It struck me..

It suddenly struck me in my head.

I was walking down the street, heading back home. I couldn't help myself from wondering into lands of thoughts while walking down the street at night. It was then 9:47p.m.

I was heading home all right, however, it is not the exact home I wish to be. I was just heading to the place where I could lie down, and have my eyes shut and call it a day. It is just a shelter for me to have my rest and my sleep. My actual location is pretty far away from my true home, in fact, it's ocean-apart. The piece of land where I am standing now and where my real home are separated by South China Sea. It isn't that far if you refer to the World map, even if you refer to Malaysian Map, it is still not that far. But, it is far enough for me.

It's been six years since I board the plane, which brought me to Subang Airport in KL end of April 2000. Six long years I have been away from home. I have spent five of the six years in the historical city of Malacca. Although I occasionally go back for holiday, it was not enough to prevent the fact that I am more of a stranger in my homeland. The longer I stay away from home, the more I feel I am a stranger to the place. Whenever I was out back home, I don't get to see things which I am familiar with, they're constantly changing. I don't get the sense of familiarity from the people around me. Friends who I used to spend time with during my younger days, are either abroad studying or working, or getting busy with their own lives, working or settling down with their own families, kids and spouses. It wouldn't be surprise if I feel that I am out of place each time I return to my homeland.

Few months ago, I have decided that I may just take this chance, to expose myself to the life in a harsh place, fast-paced environment in the nation's capital. I thought I could utilized this opportunity to observe and learn something which couldn't be found back home. My priority wasn't to find pots of gold here, neither was my true intention. The pot of gold I am searching at this point is nothing of monetary form. It is the knowledge which I am looking for, the knowledge I hope to gain, enough for me to bring back home to start developing the land I was born in. Pretty ambitious goal, I know, and it could be naive too. But, without goal and vision, what makes of us? Where will we be if we have no directions to head to? Won't we be drifting around aimlessly, looking lost?

With that personal goal I set for myself, I strive for survival aiming to achieve that goal in 2-3 years time. I may not get the chance in my first strike. Fair enough, the world isn't perfect. I was determined to standby my decision and reasons to stay in the peninsular.

That determination took a hit. It was sort of a wake-up call. I was on phone with my parents while I was in the LRT Train (LRT: Light Rail Transit). My dad celebrated his Lunar 51st Birthday today. 51st birthday is one of the most meaningful moment according to chinese tradition, yet, I missed it. I was not there for him. After the phone conversation ended, I wandered into thoughts. Few days ago, I read this entry in my friend's blog, where he faced death for the first time in his life. He lost someone close in his life. That added some note to my thought as well.

One of the greatest fear for us, as human, is to lose something. Fears stake up more, if one loses something irreplacable, something that even Roman Abramovich cannot buy with his millions. There is a saying that money isn't everything. This is very true to certain extent. It is important to gain wealth, however, there are really something which has higher value than wealth. I have lost 5-6 years of time with my family, and I am going to lose more of those time when I decided to stay here for an extension of at least a year or two. Those time I have lost, I could never replace it even i become a millionaire one day. I could never buy the time when my nieces were born, when my nieces grew up, how my nieces grow from a cute cuddling baby to a grown up girl, when my parents celebrated their birthday, when my grandma celebrates her golden age, and the list grows on and on...

I had missed most of the moments I could not possibly turn it back now. And, we know that there might be a possibility that some of the events, may not occur anymore. How long can an individual live in this modern day? 70-80 years? A century is an unlikely mark to achieve now. My parents are at the half-century mark now. They have lost their time with their only son for 5-6 years, and most likely they'll have to endure that a little longer. I suddenly feel sorry for that.

How much value does money has? Is money really that powerful? I guess not, it is important, but not that important yet. I love my parents. I will make sure my adventure to this land will end after a year or two. I will not make them going through days, where they return to and empty home. They have endured a tough time already, spending years worrying and supporting me. It had been tough for them. I want to repay the time lost to my parents and my family.

Just a little longer.. I shall be back.. I am sorry..

Cherish love, cherish time, cherish your love ones..

Most of the time, things don't last forever... Cheish while you are still at it...

*Updated: The world is not just about me and myself only. I still have people whom I love, people whom I care, and someone whom I like.. I will not miss out on any chance and moment with them. At least I will try not to... I don't wanna miss a thing.

Merdeka!

Oh! Silly me.. How can I forget?

Merdeka! Merdeka! Merdeka!

48 years ago, Malaya declared independency from the English colonization. Led by the late Tunku Abdul Rahman, Malaysia's first Prime Minister, Malaya was born. 6 years later, Malaysia is officially formed when Sarawak, Sabah and Singapore (No wonder people remember Sabah better than Sarawak, it's the alphabetical effect. Despite Sarawak being the largest state in Malaysia, most people in Penisular knows not much about this land. How sad.) joins into Alliance of Malaysia. It was then 15 September 1963.

Some time later, 9 August.. Singapore withdrew from Malaysia, and declare itself as a nation.

Hmm. that's some bit of history. That's the best I could remember from my SPM days! Not too bad, consider the score I had for the History paper. Hehe.. Shh....

MERDEKA!!!!!

Picture of the Day

Since I have not much idea what to blog about, I will just emulate what my friend is doing in his blog (http://pinkeeywave.blogspot.com/). I'll just do this Picture of the Day thing.

So here it goes!

This pic is taken quite sometime ago. On the left is Menara Public (or Public Bank Tower.. or whatever it is..) on the right, you have.. heck.. I don't even know the name. It's the AmBank Building though.

Photos taken with Canon Powershot A70 (Shutter speed: 1/2 sec, Aperture: F5.6, ISO: N/A)

I just happen to forget what the ISO setting was. Hehe.

Is this too much 'Inside Baseball' for you?

Attorney Michael Gaynor is critical of Bill Donohue

Much to my surprise and disappointment, Mr. Donohue did not take the opportunity to support Mr. Balestrieri and instead told Mr. Arroyo and his audience on The World Over With Raymond Arroyo's August 26, 2005 program that there was much merit to Cardinal Theodore McCarrick's reluctance to have confrontation at the Communion rail.

