A Very Apt Analogy

"Prayer and fasting, worship and adoration, Scripture and sacraments and sacramentals all provide the weapons of our spiritual warfare. With them we go on the offensive against the Evil One. But the virtues provide our defense armor. As Blessed Pope Paul VI once observed, St. Paul ‘used the armor of a soldier as a symbol for the virtues that can make a Christian invulnerable.’ They are our best defense against his attacks, for they guard our minds and hearts from his deceptions and temptations. A lapse in virtue is in fact a chink in our armor that makes us vulnerable."

— Paul Thigpen

Another Rant.

OK.  We've got dual narratives running in this country, one that THINKS there is a genocide perpetrated by the President, against minorities, and one that is ACTUALLY HAPPENING to our most innocent and vulnerable American Citizens - children in the womb.  Lord have mercy on America.

I read this article by the BBC and I wanted to scream at the screen.  In particular, I was mortified by this utter lack of logic:

In 2016, Erika Christensen was pregnant and living in New York with her husband. The couple were thrilled.

However, at 31 weeks, she found out that her pregnancy was "nonviable", meaning that the baby would not survive outside the womb.

Ms Christensen told the BBC that she "didn't know about the law" banning abortion in New York beyond 24 weeks.

"We wanted to end the suffering of this child. It was a simple choice."

After doing some research she realised she would have to leave the state to terminate her pregnancy.

She borrowed $10,000 (£7,600) from her mum, and flew halfway across the country to have an abortion in Colorado. 

HELLO!!  "END THE SUFFERING OF THE CHILD" by ripping it limb from limb in utero????  Crushing it's skull and evacuating it's brains??? Rather than let a child peacefully and safely develop in it's mother's womb, be delivered, and then die in the loving embrace of it's family, they chose to end this child's "suffering" by the most violent form of death imaginable.  ARE YOU KIDDING ME?  Somehow this family has convinced itself that this brutal murder is "kind"????  What kind of warped thinking is this??  

I had a student physical therapist once tell me that aborting children with Down's syndrome was the kind thing to do, to end their suffering.  I FLIPPED OUT ON HER.  I looked that girl directly in the eyes, and was not so professional about saying "That is a lie, and if I ever hear you say that again, you are done with your clinical with me.  We work with these kids every day, and if you think they are better off dead then leading their happy, productive lives, you have no business being a pediatric therapist."  MURDER IS NOT KIND.  Being different is NOT SUFFERING.   Allowing people whose bodies are dying to peacefully die?  YES.  Allow their bodies to die.  The Christensens could have allowed their child to die peacefully, held in the arms of her parents, loved and let go.  But NO.  They chose instead to violently murder her and call it KIND.  THIS IS A LIE OF THE GREATEST PROPORTIONS.

Should we take a guillotine to every cancer patient?  Is that the kind thing to do??  COME ON PEOPLE.  THINK!  Find your moral compass!  It's been warped and stomped on for so long, but it's there.  

Lord have mercy on us.

Today, we will say rosary in reparation for the evil that is abortion.

ADDENDUM:
I just came back to this after pondering for a few minutes.  WHAT would possess a family with a "nonviable" infant to abort rather than deliver and let the baby die?  That makes no sense at all.  But then it hit me like a ton of bricks.  They weren't afraid that this child was going to die, merely wanting to spare his or her suffering.  If that was the case, they certainly wouldn't have gone through with a late term abortion, which is hideously violent and painful.  That family was afraid that their child was going to LIVE.  That they would deliver, and he or she WOULDN'T die, but be in the hospital, and require medical care, and maybe survive with disabilities.  THAT was what they were afraid of!  Because if that baby lived outside the womb, but imperfectly, it (for now) IS against the law to "get rid" of that child.  THAT is the unstated fact of that scenario, and those parents weren't willing to admit it. It has to be so, because otherwise their choice makes not one shred of logical sense.    The whole thing is so so so chilling to contemplate.

THIS.

"If you become Christ's you will stumble upon wonder upon wonder, and every one of them true."

— St. Brendan of Birr

The State of Our Country. A Rant in favor of logic and common sense.

The world... or maybe just the United States?... is going mad.  Stark-raving, howl at the moon mad.
This is what I want to say to every shrill Facebook post that I see.

Dear Facebook Friends.

CALM DOWN.

THINK LOGICALLY instead of through the lens of fear and doom.

Don't believe even half of what you read or see in the media.  LOOK AROUND YOU.  Do you see a genocide occurring next door?  NO?  Then don't let people in the news media tell you it's happening, because they want you worked up.

The word "racist" is being bandied around, shouted from the roof-tops, hurled at anything that has a different view point.  It's NOT RACIST TO DISAGREE WITH YOU.  It's really, really not.

