I made a pro-life connection when I first saw this image

Is or isn't this baby connected to his/her mother's body?

Are you satisfied you are looking at two people?

In any event, this is product for sale so let me plug the vendor Peekathru at mom4life.com and HT to urlesque.com

I see a pattern emerging (and I will explain the pirate picture)

In the aftermath of the sexual abuse scandal it seems that legions of anonymous cowards have stepped forward to verbally defecate over every news item or blog posting that mentions "priest" to make a crude reference to child molestation. Before I give an example of this, so you too can recognize it, let me give you two core truths about the scandal of sexual abuse:

The scandal was to a very large extent (perhaps as high as 80%), about homosexual relationships between priests and sexually mature males -- many under 18 and many over 18. Another segment was heterosexual relationships between priests and unmarried women over 18 (immoral but not illegal), and women who were married (which would be both immoral and legally actionable) and the smallest segment: sexually immature (i.e. prepubescent) boys and girls - illegal and morally depraved.

Sexual abuse of children respects no occupational boundaries: it occurs more frequently among public school teachers and doctors. There are child sexual abusers among police officers and fire fighters, politicians and Wall Street executives, show business types and Internet technologists, venture capitalists and bloggers. It is in no sense specially prevalent in the Catholic priesthood.

Many people hate the Catholic Church. It is just a sad fact of post-Enlightenment post-modern and post-Christian United States. The task at hand is to call them out. Answer them with charity or answer them with sarcasm -- whatever fits the circumstances and audience and your blogging skills. I've been doing this for 25 years starting with USENET and Compuserve, and I am not alone.

To the particular case of the Pirate and the Priest:

One has to feel sorry for Father Commolly. Whether or not he said what was attributed to him, his goose has been cooked by the narrative given by Paul and Peggy Kanigoski. We should all give Father tactical support. The statue in full is soft-porn like a Victoria Secrets ad. It is objectifying the image of women. However, this is not high on my list of priorities. Women walk around with less on top during the summer in New York or any major city in the US. Sex sells. I think it more important to tell people that images like this subtract from human dignity rather that letting the Kanigoski's claim a cheap Larry Flynt-like martyrdom, and open door to the the sneers of the stupid comment boxers.

Here are the links:

WNEP (video link), I think this is the origin

asylum.com anti-Catholic comments

Reading Eagle (editor's blog) anti-Catholic comments

Baltimore Sun
(comments)

Examiner blog (comments)

I have decided to post a modest picture of the statue. You can use your imagination or click on one of the above links.

Let me also mention that Curt Jester blogged on this earlier in the day.

Signs of the Apocalypse Dept.

Missouri farmer's male calf born with two heads

A southwest Missouri cattleman has been delivering calves at his farm for a long time, but a calf born this week sure was different. This one had two heads. Scott Clift said he delivered the chocolate-colored male calf Wednesday morning at his farm near Aldrich, in Polk County. Clift said the calf had two fully-formed heads that appeared to be connected to its body just behind the skull.

Total Awesome Catholic Pro-Life Ad

via Nation Review Online: Media Blog

They cried out -- Give us Frosty

Man protests commercialized Christmas by crucifying Santa - literally : New York Daily News

If you've stood in one line too many at the mall as you watched your bank account dwindle and your credit debt rise this holiday season, you might find a kindred spirit in Art Conrad.

The Bremerton, Wash., resident is fed up with the commercial aspects of Christmas, and he's voicing his protest in the form of some unorthodox holiday decorating: Santa on the cross.

Conrad has nailed jolly old St. Nick to a 15-foot crucifix in front of his home.

"Santa has been perverted from who he started out to be," Conrad said. "Now he's the person being used by corporations to get us to buy more stuff."

For his far flung friends who may not be able to see the holiday decor up close, Conrad used a photo of his crucified Santa for his Christmas cards, along with the message "Santa died for your MasterCard."...

Could Art not have predicted that this would be a national story and even bigger, a Drudge headline?

It is shocking on its own. The great problem I have is that it denigrates the real symbol of the passion of Jesus Christ to make a point with which I have some sympathy.

For some, Santa is a sacred symbol. For others, the cross is a sacred symbol. Art Conrad offends us all.

Where have they taken My Lord?

Baby Jesus statue gets GPS for Christmas: AP

BAL HARBOUR, Fla. - A baby Jesus statue here is getting a Global Positioning System for Christmas. The statue, part of a nativity scene, will be equipped with the device after the previous statue went missing, even though it had been bolted down.

"I don't anticipate this will ever happen again," said Dina Cellini, who oversees the display, "but we may need to rely on technology to save our savior."

Stories about stolen baby Jesus statutes are about as common as Salvation Army bell ringers in Manhattan now.

People who have been caught stealing these statues or destroying these Nativity scenes offer bizarre explanations. The worst of them was "someone each year does it, I just figured it was my turn to do so." I will try to find a citation for it.