Marc A. Balestrieri was fired from his job in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles for bringing a canonical case of excommunication against Senator John Kerry and started a web site De Fide to draw attention to the case.

You wouldn't expect Bill to denounce Cardinal McCarrick as a coward, would you?

Fr. Ryan Ericson suicide update

DA to seek families' advice on findings : AP

The families of two funeral home workers killed more than three years ago in western Wisconsin will advise a prosecutor on what to do with the findings of a police investigation into whether a priest was involved the slayings, the prosecutor said Monday...

Police said they finished their investigation into the February 2002 slayings of funeral home director Dan O'Connell and his intern, James Ellison, and any connection to the Rev. Ryan Erickson, who killed himself after officers interviewed him.

Johnson refused to reveal any details of the police probe until he divulged the findings to the victims' families in a meeting planned early in September.

O'Connell and Ellison were shot to death in the O'Connell Family Funeral Home. Hudson Police Chief Richard Trende has said investigators ruled out that the killings were random and listed the motive as personal.

Erickson was working at a church in Hudson at the time of the slayings. Investigations questioned him about the killings in 2004 as part of a separate investigation into an allegation involving a minor or minors, authorities have said.

Erickson committed suicide Dec. 19 outside his new parish in Hurley after police searched his church residence and office. Police said Erickson had denied any involvement in the slayings.

Trende has refused to say what led detectives to question the priest about the murders, and a judge has sealed court documents in the case, including requests for search warrants.

Pope Pius XII (Eugenio Pacelli)

I'm helping to edit his article in the Wikipedia

I've removed from the text that he was named venerable or a Servant of God.

I wasn't able to find any online reference to it or in recently published biographies of the Pope. I think people confused him with Pope Pius XI (Giovanni Ferretti) who was beatified in 2000.

So if you can verify that Pope Pius XII was named by the Congregation for the Causes of Saints to be a Servant of God or venerable, please let me know.

Also, if you know of maintained lists of the Servants of God, please let me know.

1350 miles in 48 hours.

From New York to IBM in Cambridge, Mass. to pick up my son and take him to the Entertainment Technology Center at
Carnegie Mellon in Pittsburgh.

and back to New York.

Where to put the video?

The 2 minute 45 second video is 52 MB. I'm looking for some free online storage
to host it. Does anyone know where I can get this hosted on a temporary or permanent basis?

Unproductive

Clock's showing exactly 10 minutes to 6p.m., I'll be gone off from the office when the minute-hand strikes the number 12. It's been an unproductive day for me. Not sure what I should blame to, but it just happens to be unproductive.

I spent the morning chatting away. Chat topic surrounds job and money. Clearly, that has been my main concern of late. It's really bothering me a lot, facing prospect without having a proper job when the industrial training expires is just unthinkable. Money is essential to survive in this city. Money is what I need to get before I make any other move. Yet, I have failed to secure an employement for myself. What has possiby gone wrong? Although I have other backup plan, but I would really wish that this matter can be resolved within this month.

Decision has been made, I was, and still am determined, to stay in pennisular for the duration I have initially planned. And, I will stick to the decision I have made. Having known the situation I am in, someone just can't stop telling me how other fresh grads are making better pay than he is right now. I am okay to be the listener and share. But I was okay until he just couldn't stop and went over the limit. As if he is taking me as a victim of his evil plan, putting me in more misery than I have had, just to ease his own problem. Man, I know my shit situation better than anyone out there; thus, I know what my priority should be. Time's ticking. I am playing a very dangerous game here.

So please, as low as your pay may be, as long as you have enough to keep you survive at this point, be GRATEFUL! Survive first and strike later! You can't do much if you don't survive at all. You're given no chance if you fail to survive! Now I am paving my way to survival, not knowing if I am able to make it to the survival shore or not. At least you're surviving, and you get to have a chance to strike back.

It's been 15 minutes since I first started with this entry. Signing off now...

WNBC-TV Dr. Max Gomez (with permission)

Summer Camp Helps Smart Kids Stay Focused

Like many kids, 11-year-old Joseph Sweeney spent most of his summer at day camp. But the camp he attends in The Bronx is different. All of the kids have Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, or ADHD.

"Joseph is a very vibrant person," said his mom, Karin. "Very imaginative. Lives in his imagination sometimes. In fact, the camp is working on that. And he's unfocused a lot of the time. But he has so much energy that he can't sleep at night. He just goes and goes and goes. And it's very hard to get him to finish things and to do homework.

"These are children who have a great deal of difficulty getting along with other kids, have very poor social skills," said Dr. Howard Abikoff of NYU’s Summer Program for Kids with ADHD. "It's hard for them to follow rules. They do poorly in school because it's hard for them to get their work done."

OK. But how does summer camp help?

Research shows that kids with ADHD respond to earning rewards for learning new skills. So at camp, they're awarded points and praise for appropriate behaviors, for reducing inappropriate ones and improving in areas they're having trouble with.

Those points earn rewards such as a place on a field trip or maybe a movie on campus.

It's run by the NYU Child Study Center and staffed by counselors who are psychology or education students. The camp's point system also helps children ages 7 to 11 develop social skills, and improve their academic performance in the classroom.

"So this is an opportunity for children to really practice and learn and get better at a lot of the skills that they struggle with during the year," said Abikoff.

"I think I’ve changed in my behavioral skills and my attention skills because I can't really keep someone's eye contact, as you can see," said Joseph. "But I’m more well-mannered and…I’m more attentive now."

"His older brother and sister are out of the house now," said Joseph's mom, Karin. "So the whole dynamics have changed. So if he gets a lot more attention than he would have before. He's negotiating less. He always wanted to extend time, he wanted to get this, can I get this, can I get that. And now he's realizing that no is no and you have to live by the rules."

Most importantly, kids continue their summertime gains throughout the year.

