Veritatis: The Cartoon

Contraception, Abortion & the World's Oldest Lie

2011-12-11T16:21:00.093-06:00

Without doubt, this is one of the best cartoons I've produced in my entire career as an illustrator. And anyone who truly understands our culture of death can see why. As described below, credit belongs to tireless defender of human life, Fr. Frank Pavone. --JFB

Several summers ago, Fr. Frank Pavone spoke at our diocesan Respect Life conference in Salina, Kansas. Until that moment, I thought I knew our opponents: greedy, disingenuous medical practitioners who make fortunes taking advantage of naive, misguided and frightened youngsters. Then Fr. Frank approached the microphone and said, "The lie told by Planned Parenthood is the same lie told in the Garden of Eden."

Suddenly it was obvious. Is there anything Satan hates more than life? Hatred is sterile; it cannot create, only destroy. Every human being is an affront to Satan, a reminder of his impotence and a potential threat to his grip on the world. Ergo, contraception and sterilization. And when those fail, abortion, infanticide, euthanasia, suicide, embryonic experimentation, capital punishment, terrorism, war...

As in the Garden, Satan plays on our pride, offering us power over life.

This was one of the most sobering moments of my life, the realization that the anti-life politicians, activists and organizations I'd been confronting are but the slavish front line of a demonic army that stretches back to the gates of Hell; the sudden understanding that our anti-life neighbors are merely gullible enlistees, cannon fodder despised by the very monsters who command them from the unseen bunker of another realm. As St. Paul wrote, "...our wrestling is not against flesh and blood, but against the Principalities and the Powers, against the world-rulers of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness..."

Ours is an Apocalyptic battle. Literally. It is a clash between Heaven and Hell so vast and costly that all wars throughout history are little more than skirmishes by comparison. In the industrialized world, where contraception is endemic, populations are aging and collapsing, strangled by a rampant selfishness that considers family life onerous and children burdensome; stretched to insolvency as a result, socialized health care systems now ration life-saving treatment, de facto euthanasia for cases in which it is not already legal; and around the planet, roughly as many children are intentionally aborted annually as were killed in all six years of World War II. But because soldiers aren't marching, tanks aren't clamoring and cities aren't burning, few of us notice.

Such is the serpent's quiet efficiency.

Playground for Corruption: Obamacare's Problematic Medical Records Database

2011-05-21T13:15:00.034-05:00

News that euthanasia promoter-practitioner Jack Kevorkian had been admitted to a Detroit-area hospital brought to mind this cartoon, conceived in 2010. Like many features of Obamacare, the national electronic medical records database holds tremendous potential for abuse. If the Democrats' penchant for disposing of inconvenient persons (unplanned children, brain-damaged spouses, burdensome retirees, pillaged embryos...) and their eagerness to twist, ignore or violate laws in favor of the party faithful (abortionists, anarchists, sexual deviants, big labor, entitlement junkies...) are any indication, this cartoon should prove far less humorous than prophetic.

Terri's Fate: Prelude to Obamacare

2011-04-06T12:35:00.042-05:00

My 2011 memorial to Terri Schiavo appears below. A modified version of last year's, it was printed as a letter in yesterday's edition of The Hays Daily News. An indignant utilitarianist reader soon posted a comment at the paper's website, insisting that Terri's husband, Michael Schiavo, had made the decision to end Terri's life only after "prayerful" consideration.

A "prayerful" killer. Right.

As I pointed out in rebuttal, divorcing Terri wasn't enough for Michael; he wanted her dead. Michael intended to cash in on a million-dollar settlement, most of which had been allocated for Terri's care. This is why Michael refused to relinquish custody of Terri to her parents, ended her physical therapy and enlisted the help of euthanasia advocates.

The battle over Terri was a simple matter of right and wrong. It doesn't take a law degree to see this, but a vigorous effort was made to make it seem so. Why? Because the mass slaughter of human beings-- whether in wombs, petri dishes or nursing homes-- cannot go forward without a pall of lies to confuse onlookers and conceal the truth.

In the selfish world of utilitarianism, no one gets prayerful consideration...

Last week marked the sixth anniversary of the court-ordered killing of Terri Schindler Schiavo, an innocent, harmless and defenseless woman who succumbed to two weeks of forced starvation on March 31, 2005.

Terri was not dying or brain-dead and she wasn't on any kind of life support. Terri’s needs were being provided by caregivers, no differently than infants, toddlers and many elderly are cared for. But these facts didn't stop judges, politicians and pundits from painting her unworthy of life. Beholden to the all-powerful abortion lobby, they rushed to the cause of an adulterous, impatient and greedy husband who wanted her dead and forgotten.

Indeed, the battle for Terri’s life proved especially nerve-racking for the abortion industry, its champions in the media and its minions in government. In spite of their unprecedented legislative and judicial victories and the consequent slaughter of millions, these enablers of industrialized death know that killing for convenience can’t be taken for granted. So they trivialized, derided, even vilified a disabled woman lying in a Florida nursing home. After all, any legislative action or judicial decision to continue feeding her might have been viewed as validating her life. And that might have led to validating human life in a broader context.

Perhaps none of this should come as a surprise. Even before Roe v. Wade, America had begun devolving toward a loose association of self-centered individuals who tolerate others only so long as they prove useful. Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D-Maryland) personifies this utilitarian attitude; in 2009, while defending efforts to socialize American medicine, she declared abortion “preventive health care.” And thanks to the Democrat majority then in Congress, anti-life bureaucrats like Health & Human Services boss Kathleen Sebelius now can shunt billions to “community health centers” like Planned Parenthood and other purveyors of contraception, sterilization and abortion.

In the long run, this means fewer and fewer taxpayers and ever tighter government budgets. How, then, will self-serving politicians maintain the gargantuan entitlement programs they rely upon for votes? The answer is clear. Unable to increase revenues, they’ll decrease expenditures. For Barack Obama, Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi and like-minded politicians, killing is once again the answer. Just as they’ve sold abortion to generations indoctrinated in radical feminism, they’ll sell euthanasia to a stunted electorate saddled with trillions in debt and a graying population of unproductive consumers. Just as “reproductive health care” became code for dismembering children in utero, “geriatric health care” will become the polite term for smothering grandparents in rest homes. All that’s needed is to codify it, as some states have begun doing through assisted suicide. And as Catholic bishops and other observers have pointed out, Obamacare paves the way for it on the federal level.

If Obamacare is ever fully implemented, voters should not be surprised when they find that Terri’s fate is their own, final reward for having supported America’s party of death.

What goes around does, indeed, come around.

For more information, go to www.terrisfight.org

From Coattails to Millstone...

2010-11-02T14:31:00.012-05:00

The Pledge: Lip Service to Abandoned Ideals?

2010-07-04T12:31:00.117-05:00

It has, after all, the distinct ring of hypocrisy:

"One nation under God"

Really? What god? Certainly not the God of the Commandments, the God of the Beatitudes. Not He Who authored the natural moral law upon which the US Constitution is founded, the law trampled by legislatures and courts, individuals and bureaucracies across the land.

"...with liberty and justice for all.

All? Certainly not the unborn who are butchered by parents, stockpiled by fertility clinics and harvested by bioengineers. Nor the infirm and elderly who are marginalized, objectified and finally euthanized by impatient families, activist judges, nihilist media and narcissistic politicians.

In the spring of 1945, soldiers of the United States Army fought and died liberating the death camps of Nazi Germany. By all accounts, these battle-weary boys were horrified by what they encountered: codified, nationalized, industrialized murder. No doubt they leaned into the fray with a glimmer of hope that their impending sacrifice would prevent such madness from reaching American shores. Yet a mere generation later, a morally bankrupt majority on the US Supreme Court handed down its decision in Roe v. Wade, institutionalizing the very same slaughter here at home.

The freedom bought with the blood of heroes has been abused by the most selfish of their beneficiaries and turned against the most vulnerable. This unprecedented betrayal of our veterans and our unborn casts a shadow over America that no word of regret, no gesture of remorse, no act of reparation by a nation suddenly come to its senses ever could dispel.

Just as Germans let their country descend into the Nazi era, Americans let theirs descend into the Roe era. But Americans have far more blood on their hands; the birth control industry in this country has killed many times the number of persons crushed by the Nazi war machine. American abortionists alone have slaughtered roughly as many persons as died around the globe in World War II, combatant and non-combatant combined.

Americans who abide abortion are far more culpable than Germans who once abided deportations, gas chambers, ovens and mass graves. Reticence among those Germans is understandable; they faced execution for resisting Nazi tyranny. Despite the unprecedented threats to freedom posed by a socialist-ideologue president and his anti-life Congress, Americans still can speak openly. Those who would protest their innocence, claiming that they're somehow not involved or that it's none of their business, are the very definition of complicity. Their silence indicts them; their indifference convicts.

Those who deny that Americans have picked up where Nazis left off might refer to my June 2009 post, The American Holocaust Memorial & Museum?.

Roe-Era Snake Oil: Democrats Sell Abortion as "Preventive Health Care"

2010-03-20T12:51:00.028-05:00

Late last year, Sen. Barbara Mikulski of Maryland, among the most strident and unabashed leaders of America's culture of death, claimed that abortion is "preventive health care." When I read her remark, this cartoon popped instantly to mind.

In Mikulski's dark and twisted world, abortion is a panacea not just for children, but for parents. No more burdensome daycare costs, monotonous soccer matches, cacophonous piano recitals, gratuitous orthodontist bills, skyrocketing tuition payments. And thanks to the Democrat majority in the US Senate, Mikulski's diabolic definition of preventive medicine is included in their health care bill, giving lackeys like anti-life Health & Human Services boss Kathleen Sebelius the power to shunt billions to "community health centers" like Planned Parenthood.

In the long run, this means fewer taxpayers, shrinking revenues and ever deeper cuts in entitlements like Social Security and the Democrats' health care travesty. But therein lies the never-mentioned, but obvious lynchpin of socialized medicine. If ObamaCare becomes law, it should come as no surprise to aging voters that there exists a post-natal analogue of abortion. And whether it's called palliative care, cost containment, death with dignity or some other innocuous term, many will find that euthanasia is their final reward for having supported America's party of death.

What goes around does, indeed, come around.

If White House Walls Could Talk...

2010-03-04T12:59:00.006-06:00

Making Slavery Look Downright Compassionate

2010-02-16T12:06:00.090-06:00

"Presently, for every two African-American women who get pregnant, one will chose to abort. Fifty-two percent of all African-American pregnancies end in Abortion."

-- Rev. Clenard Childress
http://www.blackgenocide.org/

I've issued this revised cartoon to underscore a remarkable fact: America's first black president aids and abets the slaughter of black Americans. And he does so with guile enough to make a white supremacist swoon.

As part of their abortion initiative, Barack Obama and the Democrat majority in Congress recently shut down Washington DC's very successful and extremely popular school voucher program for low-income families-- the majority of whom are black-- and diverted its funding to local abortion mills, including Planned Parenthood. (See my December 16 post, Black Genocide, Courtesy Obama & Congress and Sheryl Henderson Blunt's astute commentary, Shutting a Door on Opportunity in DC.) By the way, Planned Parenthood's racist founder, Margaret Sanger, was an ardent supporter of the Klan; she spoke at numerous Klan rallies, sharing her vision of a lily-white America and her organization's plan to bring it about.

Long ago, American slaveholders denied the personhood of blacks, just as today's abortion advocates deny the personhood of unborn children. Even so, slaveholders valued their slaves, keeping them sheltered, clothed and fed, if only to protect their investment. And they valued their slaves' children, if only for their economic potential. So little do Obama and like-minded politicians value human life that they cannot appreciate even so much as our children's potential to contribute to the tax base upon which their own socialist agenda depends.

You'd think such self-serving politicians would look upon America's black children as latent votes in elections yet to come, if nothing more. But I suppose they expect to be comfortably retired by then (at taxpayer expense, of course) and, like retired plantation owners, have no further use of black people.

Staying the Course... Right Out of Office

2010-01-29T13:16:00.047-06:00

Excerpts from yet another exchange of emails with a buddy of mine; this, the day after Scott Brown's election...

"Every indication I have is that Obama is just no politician. Take Bill Clinton; he at least dealt with the opposition. After '94, he knew which way the wind had blown and, working with the Republicans, at least could claim he'd accomplished something. But Obama is an ideologue; he's like a suicide bomber, on a one-way mission to socialize the country. And he seems happily willing to allow his party to suffer utter defeat in November and be thrown out himself in '12 trying to transform America into Sweden."

"John, if you want to get a perspective on how Obama and the far left think, watch MSNBC. Rachel Maddow and Chris Matthews had a view that the defeats in recent elections by the Dems was because Obama was not liberal enough!"

"Hey, works for me; farther left they go, the greater their trouncing in November and '12! Man, they're like lemmings-- which brings to mind my next ed. cartoon (will forward when I get it posted). I loved Gibbs yesterday, telling the media that the 'anger' in Mass was the same anger he heard in '08. Ha! Gibbs has taken spin to a whole new level."

