Kansas Abortion Provider Killed In Church

From Yahoo News
QUOTE WICHITA, Kan. – Dr. George Tiller, one of the nation's few providers of late-term abortions despite decades of protests and attacks, was shot and killed Sunday in a church where he was serving as an usher. UNQUOTE

Now, I am no friend of the "abortion for any reason, any time" mentality. I consider myself to be the most pro-choice of pro-lifers, and the most pro-life of the pro-choicers. I can get into a verbal sparring match with both sides with equal enthusiasm. It isn't a black-and-white issue, it is an issue with many many shades of grey in between, with nuance and condition and situation all weighing in.

But it really isn't anyone's business but mine and my spiritual director's, now is it? It has always been patently evident to me, intuitively obvious to the most casual observer, as Father Paul Brown used to say "back in the day", that a person of ethics and morals, whether Christian or something else, is basically to be anti-war, anti-death penalty, pro-life and basically oriented towards an approach which values kindness and respect of others above all.

I simply cannot imagine a mindset which can justify murder. I also cannot fathom a mindset which would pronounce, as has Randall Terry, that he is more concerned with Obama's reaction than with Tiller's murder. In his comments, Terry does not grieve for Tiller or denounce the murder but seems more concerned about President Obama's reaction and what it bodes for the pro-life movement.

A dark day for America, and a very black day for the pro-life movement.

As far as use of force goes, say I was a psycho criminal, as I see it you'd have to wait until I was about to commit the act, and you have to believe there is no other recourse. Just because you believe someone is going to kill doesn't mean you can use lethal force. Plus the force used at the very moment of intercession to prevent whatever crime, should be as minmal as possible. Legal injunctions, lawsuits, even a sit-in or a occupation of the offices. Nonviolent civil protest.

Further, this will not go to any greater good. Another doctor will graduate from medical school and take his place. Twenty will take his place. The way to end abortion is through love, prayers, conversion of hearts, and gently changing people's worldview.


"In a Catholic worldview, every person is a child of God, and has an inherent value before Christ, and that includes ourselves. We should strive to see that - as well as Christ - in everyone. And animal and plant life, while we have dominion over it, are to be treated with respect and not used and thrown away. If people had this worldview, at least partially even if they were not Catholic, they would value life as sacred and abortion as evil would necessarily follow. St. Francis of Assisi is a great example of what type of worldview will change all of this."
- Quis Ut Deus, May 31,2009

Whoever murdered Dr. Tiller, and whatever the reason they had for murdering him might be, they are NOT pro-life. His killer is pro-death. They took into their own hands who would live and who would die. Catholics are not to do this.

I offer my heartfelt condolences to Dr. Tiller's family and friends, and I pray for his immortal soul as well as the soul of his slayer. May God have mercy on us all.
~~~

What Is So Rare?

This day in May is as nearly perfect as weather can be, here in the sunkissed heartland of Turtle Island. Ahh.

Bask like an emerald lizard amongst the ivy on a granite wall.

The Vision of Sir Launfal is an impressively lengthy poem that tells the story of an Arthurian knight’s search for the Holy Grail. This is but an excerpt. By James Russell Lowell (1819-1891)

Earth gets its price for what Earth gives us;

The beggar is taxed for a corner to die in,

The priest hath his fee who comes and shrives us,

We bargain for the graves we lie in;

At the Devil’s booth are all things sold

Each ounce of dross costs its ounce of gold;

For a cap and bells our lives we pay,

Bubbles we earn with a whole soul’s tasking:

‘T is heaven alone that is given away,

‘T is only God may be had for the asking;

There is no price set on the lavish summer,

And June may be had by the poorest comer.

And what is so rare as a day in June?

Then, if ever, come perfect days;

Then Heaven tries the earth if it be in tune,

And over it softly her warm ear lays:

Whether we look, or whether we listen,

We hear life murmur, or see it glisten;

Every clod feels a stir of might,

An instinct within it that reaches and towers,

And, grasping blindly above it for light,

Climbs to a soul in grass and flowers;

The flush of life may well be seen

Thrilling back over hills and valleys;

The cowslip startles in meadows green,

The buttercup catches the sun in its chalice,

And there ’s never a leaf or a blade too mean

To be some happy creature’s palace;

The little bird sits at his door in the sun,

Atilt like a blossom among the leaves,

And lets his illumined being o’errun

With the deluge of summer it receives;

His mate feels the eggs beneath her wings,

And the heart in her dumb breast flutters and sings;

He sings to the wide world, and she to her nest...