"And I believe that one of the reasons is that they enter school on a different footing"” said Karen Fleiss of the NYU program. "They are feeling more positive about themselves, they've had a great summer, they feel like they can do things differently and better than they did in the past. Of course, then people respond to them differently because they're acting differently and behaving differently and they're more mindful of the things that get them into struggles and difficulties."

Parents are also very involved with the camp, attending training sessions to continue the behavioral strategies at home.

The camp is a little pricey: $8000 for eight weeks. But there are scholarships available to eligible families.

For more information on the NYU Summer Program for Kids with ADHD, log on to their website.

title=Joe-NYU-SPK alt=Joe-NYU-SPK>

Heads Up: My son is featured on WNBC TV (New York) Wednesday

Wed. @ 5 p.m.: A special camp in Riverdale helps kids with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder conquer their difficulties.

Neither he nor I have seen the segment. I wonder how much of his interview will be in the segment.

I also hope that they put the segment into their video feed room.

UPDATE: My son did an awesome job in the segment. My wife appeared in the segment as well. The news anchors Chuck and Darlene called my son cute and articulate.

The Children

Laura Ingraham is sick and tired of it and so am I.
They are men and women who volunteer. They are over 18. They are adults not children.

The spin that those opposed to the war have in using children is that they
lacked mature judgment. Members of the armed services have been calling to say they
are insulted by being called children.

In Explaining Life's Complexity, Darwinists and Doubters Clash: New York Times (Monday)

Scientists Speak Up on Mix of God and Science: New York Times (Tuesday)

It's the Times so you know it's biased before you read it:

At a recent scientific conference at City College of New York, a student in the audience rose to ask the panelists an unexpected question: "Can you be a good scientist and believe in God?"

Reaction from one of the panelists, all Nobel laureates, was quick and sharp. "No!" declared Herbert A. Hauptman, who shared the chemistry prize in 1985 for his work on the structure of crystals.

The correct question is "Can you be a good scientist and disregard the evidence that the origin and development of life cannot be explained by random mutation and natural selection?"

Another question with the wrong answer:

"One of the rules of science is, no miracles allowed," said Douglas H. Erwin, a paleobiologist at the Smithsonian Institution. "That's a fundamental presumption of what we do."

What do you call the tornado that blows through a junkyard and assembles a Boeing 747?

The appearance of biochemical machines that have been recently discovered are things where all the parts have to have been developed at the same time. Natural selection would not keep selecting incomplete versions of the clotting sequences. This contradiction is not being addressed head on, but Neo-Darwinists are distracting the public from awareness of the new challenges to Darwinism.

There's an appeal to miracles (or more precisely, the Neo-Darwinists of the future) that someone will discover how incomplete biochemical mechanisms were selected.

I think there's an Occam's Razor quality to saying design explains specified complexity and irreducible complexity better than random mutation and natural selection.

It's more than science, it's in the semiotic or rhetorical domain to understand the framing the question is the game that's being played here:

• Linking Intelligent Design with six day creationism.
  
• Saying that assuming the existence of God makes it not a science, while assuming the non-existence of God makes it a science.
  
• Linking ID to religion rather than to skepticism of random mutation and natural selection as explaining the origin of life.
  
• Denying history — the strong links between Darwin and his early advocates like Huxley with atheists like Marx and eugenicists.
  

The natural impulse to believe in a higher power is now effectively blunted by "science" which imposes in elementary and high schools a fundamental philosophical system of materialism and mocks the idea that the natural order points to the existence of a supernatural order.

Update: The National Centre for Padre Pio, Barto, PA

Promise Kept, Devotion Shared : Delaware Online

On a rising sweep of land in rural Pennsylvania there is a remarkable testament to a family's gratitude.

What was once a stretch of farmland is now a multimillion-dollar museum, chapel and memorial to Padre Pio, a Capuchin friar canonized as a saint in 2002 by Pope John Paul II. Revered as a great miracle worker of the 20th century, Padre Pio's following can be likened to that of Mother Teresa -- for his beatification, more than 22,000 people flocked to the shrine to give thanks.

No sign of Masses being celebrated at the center so I'm guessing that the suspension of the celebration of Masses at the Center was not resolved. The Center has no canonical status and its appeal of the the decree of Bishop Cullen of Allentown was easily rejected. The bishop had demanded the board resign so that he could appoint a new board and institute new bylaws. Compliance with this would be impossible as the Center is not allowed this sort of restructuring without the permission of the bank who is the mortgage holder for the non-profit corporation.

TV Heads Up Dept.: The Myth of Hitler's Pope on Book TV The Myth of Hitler's Pope: How Pope Pius XII Rescued Jews from the Nazis by David Dalin Rabbi David Dalin writes that Pope Pius XII was not complicit with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi party, as some historians contend. In his new book, "The Myth of Hitler's Pope: How Pope Pius XII Rescued Jews from the Nazis," Rabbi Dalin examines the actions of Pope Pius XII and also traces the actions of the Catholic Church during the late 1930s and through World War II. The author writes that Pope Pius XII was not an anti-Semite and that the Catholic Church did more than any other religion to save the lives of European Jews during the Holocaust. (Check the Book TV web site for repeats.

Random

English Premiership has got their season started last week. And, I am really slow to put my update here! I haven't really got much time lately. Sigh. Anyways, great start for Manchester United. Led by Rooney and Ruud, Manchester got their winning start at Everton with a 2-0 victory. Defending champion Chelsea was really lucky to walk away with a 1-0 victory at Wigan. Credit to Wigan, Chelsea deserved nothing to win that match. Wigan was mighty holding off Chelsea for more than 90 minutes, only an injury-time-Crespo goal spoilt the party. Arsenal also managed to get off a winning start by beating 10-man Newcastle United. Goals didn't come until the last 10 minutes, where Henry scored from penalty. European champion Liverpool had to settle for a draw with Middlesborough despite an inspiring effort by skipper Steven G.