A Prayer of Conversion for a Wayward Nation

2010-01-22T11:16:00.014-06:00

In January 2008, one of our Agnesian sisters asked me to write a prayer to be offered outside a Planned Parenthood office here in Hays, Kansas. On the 37th anniversary of the US Supreme Court's appalling, unconstitutional Roe decision, I offer this prayer to my countrymen for the conversion of its all-too-worldly people. Feel free to pass it on. And may God have mercy on our souls. --JFB

Almighty God,

We pause here to remember the uncounted victims of a misguided society: women, confused and frightened, who were led to believe problems would be solved by ending their pregnancies; the unborn children who died as a result; couples whose wonderful potential to foster new life has been stifled. Enlighten those who pervert the healing arts, that they might see the destruction they have wrought. Edify those who reduce unborn children to mere abstractions. Lead our citizens, courts and governments to understand that everyone has a right to live, regardless of age, ability, health or social circumstance.

Bless our youngsters, that they might appreciate their bodies, value chastity and understand the true purpose of sexuality.

Allay the fears of new parents. Encourage them, that they might treasure the lives they've brought into the world, trust in your providence and embrace the call to parenthood. May they understand that children are unrepeatable gifts, no matter the circumstances of their conception.

Grant that society will once again respect marriage as the insoluble union which brings forth the family and recognize the family as the very foundation upon which society itself rests. Dispel the selfishness that regards fertility as a malady and pregnancy as a disease, that couples might cherish procreation as a blessing and bring ever more life into the world.

Console those parents who once chose abortion and now regret their decision; may their grief turn to action and their suffering to resolve in testament to the Truth.

Strengthen with love all who seek You, that we might embrace our calling to be light amid the darkness and, so, transform America, that she might truly become a nation under You, oh Lord, with liberty and justice for all.

Saint Gianna Molla, who gave up her life that her unborn daughter might live, pray for us!

Saint Maximilian Kolbe, martyr of an earlier holocaust, pray for us!

Saint Michael, the Archangel, defend us in battle!

Amen.

Ben Nelson: Sweating Out Today's Senate Race

2010-01-19T13:49:00.026-06:00

From an email exchange with a buddy of mine late last week...

"Interesting race in Mass, huh?"

"Yeah. Who'd a thunk? What fun!! I know it's close, but from what I've read and heard, Brown has so much steam, I actually think he might pull it off. And Coakley just keeps handing him fuel for the fire; what an amateur! Tell me, is there any better entertainment than watching liberals sweat? And the ramifications are just tremendous! Take Nelson, for example; he won't even have health care reform, let alone the Nebraska Compromise, to show for having sold out the unborn and stabbed his pro-life supporters in the back. His career is burnt toast! Hell, if the Dems can't keep a seat in that Sodom of a state, they aren't safe ANYWHERE! Politics just doesn't get any better than this!"

"The Dems have over reached and they are beginning to pay for it."

"And in spades!! Thing that amazes me is that they were handed '08 on a sterling silver platter. That Obama, Reid and Pelosi have squandered so much political capital is testament to their complete disconnectedness with the American people. They've proven they have absolutely no business being at the helm. (And as the great Forrest Gump said, "That's all I have to say about that.") Have a nice weekend!"

HEROD REDUX

2009-12-30T18:01:00.060-06:00

Those who fail to learn from the past...

...are doomed to repeat it.

An ancient stone image of King Herod and a modern digital image of President Obama; if only the resemblance ended there.

Alas...

During his violent rise to power, Herod enjoyed the backing of the Roman army, returning favor for favor; as an aspiring state legislator, Obama enjoyed the backing of the abortion lobby, voting repeatedly to legalize infanticide. The Roman army brought Herod to Jerusalem, where they installed him as client king; abortion supporters brought Obama to Washington, first as senator, then president. Fearing loss of his throne, King Herod ordered his soldiers to slaughter Bethlehem's children; fearing loss of his base, President Obama has ordered his legislators to mandate and fund an expanded slaughter of America's children.

And it grows still darker...

Herod put family members, including his ambitious sons, to death; Barack Obama, referring to his daughters, said that "if they make a mistake, I don't want them punished with a baby." Obama was speaking openly and emphatically of putting his grandchildren to death. (Without regard, obviously, for what his daughters might want. So much for a woman's right to choose.)

Like Herod, Obama considers family disposable. But even Herod allowed his sons the semblance of a trial. Obama condemns his grandchildren even before they're conceived, on grounds that he doesn't want them. With law school graduates like this, is it any wonder we're handed decisions like Roe v. Wade?

Perhaps most sobering of all is that we Americans did not have our Herod foisted upon us; we, as an electorate, chose him and his anti-life Congress. We knew exactly what we were getting. With government-mandated, taxpayer-funded abortion, euthanasia, contraception and other anti-life legislation in the works, we have no one but ourselves to blame for what happens next.

This week, the Eastern and Western Churches celebrated the Feast of the Holy Innocents, commemorating the martyrdom of Bethlehem's children. The Holy Innocents are patron saints of the unborn and we ask their intercession to change the hearts and minds of those lost in the culture of death.

Black Genocide, Courtesy Obama & Congress

2009-12-16T09:52:00.029-06:00

This cartoon appeared immediately prior to last November's election. I post it here because it neatly illustrates the incongruity-- never mind the inhumanity-- of the blatantly racist policies of America's first president of African descent. In yesterday's press release, Catholic League president Bill Donohue underscores the ugly sentiments conveyed by Congress and the White House:

The Congress is now officially on record approving a bill that tells mothers in Washington, D.C. that if they decide to take their baby to term, and elect to send their child to a private school—just like the one that President Obama and his wife have chosen for their own children—they can do it on their own dime: the successful voucher scholarship program that 1,700 poor kids were enrolled in is now dead. But if these same mothers decide to abort their babies, the same government will rush to pay their bills.

Most of those affected are black. The bill will soon be signed into law by America’s first black president. Is there anyone so stupid not to understand what is going on?

While leftwing congressmen spend trillions of our tax dollars to buy their next election (and blame conservatives for the need to do so), they refuse one thin dime to families seeking alternatives to the country's worst schools. The message from Obama and his Congress, who never stop reminding us how much they care, is perfectly clear: Money is better spent killing blacks than educating them.

Homosexual Marriage and the Further Erosion of Constitutional Guarantees

2009-11-01T18:52:00.056-06:00

FIRED: Peter Vadala stands outside his former place of employment, Brookstone store in Logan Airport, holding letter of termination.

As most readers understand, the primary purpose of this blog is to make available my editorial cartoons and commentary; providing material from other publishers takes a backseat. But sometimes I run across news that cries out for greater attention; when that happens, I try to help out.

For more than a year I've subscribed to the news updates of MassResistance, a pro-family organization that seeks to reverse cultural collapse in Massachusetts. To their very timely story, which appears below, I'll add only this: What you're about to read (and see, via the link) puts an end to the argument that codifying homosexual partnerships affects only homosexuals.

Just like abortion, homosexual marriage is promoted as something that expands freedom. But what it really does is strip away rights guaranteed under the US Constitution-- again, just like abortion. It's clear that the real victim in this story, Peter Vadala, has been denied the guarantees of the First and Fourteenth Amendments, those of free expression and equal protection. And considering the provocations of the homosexual involved, it appears Mr. Vadala also may be a victim of sexual harassment:

We all knew it was only a matter of time before this started happening.

A Massachusetts man was fired from a national retail corporation because of his Christian belief regarding same-sex marriage. Peter Vadala was formally terminated from his job as assistant manager of the Brookstone retail store at Boston's Logan Airport after a series of incidents with his supervisor during a workday last summer. See VIDEO and full report here .

As Peter described the incident, he came to work on August 10, 2009 and began his day normally. A female manager from another store was present and began talking to Peter about her upcoming marriage. When Peter asked “where is he taking you for the honeymoon,” she corrected him and said she was not getting married to a "he" but to another woman.

Peter did not immediately react, but when the manager sensed Peter's discomfort with the subject of same-sex “marriage”, the woman apparently continued bringing it up to Peter throughout the day, reiterating that she was getting married to another woman. Finally, after the fourth or fifth time she brought it up, Peter remarked that his Christian beliefs did not accept same-sex marriage. At that point the woman became very angry and bluntly told Peter that he needed to “get over it” and said that she would be immediately contacting the Human Resources department.

A few hours later Peter was notified by a Human Resources representative that he was suspended from work without pay, effective immediately. Two days later, on August 12, after further interaction with the Human Resources department, he was formally notified that he was terminated from the company.

Brookstone's termination letter to Peter states that “in the State of Massachusetts, same-sex marriage is legal.” It goes on to describe Peter's actions as constituting “harassment” and that his comments were “inappropriate and unprofessional.” It further accuses him of “imposing” his beliefs upon others.

In addition, the letter curiously quotes another employee who did not witness the incident, but who says Peter told her that the homosexual lifestyle is “deviant”. Peter strongly denies ever having said that to that to the other employee. READ: Letter of termination to Peter from Brookstone .

It would certainly appear that if there ever was a case of harassment (and retaliation) it is what happened to Peter, not anything Peter did!

Peter has also described one of Brookstone's required diversity training films (see link to video above) that gave the clear message that even any informal discussion uncomplimentary of homosexual behavior would be considered “offensive” by the company.

Luckily, Peter has since found another job in the retail field. But could this happen to you? This is a chilling example of the ultimate consequences of imposing the concept of same-sex "marriage" through force of law. We've certainly seen it coming. What happened to Peter is actually what was intended by the homosexual movement. It's about making people accept what they normally would not accept and punishing those who resist. And when these laws are in place, they pursue it with as much force as they feel necessary.

Homosexual Anti-Catholic Bigotry: "But Is It Art?"

2009-10-22T12:01:00.042-05:00

This is a sample of what Harvard administrators consider art. While it's bad enough that one of the world's most prestigious schools considers pornography worthy of public display, their mindless message of bigotry is worse. Next to the image of New York's Cardinal O'Connor is a condom; the text below the condom reads "This one prevents AIDS."

Needless to say, the politically correct would condemn display of such trash as a "hate crime" were any of their ilk the target. Mind you, I'm not suggesting the notion of hate as a crime, or as an aggravating element of crime, has any merit; establishment of such a category of crime is merely an effort to further politicize the American judicial system. But if the left is all about acceptance, diversity and fairness, where's the outrage at such blatant Catholic-bashing?

Of course, persecution of the Church is standard operating procedure for many who have problems with the truth. (Those early-morning televangelists who see Revelation unfolding in the latest Arab-Israeli conflict, deride the Rosary as goddess worship and the Eucharist as a papist recipe for hot cross buns spring immediately to mind.) This is why anti-Catholicism often is referred to as the last acceptable prejudice. And why it will be with us until the end of time.

This poster, by the way, is a classic example of radical homosexual irrationality, typical of anti-life propaganda in general. The homosexual activists have it exactly backward. Had these people heeded Catholic moral teaching (again, the truth) they never would have contracted and spread AIDS. Instead, they thumbed their noses at the natural law, engaged in the most bizarre forms of physical abuse and, well, the rest is history.

It might seem ironic that the condom has become a veritable icon of homosexual culture; it is, after all, a contraceptive. On the other hand, condoms-- indeed, all contraceptives-- serve only one purpose: to reduce the human person to an object of self-gratification. In light of this, it appears sadly appropriate. (See my Jan. 28, 2009 post, "Bailing Out the Latex Industry" and my Apr. 19, 2009 post, "Obama vs. AIDS: Throwing Gasoline on the Fire.")

But I digress.

MassResistance, a pro-family, grassroots movement devoted to reversing Massachusetts' cultural collapse, notified many of us about this travesty yesterday. Their website (http://www.massresistance.org/) includes the following timely observation:

If you want to know what Americans can expect in public schools, look no further. Kevin Jennings is Barack Obama's "safe schools" czar in the US Department of Education. He's also the founder of the national homosexual group GLSEN, which sets up "gay straight alliance" clubs in high schools and middle schools across America. GLSEN is officially supported by the Massachusetts Legislature.

Jennings is also a former member of the radical homosexual group "Act Up", and he contributed to this depraved and offensive museum exhibit on "Act Up" now at Harvard University (see press release) .

This exhibit is a window into what the homosexual movement thinks of you, your children, religion, and America. It involves sexual perversion, child pornography, and anti-Catholic bigotry. And it's what your "safe schools" czar Kevin Jennings supports.

It's at Harvard University's prestigious Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts from Oct. 15 through Dec. 23, 2009.

Bill Donohue of the Catholic League (http://www.catholicleague.org/) added this earlier today:

On September 23, I wrote a news release on the curious moral credentials of Kevin Jennings to be President Obama’s Safe Schools Czar: a former drug user and irresponsible teen counselor, he is also a Christian basher. What was not known at the time is that he is also a proud member of ACT UP, the homosexual urban terrorist group that broke into St. Patrick’s Cathedral in 1989 and disrupted Mass; the Eucharist was desecrated and obscene depictions of Cardinal O’Connor were posted.

Now a group called MassResistance, and the website WorldNetDaily, have exposed Jennings as a member of ACT UP. And he is no mere member: Jennings is listed as a donor to a sick display, “ACT UP New York: Activism, Art, and the AIDS Crisis, 1987-1993,” currently featured at the Harvard Art Museum. Harvard, of course, would never feature a display of Klan paraphernalia and say it was being done for the purpose of “dialogue.”

