Back in 1969, the world of the university I went to writhed in popular dissension against everything. Most certainly religion. And so, by proxy, faith itself.

But it was not what the youth were against, for I was against much of it myself, but the alternative they offered that struck me as conventional and, in many respects stupid. When the historian John Lukacs says that Trotsky was a fool, you can believe him. When I saw that half the professors I met my first few years at university were stupid, please believe me. I have never in my life witnessd so much conformity among those who postured freedom, and measured a person’s worth only on how much he or she was willing to conform. The very thing to which they were supposedly seeking an alternative.

–David Adams Richards, God Is (Toronto: Doubleday Canada, 2009), 19.

JENNINGS, Douglas Howard.

Died peacefully on November 7, 2009, in Victoria, British Columbia.  Predeceased by his parents and siblings.  Born on August 9, 1914 in Montreal, Quebec. Doug joined the Royal Canadian Army Medical Corps in 1932, fresh out of high school, an 18 year old with military career aspirations.  Over the next decade the young medic climbed the ranks to become a Sergeant in the PPCLI.  In 1942 he was shipped overseas to 4 Canadian General Hospital in Farnborough, England. He spent two years taking care of wounded Allied soldiers, assisting in the operating room, keeping records and waiting to be posted.  On D-Day 1944, Sgt Jennings was stationed four miles down the coast from Juno Beach, where he waited for the wounded to arrive, tended to their immediate needs, and then placed them on airplanes to be flown back to England.  Eventually he participated in the liberation of Holland in April 1945.  Following VE Day, Doug was transferred to Germany, and there with the other medics traveled to four nearby concentration camps to care for those still alive; experiences which he never forgot, referring to them as “horror camps”.  In 1947, he was sent back to England where, while on leave in Scotland, met the love of his life, Marilyn, whom he married in 1948.  Doug returned home to Toronto later in 1948 to continue his army career.  The following year, his bride joined him.  Sadly, Marilyn was diagnosed with a fatal heart condition, and in 1953 died while visiting her family back in Scotland.  He never remarried and never had children, saying, “she meant too much to me and no one could take her place.”  Sgt Jennings spent the next 25 years moving from army base to army base, until he retired in the mid-1970s.  For his service to King and Country, he was awarded the France and Germany Star, the Defence Medal, Canadian Volounteer Service Medal, War Medal, and the Canadian Forces Decoration; as well as a medal of gratitude for the liberation of Holland from Queen Wilhelmina.  

Doug eventually settled in Langford, where for many years he cared for his 17 sheep, his various Collie dogs, and spent time visiting other retired military comrades.  He was a life member of the Chief and Petty Officers’ Mess.  A devout Anglican, he served at Christ Church Cathedral for a number of years as an acolyte and verger.  Later, he joined the Anglican Catholic Church of Canada (Traditional Anglican Communion), making his spiritual home at the Cathedral Church of St John the Evangelist.  Doug will be sorely missed by his many friends, comrades, and fellow parishioners.

The Requiem Mass will be celebrated by Dean Shane Janzen on Friday, November 13th at 11:00 am, at the Cathedral Church of St. John the Evangelist, 990 Falmouth Road. A reception will follow in the Church Hall.  Interment will take place at Hatley Memorial Gardens.  In place of flowers, donations may be made to the St. John the Evangelist Cathedral Church Memorial Fund.

Hill Buzz has come over to the dark side. It now appreciates just what a contribution George W Bush and Laura Bush made and continue to make to America.

Something about dignity, courage, humanity, faith …

Doesn’t sound much like the new guy.

Here.

So what do President Obama, Speaker Pelosi and Majority Leader Reid think about Congresswoman Lynn Woolsey’s idea of stripping the tax exempt status from Catholic bishops with opinions on abortion contrary to those of the Democratic Party?

Politico has an enormous scoop here as the Democrats declare war on the Catholics.  It should be gathering reactions from every corner of the Democratic Party, but especially such high profile pro-life Democrats as PA Senator Bob Casey and DNC Chair Tim Kaine.

And a quote from Bishop Thomas Tobin who penned the impressive open letter to Congressman Kennedy would be interesting, as would Congressman Kennedy’s reaction to the Woolsey demand and the bishop’s letter.

This post is from Hugh Hewitt.

I just can’t keep it in. I know I shouldn’t boast but, well, as a Roman Catholic I simply have to.

We’ve won. I mean, we actually have won. The church founded by Christ has become the one and only institution hated by assorted Marxists, maniacs and misanthropes. In the space of a single week, we had the following:

The Washington Post ran achingly predictable self-promoter and professional atheist, Richard Dawkins, writing that the Catholic Church was “surely up there among the leaders” as “the greatest force for evil in the world.”

