Liberal Thought

I've often heard references to 'liberals' as a group following a particular philosophy rather than a British political party (now of course Liberal Democrat).  About these latter persons I am not concerned, but what does concern me is a body of thought that appears to translate 'liberal' to 'very little' in the sense that there is very little reason applied to a particular view.  Indeed some seem to think there is none at all!

Okay, let's consider the term 'homophobic'.  Who cooked up this term I can't say, but it is normally applied to those who express opposition in one form or another to homosexual or lesbian activity.  If the term itself is neutral, then couldn't it be reversed?  What about those homosexuals or lesbians who express opposition to heterosexual activity? Oh shock, oh horror, would this happen?  Too damn right it would - and they'd call heterosexuals defending themselves 'homophobic'!

Now we see how liberal thought works - or doesn't.  Over the decades I've numbered homosexuals and lesbians among my friends because they have not been 'in my face' regarding their preferences.  What I most certainly object to is the 'in your face' attitude of the more vocal.  There's a vast difference between reason and dictatorial attitudes that do not win friends, to the contrary they win only opposition and antagonism.

But let's consider the idea of at least one British Politician who wants to compel the Roman Catholic Church to marry gays.  Sorry... not going to happen. If this idiot had any understanding of the teaching of the Roman Catholic Church he would know the following:

1. In the Catholic Church the couple marry each other through the exchange of vows.

2. The vows of Permanence, Fidelity and Children validate the marriage.

3. Marriage is a sacrament and as such cannot change.

Given that two men cannot naturally fulfill the vow of children and because the same applies to two women, also that its the couple who marry each other - not the Church, gay or lesbian marriage is physically impossible in the Catholic Church - the marriage would be invalid regardless of the law of the land.

Again, we have the notion of FORCE associated with liberal thinking regarding homosexuality, while justification does not even consider the teaching of the Catholic Church.  Is this even what homosexuals have been asking for? No.  A Catholic homosexual should be familiar with Catholic teaching and probably wouldn't ask, if he or for that matter she, was unfamiliar with Catholic teaching he or she probably wouldn't be interested anyway.

This is not just about homosexuality.  Those liberals attempting to dictate to society jump to conclusions.  For example.  In Britain a town council banned the Christmas decorations for the town center.  The reason they gave was that it may be offensive to the Muslim minority.  The complaints followed... not only from Christians, but also from Muslims who said that Christmas was a time for families and that they enjoyed it as much as Christians.  The point is, the council didn't even bother to ask the Muslims, they made an assumption that had no foundation.  A factor that seems common to liberal thinking.

I tend not to listen to liberals for this reason... there isn't any... reason that is.

More value in living flesh and in silver and gold.

My mother knew what people were saying about her in the autumn of her life, she was to some a ‘religious fanatic’ because she attended daily Mass at St. Patrick’s church in Oldham, and then she said the Rosary.  So how do I know?  Simple, she told me.

Her devotion to the Mass and the Blessed Virgin Mary was well known and perhaps she pricked the consciences of a few who didn’t even bother with attending church on Sunday.  She certainly had her faults and for one thing she was a McKenna and that’s dangerous enough for anyone who backs a McKenna into a corner.  I learned later by looking up the clan on the Internet that there’s a probability the McKenna clan is descended from ‘The O’Neil’ the High King of Ireland and they are essentially a clan of Celtic Warriors.  That explained a lot because among the Celts women were also Warriors and in my family the women can be volatile.

I should also mention that after missing him during his Dublin visit, my mother received Holy Communion from this guy during his visit to Manchester.  She also sat with the VIPs during the Mass.

I learned from a local doctor that while he and another man from St. Michael’s church were with my mother collecting signatures for a pro-life petition a group of pro-abortionist women approached, one wearing a sticker on her coat reading, “Kill, kill, kill!”  That was enough to annoy the Celtic Warrior in my mother, she rushed the pro-abortionist ripped the sticker from her coat and tried to ram it down the woman’s throat while screaming, “Eat your words, eat your words!”  The pro-abortionists bolted!

I was living at home in those days and both I and my brother Kevin were giving my mother money for the shopping etc.  Before the end of the week she would complain that she had no money, so Kevin and I agreed that he would give her something on Monday and I would give her something on Wednesday.  For a while it seemed to work, nevertheless, she was often short of money which seemed to slip through her fingers.