The real story here is not the corruption of Harvard—that’s old hat—the real story is the president of the United States choosing a morally challenged anti-Catholic homosexual to join his team. That Jennings belongs to, and sponsors, an urban terrorist organization, should alone disqualify him from public service at a municipal level. And remember, Obama did not choose him to monitor global cooling—he was chosen to instruct youth on moral matters.

Catholics deserve to know why Obama likes Jennings.

Hypocrisy That Would Make Even Obama Blush

2009-10-02T09:16:00.033-05:00

By now, who hasn't seen US Rep. Alan Grayson's (D-FL) reality-twisting rant on the House floor, during which he claims a Republican version of health care would have Americans "die quickly"? When asked to apologize, he apologized instead to the "44,789 Americans [who] die every year because they have no health insurance," adding that this "holocaust" is "more than ten times the number of Americans who've died in the war in Iraq; it's more than ten times the number of Americans who died on 9-11." Later, one of Grayson's aides, replying to an outraged constituent via email, explained that Democrats "feel failure to act is similar to murdering the uninsured."

It should go without saying that efforts to arrive at such a figure are highly problematic, resulting in little more than political fodder, as Grayson demonstrates. But even if true, 44,789 is just 1/30th-- yes, one in thirty-- the number of persons aborted every year in our country.

What's remarkable about all this is that Grayson, as an anti-life lawmaker, is a collaborator in history's greatest genocide. His political party not only defends and promotes the abortion of well over a million healthy Americans every year, it funds hundreds of thousands of these murders with our tax dollars, through such proxies as Planned Parenthood. And they intend to expand this slaughter as "reform" of our health care system.

This brings to mind the above cartoon, published last year to highlight Barack Obama's efforts in Illinois to institutionalize euthanasia, which Compassion & Choices (the euthanasia lobby formerly known as The Hemlock Society) gleefully admits is an integral part of the Democrats' health care proposals. By the way, did you catch Grayson's jab at pro-life advocates at the close of his diatribe? "Let's remember that we should care about people even after they're born." Evidently, for Grayson and like-minded lawmakers, nothing says "care" more than killing, whether in a womb or a rest home.

Once again, unabashed anti-life Democrats have taken hypocrisy to a whole new level, underscoring the truth of Rep. Joe Wilson's (R-SC) outburst before Obama and Congress: "You lie!"

Advice for Obama's Point Man at Notre Dame

2009-09-22T10:33:00.058-05:00

Dr. Charles Rice: Devout Catholic, Ardent Defender of the Defenseless, Renowned Legal Scholar & Authority on the Natural Law, Notre Dame Professor Emeritus & Alumnus

Fr. John Jenkins: Wolf in Sheep's Clothing

Yesterday, one of my Catholic, pro-life heroes, Dr. Charles Rice, issued an open letter to Fr. John Jenkins, president of the University of Notre Dame. Dr. Rice has put into words what many pro-life advocates would like to tell Jenkins ourselves. Some of those words follow, beginning with reference to the appalling charges still pending against eighty-eight pro-lifers:

This is not an ordinary case of trespass to land such as would occur if a commuter walks across your lawn and flower bed as a short-cut to the train station. Notre Dame is ordinarily an open campus. Those 88 persons, 82 of whom are represented by Tom Dixon, ND ’84, ND Law School ’93, were arrested not because they were there, but because of who they were, why they were there and what they were saying. Other persons with pro-Obama signs were there but were not arrested and not disturbed. Serious legal and constitutional questions are involved, arising especially from the symbiotic relationship between the Notre Dame Security Police, who made the arrests, and the County Police. This letter is not a legal brief. Rather I merely note that it is disingenuous for Notre Dame to pretend that this is merely a routine trespass case.

Elsewhere in his letter, Dr. Rice alludes to Jenkins' pride, hypocrisy and contempt for the faithful:

Please permit me to speak bluntly about your announced purpose to participate in the March for Life and to “invite other members of the Notre Dame Family to join me.” Notre Dame should have had an official presence at every March for Life since 1973. But until now it never has. Notre Dame students, with the encouragement of Campus Ministry, participate in the March but the University, as such, has not done so. To put it candidly, it would be a mockery for you to present yourself now at the March, even at the invitation of Notre Dame students, as a pro-life advocate while, in practical effect, you continue to be the jailer, as common criminals, of those persons who were authentic pro-life witnesses at Notre Dame. When the pictures of Fr. Weslin’s humiliation and arrest by your campus police was flashed around the world it did an incalculable damage to Notre Dame that can be partially undone only by your public and insistent request, as President of Notre Dame, that the charges be dropped. In my opinion your attachment to the March for Life, including your offering of a Mass for Life, could give scandal in the absence, at least, of such an insistent request to dismiss those charges. Your decision to present an official Notre Dame presence at the March could be beneficial, but not in the context of an unrelenting criminalization by Notre Dame of sincere and peaceful friends of Notre Dame whose offense was their desire to pray, on the campus, for the University and all concerned including yourself. If you appear at the March as the continuing criminalizer of those pro-life witnesses, you predictably will earn not approbation but scorn—a scorn which will surely be directed toward Notre Dame as well. As long as you pursue the criminalization of those pro-life witnesses, your newest pro-life statements will be regarded reasonably as a cosmetic covering of the institutional anatomy in the wake of the continuing backlash arising from your conferral of Notre Dame’s highest honor on the most relentlessly pro-abortion public official in the world.

It goes without saying that Jenkins has effectively abandoned his vocation, forfeiting any moral authority he might once have possessed. The proof is in the pudding: When a lone pro-lifer called out to Barack Obama, "Stop killing our children," Jenkins' graduates shouted him down with "Yes, we can. Yes, we can. Yes, we can..."

The full text of Dr. Rice's letter is a must-read for anyone concerned with anti-Catholic, anti-life dissent within the Church. It's available at http://insightscoop.typepad.com/2004/2009/09/open-letter-from-dr-charles-e-rice-to-fr-john-i-jenkins.html

For my previous post on Jenkins' affront to Our Lady, go to http://veritatisthecartoon.blogspot.com/2009/03/its-as-though-our-lady-looking-down-at.html

What About the Victims of 9-12, 9-13, 9-14...?

2009-09-12T13:54:00.034-05:00

On a typical day in the United States, almost 4,000 children are slaughtered in their mothers' wombs. And that figure accounts only for victims of surgical abortion, not those of contraceptives, abortifacients and intrauterine devices. Nor does it account for the victims of in vitro fertilization, embryonic experimentation and the pharmaceutical industry.

Still, this is a thousand more lives than Islamic terrorists took on September 11, 2001.

Appalling as is the loss of forty passengers and crew aboard United Airlines' Flight 93, try to imagine not one, but one hundred such Boeings falling from the sky. That's the daily death toll of abortion in America. But because airliners don't scream, skyscrapers don't collapse and fireballs don't erupt, few Americans take notice.

The ugly reality is that it's 9-11 every day in America.

Ted Kennedy's Legacy of Death & Deception

2009-08-26T10:33:00.045-05:00

For decades, Senator Edward Kennedy not only cooperated formally in the world's greatest slaughter, but was a principal, driving force behind it. Those victims number many tens of millions in the US and many hundreds of millions elsewhere, thanks to America's history of anti-life foreign policy, upon which he had a decisive influence.

When it came to legislation that conflicted with foundational teachings of the Church, Kennedy was no less than her enemy. As any Catholic who paid the slightest attention knows, he tried to play it both ways. But when it came to a vote-- to siding, quite literally, with Heaven or Hell-- he was unapologetic, vociferous and consistent. Indeed, the National Abortion Rights Action League rated him 100% reliable when it came to legislating their cause.

I could go on, citing Kennedy's promotion of embryonic experimentation, cloning, contraception, euthanasia and homosexuality and his pernicious influence in government, the Church and society at large. But where would I stop?

While it's not for us to judge Kennedy's soul, his actions are quite another matter. Not only should we condemn them, we must. This isn't optional; it's a work of mercy, required of all Christians aware of Kennedy's career. By doing so, we correct the errant, enlighten the ignorant and help bring about a new era of truth, justice, charity and life.

You Could See It Coming a Mile Away...

2009-08-25T11:52:00.020-05:00

From my post of February 8, before Obama and his anti-life legislators began shoving their "health care" travesty down America's throat...

In one of his first acts as US president, Barack Obama authorized spending hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars to stifle foreign populations. US House majority leader Nancy Pelosi, convinced children are bad for the economy, wants to spend even more to stamp out childbirth at home. This, even while scraping the barrel to fund astronomical bailouts.

How will these self-serving politicians maintain their vast entitlement programs as barren taxpayers age and retire?

The answer is clear: Unable to increase revenues, they'll decrease expenditures. For Pelosi, Obama and their fellow nihilists, killing is once again the answer. Just as they've sold abortion to a generation indoctrinated in radical feminism, they'll sell euthanasia to a shrinking electorate saddled with trillions in government debt and a graying population of unproductive consumers.

The complete post, It's Not as if We Weren't Warned, is available at http://veritatisthecartoon.blogspot.com/2009/02/its-not-like-we-werent-warned.html

The Democrats' Abortion Bailout: Killing the Unborn at the Expense of the Infirm & Elderly

2009-08-02T17:20:00.025-05:00

Shortly after posting this cartoon, a pro-life associate asked why I had placed the traditional icon of the Democratic Party behind the desk rather than Barack Obama. After all, he reasoned, this sweeping socialization of medicine was created in the president's image.

I explained that I had thought and re-thought this out...

Even though there have been-- and I find this pleasantly surprising, to say the least-- as many as three dozen Democrats in the House who object to the anti-life provisions of the current proposals, the party as a whole remains steadfastly, resolutely, adamantly anti-life. But more to the point, every amendment to current health care proposals prohibiting federal funding of abortion has been quashed by the Democrat majority. Sadly, the Democrats remain America's party of death.

If it weren't for the vast majority of elected Democrats who are anti-life, the proposed health care "reform" would not be what it so clearly is: state-sponsored terrorism in the guise of compassion.

Abortion's Matthew25.org: Hell Dons a Halo

2009-07-03T09:00:00.059-05:00

Among all the chicanery of last year's politicking, the disinformation campaign waged by operatives at http://www.matthew25.org/ ranks as the most disgusting. Having aided and abetted anti-life candidates and causes by duping uninformed and impressionable voters, these silver-tongued sophists are busy putting a Christian spin on the Obama administration's manifold violations of the natural moral law.

The charade involves twisting the Gospel. Quoting from the 25th chapter of Matthew, these hellbent hucksters promote abortion, euthanasia, contraception, cloning and lethal human experimentation as if they were corporal works of mercy.

I'm hard pressed to convey by word alone my opinion of these charlatans. Hence, the cartoon, one that applies not only to these shameless dissemblers, but to Roe-era America in general.

The American Holocaust Memorial & Museum?

2009-06-09T20:11:00.113-05:00

Disarming words of welcome, Auschwitz

Disarming words of welcome, Wichita

Warning at perimeter fence, Auschwitz

Warning at perimeter fence, Wichita

Mothers and children entering killing facility, Auschwitz

Mothers and children entering killing facility, Wichita

Nazi-era crematorium, Auschwitz

Roe-era crematorium, Wichita

Not long after George Tiller was murdered, it occurred to me that his heirs might find it difficult to unload the late abortionist's property. Who, really, would want real estate and facilities used to slaughter tens of thousands of human beings? As a pro-life advocate and former museum exhibit designer, I would. Because the most appropriate use for such property is as an educational memorial to the victims of abortion. If the death camp of Auschwitz can be rehabilitated, why not the abortion mill of Wichita?

We can call it The American Holocaust Memorial and Museum.

For all their differences, Auschwitz and Wichita have something in common: ghastly facilities in which members of disenfranchised populations were processed, murdered and incinerated. But more to the point, both places convey the shared methods and madness of yesterday's Nazis and today's abortion advocates...

Nazis, wary of their countrymen's reaction, tried to conceal genocide behind barbed wire, walls and watch towers; image-conscious abortion supporters, enraged by photographs of dismembered children, assault pro-life advocates and try to ban their displays. Nazis dehumanized their victims, denying them legal status as persons and calling them parasites; abortion supporters deny the personhood of the unborn and call them products of conception. Nazis used the antiseptic term final solution for the slaughter of Jews; abortion supporters use reproductive freedom, family planning, women's health care, choice and other innocuous terms for the slaughter of children.

Just as tours of Auschwitz's horrific facilities now shed light on Germany's Nazi era, tours of Wichita's appalling abortion mill would shed light on America's Roe era. And there is no more pressing need than to teach our people, especially our youth, the terrible truth of the American holocaust.

Wichita photos courtesy Stuart Bensch (http://dr-tiller.com/) and Cheryl Sullenger (http://www.operationrescue.org/).

Tiller's Slaying: All the Excuse Napolitano Needs

2009-05-31T17:28:00.042-05:00

Over the years we've seen myriad examples of politicians bending federal, state and local police forces, courts and other government agencies to the purpose of anti-life interests to whom they're indebted.

Kansas Democrats offer a textbook example. Referring to the abortion lobby's influence during Kathleen Sebelius' tenure as governor, I once wrote of "a long line of officeholders-- from small-claims court in Wichita to the legislature and Supreme Court in Topeka-- who've taken extraordinary measures to ensure that Tiller remains untouchable. Having amassed a fortune by duping young mothers and killing their children, Tiller is proof that almost any legislator, prosecutor, policeman or judge can be had."