Results else where: Aston Villa 2 - 2 Bolton, Man City 0 - 0 WBA, Sunderland 1 - 3 Charlton, Tottenham 2 - 0 Portsmouth, Fulham 0 - 0 Birmingham, Everton 0 - 2 MU, Arsenal 2 - 0 Newcastle, Wigan 0 - 1 Chelsea, West Ham 3 - 1 Blackburn.

Where will Owen go before transfer window closes on 31 August? I sure hope Man Utd can snap him up. This week should see Nakata in action with Bolton (or not? can't remember the report), Edgar Davids making Debut with Hot Spurs.

Special Note: Made a personal record by watching 3 movies in a row. Stealth is a no brainer. Story line sucks big time. If you're looking for actions and explosions, it is still okay. Fantastic 4 isn't that BAD! Just that I have to agree on it's story line, it lacks development. Probably too many superheros in the movie. Pace of movie was moving too quickly till at a point. Anyways, Jessica Alba sure is hot. *drools!*

August 1998

With the current discussion of the failure of the military, CIA, and FBI to exchange information in 2000 and 2001 to prevent the 9/11 attack, 1998 becomes relevant.

This is the forgotten 7th anniversary of coordinated terrorist bombings United States embassies in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, and Nairobi, Kenya which killed 224 people and injured over 4,500. This brought worldwide attention to Osama bin Laden who took full credit for the attack.

The analysis of how this could have happened brought to the page of the New York Times claims agencies were not communicating with each other because of historical turf guarding. The ambassador had warned the State Department of the building's vulnerability to any street-level blast and nothing was done because it was not in that year's budget.

Elsewhere, the Taliban were closing in on Kabul, and the United Nations was shocked (again) that Iraq was no longer cooperating with its inspectors.

Polish priest in anti-Semitic outburst : World Jewish Congress

A Polish priest has criticized laws allegedly imposed on his country by "Jewish bankers" and others. Henryk Jankowski, who had been banned from preaching for a year some years ago because of earlier anti-Semitic remarks, made the comments in Gdansk during anniversary celebrations of the anti-Communist workers strikes in 1980 which were a precursor to the fall of the Iron Curtain. "We are filled with horror when laws are imposed upon us that are thought up by anti-Catholic Masons, Jewish bankers and hell-born atheistic Socialists," Jankowski said.

The hell-born were not available for comment.

Seriously, I thought his most recent suspension was in 2004 and still in effect.

I expect this might be used by the MSM to serve as a distraction from the good coverage at WYD.

Go, Roberts, Go

The left is going nuts because it seems that Roberts really is in his heart and soul, as evidenced by his time in the Reagan White House, one of us.

Here's some wailing and gnashing of teeth:

Victory Through Intimidation : People For the American Way

The day before he spoke at "Justice Sunday II," the Catholic League’s Bill Donohue openly admitted that he hopes to intimidate the Senate Judiciary Committee into confirming John Roberts to a seat on the Supreme Court.

Poor choice of words, Bill. Don't give the enemy ammo like this.

Families Of 9/11 Victims File Lawsuit Seeking Dignified Burials : NY1

World Trade Center family members who lost loved ones in the 9/11 terror attacks have filed a federal lawsuit seeking the "dignified burial" of ashen remains and body fragments bulldozed into Staten Island's Fresh Kills landfill.

The group "WTC Families for Proper Burial" said Wednesday it wants the ashen remains and body fragments still in the now-closed landfill to be buried in a cemetery.

I may have breathed into my body the dust that once was the human beings incinerated in the World Trade Center. Anything that could have been identified as being human remains was long ago separated from the landfill. What is in the landfill is only the dust and tiniest of fragments of once was living human beings — as one of the plantiffs said "microscopic".

As the mayor already declared, it would take hundreds of millions to remove the landfill and return it to the World Trade Center site.

I don't think the remains have been treated with disrespect. Here's the real problem: while there's massive rebuilding around the WTC site, the WTC site is locked into disputes over who's in charge and what's going to be built there.

Conservative Compassion

Edmund Morris, the biographer of Ronald Reagan, has an excellent op-ed in the New York Times on the matter of the current president meeting political protester, Cindy Sheehan.

CBS 2 Exclusive: The Monsignor's Side Of The Story

CBS 2 has learned exclusive details of what may have happened between a high-profile monsignor and his secretary at a Long Island motel.

Monsignor Eugene Clark has kept a low profile since the scandal broke last week, but now says nothing improper happened in that hotel room.

You'll recall that Clark, the former rector at St. Patrick's Cathedral, is accused of having a long-running affair with his secretary, Laura DiFilippo.

In July, the two of them spent five hours together at the White Sands Motel in Amagansett, caught on video by a private eye hired by Laura's husband. But a source tells CBS 2's Tony Aiello that Clark insists nothing improper went on, saying they merely stopped to rest after a long lunch before the drive back to Manhattan.

The source says they wanted to catch some rays at the motel's private beach, but were told they had to register to use it, so they did just that.

Clark disputes a report he registered using a phony name.

He says DeFilippo worked on her tan and napped outside, while he worked on some papers. Clark claims he spent only a few minutes inside the room with his secretary.

He also denies press reports that he took DeFilippo to the West Indies resort island of St. Barts. Clark says he vacations there every year, but never went there with DeFilippo. He says she went there on her own, after hearing him rave about it.

Our source also tells Aiello that Clark is bothered by questions in the press about his million-dollar home in Amagansett. He says the home has been in his family for many years, and he shares it with other members of the family.

He's got a million-dollar home in the neighborhood, what does he need a motel for?
What kind of lunch makes you want to take a five hour break afterwards?

Karol, un uomo diventato Papa (A Man Who Became Pope)

Great movie. I taped it. I agree the pacing was slow at parts. In a regular movie there's a little suspense regarding the outcome but here, certainly all the viewers know that the Nazis get kicked out in '45 and the Reds get kicked out in '90. I think the movie could have been helped with a voiceover narration to help bridge the gaps and move the story along faster.

