I Just Couldn't Resist...

I haven't quite reached this stage... but I suspect that it's due to lack of funds rather than any signs of sanity...

 

Not Quite The Worst Example Of Parallel Parking, But...

This has gone viral on YouTube...

I felt a real pang for the driver - I am not brilliant at parallel parking if I have an audience. I can get flustered if I think I'm being watched, and have occasionally had to be talked through the manoeuvre. Having said that, even I could have managed to get into the space shown in the video in much less time. Alternatively, having driven in and out a couple of times, I probably would have gone to look for an easier space...

More Cat Stuff...

Salmon slivers worked in the past...

As I mentioned yesterday, Monsignor Miaowrini has been acting strangely and is sporting a new "shaved patch" look. She hasn't been scratching, but Cardinal Furretti has, and bald patches can be cause by flea irritation, so I decided that I would apply some flea stuff to the back of their necks.

As with the worming medicine, they really don't like this stuff. I am at a loss to understand why - they don't object to being scratched there... but one touch with the liquid and they're out of the catflap faster than you can say "Vet."

This time I decided to be sneaky. When both cats were inside waiting for dinner this evening, I closed the catflap. Then I cracked open the smoked salmon. Both cats were very keen on the smoked salmon...

I then pounced on one cat (I had them in two different rooms) in mid chomp and administered the drops. She ran away, mortally offended, leaving the remaining morsels of salmon. Meanwhile, I pounced on the other cat and repeated the exercise. Same reaction.

I wasn't too worried... I figured that the smell of salmon would overcome all sulks in due course.

It hasn't.

Both cats tried to escape through the closed catflap. One growled at the other - I'm not sure who. Furretti gave ground first, and because I tried to administer a sliver of salmon to Miaowrini, she jumped onto the highest bookcase, mortally offended. I retrieved her and made a fuss of her, and she has now condescended to sleep at the foot of my bed... but now Miaowrini is sulking and resisting all blandishments, running behind the sofa if I try to approach her.

The salmon slivers remain uneaten...

Miaowrini In Trouble...

This evening Monsignor Miaowrini came in and curled up behind my knees while I was lying down reading. She normally only does this when it is extremely cold, so I was a little surprised, but didn't think too much about it, and, after petting her a bit, I left her alone.

When I decided to get up again, I started petting her so that she would move over and not get squished. Suddenly I noticed that there was a large bald spot on her side. It was completely smooth and hairless - not stubbly, and the fur around the bald patch was sleek and thick. The skin didn't appear to be inflamed, and I couldn't see a wound. It was almost like when she had her fur shaved for her operation.

Then Cardinal Furretti came in. The two cats appeared to be having some sort of a spat, and I wonder if Furretti had grabbed a mouthful of fur from Miaowrini. Miaowrini just came up towards a very watchful Furretti, and rolled over in a submissive way, but then stretched out her paws as if to attempt to catch the other. The two of them chased each other around the chair, and then separated...

Then the two cats crouched, staring at each other with hostility from underneath separate pieces of furniture...

Furretti appears to have regained her poise - she is now on my duvet, grooming contentedly. Miaowrini is definitely upset - though she has now retired to her cat bed. She isn't licking the bald patch, and isn't scratching. Her bed is in the middle of the hallway - she won't sleep in it if I place it in a corner - so I can keep half an eye on her. But if she doesn't calm down, I will have to take her to the vet...

I think I prefer it when the cats stick to attacking the local wildlife rather than each other...

A Sign Of Things To Come...

Teachers in England are no longer allowed to state what they believe to be true. Robert Haye was sacked because he told his pupils that homosexual activity is a sin. This was confirmed by the High Court.

Not only was Mr. Haye sacked, but he was banned from teaching anywhere in the country. That decision was upheld by Michael Gove.

Now, where does that leave Catholic schools? In theory, because all teachers in Catholic schools sign a contract to uphold the teachings of the Catholic Church, all Catholic schools in England & Wales should expect to find themselves with a shortage of teachers, no?

...No?

On a more serious note, this case has serious implications for all teachers who subscribe to a religious belief - if that belief is contrary to the government's agenda. All that is needed is for a group of students to ask an "awkward" question (and students love to push boundaries) and that teacher can be sacked on the basis of their answer.

Watch this space.