No one, then, should be surprised when Eric Holder's Department of Justice, Janet Napolitano's Homeland Security, Kathleen Sebelius' Health and Human Services and other government entities spin George Tiller's murder to the abortion lobby's advantage, painting the pro-life community as a bunch of latent terrorists. Indeed, who needs reminding that Napolitano already had warned law enforcement agencies across the nation that drivers sporting pro-life bumper stickers are suspected rightwing extremists?

As a matter of fact, my sticker reads Protect Human Life.

Not only that, but last week I participated in a novena for the conversion of George Tiller. At the start of each Rosary, I asked Our Lady that Tiller might understand the carnage he has wrought. And that his demonic, murderous career might come to an immediate end.

Homeland Security, come get me.

Pope Pius XII: The Most Accomplished, Most Vilified Humanitarian of the Twentieth Century

2009-05-12T10:21:00.039-05:00

The anti-Catholic rhetoric stirred up by Pope Benedict XVI's trip to the Middle East called to mind an email I sent last year to the Philadelphia Jewish Voice, a leftwing tabloid that I imagine offends as many sincere, observant Jews as it does level-headed gentiles.

My email was in response to an op-ed written by mudslinging pseudo-scholar Daniel Goldhagen, author of scurrilous books and articles claiming, among other nonsense, that Pope Pius XII was some kind of Nazi sympathizer who sat on his hands while Hitler slaughtered six million Jews. In his op-ed, Goldhagen slung the same mud at Benedict XVI.

Mr. Dan Loeb, Publisher
The Philadelphia Jewish Voice

Dan--

I just happened across Daniel Goldhagen's ridiculous comments on Benedict XVI's visit to Auschwitz (PJV website, July 2006). Despite being way too busy to waste time addressing nonsense like his, I'm going to.

Goldhagen seems to think the Church-- and Pope Pius XII, in particular-- owes him an apology. For what? For not saving even more Jewish lives? Obviously, Goldhagen has fallen for that tired, long-discredited smear campaign begun by the Soviets shortly after WWII in its effort to destabilize the West. That he perpetuates such fiction shows just how much credibility this joker has.

Pius XII's name soon will appear in the Canon of Saints. Because, among many other selfless acts, he saved the lives of uncounted victims of Nazi ruthlessness, including hundreds of thousands of Jewish refugees. No matter how viciously Goldhagen tries smearing the Body of Christ and the Successor of Peter, in the end he'll likely succeed only in convincing those as spiteful as he. Indeed, Goldhagen should consider apologizing himself. And he might consider facts, too. Such as the fact that Jews were not the only victims of Nazi terror. How many more gentiles died, not only in concentration camps, but in the seas, skies and battlefields of WWII?

What Goldhagen clearly doesn't get is that the Nazis committed crimes against all humanity. And that their legacy continues in a way he surely will not acknowledge. The Nazis were outstanding adherents of utilitarianism, the very philosophy of today's culture of death. Goldhagen has absolutely no problem with abortion, euthanasia and embryonic experimentation; he's as thoroughly utilitarian as any Nazi ever was. So, what distinguishes Goldhagen from the Nazis? Merely the languages in which they have lied.

Truth conquered evil in 1945; it continues doing so as liars like Goldhagen are exposed.

Semper Veritas,
John Francis Borra

Not surprisingly, my letter was not published.

If Goldhagen's work is trash, why do I mention it? Because his calumnies are representative of the appalling injustices done to one of the greatest humanitarians of all time. Among many extraordinary accomplishments, Eugenio Maria Giuseppe Giovanni Pacelli, as nuncio, secretary of state and pope, saved far more Jewish lives than anyone else in history. Moses included.

What finally prompted me to post this was EWTN's recent airing of A Hand of Peace: Pope Pius XII and the Holocaust, another wonderful documentary from the Salt and Light Catholic Media Foundation. A beautiful, moving tribute to this most holy of men, A Hand of Peace relies on interviews with both Jewish and Catholic scholars, revealing the source of the black legend plaguing the memory of Pius XII and the truth about his selfless, heroic actions in the face of Nazi and Soviet threats. Importantly, it brings to light the uncommon wisdom, prudence, charity and courage of a man who clearly did everything possible to alleviate suffering and stem violence without provoking reprisal and even greater bloodshed.

Something else that becomes clear in this documentary is that the Catholic Church was the greatest threat to Nazi and Soviet hegemony. This is precisely why they waged a relentless war of lies to discredit the Vicar of Christ and undermine the Church's influence. And when it became clear that lies weren't enough, both the Nazis and the Soviets resorted to assassination. But as John Paul II reminded us, Our Lady would have none of it.

Today the war continues, taken up by Hell's latest pawns.

Feared and hated by ideologues of political extremism, profiteers of human experimentation, hedonists of homosexual activism, butchers of abortion, pornographers of mainstream media, pagans of radical environmentalism, hate-mongers of Islamic fundamentalism and petty prophets of Christian revisionism, the Church will suffer the blows of an idolatrous world until the very day Her Founder returns.

To learn more about the Salt and Light Media Foundation and see all that this worthy apostolate offers, visit their site at http://www.saltandlighttv.org/index.html

Our Anti-Life Culture: Motherhood is for Suckers

2009-05-06T21:50:00.023-05:00

Only the dullest observer can be surprised by the ongoing collapse of our contracepting, sterilizing, aborting society. After all, the family is the very foundation of society and marriage is the institution which brings forth the family. So when the procreative function of sex is removed and the unitive function is exploited as mere recreation, that foundation crumbles and the walls come tumbling down.

As I reminded readers in my post of February 8, 2009, it's not as if the Catholic Church hasn't been warning us for two thousand years. Read more about the unfolding and inevitable catastrophe of birth control at http://veritatisthecartoon.blogspot.com/2009/02/its-not-like-we-werent-warned.html

Plan B for Kiddies: The Abortion Lobby Usurps Even More Parental Authority

2009-04-26T18:13:00.067-05:00

This is an updated version of my original Plan B cartoon that first appeared in 2006, when a politically browbeaten FDA finally allowed Teva Pharmaceutical's Plan B abortifacient-contraceptive to be purchased without prescription. Last month, U.S. District Court Judge Edward Korman made it timely once again by ordering the FDA to lower the age restriction for this "emergency contraceptive" or "morning after pill" to seventeen. But that's not all. Korman took the unprecedented step of ordering the FDA to investigate eliminating all age restrictions.

That's right. This activist judge considers it reasonable to dispense an abortifacient-contraceptive (containing, by the way, many times the dose of progestin contained in conventional birth control pills) to a child of any age, without a parent's permission or so much as a physician's word of advice.

Last Wednesday, the FDA announced it would comply. Responding, Planned Parenthood Exec. Director Cecile Richards said, "Today's announcement by the FDA is a strong statement to American women that their health comes before politics... Providing birth control, including emergency birth control, to young women helps them make responsible decisions and avoid unintended pregnancy."

As usual, Richards is lying; it's all about politics and utterly detrimental to human health. But we can't expect her to admit what everyone in the trenches of this apocalyptic battle knows: that wider availability of such drugs increases the number of unintended pregnancies. And because Plan B is a child-molester's dream, easier access means more girls will be raped. Of course, it's not as though Richards minds; after all, Planned Parenthood's business model depends on irresponsible, abusive, even criminal behavior that generates unwanted pregnancies. So what if lives are ruined? Planned Parenthood isn't in the business of helping people; it's in the business of killing them.

It's a win-win situation for America's baby butchers and a lose-lose situation for everyone else.

Earth Day 2009: Conservationism, Obama-Style

2009-04-22T12:07:00.013-05:00

Here's a quick cartoon to celebrate the most important feast on radical-environmentalism's liturgical calendar, Earth Day.

Obama vs. AIDS: Throwing Gasoline on the Fire

2009-04-19T21:40:00.015-05:00

This cartoon first appeared in 2006, after the Catholic Church in Uganda was derided by contraception promoters for encouraging abstinence among singles and marital fidelity among spouses. The central-African country's government had been reporting remarkably low incidences of AIDS, far lower than any other nation on the continent. The reason, attested to by Ugandan government officials and independent researchers, was the healthy behavior Church social workers and medical personnel had encouraged and the government's reluctance to rely on condom distribution as the solution to AIDS.

Evidence from the field proves that introducing condoms to AIDS-infected populations only makes things worse. Why? The availability of condoms encourages promiscuity.

Contraceptives are used for one and only one purpose: to take advantage of people. Promoting their use undermines respect for the human person; it should come as no surprise, then, that condom distribution engenders further disregard for health and safety.

Of course, those who distribute condoms have no regard for the sanctity of the human body, let alone an understanding of the nature, purpose and meaning of the marital act. Indeed, such terms as sanctity and marital act are absent from their lexicon.

Anyone who followed Pope Benedict's tour of Africa last month knows the flak he caught for publicly condemning condom distribution. Much of this came from supporters and associates of the Obama Administration, which is committed to dumping untold millions of condoms onto the world in the guise of humanitarian aid. But what else can we expect? Such folly is perfectly consistent with Obama's hobbling our missile defenses at the very moment Iran and North Korea are putting finishing touches on nuclear-tipped ICBMs; robbing our children to subsidize companies, industries and individuals who don't want, need or merit bailing out; diverting funds from life-saving adult stem cell research to ghastly programs of human extermination Nazi scientists only dreamed of.

It's as though Barack Obama and his followers are making a conscious, determined effort to exacerbate every problem humanity faces.

Barack Obama: The Audacity of Apotheosis

2009-04-16T15:51:00.045-05:00

The following excerpt, from a recent Catholic League release, conveys something of the spiritual fervor (yes, my tongue is in my cheek) of Barack Obama and his abjectly obsequious sycophants at formerly-Catholic Georgetown University. But more than anything, it provides me the final impetus to parody the preposterous campaign poster and point out that, as an agent of evil, Obama stirs something other than hope in the hearts of many.

When President Barack Obama spoke at Georgetown University on April 14, the White House requested that all religious symbols and signage that might appear as a backdrop to where the president was to speak be covered up. Georgetown acceded to the request and made sure that the symbol “IHS,” a monogram of the name Jesus Christ, was not in sight.

Catholic League president Bill Donohue spoke to this issue today:

“The cowardice of Georgetown to stand fast on principle tells us more than we need to know about what is going on there, but the bigger story is the audacity of the Obama administration to ask a religious school to neuter itself before the president speaks there. No bishop who might speak at the White House would ever request that a crucifix be displayed behind him. Moreover, the same church and state fanatics who go nuts every time a polling place is set up in the basement of a Catholic school have been noticeably silent over this incident.

“Obama will be speaking at Notre Dame, and receiving an honorary award, on May 17. Will his advance team ask Notre Dame to scrub the campus clean of religious symbols? Or just the ones that might appear behind the podium? Obama is in enough trouble with Catholics—over his pro-abortion executive orders and appointees, his position on embryonic stem cell research and his war on the conscience rights of healthcare workers—that it seems almost suicidal for his administration to push the envelope one more time...”

This incident implies an apotheosis. Obama never has shrunk from identifying himself with the Almighty. But at Georgetown, Obama's disciples replaced the Christogram with the presidential seal. This reaches far beyond identification with God; it strongly suggests identification as God. I'm absolutely serious; it dovetails so neatly with Obama's nihilism that it's hard to imagine it wasn't intentional. After all, nihilism is not so much the philosophy of atheism as it is the philosophy of deification, of man elevating himself to the status of God.

To keep abreast of the latest attacks upon the true Faith, visit the Catholic League at http://www.catholicleague.org/

It's as Though Our Lady, Looking Down at the Contemptible Green Worm, is Saying...

2009-03-26T09:45:00.045-05:00

"You forget, Father Jenkins: My Immaculate Heart will triumph!"

Of all the great masters' renderings of Mary, this is my favorite. Painted by Giambattista Tiepolo between 1767 and 1769, this breathtaking oil-on-canvas, The Immaculate Conception, hangs in the Museo Nacional del Prado in Madrid. (To better appreciate this and other great works, go to http://www.museodelprado.es/.)

For me, the most outstanding feature of Tiepolo's masterpiece is Mary's striking countenance. A reflection of her central role in the plan of salvation, it conveys utter contempt for the progenitor of evil she crushes and, at the same time, the sublime dignity she possesses as the pinnacle of creation: Daughter of the Father, Spouse of the Holy Spirit, Mother of the Son.

And speaking of Mary, I can find no clearer, more authoritative description of the forces now colliding at the University of Notre Dame than the following passages from St. Louis Marie de Montfort's True Devotion to Mary. The excerpts below may appear long, but de Montfort's words are worth far more than the time needed to read them:

It is principally of these last and cruel persecutions of the devil, which shall go on increasing daily till the reign of Antichrist, that we ought to understand that first and celebrated prediction and curse of God pronounced in the terrestrial paradise against the serpent. It is to our purpose to explain this here for the glory of the most holy Virgin, for the salvation of her children and for the confusion of the devil: "I will put enmities between thee and the woman and thy seed and her seed; she shall crush thy head, and thou shalt lie in wait for her heel." (Gen. 3:15).