Others have complained that the accents reminded people of Colonel Klink in Hogan's Heroes. That's quite harsh but also a little true.

The actor who plays the Communist villain (Julian Kordek) is Hristo Shopov. He portrayed Pilate in The Passion on the Christ

Wiccan Seeks $65,000 in Public Prayer Case: Fox News

A small South Carolina town is facing a hefty legal bill after losing a battle over whether it should stop using Jesus Christ's name in prayers before council meetings.

The U.S. Supreme Court refused in June to hear the town's appeal of a lower court ruling over the prayers.

Now Darla Wynne wants Great Falls to pay her more than $65,000 to cover legal bills. A judge is expected to rule on the matter within the next two months.

Wynne, who describes herself as a Wiccan priestess, sued Great Falls in 2001, saying the town violated the separation between church and state by using the name Jesus Christ in prayers because it promoted one religion over the other.

The money is not covered by insurance, and it is unclear where the town about 2,200 residents would get the cash. The amount is about 7 percent its annual budget.

They might want to contact the Archdiocese of Portland for help with this.

At only $29.50 per resident, it looks cheap compared to the burden on Catholics in the settlement of sexual abuse cases.

If this is ultimately sucessful, expect nuisance lawsuits to erupt all over the country by wiccans, atheists, etc.

I thought it had been demolished already...

Brigid's stay extended again : The Villager

A temporary restraining order against demolition of the St. Brigid's [Catholic] Church building has been extended to Aug. 30 [2005], when State Supreme Court Justice Barbara R. Kapnick will hear argument in the suit to preserve the building by the Committee to Save St. Brigid's against the Catholic Archdiocese of New York. At left, inside St. Brigid's, statues have been taken down and some wrapped in plastic.

The Church is not a landmark but historically significant as the first church build by the newly arrived Irish in 1848 after the famine and the first great wave of Irish immigration.

If you are in New York City, the exterior of the church can be seen
at 119 Avenue B (between East Seventh and Eighth Streets). The protest web site
is Anti-Abomination

Hallmark Channel
is presenting a biography of Pope John Paul II tonight (sorry about the late notice)

The producers web site is Faith Streams

Everything you want to know about Cindy Sheehan

is over at Newbusters

She is Catholic, not that there's anything wrong with that.

More documentation of how the MSM (i.e. the AP) is distorting her story
over at Lone Star News

No news on Clark-DeFillipo, but

I know that I'm getting hits for covering this as a Catholic story and media watching story:

The New York Daily News has some photographs that are worth a look if you want to see a wedding photo and some happy days from the past.

Another case where the New Media does what Old Media refuses to do

Sen. Dick Durbin and old media closed ranks around the question of whether Durbin had
asked Supreme Court nominee John Roberts "what he would do if the law required a ruling that his church considers immoral". Washington Times quoting LA Times

Durbin denied it. His spokesman denied it. The trouble is they were George Washington Univesity Law Professor Jonathan Turley's sources and there's email and phone calls to back Turley up.

Roberts answer to recuse himself was wrong. As Turley argues, religious belief should not disqualify a judge. The original Turley op-ed doesn't appear to be online.
Turley wrote:

It was also the wrong answer. In taking office, a justice takes an oath to uphold the Constitution and the laws of the United States. A judge's personal religious views should have no role in the interpretation of the laws.

How could Durbin and his staff be so stupid as to deny conversations with a law professor on the record?

I didn't discuss this in the blog, but there's a discussion in Amy Welborn's blog of the Roberts statement from July 25.

Power Line and the other ConBlogs are discussing the Durbin-as-liar aspect of the story now.

Cindy Sheehan

She has the moral authority of any mother who has lost a son in war, the sympathy of the President and a grateful nation.

On everything else, she's another lying political hack. She's using the media. The media is using her. Everyone on talk radio is using her
grief as a shield for all sorts of nonsense from the paranoids: the Downing Street memo, Haliburton, where are weapons of mass destruction, etc. which we have been hearing since 2002.

No one in MSM would cover this if she supported the President's Iraq strategy.

Doesn't she remind you of Lori Berenson, the 22 year old woman who joined terrorists in Peru, or Rachel Corrie, 23, killed by a bulldozer which she believed would be able to stop before it crushed her?

Her 15 minutes of fame is ending soon.

Detraction:

the sin of making the faults of another known without sufficient reason.

Husband's No Saint Either: New York Post

The man [Philip DeFilippo] accusing his wife [Laura] of having a torrid affair with St. Patrick's Cathedral rector Eugene Clark has fibbed about his work history, quit a job as a cop after three days, sued NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly, and gotten hauled into court on charges he swiped a toaster.

So, I guess it's ok to destroy his marriage.

Longest running television commerical

was for a set classical music records featuring an actor named
John Williams (not the composer)

In this commerical he asked "Do remember this song as
'Strangers in Paradise'? Well, it is actually Polovetsian Dance Number 4 by Borodin."

This commercial was satirized by comedian Robert Klein in the 70's with "Every song ever recorded". I believe this is on his "Child of the 50's" CD.

And with DVD and next generation HD-DVD, this will be possible.

This is the sort of stuff that only people over 50 know now.

Connections

I was reading one article on asymmetrical warfare in Iraq and then an article on labor strife in London where a handful of strikers triggered a cascade of events resulting in the loss of over $100 million to British Airways. Labor laws make this strike by workers supporting 600 workers who lost their jobs legal there. The loss works out to $167,000 per job. That's a big ouch! Asymmetrical economic warfare. I'm not an expert but I believe that such sympathy strikes are not legal in the US.

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Thumbnails from the published news coverage of Rectorgate.

Click on the image to see it its full size from Newsday. Avert your eyes if she seems immodest to you.

Lead Us Not Into Temptation

A point I've made in the comment boxes, and this is especially addressed to you married men -- stay clear of temptation.

Don't do one on one lunches with female co-workers.

Don't over-compliment women -- especially when they see this as a opening to closer social contact.