Congratulations Are In Order...

Joanna Bogle (Auntie Joanna Writes) has been made a Dame of St. Gregory in one of the last acts of Pope Benedict XVI. Many, many congratulations are in order - it is a well-deserved honour, as Joanna has been an indefatigable defender of the Faith for many years.

The Rehabilitation Of St. George...

I may have mentioned before that, being of a scientific inclination, I used to tend towards a purely rationalistic approach to the Faith. I say rationalistic rather than rational because I now know that such an approach is anything but rational. Instead it is the attempt to reduce everything to purely human levels, and explain away anything which even remotely smacks of the supernatural.

After all, it was fashionable to be sceptical about the claim that St. Peter was buried beneath the High Altar at St. Peter's Basilica in Rome, and to explain it away as a sort of legend, a story to encourage us, concocted in those oh-so-credulous medieval times. Now, however, science has confirmed that there are bones under St. Peter's dating from the first century, and since they are wrapped in gold cloth with the inscription "Here lies Peter" (I'm paraphrasing, but you get the idea) it's pretty probable that these are the bones of the fisherman himself.

A similar scenario has played itself out in the same way at the Basilica of St. Paul-outside-the-Walls... the bones are almost certainly those of, ummm... St. Paul.

What a shocker. The information carefully passed down over 2000 years or so (not that long, really) turns out to be true. Who would have guessed it?

St. George appears to be one of the casualties of the rationalistic approach to the Faith. He couldn't possibly have existed, because of the story about him slaying a dragon... and we all know that dragons don't exist...

But, as Fr. Blake so rightly points out, the dragon can be seen as an image of the spiritual life, of the struggle that goes on within all of us until the beast is tamed and brought into the presence of God. Considered in this light, the dragon is a very real one.

I'm delighted that St. George appears to be making something of a comeback, rescued from the list of saints who were declared only legendary or mythical and downgraded in the Calendar. I shall be hearing a Missa Cantata in honour of St. George in about half an hour (the schola is running through the propers as I type) and promise to say a prayer for all my blog readers.

Sprucing Things Up...

Well, as promised, I have tidied up the blog a bit. The Kitty Kill Count gets to stay - it seems to be the one thing that everyone looks at!

Looking at the outclicks from my blog, I doubt that many people used my blogroll as a portal on a regular basis, so I decided to change the static, alphabetical order to one which reflects recent updates. However, with over 100 blogs on the roll, it would be a hassle to have all of them up with the snippets of the latest posts, so I opted for the 25 most recent. I also pruned out the dead ones, and any which were invitation-only.

UPDATE: I have put the full blogroll further down the sidebar - I missed being able to see the whole list!

Mistakes do occasionally happen. If you see that your blog does not appear on the blogroll, let me know and I will consider its reinstatement!

Feeling Uninspired...

The start of term has sucked all inspiration and energy from my brain. The cats appear to feel much the same way, and are refusing to do anything cute for the camera. In desperation I pinched this from the Cheezburger Lolcats site...

It made me smile... 

Some Things Never Change...

Back in March, the incomparable Fr. Z posted evidence that kitties have always demonstrated the tendency to walk all over one's work, be it on laptop, foolscap or parchment...

Fr. Z speculated on the possible response of the monk whose work this was, but I suspect that the reaction was probably more like the one I encountered at school yesterday...

"Miss, my book appears to be all muddy..."

"Ah, yes... I need to apologise for that. I'm afraid my cat jumped on it... Sorry about that."

"Oh, that's ok Miss..."

*Loud chorus of voices from around the room accompanied by scuffling sounds as several teenagers try to get a good look...* "What, you've got cat prints on your book? Can I see them...? Go on, show me..."

A Lighter Note...

The powers that be in North Korea seem to be doing a little sabre-rattling. It is difficult to take them seriously when the leader bears an uncanny resemblance to the star of Gangnam Style...

Also, the army patrol along the banks of Yalu River, near the North Korean town of Sinuiju, opposite the Chinese border city of Dandong doesn't look too threatening...

Picture Credit: REUTERS/Jacky Chen

Let's face it, they're not going to get very far in those heels, right?

Mind you, there's always the possibility of nuclear conflict...

More Thoughts On Gosnell...

