Horrific scenario prompts another concealed carry weapon debate – POLLS

Posted on 3 July 2013 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Please vote in all three polls, below.

I saw on TV a report, including security camera videos, of a horrific situation.

A mentally ill man takes an infant from a grocery cart seat, holds a knife to the baby’s throat and starts to ramble and make demands.

Many people call 911 and police come.  They try to reason with the guy. After about a half hour, the guy starts a 60 count-down while holding the knife to the baby’s throat.  A cop, the hostage negotiator, puts his gun close to the guy’s head and shoots him in the head.  Deranged guy dead, baby (physically) unharmed.

What a nightmare.  This scenario gave me the creeps.  I can’t imagine what that would be like for a parent.  Story HERE.

I have a question for you readers who have chimed in on discussions about concealed carry weapons.

What if… what if… you are there with your CCW and law enforcement is nowhere in sight.  The guy, obviously freaking out and holding a knife to the baby’s throat, has started a countdown.

Few of us will ever experience anything like this, so it is nearly impossible to guess at what we would do.  I’ll ask anyway…

In the absence of any law-enforcement officers, do you draw your concealed weapon - try to imagine that you have one - and shoot him while he is counting down?

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And also

TO THOSE AGAINST CONCEALED CARRY WEAPONS AND FOR VERY STRICT HAND-GUN CONTROL: Does this incident make you reconsider your position in any degree at all?

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Let’s push this a little farther for the sake of discussion.

In this scenario, I hope I would ...

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Posted in Global Killer Asteroid Questions, POLLS | Tagged , ,
85 Comments

A serious question about Sirius

Posted on 3 July 2013 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Do you readers out there have any experience with Sirius satellite radio in your cars?

I have a new ride home and it came with Sirius. The trial period is going to expire soon.

Do you use it?  Is it, in your opinions, worth it?  Disappointed? Pleased?

I do wind up on taking long driving trips. I usually listen to audio books instead of the radio.      Satellite and having the same channels anywhere might be a game changer.  When I listen to the radio, it is usually talk radio or classical music.

UPDATE:

I think that I will allow the trial of Sirius to lapse and I will not, for now, subscribe.  Sirius has some good features, but I tend to listen to talk radio that they don’t carry.  Also, I can stream many things through my iPhone and patch it through to the car’s system.

I appreciate the feedback!  As always, you are an informative lot.

 

 

Posted in SESSIUNCULA | Tagged ,
61 Comments

Sr. Joan had better keep her eyes on the Prize!

Posted on 3 July 2013 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Why hasn’t Sr. Joan Chittister returned to Tahir Square?

I posted about her historic journey HERE.

Remember how she pushed for the overthrowing of Hosni Mubarak?

Does her absence from the Square mean that she is rooting for Muhammed Morsi?

Where in the world is Sr. Joan?

Is she bunkered in Orlando with the LCWR (aka The Zittelle)?

Sr. Joan better get back to Egypt right away if she wants a shot at her trip to Oslo.

It seems Dennis Rodman, fresh from his triumphs in North Korea, now has his eyes on the Prize!

Posted in Liberals, Linking Back, Magisterium of Nuns, Women Religious | Tagged , , , , ,
3 Comments

Fishwrap gives Archbp. Weakland a pass on clerical sexual abuse of children

Posted on 3 July 2013 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

As I was slumming through the site of the Fishwrap (aka National Schismatic Reporter) I stepped in their piece about retired Archbishop Rembert Weakland’s role in the clerical sexual abuse scandals in the Archdiocese of Milwaukee.

I got to the end of the piece and scratched my head.  I had the sense that Fishwrap gave Archbp. Weakland a pass.

Among other things, Weakland explained that, back in the day, … well… let’s quote Fishwrap:

In the deposition, Weakland said he did treat priests with more leniency because they were men of the cloth.

“I admit that in many ways we treated, or I treated, the priest a little bit differently than I would have treated an ordinary school teacher,” Weakland said. “There was a certain obligation that I had toward the priests that went beyond what I might have toward anyone else.”