Never do overnight business travel with a female co-worker.

Never go to a strip club.

Don't hang out with men who brag about their affairs, encounters with prostitutes, etc.

Do watch Fatal Attraction

Love your wife.

Bush attack for 9/11 lack of vigilance backfires.

If Able Danger doesn't make any sense to you, read this
Fox News before proceeding.

The idea was to attack Bush for not getting Atta before 9/11. Earlier in the week, the old anti-Bush partisan 9/11 commissioners spoke out and demanded answers. They make regret doing so.

It turns out that it was the Clinton administration who was asleep and blocking useful flows of information between the military and civilian parts of the government.

If Deborah Orin is correct it may turn out the Gorelick was the catylst for Atta's evasion of the FBI and during the 9/11 investigation used her position in the commission to cover-up this and perhaps other opportunities to have stopped the hijackers.

The MSM is dropping the ball and not talk radio and bloggers have to run with it.

With eerie foresight, [United States Attorney Mary Jo] White warned that the Reno-Gorelick wall hindered law enforcement and could cost lives, according to sources familiar with the memo — which is still secret.

Required Reading:Whispers in the Loggia

Rocco made the connection to resigned-at-age 59, Bishop James McCarthy. I should have recalled that one myself. (Doh!)

This CNN story reported that he admitted to sexual relationships with more than one adult woman.

While resigning, Msgr. Clark denies the allegations.

alt="Joseph Zwilling" title="Joseph Zwilling">
In both cases, Cardinal Egan didn't face the media but let Joseph Zwilling represent him.

Zwilling is very professional and for people who get their news exclusively from TV, they have seen his face more than the face of the cardinal. I think that since his appointment to Cardinal, I've even seen Cardinal O'Connor's face on TV more than Cardinal Egan's. That's what I call a low profile.

How the MSM gets its digs in

So we make the trip to Westchester, and this dude doesn't want to talk to us...
Let's have a little fun as we get our payback. We're media and we buy ink by the barrel. NY Post

...But yesterday, Philip DeFilippo, who turned to the media to air his family's dirty laundry, hid like a frightened child inside his Eastchester home, peering out occasionally.

The DeFilippos' 14-year- old daughter — who told police in sworn statements how she saw her mom kissing and sitting on the monsignor's lap in his hot tub — was dropped off at the home yesterday by women who called reporters "bastards."

Philip DeFilippo at one point scampered out of his home to his car — after covering his windows and concealing his license plate with wrapping paper. His neighbors used another car to block in the media.

Try this nonsense at the home of Hillary Clinton and see what happens to the media...

Beyond sharing some information that's only been reported in New York local media,

I want to let everyone know that this is not a "gotcha" game to me. The victims here are many, first let's not forget that adultery, as official spokesman of Cardinal Egan, Joseph Zwilling reminds us is no longer a criminal act. It remains unspoken that it is a mortal sin against God and against Philip DeFilippo.

The reputation of all priests has been harmed. The reputation of Catholics who accept the teaching of the Church on sexual morality is harmed and undermined.
He's connected to Legatus, EWTN, and the Knights of Malta. Our ememies are delighted.

It's a betrayal. It's probably the Clinton excuse: "...because I could...".

Today's links:
Newsday

NY Daily News and its editorial

New York Times

New York Post 'Randy' Rev. Casts Himself Out, with glamourous picture of "lay person" Laura DiFilippo.

Catholic World News Diogenes on Monsignor Clark

Diogenes wishes that the denial was really an expression of repentance. He points out even if a crime was not committed, the integrity of the DiFilippo's marriage has been harmed. That a priest is held to a different standard is clear from Canon Law ("clerics are to shun completely everything that is unbecoming to their state" -- Canon 285), and Diogenes calls this "objectively blameworthy".

A comment I've added there

Clark's lawyer said on Tuesday that the allegations of sexual impropriety had been "contrived" from "innocent events." But what is the innocent explanation for checking into a hotel under an assumed name for five hours during the daytime and changing clothes in the middle of the day? Don't tell me what he didn't do. What did he do (given the facts and pictures he has not denied)? Now that would be a denial with some credibility.

Reality..

One boy was floating in the cloud few days back.
One boy is down with frustrations.
One boy was hanging over the sweet moments he had.
One boy is now back in reality.

The girl was sweet and lovely.
The girl is sweet and lovely.
The girl was happy, and so was he.
But the girl is still not his.

Haze clouds the capitol.
Doubts clouds the boy.
Haze cleared a little bit, showing signs of better hope.
Hope that it is the same for the boy.

Roberts: "whose ideology leads him to excuse violence against other Americans."

The New York Times gives free publicity to NARAL's campaign against Roberts.

The Roberts supports anti-abortion terrorism ad

Things like this are so over the top, it's going to backfire.

The new media is going to point out the lies in this. Thankfully, the last abortion clinic bombing was 1998 (Eric Rudolph in Birmingham) -- seven years ago. Sometimes I think the other side hopes that there will be another bombing.

Some internal dissent on the left. Our very own Frances Kissling thinks it bad for the movement on tactical grounds:

Within the larger liberal coalition of which Naral is a part, there was considerable uneasiness about the advertisement, although leaders of other groups generally refused to speak on the record. One who did, Frances Kissling, the longtime president of Catholics for a Free Choice, said she was "deeply upset and offended" by the advertisement, which she called "far too intemperate and far too personal."

Ms. Kissling, who initiated the conversation with a reporter, said the ad "does step over the line into the kind of personal character attack we shouldn't be engaging in."

She added: "As a pro-choice person, I don't like being placed on the defensive by my leaders. Naral should pull it and move on."

Monsignor Clark Resigns

but does not confess, apologize, admit, repent, etc.

AP :Newsday

NY1 TV

More details emerged: the teenaged daughter of Laura DeFilippo was aware of the alleged affair and informed her father. The period when the the two were in the hotel was five hours during the daylight under a false name in a single room. Entering and leaving the hotel, they wore different clothes. The clothing worn by Mrs. DeFilippo can only be described as short-shorts -- just covering the bottom of the buttocks. It was not a "business casual" attire day.