The case of Dr. Kermit Gosnell is truly horrific. The silence of the mainstream media is disgraceful. However, the attempt at a media blackout has been thwarted because the mainstream media is no longer able to decide what constitutes news.

People react strongly if they feel something is being covered up. There were a lot of calls for the mainstream media to report on the trial and what the charges are. Twitter reached around 23,000 tweets per hour on Friday on the Gosnell case, and that can't have gone unnoticed. So the continuing silence is rather spectacular.

I would just like to reassure my readers that none of the links in this post have any distressing images (unlike the ones I warned about in yesterday's post.)

Several blogs have reported the case in full. Ben Trovato, Mark Lambert and Joe Shaw were able to get the message out from the UK, and bloggers at The Telegraph have now picked up on this, with Damian Thompson and Tim Stanley both writing excellent pieces. It is still not front page news, and this is something I find pretty amazing, even though I know it is something the overwhelmingly pro-choice mainstream media would like to ignore.

Google now has several entries for Kermit Gosnell (it didn't have on Friday!) and the Wikipedia page on Dr. Gosnell has changed from "is under consideration for deletetion" to "was under consideration" so I suppose that is some sort of progress.

Yesterday, I felt sure that the mainstream media would have to bow to public pressure and report on the case of Kermit Gosnell killing babies after they had survived abortion. After all, despite its awful record on human rights and its draconian one-child policy involving forced partial-birth abortions, even the Chinese government allows a child to live once it has been born.

However, Ben Trovato (the Countercultural Father) has given the media silence some considerable thought, and concluded that the media is marshalling its arguments so as to place a pro-abortion spin upon them. His post is really outstanding in its analysis, and I think that we need to heed his warning and prepare for the onslaught.

Mainstream Media Ignores Multiple Murder Trial...

No, that wasn't a headline I'd ever expect to write. But it seems to be what is happening right now over in the US. It seems to be happening here in the UK too - I haven't spotted any media reports about a doctor being tried for multiple counts of murder, though Father Ed Tomlinson did say that the Daily Mail had given it a brief mention.

Strange, isn't it?

Kermit Gosnell is on trial for the murder of seven newborn babies and one woman patient. There are several other charges which were recommended, almost too many to mention. I can't bring myself to read the stuff in detail - I keep having to switch away from the horror of it. It seems that there would have been many other cases of murder, only clinic records have been destroyed.

The only reason I know about this case is that a few people have been so outraged over the lack of media coverage that they have posted information on Twitter and Facebook, and from there it is now hitting the blogosphere.

I can't help thinking about the contrast with the media outrage over the death of Savita Halappanavar - ostensibly because she had been denied an abortion (and the reality of that case was completely different, as Caroline Farrow has so brilliantly explained.)

I have to add a warning here. Unless you have a strong stomach, don't click on the links that follow - some of the images are so horrible that I would rather I hadn't seen them myself (and I've cut up all sorts of stuff in my time as a scientist.) I would not actually include the links if I didn't think it was vital that this story is given as much publicity as possible before the mainstream media and politicians try to bury it. There already seem to be moves towards removing the Wikipedia entry on Kermit Gosnell. You can take stuff off the internet, but the evidence is there to find if people dig deep enough, and the more links there are, the harder it is to bury.

When Dr. Gosnell's clinic was raided after the death of a woman patient, the police found a macabre scene: severed baby feet of various sizes kept in see-through containers and bodies of babies in a freezer and in the basement. The upper spinal cords of some of the babies had been severed. Keeping the feet, almost as trophies, seems particularly perverted!

Although he is also accused of carrying out illegal abortions (24 weeks is the limit in Philedelphia) Dr. Gosnell carried out most late-term abortions legally. That isn't what he is being tried for. Allowing babies to be partially born and then killing them by sticking a needle into the brain before the baby is fully delivered is a perfectly acceptable procedure - legally. The main reason that Kermit Gosnell fell foul of the law is the technicality that the babies were actually delivered alive and then killed. The method of killing, and what he was killing are the same in the legal and illegal cases. It's all about timing.

And therein lies the reason for the media silence.

The case provides incontrovertible evidence that what we dreadful pro-lifers have said all along is true. Abortion is not simply the removal of a clump of cells or a blob of tissue. Abortion is the killing of a baby.

Time For A Re-Vamp...