I was leaving St. Patrick’s church after her funeral Mass when I was approached by an elderly gentleman who said that he knew my mother from daily Mass and the Rosary which she often led.  He went on to say that one day he was talking to her and happened to mention that he didn’t know how he was going to pay his heating bill.  My mother asked him how much he needed and after he told her she gave him the money he needed.

My mother had taught me by her example to give living flesh more value than silver or gold, whether it is the unborn child or those in the autumn of their lives.  It’s a valuable lesson and one I hope I have learned well.

Karin's EBooks

Seven Doors of Time is an ebook of seven short stories. Smashwords offers a 30% free download, but this is only 30% of the entire ebook.  For the full ebook it will cost just $4.99 that's not a bad price for seven short stories and a book of some 158,349 words.

Good Old Uncle Norman, the second of Karin's ebooks is a work of some 6,890 words that has a pricetag of just $2.99.  Again this is value for money and well worth looking at. Smashwords has a free 20% download, but this is just a 20% and not the full tale.  It's a good tale with a good and somewhat funny end that those downloading the free sample will miss.

Always Have Always Will is a love story of 15,379 words and again is priced at just $2.99 and Smashwords offers a free download of 20% which gives only part of the story.  For the full story it will be necessary to purchase the ebook as is the case with the above ebooks.  This is how Smashwords works - offering a sample of an ebook to potential customers.  At least you know what you're getting - and that's the idea.

Smashwords lists the formats in which you can buy the book, or alternitavely view a sample if a sample is available in a particular format.  The above ebooks, for instance, are available in all formats which makes it easy to either buy or view a sample (if available).  Finally, you can purchase an ebook using a Credit Card, Debit Card or Paypal for the price listed.

I hope those of you who purchase the ebooks will enjoy reading them.

Science and the Catholic Church

Interesting isn't it?  When it comes to science and the Catholic Church there can be a tendency to assume conflict - well look at the Galileo affair!  Hold on a mo... wasn't that settled when ol' Gal won the day?  In fact it wasn't just the Catholic Church insisting that ol' Gaileo' was wrong... so were cosmologists at the time. 'Prehistoric Scientists' they may have been, but they were scientists and they were also just as wrong.  Galileo was right.  The idea that there's some kind of clash between the Church or Christianity in general and science is the kind of thing you can expect from a tanked-up atheist, but it's not the kind of thing a well informed Christian should be spouting.

Ever hear of the Augustinian Brother Gregor Johann Mendel?  No?  Ever hear of Genetic Science?  Brother Mendel is responsible for Genetic Science.  Now there's a surprise, a Religious Brother being responsible for modern Genetics... and here's the man himself (pictured).  Prior to Mendel and for a few decades after, a wide variety of theories about heredity proliforated.  Mendel's book (1866) on pea plants was re-discovered by Hugo de Vries, Carl  Correns and Eric von Tschermak and by 1915 the basic principles of Mendelian genetics had been applied to a wide variety of organisms, especially the fruit fly.

And if you think that's all, well think again.  There's more.  Here come's a shock for those who love to express scientific criticism of Christian belief.

Now I bet you haven't heard of Monsignor Georges Henri Joseph Édouard Lemaître! Or maybe you have...  He's a Belgian priest and scientist who proposed a theory long ago that fellow scientists jokingly referred to as "The Big Bang" Yep, it's that theory - the one about how the universe originated.  Not taken too seriously at first and criticised even by Eienstein, he was later to be proven correct in his postulations.

The links are provided for additional information on these lads.  But let's not miss the point.  It is abundantly clear that the Catholic Church takes science seriously and this has always been the case, despite one slip-up with Galileo who was proven correct.

Look further back in history and you will find that many of the great centres of learning in Europe were established by Celtic monks from the great Abbey's in Ireland and Britain.  Christians have nothing to fear from science, although science may fear the moral consciousness imposed by Christianity.  When we ask the scientist, "Hey mate, don't you think the two-headed sheep is pushing the limit a bit?"  We just may have a point and the scientist may not like that.

Criticise Christians if you want to - just don't use science to do it.  That's not going to work because we've a whole pack of scientists who are commited Christians to set on you. (Loud Rastberry).

The Day Draws Near.

It's getting close to Karin's birthday, September 5th.  This year, however, there's another day soon after - just four days later it will be the tenth anniversary of a day I think we can all remember only too well.



Nine Eastern is eight Central time, so yours truly was in bed at our home at East Rusholme, Davenport when Karin came into the room and turned on the television. She said, "A plane has just crashed into the World Trade Center."  My reaction was "The World what?"  I was not fully conscious... but the above is what I saw on television as it happened.  I actually saw the second plane hit and I knew immediately this was a terrorist attack.  I imagine the horror of that day will always remain with me.