God has never made and formed but one enmity; but it is an irreconcilable one, which shall endure and grow even to the end. It is between Mary, His worthy Mother, and the devil-- between the children and the servants of the Blessed Virgin, and the children and tools of Lucifer. The most terrible of all the enemies which God has set up against the devil is His holy Mother Mary. He has inspired her, even since the days of the earthly paradise-- though she existed then only in His idea-- with so much hatred against that cursed enemy of God, with so much ingenuity in unveiling the malice of that ancient serpent, with so much power to conquer, to overthrow and to crush that proud, impious rebel, that he fears her not only more than all angels and men, but in a sense more than God Himself. Not that the anger, the hatred and the power of God are not infinitely greater than those of the Blessed Virgin, for the perfections of Mary are limited; but first, because Satan, being proud, suffers infinitely more from being beaten and punished by a little and humble handmaid of God, and her humility humbles him more than the divine power; and secondly, because God has given Mary such great power against the devils that-- as they have often been obliged to confess, in spite of themselves, by the mouths of the possessed-- they fear one of her sighs for a soul more than the prayers of all the saints, and one of her threats against them more than all other torments.

What Lucifer has lost by pride, Mary has gained by humility. What Eve has damned and lost by disobedience, Mary has saved by obedience. Eve, in obeying the Serpent, has destroyed all her children together with herself, and has delivered them to him; Mary, in being perfectly faithful to God, has saved all her children and servants together with herself, and has consecrated them to His Majesty.

But the power of Mary over all the devils will especially shine forth in the latter times, when Satan will lay his snares against her heel; that is to say, her humble slaves and her poor children, whom she will raise up to make war against him. They shall be little and poor in the world's esteem, and abased before all like the heel, trodden underfoot and persecuted as the heel is by the other members of the body. But in return for this they shall be rich in the grace of God, which Mary shall distribute to them abundantly. They shall be great and exalted before God in sanctity, superior to all other creatures by their lively zeal, and so well sustained with God's assistance that, with the humility of their heel, in union with Mary, they shall crush the head of the devil and cause Jesus Christ to triumph.

Who, now, can read these passages, penned three centuries ago and an ocean away, and not see prefigured "the children and servants of the Blessed Virgin" assembling to oppose "the children and tools of Lucifer" who've hijacked the University of Notre Dame?

Most telling is the manner in which Fr. John Jenkins, president of the school, informed his bishop that Barack Obama would be speaking at Notre Dame. In Bishop John M. D'Arcy's own words...

On Friday, March 21, Father John Jenkins, CSC, phoned to inform me that President Obama had accepted his invitation to speak to the graduating class at Notre Dame and receive an honorary degree. We spoke shortly before the announcement was made public at the White House press briefing. It was the first time that I had been informed that Notre Dame had issued this invitation.

Fr. Jenkins has chosen political ideology over the true Faith, an anti-Catholic politician over his bishop. In defying the Church, he has defied Christ. As for Our Lady-- the Lady of earnest entreaties and dire warnings-- Fr. Jenkins has done far more than turn a deaf ear to her. He has struck her heel.

Fourth Anniversary of Court-Mandated Murder of Terri Schindler Schiavo

2009-03-24T20:38:00.038-05:00

US Representative Bill Pascrell (D) of New Jersey's 8th Congressional District. Raised in the holy Catholic faith, Pascrell apostatized years ago, selling out the most vulnerable among us for petty political gain. He came to my attention in 2005, when on national television he tried sabotaging efforts to save Terri Schindler Schiavo's life.

Terri's parents and siblings asked for just one thing: to take custody of her. They simply wanted her to live. But this was too much for the abortion lobby, including the National Organization for Women; they wanted her dead. So they let slip their dogs of war. Among them was Bill Pascrell, who voted to keep Congress from intervening on behalf of Terri's family.

In the wake of this atrocity, I vowed to remind the world that Terri was put to death by the American judicial system at the behest of killers who'll stop at nothing to get their way:

The anniversary of the court-ordered killing of an innocent woman is again upon us. Shortly before Terri Schindler Schiavo starved to death on March 31, 2005, opinion polls across the country asked whether her feeding tube should be reinserted; a majority responded no. In the final analysis, Terri's murder was a result of the woeful indifference toward life reflected in such polls.

Make no mistake: The battle to save Terri was a simple matter of right versus wrong. It takes no legal scholar to see this, but a vigorous effort was made to make it seem so. Why? Because our culture of death cannot exist without rhetoric to cloud straightforward issues. Terri Schindler Schiavo was not dying or brain-dead and she wasn't on any kind of life support. Her nutritional needs were being met with the assistance of caregivers, no differently than infants are nursed or toddlers and elderly might be spoon-fed. Despite this, judges, politicians and pundits bent over backward to paint her unworthy of life. Beholden to the all-powerful abortion lobby, they rushed to the cause of an adulterous, impatient husband who wanted her dead and forgotten.

This explains why left-wing members of Congress like New Jersey’s Bill Pascrell suddenly and awkwardly took up the conservative cause of states’ rights, declaring Florida’s lethal court rulings against Terri inviolable. It explains why Pinellas County judge George Greer concluded that Terri would have preferred death based merely on her coming of age when use of life support equipment was questioned in the popular press. And it explains why Mary and Bob Schindler’s petition for custody of their daughter was denied, leaving Terri’s fate in the hands of their resentful and vindictive son-in-law.

Similar contortions of law and logic were used in 1973 to construe a right to kill children in the Constitution. Indeed, the battle for Terri’s life proved especially nerve-racking for abortion providers, their champions in the media and minions in government. Despite the unqualified success of having created a massive legal altar upon which tens of millions of unborn had been slaughtered, these engineers of industrialized death are well aware of its shaky foundation. So they trivialized and derided a voiceless woman lying in a Florida nursing home. After all, any legislative action or judicial decision to reinsert her feeding tube might have been viewed as validating her life. And that might have led to validating life in a broader context.

The rebuff given Terri and her family is a rebuff to each and every one of us. But it should come as no surprise. Since Roe v. Wade, our society has been disintegrating into a loose association self-centered individuals who tolerate others only to the extent they prove useful.

Having embraced death on demand— color it reproductive freedom, a right to die or fetal stem cell therapy— most Americans now regard life as just another commodity, something to be traded, used and discarded.

What's in a Name? Ask Congressman and Forced-Abortion Pusher Louise Slaughter

2009-03-21T19:28:00.008-05:00

This twelve-term US House member from New York's 28th Congressional District is-- well, to put it frankly-- a raving abortion pusher. She legislates abortion, she funds abortion, she promotes abortion-- all with our money, of course. And her name is Slaughter. Louise M. Slaughter.

You just can't make this stuff up.

Steve Ertelt, www.lifenews.com editor, reported this on March 18th:

In a letter to the chairman and ranking members of the Foreign Operations Subcommittee, Slaughter and three other members of the House ask for an increase of $530 million for family planning efforts and a boost to $65 million for the [anti-life] UNFPA.

"We respectfully request that you increase international family planning assistance funding by $530 million from last year's level, including a total of $65 million for the United Nations Population Fund in the Fiscal Year 2010 State and Foreign Operations Appropriations Act," the letter says.

Obama won't likely budget as he demonstrated his commitment to funding the controversial pro-abortion UN agency when he overturned the Mexico City Policy during his first week in office.

"I look forward to working with Congress to restore U.S. financial support for the U.N. Population Fund," Obama said in his executive order message in January."By resuming funding to UNFPA, the U.S. will be joining 180 other donor nations working collaboratively to reduce poverty, improve the health of women and children, prevent HIV/AIDS and provide family planning assistance to women in 154 countries," he added.

However, President Obama ignored the connection between the UNFPA and the Chinese forced-abortion program.

Following [a State Department] investigation, former Secretary of State Colin Powell said he had no doubt that the UNFPA was complicit in the population control program.

"I determined that UNFPA's support of, and involvement in, China's population-planning activities allowed the Chinese government to implement more effectively its program of coercive abortion," he wrote.

The State Department investigation came after a groundbreaking probe led by the Population Research Institute.

Colin Mason, PRI’s media director, confirmed to LifeNews.com last November that it stands by its probe showing the UNFPA involved in the program.

"Our investigation remains valid," Mason said. "We put boots on the ground, and made the results available to anyone who wanted them. Those who would disregard our findings show an appalling lack of respect for human rights."

PRI's initial report, entitled "UNFPA, China, and Coercive Family Planning," is based on an investigation conducted by PRI researchers in China's Sihui County.

Relying on interviews with over two dozen victims and witnesses, the 2001 investigation found that coercive abortion and sterilization practices were taking place where the UNFPA had supposedly instituted a "client-centered and voluntary family planning program."

In fact, PRI's investigation discovered that the UNFPA shared an office with the very Chinese family planning officials who were carrying out forced abortions.

Read Steve's full story at http://www.lifenews.com/int1130.html

Visit Population Research Institute at http://www.pop.org/

See PRI's video on UNFPA at http://www.youtube.com/colinpri

By the way, Louise Slaughter describes herself as a "leading advocate for women's rights" who, according to her on-line biography, "co-authored the historic Violence Against Women Act." Evidently, Louise Slaughter believes women have a right not only to violence, but to coercion, as well.

To Mary's Seven Sorrows, Add an Eighth:

2009-03-21T10:52:00.021-05:00

The Seven Sorrows of Mary are the Prophecy of Simeon; the Flight into Egypt; the Loss of the Child Jesus; the Way of the Cross; the Crucifixion; the Reception of His Body; the Burial. Evidently, that's not enough for present-day Judases who continue offending her Immaculate Heart.

Yesterday, March 20th, the US Administration and apostates at the helm of the University of Notre Dame in South Bend announced that the President will accept an "honorary" degree and address the school as commencement speaker on May 17th. In an obvious attempt to avoid uproar from the Catholic faithful, South Bend and the White House waited until late Friday to float the announcement under the news radar.

If there are two names that never should appear in the same sentence, they are Our Lady's and that of the current anti-Catholic, anti-life president of the United States. Mary, the Model Disciple, the Ark of the Covenant, the Ultimate Pro-Lifer, stands in perfect opposition to the Father of Lies and his minion at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.

It's obvious that this is yet another desperate attempt by dissidents to assert their fading influence. I need not elaborate on this overwhelming affront to the Mystical Body of Christ and the Holy Mother of God. In any case, I cannot find adequate words to express my outrage.

As Kathleen Gilbert at LifeSiteNews.com reminds us, "the United States of Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) approved a policy statement called 'Catholics in Political Life,' which says, with reference to pro-abortion politicians, 'They should not be given awards, honors or platforms which would suggest support for their actions.'"

Read Gilbert's entire story:

http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2009/mar/09032005.html

The following contacts are provided to facilitate efforts to preempt Obama's appearance.

The Cardinal Newman Society's special website, created just hours ago to try stopping this sacrilege:

http://notredamescandal.com/

Notre Dame's bishop:

Bishop John D'Arcy, Fort Wayne-South Bend Diocese

Fort Wayne Chancery

phone: (260) 422-4611

Notre Dame's main phone number:

University of Notre Dame
Phone: (574) 631-5000

email form: http://president.nd.edu/contact-us

Notre Dame Fellows:

Rev. E. William Beauchamp, C.S.C.

President, U. of Portland

(503) 943-7101

Patrick F. McCartan

Jones Day

(216) 586-7272

Email: pmccartan@jonesday.com

William M. Goodyear, CEO

Navigant Consulting

(312) 583-5700

List of all Notre Dame Fellows:

www.nd.edu/leadership/fellows

The USCCB:

Cardinal Francis George, President

Archdiocese of Chicago

phone: 312-751- 8200

email: mfox@archchicago.org

Most Rev. Robert J. McManus, Chairman

Committee on Education

Diocese of Worcester

phone: 508-791-7171

committee email: catholiceducation@usccb.org

In the Spirit of Josef Mengele...

2009-03-09T12:09:00.024-05:00

On Monday, March 9th, Barack Obama revoked his predecessor's executive order prohibiting federal funding of lethal human experimentation. Two years ago, when Gov. Kathleen Sebelius sought to establish a human cloning and harvesting industry in Kansas (with taxpayers' hard-earned money, no less), I penned the following in newspapers:

This proposed slaughter should be familiar to anyone with a knowledge of history. What Sebelius, complicit legislators and the coalition [of researchers and industrialists] want to do is exactly what Hitler, the Nazis and the doctors of Auschwitz did: kill defenseless human beings in pursuit of dubious science. But unlike citizens of Nazi Germany, we live in a democracy. Men of good will have a chance to preempt this new holocaust.

Sebelius' efforts never bore their macabre fruit, thanks largely to the outrage of the state's pro-life community. But as Obama's new secretary of Health and Human Services, she'll throw the vast resources of the federal government into this-- the most appalling offense ever thrown in the face of God-- on a national scale.

On Wednesday, I will attend a Rosary for a very remarkable woman named Adelheid Krescentia Kuchar, a fellow Secular Franciscan who just passed to her eternal reward. I did not know Adele well; in fact, I spent only a few minutes in her company, at a Franciscan fraternity meeting last fall. She sat down next to me and began, "You know, America is becoming more and more like the Germany of my youth."

Adele passed away just one day before Barack Obama took the United States yet another step down the grim road of self-destruction she was forced to endure under Nazi rule. It's as if our merciful Lord wished to spare dear Adele the sorrow of reliving what author William Shirer called Germany's "nightmare years."

...and everywhere that Kathleen went, Death was sure to go.

