Do Not Be Taken In By False Choices!

The news today is all about an “Accomodation” the White house is proposing in the whole Birth Control Mandate Dabacle. I hope and pray no one falls for this. Here’s how it’s being described:

One source familiar with the decision described the accommodation as “Hawaii-plus,” insisting that it’s better than the Hawaii plan – for both sides.

In Hawaii the employer is responsible for referring employees to places where they can obtain the contraception; Catholic leaders call that material cooperation with evil. But what the White House will likely announce later today is that the relationshio between the religious employer and the insurance company will not need to have any component involving contraception. The insurance company will reach out on its own to the women employees. This is better for both sides, the source says, since the religious organizations do not have to deal with medical care to which they object, and women employees will not have to be dependent upon an organization hostile to that care in order to obtain it.

This announcement would not go that far. Sources say it will involve health insurance companies helping to provide the coverage, since it’s actually cheaper for these companies to offer the coverage than to not do so, because of unwanted pregnancies and resulting complications.

Rick Moran adds:

Basically, the White House is offering a sleight of hand solution, allowing Catholic organizations to deliberately turn the other way when insurance companies offer the coverage, thus “sparing” them the burden of having to offer it themselves.

Let me make something clear. There are two ways to sin– by commission and by ommission. Commision is doing something sinful. Omission is failing to even try to prevent sin when you have the ability to stop it, or failing to do something you ought to be doing. It works like this: If you murder someone, you have sinned by commission. If you see someone being murdered, and take no action to stop it, you sin by omission. The second is equally as severe a sin as the first. Got it? [My own failings on some issues condemn me, I fear, as I have not been as zealous in my duties as I should have been.]

So, what the WH is offering here, is basically this: “Instead of forcing you to sin by commission, we’re offering the option of sinning by omission instead.”

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Visiting The Shrine

Around these parts, when a Catholic like yours truly talks about going to the Shrine, what they mean is “I’m going to visit the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception.”

I was down there all last night because they were taping the masses for shut-ins, and my church choir was the choir for those two dates (3rd and 5th Sunday of this upcoming Lent). They have the masses in the Crypt Church, which is one of my favorite places on the planet. If the upstairs is all Majesty, the downstairs Crypt Church is all Mystery.

I took some pictures with my cell phone of some of my favorite things. A friend was taking some others, and I’m hoping she emails me copies to add.

Oh, and there will be another post coming up right after this with a set that goes together.

Pictures after the break ^_^!

Speaking of Contraception . . .

The Anchoress points out a surprising source for support of the Church’s teaching re: Birth Control– Business Insider, of all places!

Here’s a tasty bit:

Today’s injunctions against birth control were re-affirmed in a 1968 document by Pope Paul VI called Humanae Vitae.  He warned of four results if the widespread use of contraceptives was accepted:

1. General lowering of moral standards
2. A rise in infidelity, and illegitimacy
3. The reduction of women to objects used to satisfy men. 
4. Government coercion in reproductive matters. 

Does that sound familiar? 

Because it sure sounds like what’s been happening for the past 40 years.

As is said, read the whole thing!

To be honest, I used to be a lot more laissez-faire about the issue myself. After all, if God wanted you to have a kid, it would happen– both myself and my little brother were conceived while our mother was using birth control.

13 yr old girls implanted w/ Birth Control

Without the consent of their parents. Nice. Minor surgical procedures performed in the school, no parental notice or consent. No care for potential side effects or other health problems. No concern for the fact that boys will use this as an excuse to pressure girls into sex, knowing that they “can’t get pregnant”.

This is our future, it seems.

Madonna, Removing All Doubt

Two weeks ago, I posted a weird YouTube about Britney Spears, Madonna, and some odd mind-control theory. I was skeptical about a lot of it, but a fair amount made sense, due to my “Questionable Past.” When I heard that Madonna was doing the Super Bowl Halftime Show again this year, I thought it would be a good time to check the theory. I would watch and, wither it would fit the “Occult Ritual Pattern” in some way, or it wouldn’t. I expected to have to give some thought to it. But she couldn’t have been more blatant.

