclear, Wood said. Having sex with a 13-year-old is clearly illegal, he said, but the law doesn’t address the possibility of the other person involved being 13 years old, too.

“I think (Anderson) has raised a legitimate point,” Wood said. “I’m just not sure that consensual sexual activity (between two 13-year-olds) constitutes abuse.”

What? A 13 year old forcing another child to have sex is not abuse? What kind of convoluted thinking is that? Even if children WANT to have sex means that they have not been raised in good conditions and possibly have even been subjected to sexual abuse at an early age. What is wrong with these liberals?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The explosion of the U.S.S. Maine was the unsolved mystery that “yellow journalism” was waiting with bated breath to happen. It was the controversial miracle that they needed to boost circulation and speak of the horrors of war in the Spanish-American War. Sound familiar?

Well, Maine has exploded again with the Portland, Maine school board usurping parental authority, forcing children in the King Middle School to leave childhood behind and enjoy the traumatic issues of adulthood by allowing them access to birth control pills and patches.

How could anyone make that decision for someone else’s children? Where is the outrage among good, decent parents in Maine and where is the outrage among Maine taxpayers who will have to pay for someone else who is emotionally ill-equipped, physically not mature, has no income, has no job, to have sex when they can’t even read and write?

Birth control has always been controversial, especially in regards to health issues and religion but now the Maine school board are doing what they think is right and tragically some parents believe it is right.

Carol Schiller, the mother of a boy and girl who graduated from King, said she “was elated” at the committee’s vote. She said critics shocked that 11-year-olds have sex should “get over it.”

“It’s much more important that we reach out to these kids and get them the tools they need to stay safe, stay in school and get an education,” she said.

How sick is that? They shouldn’t even be thinking about sex but doing their homework! That’s how you get an education!

Anyone who has been traumatized at the thought of pedophiles and the latest round of children seen in porn films has to be livid at this newest way to sexualize children. I wonder how many liberals sit around and amuse themselves thinking of ways to get children the right to have sex?

But for left wing extremists, it’s not only for sexual reasons that children should be on birth control, it’s about fascism/socialism’s plan for universal health care. For some, the United States has to provide universal health care for everybody. Liberal Hillarycrats and Obamacrats are passionate about this nightmare – they can’t have that many people to have to provide health care. We don’t have the money. It will bankrupt our government and many will die from a corrupt, inefficient health care service. So children must now start taking birth control pills whether you like it or not. It’s better for the world, trust them.

It’s about the Reverend Al Gore’s of the world population control. Getting children to use birth control for their own benefit is a propaganda tactic to rid the world of humans. Too many humans is bad for the earth. Talk about betraying the country…

Children are not allowed to have sex! It’s against the law! What are the schools doing to promote sexual activities when the answer is to just say no! What if the schools decided to have classes in teaching 11 to 13 years how to drink responsibly? Would that be allowed? Even if the parents say it’s okay? Parents who allow their teenagers to have liquor at home can be arrested! It’s not okay, even if the parents think so, to allow teenagers to drink! So what makes sex a safer activity? Birth control doesn’t!

[click on the picture to see larger version] Look at the picture of a classroom at King Middle School in Portland, Maine. Look at the drawings on the walls created by the students. Do you think these innocent, naive students are prepared for the real grunting, physical aspects of sex of the real world? Sexual activity isn’t always the romantic picture that liberals paint it to be. Seeing these young children in the classroom and then realizing that some adults are preparing to ruin their lives forever is disgusting.

Now this Maine middle school, and some others across the country are providing medicine that is not 100% effective, no birth control except abstinance is 100% effective. They are not emphasizing, I guarantee you, that you can still get pregnant on the pill. When a child eventually does get pregnant while on this birth control is the Portland school board ready to pay the lawsuit and 20 year child support bills from the parents, who sues because the school board put their child in danger? Are the Maine taxpayers ready for that?

What about STD’s? What about HIV/AIDS?

What about parent’s authority in their own home? Children thinking that parental discipline was abuse because they were taught by schools during the 1980’s across the country that nobody had the right to discipline them, even if they were misbehaving or disrespectful, is the major cause of why kids are out of control now and growing up before their time.

What about the rampant misogyny, rape, and abuse of females by rap music, young boys and men? Who is teaching young males that you should respect your body and respect somebody else’s body? That ‘Girls Gone Wild’ is not a good thing! Certainly not the school system. Don’t give me that crap about raging hormones either – humans choose to have control of their lives, if they want. We have more abortions and higher birth rates today because of the liberal sexual revolution of the 1960’s. There is no more stigma in having a baby out of wedlock and there should be. It’s disgraceful and sad for the children to grow up without a mother and a father and a safe, secure homelife.

Remember Maine and who is behind this “one more step” to further destruction of the family. In the whacked out left’s point of view, it’s the only way to save their world from being polluted by babies. How selfish and sad is that? Think about how sick the Carol Schillers of the world are. Remember the yellow journalists who want to keep this issue out of the news so that it can control unthinking liberals.

If you don’t want to see the further denigration of the family, voting Republican is the only way to keep the Supreme Court conservative.