2009-03-08T13:56:00.014-05:00

How Stupid Does Bob Casey Think We Are?

2009-02-27T18:34:00.025-06:00

I live in Kansas, so even if I were stupid enough to believe that Sen. Bob Casey, Jr. of Pennsylvania is pro-life, I wouldn't be of any use to him at the ballot box. And use is the operative word here; after all, a human being's usefulness is the only thing of real interest to self-serving cynics like Casey.

This leads me to mention a brief confrontation I had with one of Casey's staffers during the March for Life in January. Near the Senate offices, a woman stepped into the street and handed me a card.

"Senator Casey wants to meet with you!" She claimed Casey was concerned about the unborn and wanted to discuss pro-life efforts with us.

"Bob Casey?" I asked incredulously. "Bob Casey isn't pro-life." At that, her affected enthusiasm vanished. I pushed the invitation back in her hand. "Here. Find some sucker to give it to."

Granted, I handled it poorly. I should have grabbed the invitation and gone straight to his office to confront him face to face. Oh, what a missed opportunity! But I was already late to a reception for pro-lifers at Sen. Sam Brownback's office. As anyone familiar with Pennsylvania politics knows, Bob Casey, Jr. has been trading on his father's pro-life reputation for years. But with funding from the abortion lobby and a thoroughly anti-life voting record, it goes without saying that Casey is a shameless fraud.

So, why do I mention this now? Just a few days ago, Scranton's wonderful Bishop Joseph Martino released an open letter to Casey, reminding him once again of his moral obligation "to oppose abortion and other clear evils." According to Catholic News Agency:

Earlier in the month, in a first rebuke to Senator Casey, Bishop Martino had warned that the senator's vote against an extension of the Mexico City policy-- which prohibited US taxpayer funding of abortion advocacy abroad-- was a violation of the legislator's moral obligation. “Your failure to reverse this vote will regrettably mean that you persist formally in cooperating with the evil brought about by this hideous and unnecessary policy,” the bishop wrote.

Also on February 26th, Bishop Martino's chancery issued the following directive throughout his diocese:

...the Most Reverend Joseph F. Martino, Bishop of Scranton, reminds all ministers of Holy Communion, ordinary and extraordinary, that:

1. To administer the Sacred Body and Blood of the Lord is a serious duty which they have received from the Church, and no one having accepted this responsibility has the right to ignore the Church’s law in this regard;

2. Those whose unworthiness to receive Holy Communion is known publicly to the Church must be refused Holy Communion in order to prevent sacrilege and to prevent the Catholic in question from committing further grave sin through unworthy reception.

All this comes just three days after Denver Archbishop Charles Chaput's words to Catholics in Toronto, as reported by LifeSiteNews.com:

"We can’t talk piously about programs to reduce the abortion body count without also working vigorously to change the laws that make the killing possible. If we’re Catholic, then we believe in the sanctity of developing human life. And if we don’t really believe in the humanity of the unborn child from the moment life begins, then we should stop lying to ourselves and others, and even to God, by claiming we’re something we’re not."

"For Christians," he explained, "hope is a virtue, not an emotional crutch or a political slogan. Virtus, the Latin root of virtue, means strength or courage. Real hope is unsentimental. It has nothing to do with the cheesy optimism of election campaigns. Hope assumes and demands a spine in believers. And that’s why – at least for a Christian -- hope sustains us when the real answer to the problems or hard choices in life is ‘no, we can’t,’ instead of ‘yes, we can.’"

Read more about Archbishop Chaput's comments at: http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2009/feb/09022509.html

Read more about Bishop Martino's recent actions at: http://www.ewtn.com/vnews/getstory.asp?number=94008

Your Faithful Servants, My Ancestors...

2009-02-27T14:04:00.021-06:00

Several months after the overwhelming mystical experience of January 2005 that so reordered my life, I began formulating a prayer of thanksgiving for my Catholic faith. Kneeling night after night before Christ in the tabernacle, I'd come to realize the incalculable debt I owe those from whom I'd received my greatest inheritance.

The grandson of immigrants from the Italian Piedmont and Sicily, I trace this heritage not only through my bloodline, but through those who transmitted the Faith from its Source to the heart of the Roman Empire and beyond: Mary, the Apostles and their contemporaries. Many of them endured derision, persecution, even death over the centuries. Yet they kept the true Faith.

My prayer eventually took the form of an extension of the well-known Prayer Before the Crucifix. On this twenty-seventh day of February, the 55th anniversary of the wedding of my parents, I offer this prayer to those who are likewise indebted:

Behold, oh kind and gentle Jesus, I kneel before you and pray that you would impress upon my soul the virtues of faith, hope and charity, with true repentance for my sins and a firm purpose of amendment. At the same time, with sorrow, I meditate on your five precious wounds, having in mind the words which David spoke in prophesy: They have pierced my hands and my feet; I can count all my bones.

Thank you, oh Lord, for your ineffable gift of life and for your faithful servants, my ancestors, who fought the good fight and kept the holy Catholic Faith and passed it on, generation to generation, down through the ages, that I might receive it and pass it on myself. Bless them, oh Lord, and I pray for the repose of their souls. And I pray to them and to all your saints and angels, especially your Blessed Mother, for the grace and virtues necessary to lead others into full communion with the Church, for their sake and what greater glory it might bring You.

Amen.

Sebelius' Trail of Butchered Babies and Maimed Mothers Stalls Nomination

2009-02-27T08:19:00.024-06:00

This cartoon illustrates the deception, slander and manipulation emblematic of Kathleen Sebelius' tenure as Kansas governor. Initially published in July 2007, it depicts then-AG Paul Morrison's press conference, during which he disparaged his predecessor's investigation and subsequent charges against Wichita abortionist George Tiller. Morrison, aided by a one-million-dollar smear campaign funded by George Tiller's PAC, had just unseated Phil Kline as the state's attorney general. Tiller's investment in both Sebelius and Morrison had begun paying dividends.

As reported yesterday by Steven Ertelt at LifeNews.com, the White House finally has admitted that Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius' embarrassingly thorough anti-life record is making her nomination problematic.

To be sure, Obama is not backtracking on his promise to kill more of us. He simply knows he can't realize his dream of a utilitarian utopia at one fell swoop. Just as Hitler and the Nazis patiently and methodically advanced their agenda of sterilization, abortion and euthanasia-- utilizing, among other means, the German entertainment industry-- Obama and the Democrats will steer a distracted American society farther down the very same autobahn of self-destruction. Health & Human Services is at the cold, black heart of the left's vision of socialized medicine, a vision that sees the unwanted contracepted, the unborn aborted and the infirm euthanized. Eager as they are, the left fears tipping their hand. This is why placing such an obvious technocrat of death as Kathleen Sebelius at the helm of HHS gives Obama pause.

As Ertelt points out, "Sebelius won the governorship with large donations from George Tiller, who is currently on trial for allegedly doing illegal abortions.

"She appointed abortion practitioner Howard Ellis -- who gave up his medical license in Missouri to avoid disciplinary action -- to the Kansas Board of Healing Arts. That's the agency that is responsible for monitoring medical staff and centers to make sure they comply with the law. Ellis was later charged by the Board with attempting to persuade a physician to falsify records.

"Sebelius also appointed a supporter of Tiller's political action committee and pro-abortion activist to the Human Rights Commission, which pro-life advocates considered an irony.

"Sebelius' hand-picked attorney general, Paul Morrison, ran for office as a defender of the abortion industry. After only a few months in office, he was forced to resign amidst reports of having sex in public buildings with a subordinate and abusing his authority to obstruct the investigation of abortion practitioners."

Sebelius also has aggressively pursued the establishment of a human cloning and experimentation industry. As I wrote in Kansas newspapers in May 2007, "How telling that [Sebelius' cloning lobby, the Kansas Coalition for Lifesaving Cures] never mentions that its utopian vision of perfect health will cost the lives of uncounted human beings. Or that it will create these persons on an industrial scale to fill petri dishes, prop up share prices and purchase vacation homes.

"The coalition claims its research will be 'conducted ethically and safely' and 'not involve human reproductive cloning.' This is a lie, as cruel and malevolent as they come. The coalition’s sole purpose is to clear the way for human cloning. It pretends this isn't 'reproductive' because it intends to dissect the resulting embryos and harvest their cells, destroying them in the process. Sure, the research is ethical, so long as you have no conscience. And it’s safe, too, unless you’re among those dissected.

"This is moral relativism at its most cynical, counter to natural law, the common good and Christian principles. Not once does the coalition mention 'embryonic' in its propaganda, because it seeks to associate itself with legitimate research using adult stem cells and thus portray its pro-life opponents as unreasonable. By this lie of omission, the coalition tries usurping the moral high ground. But the truth won’t permit it."

Read Ertelt's article: http://www.lifenews.com:80/nat4860.html

The Next First Family? Roll Up Your Sleeves and Pray!

2009-02-25T10:33:00.015-06:00

Smart, accomplished, charismatic, conservative, the son of immigrants, a practicing Catholic. What's not to love about Louisiana governor Bobby Jindal? A lot, if you're anti-life... which is what most Americans are, whether they recognize it or not.

But why was he panned so broadly by Fox pundits last night? Juan Williams I can understand; after all, Williams' eyes are still aglow after Obama's transfiguration at Denver's Invesco Stadium last summer. But others on the panel also panned Jindal's reply to Obama and the Democrats' spending spree. It's as though they've joined the majority of America's electorate who prefer image to substance. Which, again, is why we have Obama in the White House and Congress dishing out enough pork to keep leftwing special interests like Planned Parenthood fed for the years to come.

Oh, What a Tangled Web We Weave...

2009-02-25T08:40:00.012-06:00

I couldn't help posting the argument between mother of fourteen, Nadya Suleman, and her exasperated mother, Angela. It appeared recently on TV and I pieced together the exchange as best I could from the video clip:

Nadya: "I'm not going to destroy the embryos, period. Done, done, done. You can't go back and alter the past."

Angela: "They were frozen and you did not have to do anything."

Nadya: "They were lives. You either use them or destroy them."

Angela: "You had another option..."

Nadya: "What other option?"

Angela: "Give them up for adoption."

Nadya: "I couldn't even fathom the idea of having my own children out in the world... and not know them."

Angela: "You should have considered your six other children. I feel sorry for them."

Really, now, does this sad and telling exchange require any commentary on the illicit creation of life, utilitarianism and abuse of the human person? I'll add only this: A serpent once said, "You will be like God."

What to Expect of Sebelius at HHS

2009-02-19T10:03:00.026-06:00

This cartoon first appeared one year ago. I offer it again as an example of the machinations we can expect from the Department of Health & Human Services should Kathleen Sebelius become its new chief. After the abortion industry's heavy, Paul Morrison, was forced to resign as Kansas AG amid revelations of malfeasance, Sebelius appointed yet another abortion fullback to replace him: Stephen Six. Six has proven himself the abortion industry's trusted lapdog ever since, fully capable of bending the law to accommodate mass murder. From the archives, February 2008:

George Tiller's New AG: On Guard at the Butcher Shop

In what clearly was an eleventh-hour effort to derail a grand jury investigation of George Tiller's infamous Women's Health Care Services in Wichita, newly-appointed Attorney General Stephen Six filed a motion with the Kansas Supreme Court to throw out a subpoena for records of sixty late-term abortions. “This is an overt attempt by Six to deny evidence to a legally convened grand jury and an effort to protect an abortionist from further prosecution. Six is acting more like a member of Tiller’s criminal defense team than the state’s chief law enforcement officer," said Operation Rescue President Troy Newman.

Six's attempt to quash further investigation comes as no surprise to those familiar with Kansas politics. He is but the latest in a long line of officeholders-- from small-claims court in Wichita to the legislature and Supreme Court in Topeka-- who've taken extraordinary measures to ensure that Tiller remains untouchable. Having amassed a fortune by duping young mothers and killing their children, Tiller is proof that almost any legislator, prosecutor, policeman or judge can be had. Such was the case with Kansas' previous AG, who was forced to resign after his sexual harassment of subordinates and attempts to subvert investigation of a Planned Parenthood slaughterhouse cost him public support. True to form, Gov. Kathleen Sebelius, whose own career has been financed by Tiller and other baby-butchers, filled the void with a likeminded lackey.

Preacher Ray Comfort: Keeping God on the Straight 'n' Narrow

2009-02-18T09:12:00.052-06:00

I'm always amazed by the myopia, audacity and theological nonsense of Catholic-bashers like the "born again" preacher Ray Comfort, co-host of a TV proselytization program with actor Kirk Cameron. Here's an abbreviated version of the Catholic League's recent comment on Comfort's latest calumnies:

[Comfort] accuses the Catholic Church of failing to exercise “common sense” and of failing to think “too deeply” about evolution.

The best-selling author does not mince words: “The Vatican, in essence, is saying ‘Don’t believe Jesus or Genesis. Believe Darwin instead.’” He even goes so far as to say that “In the name of diversity, the Vatican is encouraging atheism, and that’s a terrible betrayal of Christianity.”

[Comfort's assertion] that one must believe in either Jesus or Darwin smacks of an inability to “think deeply” about the subject. Even more preposterous is the assertion that the Vatican is encouraging atheism. What’s next? The pope is the Anti-Christ?

