Are You Pro-Life? The Government May Assume You’re a Militia Member
March 24, 2009 by Patrick Madrid
Filed under Patrick's Blog
That’s according to “The Modern Militia Movement,” a report by the Missouri Information Analysis Center (MIAC), a government collective that identifies the warning signs of potential domestic terrorists for law enforcement communities.
“Due to the current economical and political situation, a lush environment for militia activity has been created,” the Feb. 20 report reads. “Unemployment rates are high, as well as costs of living expenses. Additionally, President Elect Barrack [sic] Obama is seen as tight on gun control and many extremists fear that he will enact firearms confiscations.”
MIAC is one of 58 so-called “fusion centers” nationwide that were created by the Department of Homeland Security, in part, to collect local intelligence that authorities can use to combat terrorism and related criminal activities. More than $254 million from fiscal years 2004-2007 went to state and local governments to support the fusion centers, according to the DHS Web site.
During a press conference last week in Kansas City, Mo., DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano called fusion centers the “centerpiece of state, local, federal intelligence-sharing” in the future.
“Let us not forget the reason we are here, the reason we have the Department of Homeland Security and the reason we now have fusion centers, which is a relatively new concept, is because we did not have the capacity as a country to connect the dots on isolated bits of intelligence prior to 9/11,” Napolitano said, according to a DHS transcript.
Are You Pro-Life? The Government May Assume You're a Militia Member
March 24, 2009 by Patrick Madrid
Filed under Patrick's Blog
That’s according to “The Modern Militia Movement,” a report by the Missouri Information Analysis Center (MIAC), a government collective that identifies the warning signs of potential domestic terrorists for law enforcement communities.
“Due to the current economical and political situation, a lush environment for militia activity has been created,” the Feb. 20 report reads. “Unemployment rates are high, as well as costs of living expenses. Additionally, President Elect Barrack [sic] Obama is seen as tight on gun control and many extremists fear that he will enact firearms confiscations.”
MIAC is one of 58 so-called “fusion centers” nationwide that were created by the Department of Homeland Security, in part, to collect local intelligence that authorities can use to combat terrorism and related criminal activities. More than $254 million from fiscal years 2004-2007 went to state and local governments to support the fusion centers, according to the DHS Web site.
During a press conference last week in Kansas City, Mo., DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano called fusion centers the “centerpiece of state, local, federal intelligence-sharing” in the future.
“Let us not forget the reason we are here, the reason we have the Department of Homeland Security and the reason we now have fusion centers, which is a relatively new concept, is because we did not have the capacity as a country to connect the dots on isolated bits of intelligence prior to 9/11,” Napolitano said, according to a DHS transcript.
Twitter: Through the Eyes of a Skeptic
March 23, 2009 by Patrick Madrid
Filed under Patrick's Blog
Pornography’s Growing Technological Reach
March 21, 2009 by Patrick Madrid
Filed under Patrick's Blog
One week from today, the star of [some pornographic movies] will walk onto the campus of Truman State University in Kirksville to debate a pastor on the subject most dear to his heart: porn. It will fall to the Rev. Craig Gross to rebut actor Ron Jeremy’s arguments that pornography is a harmless activity that most people pursue in the privacy of their own homes. . .
“We’ve been around for 23 years, and I have never seen the level of concern among faith leaders that I have in the last year,” Schatz said. “Because of the explosion in new, mobile technologies, there’s a new threat level.”
The AVN Media Network, which tracks the pornography industry, reported total retail sales of $13 billion in 2006, the latest year for which numbers are available. . . (continue reading)Pornography's Growing Technological Reach
March 21, 2009 by Patrick Madrid
Filed under Patrick's Blog
One week from today, the star of [some pornographic movies] will walk onto the campus of Truman State University in Kirksville to debate a pastor on the subject most dear to his heart: porn. It will fall to the Rev. Craig Gross to rebut actor Ron Jeremy’s arguments that pornography is a harmless activity that most people pursue in the privacy of their own homes. . .
“We’ve been around for 23 years, and I have never seen the level of concern among faith leaders that I have in the last year,” Schatz said. “Because of the explosion in new, mobile technologies, there’s a new threat level.”