My heart breaks for all those children in middle school in Maine. It’s tragic.

Feel like speaking up?

Call, Mail, Fax, Email the Superintendent of Portland, Maine schools. You can save a child’s life.

Jeanne Whynot-Vickers, Intrm
(Okay, you don’t want to even hear my remarks about her name)

196 Allen Avenue

Portland ME 04103

Phone (207) 874-8100

FAX(207) 874-8199

superintendent@portlandschools.org

Huckabee Getting Attacked Left AND Right

My email has Huckabee getting attacked left and right as in this column shows.

Could the reason be that he may present a threat to Democrats AND Republicans. We don’t have any Republicans these days that can say they are totally conservative. We don’t have any saying that they want to repeal Roe vs Wade. Could it be that Huckabee is the real moderate conservative that the United States needs? Maybe it’s the one other resident from Hope, Arkansas that the another beloved Democrat President came from? Could the Democrats and Republicans both be working on destroying Mike Huckabee?

Huckabee is a Christian who walks the walk. He is a unifier, somebody that Democrats, especially Catholic Democrats can get behind. Elect conservative Congressmen so that we can control Congress, but the President needs to be able to work with both sides. Huckabee wants to repeal Roe vs Wade, elect conservative SCOTUS, and wants to protect the US from illegal immigration. He believes in the Fair Tax.

What more could you ask?

Harry Potter’s Library Privileges Suspended

Has Massachusetts returned to its Puritanical roots by demonizing the evils of fantasy?

Though Massachusetts is thought of as a bastion of liberal thought today, the state has a long history of banning books. In 1650, William Pynchon’s “The Meritorius Price of Our Redemption” was publicly burned because colony leaders considered it too critical of the Puritan religion. In 1878, the New England Watch and Ward Society was founded to ban books, fight pornography, and “watch and ward off evildoers.”

At the height of the society’s power, in the 1920s and 1930s, controversial books at the Boston Public Library were kept in a locked room, and the police vice squad arrested anyone selling works considered offensive.

As a result, Boston led the nation in censorship based on moral grounds. Later, publishers actively sought to have books “banned in Boston” to increase sales in the rest of the country.

And it’s happening again in the 21st century. St. Joseph’s Catholic Church in Wakefield, Massachusetts has evicted Harry Potter, a children’s classic from the school library by the parish priest.

The Rev. Ron Barker removed the books, declaring that the themes of witchcraft and sorcery were inappropriate for a Catholic school.

“He said that he thought most children were strong enough to resist the temptation,” said one mother who asked that her name not be used because she did not want her family to be singled out. “But he said it’s his job to protect the weak and the strong.”

The removal at St. Joseph’s is the first reported instance that the wildly popular series has been banned in the Bay State, according to the American Library Association. But British author J.K. Rowling’s series, which many educators credit with inspiring a generation of children to pick up a book, has been as controversial as it has been popular. Groups in at least 17 other states have tried to ban the books since the first one was published in 1998, prompting the library association last year to name the Harry Potter collection “the most challenged books of the 21st century.”

Insiniuating that the Harry Potter books “promotes” witchcraft is like saying the 1940’s Nancy Drew series encouraged juvenile readers to skip school, not obey parents’ orders, go into abandoned houses, drive cars to solve murder mysteries.

The only effect the Nancy Drew mystery books had on its readers was to instill in children a life long love of reading and a love for a good mystery.

When Superman appeared in comic books in the 1940’s and on the 1950’s television screen, did it promote that humans had super-human strength by putting on a red cape and blue leotards? Okay, I have to admit… some children put red capes on and leapt out of tall buildings and died. But did they ban Superman from the television? No, because parents had control over the responsibility and discipline of the children. Parents knew how to parent. They held those stupid kids up as examples and asked their children: “Would you jump out of a window if someone said you could?” Don’t you remember shaking your head and saying loudly, “No!”

Neither Harry Potter, nor The Wizard of Oz, Sleeping Beauty, or Hansel and Gretel are vehicles to entering into a cult, as Rev. Barker has suggested. It is a fictional children’s story. Teenagers were delving into Wicca since the 1960’s before J. K. Rowling was even born.

On Fox News, Vatican Correspondant Father Jonathan Morris’s first reaction was “there’s more important things to be worrying about than Harry Potter in our schools and in our churches.” But then he called Rev. Barker and found out that two parents had complained about the books.

These Wakefield parish parents obviously don’t have control over their children. Their “stupid” kids want to learn about Wicca to learn how to fly a broom in the air is only an indication of a lack of parental influence and authority over their children. This is not about weak children, but weak parents. Harry Potter’s books don’t even mention Wicca but wizardry. Wizardry is not witchcraft. Wizards and witches are fantasy characters. They can be portrayed as good or evil. In Rowling’s books, the evil characters do not benefit by their evil ways. It’s the classic ‘good versus evil’ and every writer in school learns about how to use this classic literature motif.