~~~

Ron Paul on Holding the Torturers Accountable

Just because some of his fans are wing nut fruit-loops doesn't mean the good doctor is one. And remember, in a neurotic culture the people who have the presence of mind to protest always look "crazy" - that is, until one sees their point. Then they look like prophets.

From AntiWar.com by Dr. Ron Paul
Hold the Torturers Accountable
Or else we'll all be held accountable

QUOTE The government’s own actions and operations in torturing people, and in acting on illegally obtained and unreliable information to kill and capture, are the most radicalizing forces at work today, not any religion, nor the fact that we are rich and free. The fact that our government engages in evil behavior under the auspices of the American people is what poses the greatest threat to the American people, and it must not be allowed to stand. UNQUOTE

The Flowers Of the Forest...

Willie McBride (also known as No Man's Land and The Green Fields of France)
Performed by The Dropkick Murphys
[Originally by Eric Bogle]

Oh how do you do, young Willy McBride
Do you mind if I sit here down by your graveside
And rest for a while in the warm summer sun
I've been walking all day, and I'm nearly done
And I see by your gravestone you were only nineteen
When you joined the great falling in 1916
Well I hope you died quick
And I hope you died clean
Or Willy McBride, was is it slow and obscene

Did they beat the drums slowly
Did they play the fife lowly
Did they sound the death march as they lowered you down
Did the band play the last post and chorus
Did the pipes play the flowers of the forest

And did you leave a wife or a sweetheart behind
In some loyal heart is your memory enshrined
And though you died back in 1916
To that loyal heart you're forever nineteen
Or are you a stranger without even a name
Forever enshrined behind some old glass pane
In an old photograph torn, tattered, and stained
And faded to yellow in a brown leather frame

Did they beat the drums slowly
Did they play the fife lowly
Did they sound the death march as they lowered you down
Did the band play the last post and chorus
Did the pipes play the flowers of the forest

The sun shining down on these green fields of France
The warm wind blows gently and the red poppies dance
The trenches have vanished long under the plow
No gas, no barbed wire, no guns firing now
But here in this graveyard that's still no mans land
The countless white crosses in mute witness stand
To man's blind indifference to his fellow man
And a whole generation were butchered and damned

Did they beat the drums slowly
Did they play the fife lowly
Did they sound the death march as they lowered you down
Did the band play the last post and chorus
Did the pipes play the flowers of the forest

And I can't help but wonder oh Willy McBride
Do all those who lie here know why they died
Did you really believe them when they told you the cause
Did you really believe that this war would end wars
Well the suffering, the sorrow, the glory, the shame
The killing and dying it was all done in vain
Oh Willy McBride it all happened again
And again, and again, and again, and again

Did they beat the drums slowly
Did they play the fife lowly
Did they sound the death march as they lowered you down
Did the band play the last post and chorus
Did the pipes play the flowers of the forest

I Love the Governator!

A day after talking about waterboarding on ABC’s The View, Jesse Ventura took his case for prosecuting torture to Fox News. “You are worried about [the terrorists’] welfare,” accused Fox’s Brian Kilmeade.
“No. I’m not worried about their welfare. I’m worried about what our country stands for,” Ventura responded.
This video is from Fox’s Fox & Friends, broadcast May 19, 2009

You preach it, brother!!! Yay Jesse!