The AVN Media Network, which tracks the pornography industry, reported total retail sales of $13 billion in 2006, the latest year for which numbers are available. . . (continue reading)The Future of Food: Watch What You Eat
March 21, 2009 by Patrick Madrid
Filed under Patrick's Blog
He Threw It All Away
March 20, 2009 by Patrick Madrid
Filed under Patrick's Blog
In an excellent new First Things article, Robert George writes:
In the early 1970s, Lutheran pastor Richard John Neuhaus was poised to become the nation’s next great liberal public intellectual—the Reinhold Niebuhr of his generation. He had going for him everything he needed to be not merely accepted but lionized by the liberal establishment. First, of course, there were his natural gifts as a thinker, writer, and speaker.
Then there was a set of left-liberal credentials that were second to none. He had been an outspoken and prominent civil rights campaigner, indeed, someone who had marched literally arm-in-arm with his friend Martin Luther King. He had founded one of the most visible anti-Vietnam war organizations. He moved easily in elite circles and was regarded by everyone as a “right-thinking” (i.e., left-thinking) intellectual-activist operating within the world of mainline Protestant religion.
Then something happened: Abortion. It became something it had never been before, namely, a contentious issue in American culture and politics. Neuhaus opposed abortion for the same reasons he had fought for civil rights and against the Vietnam War. At the root of his thinking was the conviction that human beings, as creatures fashioned in the image and likeness of God, possess a profound, inherent, and equal dignity.
This dignity must be respected by all and protected by law. That, so far as Neuhaus was concerned, was not only a Biblical mandate but also the bedrock principle of the American constitutional order. Respect for the dignity of human beings meant, among other things, not subjecting them to a system of racial oppression; not wasting their lives in futile wars; not slaughtering them in the womb. . . . (read more)
In Praise of P.J. O’Rourke, Slayer of Stem-Cell Myths
March 19, 2009 by Patrick Madrid
Filed under Culture Wars, Food for thought in a hungry world
For two decades now, I have read with gusto many of P.J. O’Rourke’s articles and almost all his books (Parliament of Whores, Give War a Chance, Age and Guile, Driving Like Crazy, All the Trouble In the World, etc., etc., etc.) and I, like his myriad of other avid readers, not only chortle, laugh, and wine-shooting-out-of-my-nose guffaw my way through his unrelentingly funny social commentaries (read any of the aforementioned titles to get the gist of this), I almost always learn something in the bargain.
In Praise of P.J. O'Rourke, Slayer of Stem-Cell Myths
March 19, 2009 by Patrick Madrid
Filed under Patrick's Blog
For two decades now, I have read with gusto many of P.J. O’Rourke’s articles and almost all his books (Parliament of Whores, Give War a Chance, Age and Guile, Driving Like Crazy, All the Trouble In the World, etc., etc., etc.) and I, like his myriad of other avid readers, not only chortle, laugh, and wine-shooting-out-of-my-nose guffaw my way through his unrelentingly funny social commentaries (read any of the aforementioned titles to get the gist of this), I almost always learn something in the bargain.
Free Stations of the Cross Booklet to Enrich Your Lenten Prayers
March 19, 2009 by Patrick Madrid
Filed under Patrick's Blog
and receive your free copy ($4.95 for shipping and handling) of our inspiring new booklet, Meditations on the Stations of the Cross. It will enrich your Lent by helping you deepen your relationship with Love Himself, Jesus Christ. Here is just a sample of the lovingly-crafted words and images that await you in these pages:
Meditations on the Stations of the Cross was written by Dr. Ron Thomas, Assistant Professor of Theology at Belmont Abbey College. The Stations photographed in the booklet grace the nave of the Abbey Basilica of Mary Help of Christians at Belmont Abbey in Belmont, North Carolina. Dr. Thomas is a convert to the Catholic faith after having served for 13 years as an Episcopalian priest and 5 years as a Methodist minister. He received his doctorate in theology from the University of Cambridge in England.
Our booklet is published with the permission of the Most Reverend Peter J. Jugis, Bishop of Charlotte.
and receive your free copy ($4.95 for shipping and handling), or to order multiple copies in bulk for your parish, Bible study group, or family.