Then Father Morris said something that disappointed me…

“This is what the parents are saying, they are saying “Come on, we have these things in here so that the kids can make prudent, wise decisions, but you know what? I think the deeper question is why are parents trying to be like their lawyers for Little Johnny, getting petitions going against their pastors and against their teachers. When I was young, which wasn’t that long ago, I hope, teacher was always right. That’s what my parents told me. And what it teaches you is respect for authority and you have to play by the rules. So I don’t like this idea over something very small like this are getting petitions going. The children can go down to the library and get the book. They can get it in their rooms on Amazon.com. I don’t think they should be making a big deal out of it.”

Father Morris’s support of the banning of Harry Potter fuels the desperate attempt of not only Rev Barker’s lack of confidence in the majority of children’s maturity, but also of the Church to exert control over its erudite adherents.

It doesn’t work with Jesuits, it’s not going to work with Harry Potter devotees.

When the Church banned the teachings of Aristotle, within ten years every person able to read had read them. All of the world’s classics have been on the Catholic Church’s forbidden works, “Index Librorum Prohibitorumat” at one time or another.

The list was created in 1557 by Pope Paul IV. “Virtually all the giants of early modern science wound up on the Index, as is represented in the Loyola exhibit,” Grossman writes. “The show includes several volumes of the works of Copernicus, the Polish astronomer who held that the Earth revolves around the Sun. The church taught that the reverse was true, a theory seemingly backed by the biblical account.

“Once the precedent was established, the list grew over the centuries into something like a who’s who of Western thought. Catholics were forbidden to even peek into books of philosophers like Rene Descartes and novelists like Emile Zola and Daniel Defoe. Local bishops made their own supplements to the papal Index.” The last edition of the Index was published in 1948. It was finally abolished by Vatican II in the 1960s, Grossman writes.

The Catholic Church has no formal policy on the books [Harry Potter series].

This summer, the US Conference of Catholic Bishops rated the most recent movie, “Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix,” appropriate for adults and adolescents.

Banning books is not the answer to educating children or teaching them respect for adults and authority. Dialogue and a good example go further in parenting. Why didn’t Rev. Barker advise the parents to talk to your kids, pay attention to them, discuss what they are learning, know where they are going, and tell them what you expect from them? When children know that they are loved and cared about, they will have strong character, be less likely to seek the attention of cult leaders and evil influences. They will be able to go away to college and feel confident enough to read even the teachings of Aristotle.

History’s Forbidden Books

Baby Boomers Give The Kids Back Their Halloween

Toccata has a great article on adults who refuse to grow up and act their age. Halloween is a big example of adult’s abusing a “children’s” holiday.
She writes:

C’mon Boomers–grow up! You’re running out of time. Let’s see–the oldest of us have passed the Big Six-Oh. The youngest Boomers are already FORTY-THREE!!! I have an idea–why don’t we let the kids–or in many cases, our GRANDCHILDREN, have their little holiday back? And after that, maybe we can start making up for lost time with being the adults we should have been thirty years ago.

I agree with Toccata – I don’t need to go door to door trick and treating to eat chocolate. I’m an adult, I can buy my own and eat it whenever I want. That’s one benefit of growing older. Another one of Life’s joy is grandchildren going trick and treating. Almost nothing better than grandchildren…well, maybe chocolate.

Check out Toccata’s blog.

Vatican Tome Absolves Templar Heretics

Nearly seven centuries after the infamous Templar heresy trials, and less than two years after the Da Vinci Codes brought up the subject, the Vatican Secret Archives have released a new tome that sheds some light on the Templars. I wonder if this is being released as an opening to the Masons and secret Christian organizations that are now considered heretical under Catholic law.

He declined to identify any buyers by name, citing Italian privacy laws, but said they included “internationally famous” people.

The military order of the Poor Knights of Christ and of the Temple of Solomon was founded in 1118 in Jerusalem to protect pilgrims in the Holy Land after the First Crusade.

As their military might increased, the Templars also grew in wealth, acquiring property throughout Europe and running a primitive banking system. After they left the Middle East with the collapse of the Crusader kingdoms, their power and secretive ways aroused the fear of European rulers and sparked accusations of corruption and blasphemy.

Historians believe Philip owed debts to the order due to his wars with England and used the accusations to arrest its leaders and extract, under torture, confessions of heresy as a way to seize the order’s riches.

The new volume includes the “Parchment of Chinon,” a 1308 decision by Clement to save the Templars and their order that was long ignored due to a vague catalog entry made in 1628.

Vatican archives researcher Barbara Frale determined the significance of the parchment in 2001, realizing that it was not of secondary importance as had previously been thought but actually concerned a trip by three top cardinals, including Clement’s right-hand man, to interrogate the Templars’ Grand Master and other top officials.

The parchment shows that Clement initially absolved the Templar leaders of heresy, though he did find them guilty of immorality, and that he planned to reform the order. However, under pressure from Philip, Clement later reversed his decision and suppressed the order in 1312.

The Templars’ grand master, Jacques de Molay, was burned at the stake in 1314 along with his aides.

Surviving monks fled. Some were absorbed by other orders; over the centuries, various groups have claimed to have descended from the Templars.

The prefect of the Vatican Secret Archives, Monsignor Sergio Pagano, said the value of the new edition lies in its artistry as well as in the historical commentary that accompanies it, written by Frale and two other Vatican historians.