Yes! Thanks to the appalling travesty that Comfort and likeminded muckrakers sell as Christianity, many of their followers do believe that the Vicar of Christ-- the very person installed by the Holy Spirit as the world's spiritual leader-- is the Anti-Christ. And this from people who deny Christ Himself in the Eucharist. To paraphrase St. Elizabeth Ann Seaton, herself a refugee from protestantism, can such self-styled believers, having ejected the very Source and Summit of Christianity from their midst, even call themselves Christian?

But I digress.

As John Paul II once said, faith and reason are two complimentary wings upon which man rises to the Truth. Many of science's greatest advances occurred through the auspices of the Catholic Church. And many of science's greatest abuses-- contraception, abortion, in vitro fertilization and embryonic experimentation, along with the tremendous evils they cause-- occur through rejection of Catholic teaching.

Comfort's kind do the poor souls they "shepherd" no favors. Rejecting both scientific reasoning and the Magisterium's proper interpretation of scripture, they shackle misguided followers with crippling misunderstandings of God, Christianity and creation that not only impair spiritual ascent, but jeopardize salvation. Obviously, Comfort rejects the fundamental understanding that all truth leads to God, even that which challenges his faith. Needless to say, if Comfort accepted the Church's teaching, he'd not only realize that there's nothing to fear, he'd experience that spiritual ascent he denies himself.

Blinded by pride, Comfort fails to recognize the one whose bidding he really does. No doubt, the Father of Lies takes great pleasure watching Comfort and his disciples wield their axes against the Pillar of Truth. But they do so in vain. As Christ promised, Hell shall not prevail against it.

Wicked Witch of the West Wings Her Way to Washington?

2009-02-09T11:37:00.021-06:00

With yet another honesty-impaired nominee, Tom Daschle, having withdrawn, Barack Obama reportedly has fingered another anti-life nominee to head up Health & Human Services.

Really, now, is there anyone left who doubts that euthanasia, too, will be an integral part of Obama's universal health care?

Living in Kansas, I've learned more about Gov. Kathleen Sebelius than I care to recall. To put it briefly, Sebelius (not a native, but an opportunist from Ohio) is arguably the most actively and viciously anti-life governor in the country's entire history. I'm not exaggerating (see my January 11, 2009 post under "Want Justice? Bring Cash").

I spun this cartoon last spring, after Sebelius vetoed the Kansas legislature's anti-coercion bill, intended to protect vulnerable mothers from being pressured to abort. Sebelius' veto of even this wasn't a surprise; after all, such a law would have cut into the coffers of her biggest campaign contributors, Planned Parenthood of Kansas & Mid-Missouri and millionaire George Tiller (a.k.a., Tiller the Killer). Both, by the way, have been under investigation for not reporting child rape and for committing illegal abortions.

I can only imagine Tiller's chagrin. He spent a fortune to buy this governor and now it looks as though she'll leave two years before her term expires. Still, Tiller and his fellow butchers got a lot for their money; through her appointment and manipulation of judges, attorneys general, prosecutors and law enforcement at every level-- city, county and state-- Sebelius has allowed the abortion industry a free and bloody hand in Kansas.

It's Not as if We Weren't Warned

2009-02-08T13:14:00.061-06:00

Unlike abortion, contraception is an evil I know firsthand. And shaking sense into others about the deep and enduring personal pain it causes, as well as its terrible, inevitable global ramifications, is a special mission I've chosen within the larger pro-life movement. Unbelievably, this scourge continues to go unrecognized, despite the devastating impact it already has wrought within industrialized nations, where populations are collapsing rapidly.

Pope Paul VI warned us about contraception in 1968 with the encyclical Humanae Vitae, arguably one of the most sobering wake-up calls the Holy Spirit ever issued His people; indeed, the 261st successor of Peter is on par with Old Testament prophets, whose dire warnings also went unheeded. The bitter fruit of widespread contraception-- rampant promiscuity and legalized abortion, domestic violence and skyrocketing divorce rates, industrialized pornography and illicit drug trafficking-- appeared almost immediately. The latest consequences-- vast, unregulated migrations across North American borders and violent clashes between growing immigrant populations and shrinking native populations in Europe-- have been making headlines more recently.

Still, this is nothing compared to the storms brewing on the horizon.

I've often wondered whether contraception is not, in fact, a greater sin than abortion. Awful as the taking of human life is, contraception denies its very creation. Could there be a greater affront to the Almighty? I finally put this question to Fr. Frank Pavone at Priests for Life. His answer, which he supported with comments made by John Paul II, was that abortion is the greater of the two evils. However, he added (and I'm paraphrasing) that if a couple is going to burn in Hell, does it really matter whether it's because they aborted or because they contracepted?

And let's keep in mind that many contraceptives don't just prevent fertilization, but also cause abortion. The IUD, despite what its promoters say, is not a contraceptive at all; it's strictly a means of abortion.

With their populations imploding, you'd think leaders of the industrialized world would at least say something, if not do something. Quite the contrary. Alarmed by such hypotheticals as Al Gore's carbon emissions and what environmentalist extremists consider the real problem-- unnecessary people-- most are accelerating the rush to oblivion. In one of his first acts as US president, Barack Obama authorized spending hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars to stifle foreign populations. And US House majority leader Nancy Pelosi, convinced that children are bad not only for our ecology, but for our economy, wants to spend even more to stamp out childbirth at home. This, even while scraping the barrel to fund astronomical bailouts.

How will these self-serving politicians maintain their vast entitlement programs as barren taxpayers age and retire?

The answer is clear: Unable to increase revenues, they'll decrease expenditures. For Pelosi, Obama and their fellow nihilists, killing is once again the answer. Just as they've sold abortion to a generation indoctrinated in radical feminism, they'll sell euthanasia to a shrinking electorate saddled with trillions in government debt and a graying population of unproductive consumers. This will dovetail neatly with today's call for government-mandated universal health care. Just as “reproductive health care” became a euphemism for butchering children in utero, “geriatric health care” will become the polite term for smothering grandparents in nursing homes.

In fact, euthanasia is not uncommon in American hospitals today. It's simply hushed up, like abortion was in the years leading up to Roe. All that's needed is to codify it, as some states have begun doing by legalizing assisted suicide. Needless to say, we can't expect the Supreme Court to intervene on behalf of humanity; that's the body that somehow found an excuse to slaughter children in the Constitution. And having found that, they can find an excuse to justify anything.

Bailing Out the Latex Industry

2009-01-28T22:02:00.009-06:00

I've reworked a cartoon created a couple years ago to illustrate the counterproductive approach to AIDS prevention that atheist-utilitarianists have insisted upon for years. The update celebrates today's news that the House has earmarked a whopping $335 million for STD prevention (read: condom distribution) within the Democrats' $800 billion-plus bailout of, well, the universe.

Bending Scripture to Pagan Purposes

2009-01-28T17:45:00.025-06:00

After seeing my cartoon about Al Gore, Earth Day 2008 and radical environmentalism's anti-life agenda (see previous post), my friend Joe Bollig of Kansas City emailed this comment:

"It made me think of something. In the old days, we had conservation. Conservation was just good stewardship of the land. In the '60s, however, it was replaced by environmentalism. This is a totally different thing. It is part ideology and part religion — a pagan religion that hates humanity."

I couldn't have said it better myself. I, for one, love nature; as a Catholic and Franciscan, I am called to stewardship of nature. An integral part of nature is the human person; to abuse the human person is to abuse nature. This is the great disconnect, the glaring hypocrisy of radical environmentalism. It rejects the Judeo-Christian understanding that the earth was created as an abode of man. In rejecting this, it rejects God and deifies the earth and its resources. Indeed, radical environmentalism is the very definition of paganism. This is why I was particularly offended by Al Gore's hijacking of Deuteronomy during his acceptance speech before the 2007 Nobel committee, an obvious attempt to dignify his anti-life agenda:

"The distinguished scientists with whom it is the greatest honor of my life to share this award have laid before us a choice between two different futures - a choice that to my ears echoes the words of an ancient prophet: Life or death, blessings or curses. Therefore, choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live."

But the last sentence of this quote, from Deuteronomy 30, is conveniently incomplete. It actually reads:

I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse. Choose life, then, that you and your descendants may live, by loving the Lord, your God, heeding his voice, and holding fast to him.

Loving, heeding and holding fast to God. Easy to see why Gore truncated the sentence. After all, it clearly implores the reader-- and the quoter-- to obey the Commandments, every one of which is violated by radical environmentalism.

Chicken Little Returns to the Hill

2009-01-27T09:31:00.016-06:00

This cartoon appeared with the following commentary on the new-age feast of Earth Day 2008. It reappears now, in anticipation of Al Gore's latest "testimony" before Congress, where he'll push for additional anti-life legislation. By the way, today's forecast calls for the possibility of heavy snow and travel delays for this herald of global warming. --JFB

Last year, the Nobel Committee saw fit to award its Peace Prize to radical environmentalist and depopulation advocate Al Gore. Nothing so clearly demonstrates this committee's complete lack of understanding of the nature of peace, the very condition it claims to promote. Gore is an unabashed champion of death and believes that "Third World nations are producing too many children too fast... it is time to ignore the controversy over family planning and cut out-of-control population growth."

Gore and other depopulationists see human beings as the ultimate threat. At the same time, they seek to protect the natural environment at the greatest possible price, human life. Like ancient nature worshipers, they demand human sacrifice-- literally. Contraception, abortion and euthanasia are their rituals, essential to appease the nature deities and forestall their wrath: global warming. Of course, these neopagans possess an inverted view of the world, fully at odds with Judeo-Christian tradition and, what is especially ironic, the natural moral law. Indeed, they abide by another law-- that of the jungle, the very foundation of today's culture of death.

All this underscores the hypocrisy of depopulation advocates. After all, if human numbers must be reduced, why don't Gore and his fellows lead by example and offer up themselves? No; it appears they're leaving that for the rest of us.

Roe at 36: Terrorism, American-Style

2009-01-18T22:15:00.009-06:00

This is a preliminary version of a concept offered in memory of the uncounted millions of abortion victims. Another version will be available after my return from the March for Life in Washington, DC. Feel free to contact me for image files of any cartoons seen on this blog. --JFB

Bush Was Wrong

2009-01-18T17:45:00.017-06:00

This cartoon appeared more than two years ago, shortly after a politically browbeaten FDA approved the sale of the abortion-inducing Plan B drug. --JFB

I have tremendous respect for our outgoing president, but he was dead wrong about the greatest threat facing the United States. It is not radical Islamic terrorism, as he claimed during last Thursday's farewell address. As anyone with a clear understanding of natural law and Catholic teaching knows, the greatest threat facing all of us-- the entire world-- is the narcissism from which comes contraception, sterilization, abortion, euthanasia and lethal human experimentation.

As I once wrote in response to an advocate of the contraceptive/abortifacient Plan B, the sociopathic selfishness underlying these threats is the root of war and family strife; it is the solvent of society and the cause of contracting populations throughout the industrialized world. It is humanity’s undoing.

The Terrorist Next Door

2009-01-16T09:18:00.011-06:00

This cartoon first appeared one year ago, in time for the 35th anniversary of Roe, accompanied by the following commentary. --JFB

As originally conceived, this cartoon was directed at medical practitioners who've turned their talent and training to genocide. But as I put pencil to paper last week, I realized the gag was falling short of the real culprits: the many millions of our neighbors who support abortion. Among these, of course, are pandering politicians who sell out vulnerable young women and their unborn children.

Those who watched the Democrats' response to Monday's State of the Union address saw such a culprit. As a Kansas legislator and chief executive, Kathleen Sebelius has publicly repudiated her most precious heritage-- the Catholic faith-- by aiding and abetting abortionists. Listening to her all-too-earnest pleas on behalf of America's children, one would assume she's pro-life. But her career has been funded by the likes of Wichita's notorious George Tiller and Planned Parenthood of Kansas & Mid-Missouri, the late-term abortion operators under investigation for routinely concealing evidence of rape. She publicly endorsed infanticide advocate Barak Obama during his campaign stop in central Kansas. And last year, Governor Sebelius launched a vigorous effort to bring human cloning, harvesting and experimentation to Kansas, developing a macabre parallel to the state's lucrative cattle industry.

Clearly, Kathleen Sebelius' vision for America's children has more to do with petri dishes than playgrounds.

But apostatizing politicians are just the tip of this iceberg. The truly culpable include TV entertainers, writers and producers who portray vice as virtue and virtue as vice; journalists who pollute our language with euphemisms like "reproductive health care" for killing and "products of conception" for children; self-styled religious leaders, like those convening with Jimmy Carter and other abortion advocates last week in Atlanta, who fashion golden calves to suit self-indulgent flocks; parents too concerned with what neighbors might think to abide a pregnant teen; the multitude of voters too excited by veneers of charm and good looks to consider the lives their candidates would legislate into oblivion. The list goes on.

In an age when more people are killed on an average day by Americans supporting "choice" than were murdered by foreign terrorists on 9/11, Usama bin Laden should be the least of our worries.

Apostates in the Pew

2009-01-14T10:39:00.018-06:00

This cartoon appeared just days before last November's election. It appears here, on the eve of what threatens to be the inauguration of unprecedented human slaughter, as a reminder of the sway evil has over so many Americans-- even those who've received the most precious and salutary of gifts, the Catholic faith. --JFB

In the final analysis, what does a Catholic mean by casting an anti-life ballot if not that he's renounced his baptismal promises?