I get it.  Our president is not your typical politician.  He's a boxer.  He likes the fight.  With words.  With negotiating.  The attention a fight brings. He thrives on all of it.  Every one knew it.  It wasn't like he was an unknown before getting elected.  He didn't come out of nowhere.  He's been on the tv, in our living rooms, for decades.  And you know what?  Americans voted for him anyway.  Some while holding their noses, but it was their vote to make, and those are legitimate votes, too.

When I see the all-out assault on our President, and how it's dividing our country, it makes me sick.  Not because I love Donald Trump.  He's not someone I would want to have over for dinner, or let my daughter date.  But he was voted legitimately by the American people.  If you respect this democratic system of government we've got here... the one that allows for the peaceful transition of power,  has been the most successful form of representative government in history, and an ideal for countless other countries around the world... if you love AMERICA, you will respect the will of the people and stop trying to impeach the man.  You don't like him?  Vote him out next election.  That's how we do things here.  We don't whip up the populace, manufacture conspiracies, pit neighbor against neighbor, friend against friend, family member against family member, obstruct every idea and put government at a standstill.  DO YOU SEE HOW WE ARE BEING MANIPULATED????  YOU are being manipulated.  I am being manipulated.  A pre-established picture is being painted, and the media is looking for snap shots to fit that narrative.  So that YOU get angry and hate the President, hate a stupid HAT (how can you let a silly hat have that much impact on your life? What power you are letting an inanimate object have over you!) and everyone who wears a silly hat.  Give me a break.

Border security is not racism.  Never has been.  Never will be.  Knowing who is coming into and out of a country is imperative for the safety of our citizens, and a right of any sovereign nation on the planet.  I do NOT think every undocumented person is a criminal.  Absolutely not.  The vast majority are seeking a better life for themselves and their family.  I get that.  So we need improvements in the system for them to come legally. THAT needs improving, at the same time as any increase in border security.  We need to stop the cash-cow that is drugs and hedonism in our United States, so that drug cartels go out of business in central and South America, and people don't NEED to come to the US for safety and a stable life. If central and south America were economically and politically stable, we would not be in this predicament.    Our own selfishness is a big part of the problem.  Make no mistake about that.  There's  no curing our immigration problem without a multi-prong approach:  border security, legal immigration reform, and a decrease in our own drug problem.  I guarantee they go hand in hand.

The other thing I see, on both sides, is GENERALIZATIONS and ASSUMPTIONS.  If you wear a red hat, you are racist, xenophobic, entitled, and misogynistic.  If you are anti-Trump, you are a "libtard".  Again, I beg each one of you.  Look at your neighbors.  Look at your friends.  Chances are, we all think and vote differently.  And yet, on a personal level, we like each other.  The anonymous "them" are fine to vilify.  It's easy when they're only a name and profile picture on social media.  But in REAL LIFE, these are the people of your community.  Things that people would never say in real life, face to face with another person, are said all the time on social media.  Because it's removed from the social interaction.  It's too easy to make those that disagree with me anonymous and less than human.  To paint with broad strokes. To be uncivil. To make others a caricature.  Look around you in real life.  What is REAL?  Who is REAL?

I am desperate for the end of this manufactured, manipulated war.   I pray that people will simply turn off the news, block the Facebook posts, spend more time in the real world, relying on their own senses, their own intellects, rather than being spoon fed everything.  I pray that Americans will start spending more time with people, even those that might think different than them.  Stop with the name calling.  Stop with the assumptions.  Stop with the over-generalizations.  Let's start talking about ideas.

Forget about blue and red.  Let's be Americans. Let's roll up our sleeves and find solutions to the challenges our nation is facing.   Don't let politicians and media moguls separate us.
Let's make our government and the media respond to US, instead of US playing right into their manipulative hands.

end of rant.

New Year's Resolution

I have decided upon two New Year's Resolutions. The first is to start a meal plan, so that this family is eating
 healthy meals each and every day.  The second I decided just this morning.   I am going to attack this stupid
cancer, and no longer "watch and wait".  After consulting some thyroid cancer boards and getting input from
 some very knowledgeable people that have "been there", I am going to request another whole body scan or
a PET scan.  If something lights up, then I am going to request another round of radiation.  If the scans light up,
 it means that the cancer is susceptible to the radiation, which means it's worth doing another round or radiation.
I know my doctor doesn't like to do that because he thinks it's not effective.  But I talked to two people that have
 had it done and it worked for them.  So it may not work in every case, but it's worth a shot.  If my doctor refuses
 my request for more tests, I will seek another opinion.  The people I talked to are going to major centers in New
 York that treat 9000 cases of thyroid cancer a year - and they routinely use a second round of RAI if warranted.
  Given that the cancer obviously keeps growing, I refuse to let it get any bigger.   If it was staying stable, that
would be different.  I would be more comfortable "watching and waiting".  But it's not.  It's actively growing -
albeit slowly.   And I'm not waiting around anymore. 

Decision made.

Going on the attack.

Gonna be CANCER FREE in 2019.

End of rant.