Get that?  Today, that sounds pretty bad.  When bishops and priests talk about how they used to handle the sexual abuse problems way back when, we all cringe now and even get angry at the “cover up”, the “clericalism”, the “lack of accountability”.  We get mad.

At the end of the piece…

Nine years after Weakland’s resignation, the Milwaukee archdiocese became the eighth in the nation to file for bankruptcy. It spent more than $29 million over 20 years to cover costs associated with the sex abuse scandal. Weakland was archbishop during the majority of the sex abuse cases.

Doesn’t sound very good, does it?

Here’s my problem.

As you read on in Fishwrap‘s piece about Weakland, you never get protestations of outrage, anger, disappointment about how this BISHOP didn’t do enough to protect children and punish priest abusers, etc. etc.

What has Fishwrap written about bishops who have had far less naïveté than Weakland?

Fishwrap had a Schadenfreude-induced, spittle-flecked nutty over Bp. Finn’s mistake in Kansas City.  Even poor Orestes wasn’t pursued by the Furies as relentlessly as NSR went after Finn.

I looked around on the site of the Fishwrap for editorials denouncing Archbishop Weakland’s handling of the crisis in his archdiocese.  I searched for articles along the lines of those they fired off about Bp. Finn in Kansas City.

Maybe I am missing something.  Perhaps you readers can find them?

 

Posted in Blatteroons, Liberals, The Drill, You must be joking! | Tagged , , , ,
18 Comments

Ass. of U.S. Catholic Priests meet, give an award, run down the new translation

Posted on 3 July 2013 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

The National Schismatic Reporter informs us that, just about the same time the wonderful conference Sacra Liturgia 2013 was going on in Rome, the Ass. of U.S. Catholic Priests met in Seattle.   Sort of like bearded-Spock doing his thing in that strange parallel dimension.

The Ass. of U.S. Catholic Priests gave an award to the former Erie Bishop and inveterate foe of the new, corrected translation, His Excellency Most Rev. Donald W. Trautman.

In his address to the Ass. of U.S. Catholic Priests, Bp. Trautman (here’s a surprise) ran down the new, corrected translation!

According to Fishwrap (aka the National Schismatic Reporter):

U.S. Catholic bishops “must take to heart” that the “vast majority” of U.S. priests are “extremely dissatisfied” with the current translation of the Roman missal, says the bishop who was responsible for the nation’s liturgy policies for six years.

Setting aside the specious claims about “vast majority” and “extremely dissatisfied”, I have two points.

First: Priests are dissatisfied? So what. Say the black and do the red.

Second: Fathers, if you are so unhappy, I say “REBEL!”  Rise up against your oppressive overlords in the CDW and ICEL.   Refuse to use the new translation, I say!  Set aside the English book and just use Latin.

Posted in Liberals, Liturgy Science Theatre 3000, The Drill, Throwing a Nutty | Tagged , ,
21 Comments

Of civil wars and sesquicentennials and gazettes

Posted on 3 July 2013 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

One my daily internet stops is the Civil War Daily Gazette.

Since we are in the sesquicentennial year of the American Civil War, some enterprising folks have created a day by day gazette like blog, covering the unfolding of the war.

Right now, of course, the Battle of Gettysburg is raging!

Last night on TV I saw a short video clip of a reenactment many are doing.

Sometimes I wonder if when the SHTF and TEOTWAWKI come, we will have another civil war.

Posted in Just Too Cool | Tagged ,
13 Comments

Catholic priest beheaded by practitioners of the ‘religion of peace’? So it seems, yes.

Posted on 2 July 2013 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Just in case you were tempted to FORGET…

From The Blaze (not the only source… there are videos…:

CATHOLIC PRIEST ALLEGEDLY BEHEADED IN SYRIA BY AL-QAEDA-LINKED REBELS AS MEN AND CHILDREN TAKE PICTURES AND CHEER

Syrian Catholic priest Francois Murad killed last weekend by jihadi fighters was beheaded, according to a report by Catholic Online which is linking to video purportedly showing the brutal murder.

