Four Enchiladas, Señor, extra sauce

Crystal, honey... baby, where you been?



...and white socks, too.

Also check out the vid for Call Mr. Lee.

Celebrations and Cerebral Explosions Immanent

JP2 pulled another miracle out of his hat. Watch for joyous celebrations among them Roman Catholic people and exploding heads among uber-Catholics, traddies, ex-Catholics, anti-Catholics and the generally disgruntled. Excerpt:

(ANSA) - Vatican City, July 2 - A second miracle by Pope John Paul II was approved Tuesday by a plenary meeting of cardinals and bishops of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, ANSA sources said. The decision means that John Paul may be canonized by the end of this year, the sources said.

The next step is for Pope Francis to give the final signature. The cardinals and bishops belonging to the Congregation for the Causes of Saints were in favour of a canonisation ceremony taking place in December, after the end of the current year of the faith.

But the final decision is up to Francis. Last month a board of theologians of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints gave its green light to a miracle that, up to now, has remained a closely guarded secret but which Vatican sources say will "amaze the world".

Hey, I'll take any miracles offered at this point. I recently heard a priest say that we need to pray for more miracles, and I think he's right. Also while you're praying, say a quick one that I can find my damned car keys.

H/T Catholic Culture

Ladies and Gentlemen, Johnny Rivers!

Balanced approach to BSA -- for now

Here's a well thought out and balanced article by Dr. Denise Hunnell of Human Life International on the new and problematic stance of the BSA regarding homosexuality. Her conclusion:

The potential conflicts with Catholic moral teaching are not going to get easier and will most likely get worse—especially if the national leadership of the Boy Scouts provides further accommodations to those seeking to abolish any moral opposition to the homosexual lifestyle. It is time to seek other options that can be trusted to provide a strong moral formation of boys to men. Perhaps it is time for parish Knights of Columbus councils to push hard for the formation of Columbian Squires Circles as an alternative for Catholic Boy Scouts.

The Boy Scouts of America tried to preserve their financial stability by making honor and virtue a matter of opinion. By tying their principles to the shifting sands of popular culture, the Boy Scouts have forfeited their credibility as a solid pillar of moral authority. With this change in membership policy, the Boy Scouts of America today cannot be compared to the Boys Scouts of yesterday and it does not bode well for Catholic Boy Scouts of tomorrow.

I'm invested in scouting with three kids currently. But I might opt for an alternative with my 5-year-old. I'm definitely going to check out Columbian Squire Circles. However I know if I do I'm going to end up getting recruited into the knights. Oh, well, it was bound happen sooner or later.

David Alexander's comments to the article are worth reading.

The San Antonio National Anthem

I'm overdue in contributing to the Summer Party.  

Enjoy a classic party song from down this way.

That would be the great Freddy Fender on guitar.  Enjoy!

Oh, man, wonder if he'll ever know....

I like Bowie the best when he's a white male. I'm funny that way.

Sometimes Common Sense Wins

The incident described here could have turned into something a lot worse. Fortunately it was handled expertly by the student's defense attorneys who had guidance from the NRA. The kid wore a shirt supporting 2A which read "Protect your right" and had a picture of a semi-auto rifle on it. Some band teacher flipped out and asked him to wear it inside out and he refused.

On June 17th, Logan County prosecutors charged Marcum with obstructing a police officer, claiming that Marcum had hindered the responding officer's ability to do his job by "interrupting" and refusing to be quiet when told to do so. The charge carried with it the possibility of incarceration in a juvenile facility. In contesting the charge, White noted that "In my view of the facts, Jared didn't do anything wrong," going on to say, "I think [the officer] could have done something differently."

Thankfully, on June 27th, common sense prevailed, as the parties agreed no further legal action would arise from the case. In the agreement underlying the order of dismissal, Jared did not admit guilt to any offense, and the State made clear that "[u]nder [the] circumstances [it] is not interested in the possibility of creating a juvenile criminal record for this Defendant." For his part, Marcum has offered an apology for any perceived disrespect to the officer, and he and his mother agreed to forego any civil action against the City of Logan, its police department, the police officers involved. During the episode, NRA was in contact with and provided assistance to Marcum's attorney.

Come on, lighten up, she didn't say "cracker"

A Commissioner in North Caroline says "No white males." Hispanic males are OK. What about White Hispanics? Unclear. I'm guessing it's a down vote.



Ooooooh, so angry. You can feel it right below the surface. She probably had a crush on a white guy once. Poor baby.

Shonen Knife: Banana Chips

This tune is on Happy Hour which, as I mentioned earlier, contains my favorite Knife stuff.



Most of the tunes on Happy Hour are about food (Cookie Day, Sushi Bar, Hot Chocolate, Banana Chips, etc.) or goofy things like Jackalopes and waking up with fish eyes. Too cute for some, I'm sure, but hey, remember we're in the middle of Summer Party 2013, so get your sense of humor on.

View From Your Nuts

Here's the text from the Youtube page:

My "pet" gray squirrel, Crunchy.
Crunchy is sat on the bird table, munching an unsalted peanut.
He comes and goes.

Glad to see Crunchy is limiting his sodium intake.

The Answer Is No

The answer is "no"; that word works in English or Spanish. Bill Kristol's summary echoes my own opinion of what the house should do with the awful immigration reform bill passed in the Senate.

Sean Trende asks, in a thoughtful and data-heavy piece, whether the GOP has to pass immigration reform to be competitive in the future at the presidential level. The answer is no.

Meanwhile, with respect to the 2014 congressional elections, it's increasingly clear that allowing any form or permutation of the Senate bill to become law would divide and demoralize potential Republican voters. So if Republicans want to win House and Senate seats in 2014, John Boehner should kill the Senate bill—first refusing to take it up in the House, and also by making clear the House will refuse to go to conference with it. The House can still pass specific bills to address particular immigration issues this session (which presumably the Senate won't take up—but let Harry Reid explain his refusal to do so). But the key is for Boehner to kill "comprehensive" immigration "reform" in this session of Congress.

The primary and indeed sufficient reason to do this is of course because the Senate legislation is such bad public policy. But it may be reassuring to elected officials that doing the right thing won't hurt politically in 2014 or most likely 2016. And it's also the case that Republican presidential candidates can set forth whatever proposals they think right in 2015 and 2016, so they're not just saying no. But the House GOP, for the sake of party and country, should say no: No Capitulation, No "Comprehensive" Bill, No Conference.

I think the most offensive thing about the bill is the comprehensiveness. That's a big word which means bigness. The thing is as obese as Obamacare. Public policy would be served better by smaller "reforms", if you must call them that; Kristol calls them "specific bills to address particular immigration issues".