These are hard facts that are very difficult to explain away.

Ponder this:

Archdiocesan spokesman Joseph Zwilling had said Wednesday that Clark was not asked to step down as rector because unlike priests who were accused of molesting boys, he was not accused of anything illegal and was denying the allegations.

Update: (I don't make this stuff up)

And in signed statements to Eastchester Police in Westchester County, Philip DeFilippo, his 14-year-old daughter and his wife's sister all describe how the teen allegedly found her mother "sitting on [Clark's] lap wearing a satin teddy."

The girl told police she ran to her room where her mother "yelled at me, convincing me that I didn't see what I saw, and it wasn't what I thought. She told me that he had prostate cancer, and I couldn't tell anyone what I saw or I would be in trouble."

Is this too much information?

Photographs of Monsignor Clark and Secretary Raise Questions

This one isn't on the wires yet. It apparently was an exclusive to Fox 5 News in New York:

Monsignor Eugene Clark, the rector of St. Patrick's Cathedral, was photographed in the company of his secretary at a motel in the Hamptons (over 100 miles away from his Cathedral). He's 71 and she's 46.

The photographs were apparently taken by a detective working for her husband. They are in the middle of a divorce.

Update: Also, WCBS TV

WABC TV

NY Daily News and also Michael Daly's column

NY Times

NY Post

Readers here might recall that Monsignor Clark gained national attention in 2002 for assigning responsibility for the sexual abuse crisis to non-celibate gay priests in a sermon at St. Patrick's Cathedral. (CBS News) I thought the Archdiocese was disgraceful in disavowing the rector with "he was speaking for himself." -- with the implication that Cardinal Egan wouldn't speak to responsibility for the scandal then (or it seems, ever)

No Irish Need Apply: A Myth of Victimization

Blogger Credit: NRO Corner

I will be watching for reaction to this in the Irish and Irish-American media.

I never saw "No Irish Need Apply" -- I was a wee lad of 6 when JFK was elected, but I was told this was the case in the New York up to about World War I.

Priceless Joy

One boy came home smiling last night.
One boy came home in the train smiling last night.
He just couldn't stop the happiness flowing out from his heart.
A sense of delight filled the boy's emotion.
He is almost floating to the sky, though he is firmly seated on the chair.
This new found joy for this boy, has been difficult to be expressed, hard to be explained.

Maybe these are the reasons...

The smile on her face.. priceless.
The excited look on her face.. priceless.
The joy that burst out from the inner her.. priceless.
The moment the boy gets to see all these first hand.. most priceless!

The Priceless Reasons..

Happy Birthday, girl! Glad that you enjoyed yourself. ^_^
-09/08/05-

A terrorist becomes a priest

Domenico Bettinelli blogs


The Redemption of Shane Paul O'Doherty : Boston Globe

Shane Paul O’Doherty is not perfect. He is a pacifist and rejects the Church’s teaching on just war, but I suppose that is to be expected from a man who completely rejected his violent and murderous past while spending 14-1/2 years in an English prison.

What about the opposite path? A priest who becomes a terrorist.

Patrick Moloney, Irish born, American resident, Mekite priest and convicted of possession of money from the fifth largest armored car heist in history: the Brinks robbery of 1993 $7.4 million cash taken from a depot. The cash was never recovered but it is believed to have been given to the IRA.

Samuel Millar has admitted to the robbery in a recently published book,

On The Brinks
Fr. Pat was suspected in the robbery but never charged. He maintained his innocence of both the robbery and the stolen cash possession. I don't know if he has been implicated by Millar or the other conspirators in the time since the statue of limitations expired.

Blogger inversion: agreement with Alan Dershowitz on the Vatican's non-mention of
Israel as a victim of terrorism

The Vatican's Terrorism Omission : FrontPage

...[The Vatican] singled out Israel for criticism, saying that that beleaguered nation’s responses to attacks against its civilians was “not always compatible with the rules of international law.” It then went on to say that the Vatican could not protest every Palestinian attack against Jewish civilians if Israel did not always follow international law.

Let’s try to understand what this means. Unless a country is absolutely flawless in its response to terrorism, the Vatican will not condemn terrorism against its civilian citizens. This seems to justify the killing of civilians as a protest against violation of international law.

Blogger Credit to: Mystery Achievement

It's the double standard: every Muslim country gets a free pass on their rejection of international law, Israel is held to a higher standard. Israel makes real concessions like withdrawing from Gaza while getting nothing but empty promises in return.

Hiroshima and Nagasaki: unequivocal condemnation from the American Bishops

U.S. Bishops Mark Anniversary of Atomic Bombings, Reaffirm Condemnation of 'Total War'
- has the full text of the statement.

No matter how noble the ends of a war may be, they cannot justify employing means or weapons that fail to discriminate between noncombatants and combatants. As the Second Vatican Council declared, "Every act of war directed to the indiscriminate destruction of whole cities or vast areas with their inhabitants is a crime against God and man, which merits firm and unequivocal condemnation." (Gaudium et Spes, no. 80)

Also discussed in Catholic World News.
where I commented (edited from its original form):

Does anyone recall a letter sent by the Japanese Bishop's Conference to the United States with their unequivocal condemnation of "indiscriminate destruction and death to civilians and soldiers alike" on the 60th anniversary of Pearl Harbor on December 7, 2001?

To end the war, a land invasion of Japan would be necessary. We may quibble about the exact number of deaths and injuries, but it certainly would have been more in a land invasion than those consequential to the atomic bomb. It shortened the war.

Are the bishops suggesting that we should have surrendered in 1941 or that in 1945 we negotiate a ceasefire that would allow Tojo to remain Prime Minister? What is their peace plan for 1945? To slowly starve the Japanese people with a nonviolent naval blockade?

It's odd to condemn the dead leaders of the United States for a great moral evil of 60 years ago when they are silent on today's slaughter of the unborn for which living American leaders, among them Catholics, are responsible.