Even though my home town of Oldham has a large Muslim minority, one year later the town flew the American flag at half mast outside the Civic Centre.  If Oldham has anything planned for this year, I don't know, but this Oldham lad will remember and keep the day with prayers and thoughts for the families who lost loved ones.

Security Level - Where we stand....In Europe.

My Thanks to Dan Honeycut for John Cleese's (AKA Q of MI6) contribution to the following detailed information regarding the security standing for Europe.

The English are feeling the pinch in relation to recent events in Libya and have therefore raised their security level from “Miffed” to “Peeved.” Soon, though, security levels may be raised yet again to “Irritated” or even “A Bit Cross.” The English have not been “A Bit Cross” since the blitz in 1940 when tea supplies nearly ran out. Terrorists have been re-categorized from “Tiresome” to “A Bloody Nuisance.” The last time the British issued a “Bloody Nuisance” warning level was in 1588, when threatened by the Spanish Armada.

The Scots have raised their threat level from “Pissed Off” to “Let’s get the Bastards.” They don’t have any other levels. This is the reason they have been used on the front line of the British army for the last 300 years.

The French government announced yesterday that it has raised its terror alert level from “Run” to “Hide.” The only two higher levels in France are “Collaborate” and “Surrender.” The rise was precipitated by a recent fire that destroyed France ‘s white flag factory, effectively paralyzing the country’s military capability.

Italy has increased the alert level from “Shout Loudly and Excitedly” to “Elaborate Military Posturing.” Two more levels remain: “Ineffective Combat Operations” and “Change Sides.”

The Germans have increased their alert state from “Disdainful Arrogance” to “Dress in Uniform and Sing Marching Songs.” They also have two higher levels: “Invade a Neighbor” and “Lose.”

Belgians, on the other hand, are all on holiday as usual; the only threat they are worried about is NATO pulling out of Brussels.

The Spanish are all excited to see their new submarines ready to deploy. These beautifully designed subs have glass bottoms so the new Spanish navy can get a really good look at the old Spanish navy.

Australia, meanwhile, has raised its security level from “No worries” to “She’ll be alright, Mate.” Two more escalation levels remain: “Crikey! I think we’ll need to cancel the barbie this weekend!” and “The barbie is canceled.” So far no situation has ever warranted use of the final escalation level.

Anyone who believes any of this is in serious need of a funny-bone transplant, due to lack of the same.

In addition I would also like to point out that my wife's ebook is still available. Click Here if you dare!

How to improve your photos

At the Oldham School of Arts and Crafts (yep I was once an Art Student), I learned about photography, darkrooms, developer and all that good stuff long before the advent digital photography.  While some of the 'rules' may have changed with the introduction of binary code, some of the rules have not.  So here are a few tips on improving photographs.

Even with a cheesy camera it is possible to get a good photograph and today's camera-phones would do well in a salad!  There's a lot a camera phone cannot do that other cameras can do, adjusting the light reading for example.  Let's consider the photograph of the folks in the pool...

The problem with this is that there's too much light in the pic.  This is because of the reflected light off the water... but it can be fixed.

The next pic is the fix.. and as you can see there's more detail and a better colour balance.  Even this can be improved upon, but why bother if the fix is good enough.  We're not entering it into a photo competition.  I used Adobe Photoshop LE (an older version of Photoshop) to do the necessary repairs.  There are a number of other photo programs available - for a price - but it's always good to get some independent information about them before buying.

Another program I use is Photoimpact Pro that has additional features including red-eye removal and morphing of photos, just to mention a couple.

When taking a photograph take the following steps:
First, always frame the photograph while taking it.
Second, look out for reflective surfaces such as water or snow that can give a false reading for aperture and shutter speed.  Thirdly, press the shutter and don't jerk it.

Here's another tip... lots of people seem to take photos of themselves in mirrors.  You can use any of the above mentioned programs to flip a photo so that it's the right way around.  Okay, so some of you knew that - but not everyone may have done!  I'm not that keen on camera-phones and given a choice I'd opt for a Canon EOS especially since we still have our old Canon cameras and the lenses will fit.  All you really need is a decent wide angle and a 200 mm telephoto to get some really great shots - as Deb will tell you.

Er... This is Deb... Karin's sister and a really good photographer.

Before we go, it may not have anything to do with taking photos, but Karin's ebook is still available from smashwords Click Here