PAULA BLANCHARD writes:

I was raised on a family farm and have a childhood of experience raising chickens, geese and ducks (among other animals).  At our last home in the country I had a flock of 20 chickens, which provided eggs and garden fertilizer, reduced the bug and worm population, provided dinner to a couple of passing coyote’s and amused our family with their antics.

Since moving to our current home four years ago, we have learned that we cannot raise backyard chickens in residential zoning.  There have been two attempts since 2011 to change the ordinance to no effect.  See articles about zoning restrictions here, here and here. (more…)

THE student health plans at 36 American colleges, including Brown University, now cover sex change operations for students, The New York Times reports. A number of other colleges offer hormone therapy. In other words, America’s elite institutions cover the costs of self-mutilation for the confused and desperate. According to The Times:

Princeton says on its Web site that it has been named a “top 10 trans friendly university” and that “recently, we launched an online guide” for transgender students. The university’s student policy covers hormone therapy but not surgery, but it is, along with Yale, one of several in that category that say they are considering adding surgical coverage.

“The university is actively exploring the possibility of offering benefits for gender reassignment surgery,” for both students and employees, said Martin A. Mbugua, a Princeton spokesman.

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AT Tradition in Action, Atila Sinke Guimarães writes:

[I] think that there is no one in the College of Cardinals who is not committed to Progressivism. And if by some odd chance one would pop up, he would not have any possibility to be elected Pope.

Therefore, to know what agenda the next Pontiff will have for the Church, it is my opinion that one should ask: What are the main interests of Progressivism today? Answering this question, he has a good chance of realizing what will happen.

[NOTE: This article at TIA was written upon the death of John Paul II. It was posted again this week with the comment that its main arguments are relevant now. My apologies for failing to note this when I initially posted it.]

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DANIEL S. writes:

The announced resignation of Pope Benedict by the end of the month has once again brought out all the frothing, dim- witted, liberal journalists who are wallowing in this opportunity to issue judgments on Benedict’s reign. Supposedly he was “dogged by scandal” and hurt dialogue with Jews, Protestants, and Muslims (if only!). His alleged petty, mean spirited actions? He quoted a 14th-century Byzantine emperor describing the founder of Islam in a negative (but accurate) manner; he affirmed that the Catholic Church possesses the fullness of Truth, and he sought to reconcile the traditionalist Society of Saint Pius X with Rome (which made leftist Jews, who already hated the Church, mad). He is being accused by the liberal media of “turning back the clock” for refusing to compromise on the Church’s eternal moral teachings. (more…)

DON VINCENZO writes:

OVERWHELMING numbers of blacks, Latinos, Jews and Asians voted for President Obama in November. That is well-known. Less well-known is the fact that a majority of self-described Catholics, especially of Latin American ancestry, voted for him as well. While exit polls are notoriously inaccurate, more serious polling data from the election indicates that 51 percent, a small majority to be sure, of “Catholics” voted for a man who is, without question, the most principled enemy of the Church in my lifetime.

In order to eliminate the tag of being “anti-Catholic,” and potentially alienating some of this slender Catholic majority, the administration has surrounded itself with “Catholic” cabinet secretaries and legislative leaders, and in so doing can point to their presence as prima facie evidence that no such animus exists. If “liberal” Republicans can be referred to as Republicans in Name Only (RINOs), then the Sebelius, Panetta, Kerry, and Biden group should then be called CINOs — Catholics in Name Only. (more…)

DANIEL S. writes:

With Lent at hand I think it fitting to reflect again upon the glory of our Savior’s Resurrection. I was today reading a collection of sermons by the late Serbian Archimandrite Justin Popovich and came across the following passage: (more…)

HANNON writes:

An older post of yours came to mind recently on a tour of the campus of University of California at Santa Barbara. I have long thought of this installation of buildings as particularly hideous, especially when contrasted against its lovely setting on an isolated ocean bluff. The land is flat and the rather austere landscaping provides little visual relief. During this walk I happened to meet with one of the campus architects and shared with him my biased opinion of the products of his antecedents. He explained that the campus architecture of that time (1950s to 1960s) owes its style to the fashion of the day and nothing more. (more…)

JOSEPH L. EBBECKE writes:

Nothing But a Lout

Charles d’Orléans (1394-1465), Rondel 333 (tr. R.N. Currey):

Winter, you’re nothing but a lout.
Summer is polite and gentle;
Only look how May and April
Accompany him day in, day out.
See how fields and woods and flowers
Wear his livery of verdure
And of many other colours
According to the rule of Nature;
But, Winter, you are all filled out
With snow and sleet and wind and drizzle;
It’s time we sent you into exile;
I never flatter, but speak out;
Winter, you’re nothing but a lout. (more…)

A READER writes:

I’ve also noticed this creepily excessive hugging and kissing among politicians, but Democrats engage in it more frequently than Republicans. Its inconsistency with their speech and sexual harassment codes leads me to believe that it’s another of their self-congratulatory rituals of mutual identification, saying, “See, a dirty conservative can’t kiss and  hug except as the prelude to sexual conquest; but we enlightened liberals can touch each other’s bodies in a loving, but non-sexual way.”

It also smacks of both Europe and Hollywood, giving it a double frisson for liberals.  It won’t be long before American politicians will be greeting each other as Khrushchev greeted Yuri Gagarin!

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  I HAVE been unable to do more than glance at my e-mails and at this site for several days due to extenuating circumstances. I plan to post recent comments today.

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ELAINE J. writes:

For years I worked as a nurse at the local hospital and throughout the year we were bombarded with fundraisers. First there was breast cancer awareness, then Relay for Life, Diabetes, Go Red, etc. I guess my heart has been hardened against so many disease fundraisers. It seemed like one wouldn’t end before another started (kind of like professional sports). I saw in the paper just this past week, a researcher lamenting the fact that there were no fundraising blitzes for lung cancer!

Am I not sympathetic to the plight of cancer sufferers? Yes and no. In the mid-nineties, I was diagnosed with breast cancer. (more…)

LEONORA writes:

Your post “Suffering and Purity of Heart” from January 20^th caught my attention. A friend showed it to me on the day I had to go back to school after my winter break, and I have been experiencing the deep truth of those words first hand since then. I want to share some of that with you because it might be of interest to you.

I am a 25-year-old woman, studying and teaching language and literature on graduate level at a liberal state university in the Midwest. I would describe myself and my religious as well as political views as conservative for the most part. I am not married or in a relationship, and thus working and studying at the University, though I would be happy to give up my pursuit of a career for having a family and being a housewife with a good husband by my side any time. I will always be thinking about issues, reading, trying to stay informed and keeping my mind going, yet I realize more and more and feel strongly what women were really created for, and that is not to toughen up, be like men and pursue great careers as a primary goal.

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DANIEL S. writes:

Several American bishops have expressed their willingness to oppose Obama’s HHS mandate, even to the point of going to jail. I truly hope the bishops are sincere in this, and I pray they remain strong and steadfast in the facing the malevolent, secularist tyranny of Obama and the American government. (more…)

AN ANONYMOUS correspondent of a reader writes:

CNN and MSNBC and even FOX have become adept at finding cute little lasses who identify themselves as conservative. Their function is to discredit or undermine conservative ideas with weak defense, no defense or outright hostility. Of course, they’re so absorbed with their own celebrity that they don’t know this and aren’t aware of their role as useful idiots. Most of all they want to show off their hipness and cool. Like Sally Field, they just want to be loved. They want to proclaim to the world, “Hey, I’m a Conservative, but I’m cool!”

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