I've been feeling rather under the weather this past week. I even found myself craving tangerines, though I'm regretting having succumbed to the temptation, as they're awkward to peel and I keep finding bits of tangerine peel everywhere, as well as having squirted juice in my eye on more than one occasion.

Anyway, I have been singularly devoid of blogging inspiration all week. I've concluded that I need to do a bit of blog spring-cleaning as a way to get the creative impulses firing. The blogrolls are way, way too long to be useful, and I suspect that several of the links are dead. They need some serious pruning,and I may change to the snippet-based rolls which change according to the most recent posts.

I think I shall retain the colour scheme and the background photo of the Rosary Basilica at Lourdes... Not sure about keeping the Kitty Kill Counter, though I suspect that, if I take it down, the cats will go on a murderous spree in revenge for being downgraded...

Any comments welcome...

Happy Feast Day !

Today is the transferred Solemnity of the Annunciation. Happy Feast Day!

Eccles Has A New Career...

I really do think that Eccles has a duty to write some new songs for the Church. I'm sure he could give Paul Inwood a run for his money. He's certainly got Gilbert and Sullivan sussed...

If you are in need of a good chortle, do go and read Eccles' latest composition: I am the very model of a modern liberal Catholic...

Just a snippet to whet the appetite:

I am the very model of a modern liberal Cath-o-lic,
I teach that faith before the 1960s was dia-bo-lic.
The services in Latin we rewrote in the vernacular,
With errors in translation that were really quite spectacular.
We threw out all that chanting in the style known as Gregorian -
It's really just of interest to a dusty old historian!
No ancient hymns we now allow - of classics we won't have any -
Instead, we sing "Shine, Jesus Shine" and Inwood's new cacophony!

Priceless!

Frequent Confession...

Vox in Rama posted a picture of a book she's just finished reading on Facebook. As her book addiction is far more serious than mine, I was rather amused to note that it was a book I had bought and read several years ago.

It really is an excellent book - not least because it explains so clearly why going regularly to Confession to confess venial sins is such a help in the spiritual life. As someone who has been discouraged in the past by the attitudes of some priests (and Bishops), it is great to hear the practice given a positive press.

"What we have in mind is the frequent and regular Confession of a person who in general does not commit mortal sin but rather lives a life of union with God and is bound to him by love. Such a person may, nevertheless, be guilty of many disloyalties and failings. He may have various weaknesses and bad habits and perverse inclinations, and he may have to struggle hard with his inordinate desires and his self-love. It is not a matter of indifference to him that here and there he has acted against his conscience, even though it be in nonessential matters."

Do go and read Vox in Rama's review in full too.

An Honest Film Review...

I'm an impulse blogger. If I think too much about the construction of a post, it goes horribly wrong, and I have to ditch it. Against my better judgement, I stopped to think about a couple of posts last week... and have decided to consign them to the bin.

My impassioned cri de coeur on Facebook provoked the reply that I should put up another cat photo. Well, the kitties are squabbling, and not amenable to posing for photos, so you've been spared that one. However, I remembered seeing this clip from Honest Trailers, and it made me chuckle, so I thought I'd share...

I never quite understood the allure of a musical which everyone said was so very sad. My idea of entertainment is something that will take me out of everyday humdrum activity and/or make me laugh. Even the name of the musical sounded like a bad omen... and then to hear that they'd made it into a musical film made me want to run screaming for the hills.

Looks like I got it right...

The Resurrection Story...

As a catechist and former RE teacher, I used to despair when confronted by students who, after 11 years of Catholic schooling, got Christmas and Easter completely confused. Something similar happened last Sunday when my minicab driver (who claimed to be Catholic) asked me: "I get that Jesus was nailed to the cross and died on Good Friday... but Easter Sunday... what's that all about then?"

I gently pointed out that anyone could get himself nailed to a cross... it was the rising again from the dead which was the really amazing thing that got Christians all excited!

So I was delighted to see that some families do still pass on the Faith... heartfelt congratulations to Annie Elizabeth and family...

Continuing The Cat Theme...

I was fascinated by this video - The Science of Cats. I knew quite a few of the facts detailed, but there were some new snippets of information... and I suspect that some of the related videos might be worth investigating, if only to play to a class at school as a little "treat" at the end of a lesson. Well, how else can we increase "general knowledge"?

Enjoy...