He described the eucharist as a “cannibal feast” — incredibly significant in that this is just what the Romans said as they ripped Christians apart and cut off their heads — and then, in an almost racist manner, moaned on about missionaries sent out “to tell deliberate lies to AIDS-weakened Africans” regarding condoms.

He then, of course, spoke of priests “buggering altar boys.” Maybe it’s sexual repression that makes Catholic-bashers so fascinated with this particular horror, but it’s interesting that many of the same people who want to lower the age of consent for gay sex to 14 become so allegedly upset about abusive homosexual clergy. Apparently it’s OK to bugger teenagers as long as they’re not altar boys.

The Los Angeles Times devoted an entire editorial to claiming that “church leaders, including popes, have changed their thinking over the years about everything from usury to the culpability of Jews for the crucifixion.” Fascinating if true, but anybody with a schoolboy education ought to know that the church always has held sinful humanity, and not any single ethnic group, responsible for the crucifixion.

The editorial went on to state that “you don’t have to be Catholic (or Anglican) to realize that society as a whole would be better off if the church’s views of women and gays underwent a similar evolution.”

Good lord, some people are obsessed with homosexuality.

The rest is here.

 Father Samir is an Egyptian Jesuit, an advisor in the Holy See, with roots in Cairo, Beirut and Rome. An essay of his in the Asia News (April 2006) is entitled “When Civilizations Meet: How Joseph Ratzinger Sees Islam.” In it, Samir writes:
“Benedict XVI has stated more exactly the vision of John Paul II. For the previous pope, dialogue with Islam needed to be open to collaboration on everything, even in prayer. Benedict is aiming at more essential points: theology is not what counts, at least not in this stage of history; what counts is the fact that Islam is the religion that is developing more and is becoming more and more a danger for the West and the world. The danger is not Islam in general, but in a certain vision of Islam that does never openly renounce violence and generates terrorism, fanaticism. On the other hand, he does not want to reduce Islam to a social-political phenomenon. The Pope has profoundly understood the ambiguity of Islam, which is both one and the other, which at times plays on one or the other front.”

Here. Thanks to S.

Stephanie Adams, Miss November 1992, was the first and only Playboy Playmate to declare herself a lesbian. But she’s switched teams. Adams — named “best NYC lesbian sex symbol” in 2004 by the Village Voice — is engaged to marry “a loving, supportive, successful man,” she informs Page Six. “I would like for his privacy to remain intact, but I will say that I intend to retire from being a public persona so that we can settle down and have children . . . Life is good . . . I have no regrets for anything.”

Cement-heads. You know who you are.

Here. 

Read more: http://www.nypost.com/p/pagesix/playboy_bunny_stephanie_adams_playing_5sj6MOktHIe1kehzQScw7O#ixzz0WOVHYNN4

It seems to this not especially gifted commentator that there is in the USA and elsewhere in the West a gradual awakening to the fact that increasingly, since perhaps WW II, we have been sliding into insanity. Leading the way has been the Left, of course, with its delusions of … well, you name it. Everything the Left touches turns into horse manure, he wrote boldly. What moves me to write thus? The Left, ever since its invention in the 19th century or thereabouts, promises the sun, the moon, and the stars. It damns the past as evil and offers hope based on … some idiotic ideology.

But here, in the midst of the worst madness ever to overcome America, people are beginning to shake off the shackles of political, economic, and social insanity. Eventually, I suppose, as a society moves further and further along the path of self-destruction, a counter-movement may occur. On a good day — the sun is shining here on Cape Breton Island — I sometimes think that perhaps, just perhaps, salvation could be at hand.  Maybe I should start a political movement — Ike for President in 2012.

Here is an interesting essay for you. Read and be instructed.

When this attack occurs, we will see an end to all the nonsense. Our present drift regarding terror policy is occurring only because Americans have been encouraged to put unpleasant realities at a distance, to live in a dream world where all the bad stuff happens to other people. 9/11 has ceased to signify. Terrorism has become a matter of bad manners. As my grandfather might have put it, this country is in for a rude awakening.

Life in Amerikkka for the Left will become suitably uncomfortable. Maybe they will all move to the Netherlands.

The rest of the essay is here. Thanks to Lucianne.

1. But, then you had better read this calmer piece.

2. The calmer piece seriously underestimates the issues involved. Consider the unknown number of ‘honour’ killings. Consider also the non-violent (for now) infiltration of the corridors of power. There is a whole lot more to this challenge than 13 bodies on the ground. This is going to get messy. The American public will know that something has to be done, but how to limit it to what is required and humane. The Sicilian Vespers is not a suitable model.

3. Here.

Here. Thanks to Steve, supplier to Bears everywhere.