STEPHEN IPPOLITO writes from Australia:

As I look at the priests processing at Lourdes to model the importance of “fun” to the faithful I’m reminded of how I once numbered among my legal clients a couple who operated a small “dating” agency. They mused to me once over coffee and biscuits (never pizza) that the aspect of their business that struck them most forcefully was how, counter-intuitively, the broader a client was in painting a word-profile, the fewer enquiries he or she would draw.

It emerged that most of their clients strove to appear as all things to all men.

The two most popular terms people used to describe their personalities, far and away, were  “fun-loving” and “non-judgmental.” Likewise, in specifying the attributes of those they’d like to meet these people would take care to eliminate absolutely no one and no form of behavior. No one especially wanted to be seen as serious because serious is boring. (more…)

  SWEDISH journalist Ingrid Carlqvist has created some controversy by looking at the roots of the disastrous policy of multiculturalism in Sweden. The Swedes are on their way to becoming a minority in their own country. Why? How was their famous homogeneity destroyed? "Most people want to be popular, they want to be loved ... I don't really care about that," Carlqvist says. "My mission in this life is ... when I understand something ... it is my duty to tell other people about it. And many times, people say, 'We don't like what you're saying.' But that doesn't matter to me. I need to tell it.'" [I am not a regular listener of Red Ice Radio and this post, as with all posts here, is not an endorsement of all its content. I apologize for the blasphemous aside by Henrik Palmgren in this otherwise good interview.]

ALAN M. writes: In the department of “you couldn’t make this up:” "Couples Are Turning Extra IVF Embryos into Jewelry." Perhaps they look at all of their children as jewelry.

PRISCILLA writes:

 The above is a video described at Canon212 as “the liturgical disaster at Lourdes.”  I am speechless upon viewing it,  although I think you might find words to describe it.  The procession is especially egregious.  HCPT is a UK charity which funds pilgrimages for disabled and disadvantaged children, which is undoubtedly a worthy cause, and it is encouraging to see so many young people participating.  Something in my soul shrivels aesthetically in the face of it, however.  The priests in ball caps, clown wigs and face paint are truly cringeworthy.  Unfortunately, “liturgical disasters” are not uncommon these days, but this seems particularly brutal.  And I feel bad and petty for noticing!  What would Jesus say? (more…)

DAN R. writes:

Are you sure it wasn’t you who wrote the caption to this photo?

“Never has a photo said so much about the current state of humanity.” (more…)

  CAROLINE writes: Just had to share these pictures with you. They are photos of a "health service" vehicle at a public university. It was early in the morning when I dropped my daughter off, so the li’l car was charging in the conveniently located charging outlet. It might be redundant, as in many ways we are so far gone as a society, beyond Orwell, but there is so much wrong with this “service," one hardly knows where to begin. First of all, the condescension to ethnic minorities (image below) revolts me. Easy to see who educated the marketing firms. The nauseating coopting of a perfectly lovely color, pink. Before I read the copy on the “car,” I thought, ‘Oh no, more female cancer agitprop.' (Don't know what to think about the pig.) The car advertises "birth control" and services for "safer sex." It almost looks as if they’ll deliver their products to eager students in their dorms. (Stashed in the back compartment of course.) Don’t know. Perhaps exclusively for TTHW readers, they should add pizza delivery? As I contemplated this insult to decent people, it occurred to me that in my time of high school and college (and before I think) students carried on their own elicit affairs by themselves, with no help and guidance from the over-preening hand of the university. They had illicit sex, did drugs, got drunk—mostly on their own terms. Not that I advocate this,…

  SONG OF THE PEARL --- By Archie Sullivan I WAS made for the smallest hands to press, For the softest kiss and the still caress, For the whispered peace of a night in June, For tired eyes that watch the moon. I was made for grief and for hearts that break To passionate tears for the loved one's sake; My soul is a mist, my heart a sea, And I pave the floors of eternity.

REPUBLICANS have for quite a while been offering lip service and minor action to the anti-abortion movement in exchange for Christian Zionist support for military aggression. A podcast from the organization We Hold These Truths looks at the "bone" Trump is tossing to anti-abortion "Evangelicals" while he simultaneously ramps up threats of war. Chuck Carlson comments on the hypocrisy of Christian Zionism. The high-paid, carnival barker preachers who have led the masses into unjust wars are, despite their opposition to abortion, child killers.

  AN allocution by Pope Pius XII in 1958, posted in part at Tradition in Action, asserts that beautiful clothing "concentrates the sight on the spirit." The more materialistic a culture, the uglier and the more immodest its clothes.

FROM a 2004 piece (no longer available online) by Paul Craig Roberts:

Compare an American taxpayer’s situation today with that of a 19th century American slave.

Not all slaves worked on cotton plantations. Some with marketable skills were leased to businesses or released to labor markets, where they worked for money wages. Just like the wages of today’s taxpayer, a portion of the slave’s money wages was withheld. In those days the private owner, not the government, received the withheld portion of the slave’s wages.

Slaves in that situation were as free as today’s American taxpayer to choose their housing from the available stock, purchase their food and clothing, and entertain themselves.

In fact, they were freer than today’s American taxpayer. By hard work and thrift, they could save enough to purchase their freedom.

No American today can purchase his freedom from the IRS. (more…)

SEE many vintage photographs at Call Me Jorge of May Crownings and Processions. The one above is from 1950 and below from 1929.  

ONE OF five baby rabbits born in our garden this weekend.

  Behold the miracle of the mother of the Lord: a virgin has conceived though she knows not a man, Mary, who stands laden with her noble burden; knowing not that she is a wife, she rejoices to be a mother. She has conceived in her chaste womb one who is beautiful beyond the sons of men, and blessed for ever, she has brought forth God and man for us. Glory to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Ghost. (H/T Samuel Willodson)

  IT'S NOT too late to chop down a tree, make a pole, gather ribbons, pick flowers for garlands and wreaths and assemble in the village green to celebrate the first day of May and the Queen of Heaven.  

  FORMER Planned Parenthood manager Sue Thayer reveals in this video by Live Action that Planned Parenthood has had abortion quotas: “Every center had a goal for how many abortions were done.” Employees were rewarded with meeting sales goals with pizza parties, Thayer says. "It sounds kind of crazy, but pizza is a motivator."

“OPIATES killed ten times as many Americans in one year as all terror attacks in last 20 years.” Unintentional drug overdose is now the primary cause of accidental deaths in the United States, Claire Bernish reports.

Read about how Oxycontin, the painkiller blamed for many cases of opiate addiction, was marketed to the medical establishment by Purdue Pharma: (more…)

NICK writes:

I’ve emailed you in the past about certain topics you helped with. So, I thought I’d ask another if you have the time to answer.

On the recent Easter Vigil I was confirmed into the Catholic Church. For the past decade I’ve studied Thomistic philosophy, even uprooting myself from my rural home in North Carolina and moving to Houston to attend a Catholic University to further my education. Still, I went through RCIA, which was little more than deacons expressing their personal testimonials and religious experiences. (more…)