Victory is achieved in a war only when the other side concedes defeat. Any suspension of hostilities would only allow the Japanese government to retool and accumulate more soldiers and weapons. How to make the Japanese War Cabinet concede defeat? is the critical question. Arguments that rely on American knowledge or estimates or Soviet knowledge or estimates are irrelevant. What matters is what Japan thought about their own ability to make the Americans pay such a high cost to defeat them that they would seek a negotiated peace.

The Japanese were willing to pay a high price indeed: on Iwo Jima only 200 of the 21,000 of the Japanese garrison survived. The rest were killed, wounded, captured, or missing. The American cost was 6821 killed and 20,000 wounded. Both Japanese and American commanders extrapolated the numbers to invasion of the Japanese mainland.

The other alternatives to invasion are just as deadly: In brief, they are bomb them to the stone age with conventional bombs and let the Soviets absorb 250,000 casualities and allow them repeat what they did to Germany in Japan.

Why philosophy professors are not held in high esteem

They write

Robbing PETA to Spay Paul: Do Animal Rights Include Reproductive Rights? forthcoming in Between the Species.
Colorado University

while the rest of us wonder if we will be given nutrition or hydration when we are no longer able to swallow.

Hiroshima 60

Thank God we got the bomb before Hitler or Tojo.

Thank God we didn't have to invade Japan and take hundreds of thousands of casualities and in the process kill millions of Japanese combatants and civilians.

	Day by day objective account of what was going on in the countdown to 8/6/1945.
	Argues that the bomb was not necessary to force Japanese surrender
	A focus on the influences upon Truman's decision making. Material on how history has been written since 1945 on the subject.
	Okinawa and the lessons learned from the experience -- the awful expectation of the horrors of this battle multiplied a thousandfold on the Japanese mainland.

On the other side of the subway turnstile

My bags were not checked today. It would have been interesting since I was collecting stuff on Islam, the decision to use the atomic bomb at the end of World War II, and what was passed from the native American culture to the European-American culture in British North America and later, the United States.

On the other side, a young woman with leaflets shouting "Stop Dick Cheney's Secret Plan to Invade Iraq."

I answered her: "I agree. Syria first."

Analysis: The big picture behind the Vatican spat : Jerusalem Post

My summary: Israel watched for several years how the Vatican ignored terrorism directed at Israel. With the election of a new pope, it was now opportune for Israel to show that the status quo would no longer be accepted. Making the complaint on the July 12 Netanya suicide bombing was that start.

N.Y. Teacher Accused of Raping Boy: Fox News

A 42-year-old teacher at a Catholic school who was charged with rape for allegedly having sex with an underage male student posted a $20,000 bond Tuesday and was released from jail.

Authorities said Sandra Beth Geisel had sex with four students from the Christian Brothers Academy in Colonie, N.Y., but in three of the cases the boys were 17-years-old and therefore were legally able to give their consent. Geisel faces sexual assault charges for allegedly having sex with a 16-year-old boy.

John Aretakis, who has represented alleged victims of clerical sexual abuse and is now the lawyer for a 17-year-old CBA student who allegedly had sex with Geisel, said the school ignored her "bizarre and irresponsible behavior" for months.

John Aretakis has been mentioned before in this blog. He has represented many victims of sexual abuse in the Albany diocese.

Other articles discuss the double standard when it comes to treating male perpetrators differently from female perpetrators.

Follow-up on vandalism to statue of St. Anne

After Saints Preserve Us, She Returns the Favor : NY Times

George Ferrandi has seen saints at their worst - stained by lipstick, burned, cracked and faded - and with skilled hands and the tools of her trade, she skillfully restores them. She gives them a makeover and has built a career out of it.

Saints preserve us, the saying goes, but Ms. Ferrandi helps preserve saints.

Ms. Ferrandi (who goes by George even though her name is Georgina) combined the knowledge from her graduate degree in sculpture with her experience in her father's church restoration business to found her own company that fixes religious statuary, primarily Roman Catholic figures.

When St. Francis needs retouching or there is a crack in the Madonna, Ms. Ferrandi, 38, is the one who gets the call.

Her phone rang again recently after a 25-year-old man who the police said had a history of mental illness attacked a granite statue of St. Anne, the mother of Mary, outside a Roman Catholic church in Queens Village with a sword and a shotgun, decapitating the sculpture. Two police officers responding to emergency calls were shot and wounded by the man outside SS. Joachim and Anne Roman Catholic Church.

An infinity of lies

I'm blogging on what in New York is major news: Pataki is doing something about something.

The lies start with: (1) Artificial contraception (although "artificial" is often dropped as it is implied) is good while abortion is bad. The truth is artificial
contraception is a violation of natural law as well as abortion (the killing of the unborn).

(2) Lie: So-called emergency contraceptives prevent conception. Although there's a little more honesty among the promoters now, it's clear that they are designed to prevent implantation. They make the uterus a toxic environment to the unborn child (aka human zygote).

(3) Lie: Pregancy commences after implantation triggers detectable horomone changes in the mother. In this lexicon they don't have a word to describe a woman carrying in her body a non-implanted unborn child (aka human zygote).

(4) Lie: Emergency contraceptives need to be available over the counter to minors. These are drugs which have dangerous side effects. We've raised the mimium drinking age in New York to 21. It seems to be a different set of rules when it applies to sex.

(5) Lie: Emergency contraceptives prevent abortions. This is a lie if you accept that life begins at fertilization. Scientifically, this is the point where a unique individual of the human species takes on a form for which the design is immutable from this point forward.

Pataki spokesman Kevin Quinn had said Sunday night the governor was prepared to veto what he called the "politically expedient" legislation primarily because it "fails to include any commonsense protections for minors." (Newsday)

Yeah, it's a politically motivated veto, but a good politically motivated veto. Pataki has stated that he will not run for a fourth term in 2006 and it is speculated that he might run for the Presidential nomination.