The following video gets some of it– I thinking I might do a more thorough analysis this evening, if I can.There’s a lot more here than even this person saw.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RQSwSX-kg1k

 

It’s Friday! Time to Let Our Hair Down!

So, as someonw learning to bellydance, I thought it would be nice to share some videos from time to time that I find on YouTube.

Today, we have Saida, dancing to a baledi. According to the comments, this lovely lady is from Argentina, which is probably where that Latin flair to her moves (and costume!) comes from. You can see she has picture perfect shimies, and great chest and hip drops. But the best part of her performance is her expression– you can tell she’s completely enjoying herself, perfectly relaxed in front of everyone.

enjoy.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bhKO7ElrFrw

A Letter from 9 GOP Congresswomen

I dunno how I feel about this. One the one hand, I’m all for almost anything that stops Obamacare. On the other hand, the opening paragraphs make me queasy. Read it at PJ Media.

What gets me in these first paragraphs is this:

As we reflect on what the past year has meant for our families, it’s clear that President Obama’s policies are hitting women especially hard.

Since the president took office on January 20, about one million women have lost their jobs and today the unemployment rate among women is at the highest level in over 25 years. But perhaps most concerning of all, the president’s economic policies have severely harmed the small business community, which has traditionally been the part of our economy that propels us out of recession and is increasingly being used by women as a means of career advancement and financial independence.

. . . Um, they ain’t calling it a “Man-cession” for nothing, you know. . . As the comments below the post state: “World Ends, Women hit hardest“. Geez, can we ever get over the victim mentality? Especially when there are legitimate beefs to be had? Listen, when it comes to this recession, it’s quite clear that, in the most direct sense, Men are the hardest hit. And this disparity is disturbing, because there shouldn’t be such an obvious disparity that it’s named a Man-cession.

The letter goes on to state some legitimate concerns over the change in mammogram guidelines, and what this means for state-subsidized mammogram programs for struggling wome. This is a legitimate concern, as insurance companies often follow this same direction. If I were an insurance company, I probably would . . .

They should have brought the letter to me for editing, clearly. I would have cut the first two paragraphs,and re-worded a lot of the rest. I think I see what they’re trying to do, but the effort comes across as something I wrote in undergrad. *shrugs*. Who knows, though, whom it might influence. . .

‘Cuda? Ha, you wish she were that soft . . .

. . . Says it all, really . . . But as the man says, Read The Whole Thing.

The Misandry Bubble

One of my ongoing concerns in life is the treatment of men in America. Since leaving the festering swamp of New Orle Academia, I have become more and more concerned with the current state of men in our great nation, becoming ever more disgusted with the appalling lack of respect men garner from society, and “feminists” in particular. I once called myself a “feminist”– until I met with the Women’s Studies bunch at college– a bunch of women who hated men, pitied me for being straight, and couldn’t understand at all why I was bothering with being Catholic. This even though it was a Catholic institution. I wasn’t much of a feminist, in retrospect. My concern was my lack of understanding as to why women couldn’t be ordained to the priesthood (I’ve since come to a personal understanding), so I considered myself a feminist in the theological genre. I’ve never been “Pro-Choice”, nor did I appreciate bake sales that charged men more for an item than women. I was a crappy feminist, but I’m glad to finally be glad of those delusions.

I love men. I respect men. Straight or Gay, Alpha or Beta, I respect men for being men, for being complementary to women in a way that this woman will never truly fathom, but will always be grateful for. I have completely thrown away the idea that men and women are (or should be) the same, believing now that we are complementary beings–different, but overall equal. In and Yo (that is to say, Yin and Yang), Night and Day, Active and Passive–Equal, but Different. The division of labor by sex was the first step to civilization, for good reasons. Denying the basic, general, differences between men and women ultimately undermines that very first step of civilization, and thus so many of the problems we now face.

Over at The Futurist, GK has written an excellent article on The Misandry Bubble, which I highly recommend. I’ll need some time to think about it some more, but he’s hit quite a few of the concerns I’ve had. Especially as an introverted single woman living just outside the city who would like to find a husband and start a family.

I’ll want to read and digest his reading list before really commenting further, but as this will likely be a topic coming up again, this is an excellent start.