As TheBlaze reported last week, Murad, 49, was setting up a monastery in Gassanieh, northern Syria. Last Sunday, on the Christian leader’s Sabbath, extremist militants trying to topple President Bashar Assad breached the monastery and grabbed Murad.

While earlier reports suggested Murad may have been shot to death, Catholic Online reported Saturday: “The Vatican is confirming the death by beheading of Franciscan Father, Francois Murad, who was martyred by Syrian jihadists on June 23.”

[…]

Sts. Nunilo and Alodia….

WARNING!

Father Murad was murdered along with another individual, as yet unnamed, as a crowd of onlookers comprised of of men and boys cheered and took photographs with smartphones. The actual beheadings were not performed swiftly with a sword as one from the West imagines. The executioner used what appeared to be an ordinary kitchen knife, according to The Blaze.

A video of the execution is available through LiveLeak, together with warnings of the graphic nature of the video. I chose not to watch.

Religion.

Of.

Peace.

Posted in Our Catholic Identity, The future and our choices | Tagged , , , ,
79 Comments

What is your good news?

Posted on 1 July 2013 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

If you have some good news in your lives, let us know. We can all use good news.

Posted in SESSIUNCULA |
55 Comments

Reconciled traditional Catholic groups has its first ordinations in union with Rome

Posted on 1 July 2013 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Brick by brick!

The group called the Transalpine Redemptorists, founded in 1987 and once associated with the Society of St. Pius X (SSPX), were reconciled with the Church some time ago.  They had a big step forward recently with their first priestly ordinations in union with Rome. There is a CNA account HERE.

Posted in Brick by Brick, Mail from priests, Our Catholic Identity, SSPX, SUMMORUM PONTIFICUM | Tagged ,
20 Comments

Catholic priest killed by Islamist troops, possibly beheaded

Posted on 1 July 2013 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

On News.va I read that there is going to be some sort of Islamic-Catholic Liaison Committee meeting (HERE).

I also read (HERE) that practitioners of the “religion of peace” murdered a Catholic priest, Fr Fran?ois Mourad, in Syria near the Turkish border. Read the AsiaNews account HERE.  More details HERE.

[…]

“In past years, Fr Fran?ois Mourad repeatedly put his life on the line in Syria pushing for the construction of the monastery,” the priest said.

“Initially, he bought some land near Aleppo with the help of some local families, but was chased away by Islamic extremists. So he decided to fall back on Al-Ghassaniyah, where he built a small hermitage a few kilometres from the village with the help of some young Syrians.”

“His work had just started,” the monk explained, “when Islamist troops put the area under siege. He eventually found himself alone as his postulants fled because of the war, witnessing helplessly the destruction and looting of the monastery and nearby villages.”

“Fr Fran?ois Mourad had the opportunity to go away, to take shelter in a safer area, but decided to stay in order to serve his people, willing to help the local parish priest and the nuns of the Franciscan Monastery of St Anthony in the village of Al-Ghassaniyah, which had an infirmary; the only clinic in the area and a point of reference for many Christian and Muslim families.”

“Here Fr Fran?ois replaced the parish priest whenever he was traveling to other convents, giving comfort to families housed in the convent and the nuns too.”

On the day of Fr Francois’s death, the parish priest was out. When armed Islamists came, the Franciscan friar was alone in the convent with the nuns and some lay Christians. A few more hours and two priests would have been killed. ”

According to the monk, Fr Fran?ois did not even have time to argue with the gunmen bent on plundering the convent. As soon as he stood in front of them, they shot him dead on the spot.

[…]

Some reports say that Fr. Mourad was also beheaded.  For example, HERE and HERE. (WARNING about those links.  Really.)

Sts. Nunilo and Alodia, pray for us.

Posted in Modern Martyrs, Our Catholic Identity, Religious Liberty, The future and our choices, The Last Acceptable Prejudice | Tagged , , , ,
31 Comments