The Coercion of "Choice"

2009-01-12T08:49:00.004-06:00

This cartoon first appeared in April 2008, when Kansas' notorious anti-life governor, Kathleen Sebelius, vetoed legislation intended to protect mothers from being forced to kill their children. As we approach the 36th anniversary of the infamous Roe decision, I offer this cartoon for new readers.--JFB

This cartoon highlights yet another ugly and overlooked fact about our so-called right to choose: much more often than not, vulnerable women are coerced into abortion. Coercion, under the guise of compassion, is the primary strategy employed to sell us on killing children, as well as the infirm and elderly. Parents, friends, school counselors, self-styled religious leaders and others often pressure young mothers, with little or no regard for the lives at stake or the common good. To be certain, many of those counseling abortion are themselves victims of deception, their priorities, their understanding of life and of good and evil having been twisted by the false prophets of narcissism and nihilism. Which is why we who know better must endeavor, like St. Francis, to be instruments of peace: "Where there is hatred, let me sow love; where there is despair, hope; where there is darkness, light."

A Prayer Before Planned Parenthood

2009-01-11T17:22:00.016-06:00

In January 2008, one of our Agnesian sisters asked me to write a prayer to be read aloud outside a Planned Parenthood office in observance of the 35th anniversary of the Roe decision. My Capuchin pastor, Fr. Gilmary, suggested my initial attempt was "a bit wild." Indeed, he was being kind! Reflecting on his comments, I realized it conveyed the sharpness I usually reserve for the abortion industry and its backers. It required two or three drafts before our friars felt the prayer was ready to kick upstairs.

As we approach the 36th anniversary of that terrible event, when many of us will pray outside a nearby death mill, I offer this prayer to the entire pro-life community. Feel free to pass it on. --JFB

Almighty God,

We pause here to remember the uncounted victims of a misguided society: women, confused and frightened, who were led to believe problems would be solved by terminating their pregnancies; unborn children who died as a result; couples whose wonderful potential to foster new life has been stifled. Enlighten those who pervert the healing arts by turning against life, that they might see the destruction they have wrought. Dispel the nihilism that reduces unborn children to mere abstractions. Lead our citizens, courts and governments to understand that everyone has a right to live, regardless of age, ability, health or social circumstance.

Bless our youngsters, that they might appreciate their bodies, value chastity and understand the true purpose of sexuality.

Allay the fears of new parents. Encourage them, that they might treasure the lives they've brought into the world, trust in your providence and embrace the call to parenthood. May they understand that children are unrepeatable gifts, no matter the circumstances of their conception.

Grant that society will once again respect marriage as the insoluble union which brings forth the family and recognize the family as the very foundation upon which society itself rests. Dispel the selfishness that regards fertility as a malady and pregnancy as a disease, that couples might cherish procreation as a blessing and bring ever more life into the world.

Console those parents who once chose abortion and now regret their decision; may their grief turn to action and their suffering to resolve in testament to the Truth.

Strengthen with love all who seek You, that we might embrace our calling to be light amid the darkness and, so, transform America, that she finally might become a nation under You, oh Lord, with liberty and justice for all.

Saint Gianna, who gave up her life that her unborn daughter might live, pray for us! Saint Maximilian, martyr of an earlier holocaust, pray for us!

Amen.

Want Justice? Bring Cash

2009-01-11T16:59:00.029-06:00

This cartoon appeared last summer with the following commentary, when bets were being placed on Obama's running mate. For those unfamiliar with Kansas, this piece suggests the travesty that the state's judicial system has become. --JFB

On July 2nd, notorious millionaire abortionist George Tiller once again evaded justice when a grand jury, hobbled by months of state-sponsored stall tactics, was dismissed without indicting him. But who, really, is surprised? After all, Tiller, Planned Parenthood and other players in the country’s abortion industry own the justice system here in Kansas.

Time after time, through the appointment and manipulation of attorneys general, district attorneys, judges and law enforcement personnel, Governor Kathleen Sebelius has helped abortionists evade Kansas law. At every level— city, county and state— the regulation, investigation and prosecution of abortion operators have been stymied during her tenure, permitting illegal abortions, sexual assaults and other crimes to continue unchecked.

In April, Sebelius vetoed the Kansas Legislature's broadly supported Comprehensive Abortion Reform Act intended to protect mothers from being pressured into aborting their children. The intention of the bill was not to restrict abortion, but simply to ensure that existing laws were complied with; however, even this was too much for Sebelius, arguably the most aggressively anti-life governor in US history. In May, it was discovered that she'd spent public funds on a lavish private party to thank Tiller and his genocidal staff for their support. Indifferent to the plight of vulnerable young women, Sebelius has funneled Tiller’s huge campaign contributions to likeminded politicians. Her near-sociopathic commitment to killing has earned her rock star status in the Democratic Party, catapulting her to the top of its list of VP hopefuls.

Her persistent reception of the Eucharist, in direct defiance of Archbishop Joseph Naumann, is a testament to her apostasy. Having facilitated the murder of untold thousands, she blithely desecrates of the very Body and Blood of Christ in a pretense of piety aimed at uninformed and gullible voters. For those outside the Catholic faith, let me explain what this signifies: God is nothing more than a stage prop to Kathleen Sebelius. This, more than anything, explains her easy fit as Barack Obama's running mate. After all, Obama has created a god in his own image, a trinity of abortion, euthanasia and embryonic experimentation demanding ever greater human sacrifice, a demand that Kathleen Sebelius is all too eager to satisfy.

Words are Cheap, but Life is Cheaper Still

2009-01-11T16:29:00.008-06:00

This cartoon appeared in the final weeks of last fall's campaign, amid protests from Obama's camp that he is not what his legislative record clearly indicates: pro-infanticide. The reference to linen closets reminds readers that Obama not only defended a common practice among late-term abortionists-- killing children who survive botched abortions by leaving them exposed and unattended-- but tried to codify it under Illinois law. The following text appeared as an editorial in Kansas newspapers prior to the election. --JFB

Barack Obama wants us to believe his words matter. Why? Because other than a brief voting record, he has nothing else to offer. Unfortunately, what figures most prominently in that record is unwavering support for killing our unborn, newborn and disabled citizens.

It's a sobering comment on our society that someone as contemptuous of human life as Adolph Hitler, Margaret Sanger or Osama bin Laden may well become the next president. In a country whose majority claims to be Christian, this contest should not be close; indeed, Barack Obama should not even be in the running. Yet ours is a society lost in a pother of relativism, in which "Christian" means little and human life means even less.

Contrast Obama's objectification of people with Sarah Palin's affirmation of them. Never has there been such stark contrast in American politics. Never. An enabler of the greatest threats to mankind-- abortion, euthanasia, cloning and lethal experimentation-- against a witness to the beauty, joy and dignity of life. It's not going too far at all to characterize this presidential race in biblical terms. Indeed, Obama's carefully chosen words regarding "reproductive freedom" bring to mind the serpent's lie to Eve; it's the very same promise the abortion industry, euthanasia advocates and promoters of human cloning offer us today: You will be like God.

Some suggest that Palin's appearance in this election is providential. It's easy to see why. Standing before the world, amid a culture that relegates children with Down syndrome quite literally to trash bins, Sarah Palin bears unabashed witness to a mother's love for a baby she calls perfection. Such respect for the human person should trump all other considerations when choosing chief executives; alas, not in today's America.

Foundering in a blood bath of our own making, the choice facing Americans never has been clearer: "change" leading to even more carnage or a renewed respect for life and all its blessings.

Hey, It's Never Too Late to Choose!

2009-01-11T16:13:00.004-06:00

This cartoon first appeared last August, in response to ongoing efforts by his campaign and supporters to paint Obama as something other than an infanticide enthusiast. --JFB

Klansmen for Obama

2009-01-11T15:58:00.005-06:00

This cartoon, first appearing shortly before November's election, highlights yet another bizarre aspect of this most bizarre of American elections. --JFB

Faith: The Ace Up Obama's Sleeve

2009-01-11T15:43:00.006-06:00

This cartoon first appeared in September 2008. It appears here, on the eve of the inauguration of the most unabashedly anti-life president in US history, for the benefit of new readers. --JFB

Barack Obama never lets us forget he's a "person of faith." At the same time, he refuses to accept the scientific fact that life begins at conception. Just like Joe Biden, he wants voters to believe that the point at which life begins is a matter of faith. After all, a candidate's "faith" can justify nearly any political position while providing a semblance of sincerity. And because opponents never risk questioning another candidate's religious beliefs-- even when clearly disingenuous-- it offers a shield against criticism. This stratagem is the origin of Obama's bombastic and falsely humble response to Rick Warren's question concerning the beginning of life and human rights. It's also an unmistakable sign of Obama's contempt for religious convictions-- of any kind.

Needless to say, Obama's pay grade comment was no more than an effort to obscure the issue and maintain an untenable position on abortion. But ask one of today's Catholic school kids when life begins and you'll get a clear, concise and truthful answer. If Barack Obama refuses to acknowledge irrefutable facts that even children do, what's he doing in any position of responsibility?

Biden's Sign of the Double Cross

2009-01-11T13:55:00.009-06:00

The original version of this cartoon appeared on the net shortly after Joe Biden's nomination; it appears here, on the eve of his vice-presidency, for the benefit of new readers. --JFB

Well, there you have it-- in his own words, no less.

Remarkably, even at age 65, Joe Biden remains confused about the Catholic faith. This becomes even clearer when you consider another quote from his autobiography: "My idea of self, of family, of community, of the wider world comes straight from my religion." Needless to say, Biden confuses the secular culture of the community in which he grew up with the Catholic faith that its members professed. In this respect, Biden is no different than many millions of other non-practicing Catholics. Often referred to as cultural Catholics, they adhere to the form of the ancient Christian faith while rejecting its substance, leading lives otherwise indistinguishable from those of atheists.

But is he fully to blame? After all, his mother seems to have done young Joe no favors during his formation. In his acceptance speech at the Democrats' convention in Denver, Biden recalled his mother's coaching to punch out kids who picked on him. I thought immediately of the counsel my wife had given our own son in grade school, to ignore the assaults of bullies and disarm them with an even temper and well-chosen words rather than sink to the level of stupid brutality.

And is there anything more stupidly brutal than the abortions Joe Biden so vigorously defends?

Indeed, Biden's mother seems to have sown seeds that eventually flowered in public apostasy. In his self-serving Promises to Keep, Biden writes of being teased by a nun, something his mother never forgot. Decades later, upon telling her he was to meet the pope, his mother demanded, "Don't you kiss his ring." Such anecdotes remind me of those told by acquaintances who harbor a vague, generations-old enmity toward the Church. Invariably, they stem from some trivial incident in which a member of the clergy said something that somehow offended mom; in a huff, the matriarch left the Church. The result? Her descendants are denied their most precious, rightful and salutary inheritance.

Still, we Catholics are personally responsible for growing in knowledge of our faith. And having been admonished over many years by clergy and laity alike, Biden has no excuses. To be sure, Joe Biden is quick to point out he's still Catholic, but his actions remind us he left the Church long ago to pay homage to a very different god.

More Election Day Nonsense

2009-01-11T12:47:00.006-06:00

The original version of this cartoon appeared shortly before the Nov. 2008 election; it appears here, on the eve of the 36th anniversary of the infamous Roe decision, for the benefit of new readers. --JFB

This was a quickie, in response to the Obama campaign's suggestion that students and employees ask teachers and bosses for Tuesday off... and ACORN's underhanded strategy, as well.

Planned Parenthood: Toeing the Nazi Line

2009-01-10T19:19:00.008-06:00

The original version of this cartoon appeared well over a year ago; it appears here, on the eve of the 36th anniversary of the infamous Roe decision, for the benefit of new readers. --JFB

To anyone familiar with the Third Reich, it's obvious what I've done here. This is a play on the iron gates surrounding Auschwitz concentration camp. The actual gates read Arbeit Macht Frei (Work Makes You Free). This was, of course, the big lie told to inmates in order to keep them manageable as they were led from cattle cars to their deaths in the showers. Planned Parenthood's big lie to society is strikingly similar: Abortion Makes You Free. The parallel is chillingly appropriate. As a matter of fact, it's not unlike any other cartoon I've done about the culture of death: the truth is so clear, so grotesque, so galling that little imagination-- and no exaggeration at all-- is required to spin good editorial material from it. In this case, even the security fence and smoke-belching crematorium are no exaggeration; Wichita's notorious George Tiller, for one, has these on his property. And, of course, the hands of all abortionists drip with blood-- literally as well as figuratively.

Initial Post: 1/8/09

2009-01-08T10:34:00.004-06:00

The ultimate purpose of this blog is to help supplant the culture of death gripping our world with one of truth, justice, charity and life built upon the only foundation that will sustain it: the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Faith.

Toward that end, Veritatis: The Cartoon will provide direct access to my editorial cartoons, written opinions and other material. Publishers meeting certain criteria will be allowed use of my original work according to terms to be posted soon.

During the initial set up of this blog, I expect to be experimenting and re-working Veritatis: The Cartoon quite a bit; images, posts, formats and other elements no doubt will change, be modified, appear and disappear as I continue to learn about what is a new medium for me.