Thinking of Our Warriors at Christmas Time

It’s unusual to post anything in the afternoon, but there’s a lot that needs to be seen this weekend.

Thinking of the Mascots and all the others who cannot be with family this year.  God bless them all and keep them safe. We have your back, now and always.

CtH: Last year, Dearest and I were on our own and didn’t bother to decorate at all.  I got feeling a tad guilty what with the neighbors and all, so I ended up blowing a whole $3 on a big red bow that I stuck to the door. This year, though, HURRAH!!!  We are decorated and excited to be hosting Daughter #2 (aka, Army Princess), with Hubby, Son, Daughter, and Grandchild #7 who is still in the oven.

Daughter #3 (aka, Warrior Princess) is snowed in at the moment, but if the plows get out and they don’t get any more, she’s bringing Grandchild #6 to celebrate Our Lord’s birth and the renewal of the #2s wedding vows (10 years! wow!).

The Warriors aren’t military (any more), but Warrior Prince used up his days off on his sister’s nuptials, so he has to miss out. Daughter #1 (aka, Mama Buzz) is trying to be okay with sharing our joyful time via technology.  My phone had 81 texts on it today!  LOL  Daddy Buzz is active duty and, unlike Army Prince and Army Princess, was not able to get enough time off to make the trip.  This evening, Mama and Bunny did Mother-Daughter Christmas manicures. 🙂

We are all just super grateful that none of them are deployed!  It’s hard to celebrate Christmas when one’s offspring are in harm’s way.

More than 200,000 Pounds of Turkey, Ham, and Shrimp Headed to U.S. Troops for Christmas
U.S. troops serving in the Middle East will be enjoying a traditional holiday meal this Sunday, thanks to the men and women of the Pentagon’s Defense Logistic Agency Troop Support.

• 112,092 pounds of turkey
• 59,430 pounds of beef
• 38,430 pounds of ham
• 29,304 pounds of shrimp
• 690 cases of cookies
• 16,002 assorted cakes and pies
• 6,564 pounds of marshmallows
• 3,743 gallons of juice
• 2,145 gallons of eggnog

“Our warfighters spend a lot of holidays away from their families and miss out on some of their favorite family traditions,” she said. “We take great pride in ensuring a taste of home is delivered to every warfighter,” said Robin Whaley, who leads a DLA Troop Support Subsistence team in Philadelphia.

http://www.breitbart.com/national-security/2017/12/22/hundreds-thousands-turkey-ham-shrimp-headed-troops-christmas/

Trump awards the Purple Heart to soldier, 25, who was injured in an IED blast in Afghanistan during Walter Reed visit after wishing wounded warriors Merry Christmas

President Donald Trump stopped by Walter Reed on Thursday afternoon to spread Christmas cheer to wounded troops.  While there he awarded the Purple Heart to 1st Lt Victor E. Prato.

Trump conversed and took selfies with several recovering service members. In brief remarks to reporters, Trump said he wanted to ‘to say hello to some of the bravest people anywhere in the world’ and wish them Merry Christmas.

WHAT A DIFFERENCE FROM OBAMA’S “YOU GUYS MAKE A GREAT PHOTO OP.”

[CtH: Seeing this guy in a neck brace and maybe unable to move … it makes me furious all over again the way that John Kerry manipulated the system to get himself Purple Heart medals for tiny scratches. ::simmer::]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5203689/Trump-wishes-wounded-troops-Merry-Christmas-Walter-Reed.html#ixzz521fG03KZ

While Most of DC Slept, Sec. Zinke Wandered A Frozen Arlington Cemetery With A Christmas Wreath

Thousands of people lined up at the gates of Arlington Cemetery before dawn Saturday morning. It was a bitterly cold. The temperature was far below freezing. There was snow on the ground. None of it dampened the spirits of those who looked forward to laying a wreath on a gleaming white headstone of an American hero.

Upon entering, the family members line up behind a semi trucks full of wreaths.

http://dailycaller.com/2017/12/16/while-dc-slept-sec-zinke-stood-in-the-freezing-cold-to-lay-a-wreath-on-the-grave-of-a-friend/

Wreaths Across America At Arlington National Cemetery Attracts Thousands

[CtH: Daddy Buzz’s best battle buddy is buried here. I hope he got one!]
http://dailycaller.com/2017/12/16/wreaths-across-america-at-arlington-national-cemetery-attracts-thousands/?utm_source=site-share

Watch the Guys From Black Rifle Coffee Play Christmas Songs With Guns

SOME HIGH VELOCITY CHRISTMAS TUNES

The small-batch, roast-to-order, veteran-owned coffee company is known for making fun videos of themselves shooting and blowing stuff up, but they just may have out done themselves with this one.

The video opens with the men, wearing Christmas sweaters of course (one of which features Sasquatch in a bikini), playing Jingle Bells by shooting at the musical plinking target. There are also appearances from Santa and a man dressed as Ralphie from the Christmas Story — complete with pink bunny suit.

[CtH: Thanks for this one, Pete!  My offspring are going to get such a kick out of it.]

Watch the Guys From Black Rifle Coffee Play Christmas Songs With Guns

Military Dad Surprises Girls After They Ask Santa for Christmas Homecoming

Delingpole: Christmas Is Here, Everyone! EPA Officials Are ‘Leaving in Droves’

More than 700 people have left the Environmental Protection Agency since President Trump took office, a wave of departures that puts the administration nearly a quarter of the way toward its goal of shrinking the agency to levels last seen during the Reagan administration.  What marvellous news to ease us all into the festive Christmas spirit, eh readers?

http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2017/12/22/delingpole-christmas-is-here-everyone-epa-officials-are-leaving-in-droves/

Pope Francis: If You Take Away Jesus, Christmas Is ‘Empty’
Addressing a group of children who came to the Vatican on Sunday for the blessing of the figures of Jesus for their Nativity scenes, the Pope told them that only a Christ-centered celebration is the “real Christmas.”

After his Angelus prayer on Sunday, the pontiff thanked the children for their “joyful presence” in Saint Peter’s Square, and invited them to pray at home in front of the manger scene with their families, allowing themselves to be attracted “by the tenderness of Jesus child, born poor and fragile among us, to give us his love.”

http://www.breitbart.com/national-security/2017/12/19/pope-francis-if-you-take-away-jesus-christmas-is-empty/

Romans decry “mangy”, city’s threadbare Christmas tree, as symbol of decline

Romans are up in arms over the tree that has been dubbed “Spelacchio.”  Roughly translated as mangy or baldy, the name given to the tree in the capital’s Piazza Venezia has become a symbol of what many see as the eternal city’s eternal decay.

“It’s a disgrace. It hurts even to look at this Christmas tree,” one Roman resident told Reuters Television, using an Italian term suggesting that it looked like a plucked chicken.

[CtH: Sickening!]

https://www.yahoo.com/news/romans-decry-mangy-citys-threadbare-christmas-tree-symbol-163602918.html

What a trashy decoration! Couple buys an ‘ugly misfit’ Christmas tree and then transforms it into Sesame Street’s Oscar the Grouch – complete with its own garbage can and festive lights

Featuring a trash can stand and Oscar’s pet worm, Slimey, the picture of the tree has since gone viral. The couple also opted for an alternative tree in 2015, transforming their fir into a creation named, ‘Rudog the Reintree’.

[CtH: Sad to say, these “mangy” trees are a whole lot nicer than what Rome put up!]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-5194969/Couple-turn-Christmas-tree-Oscar-Grouch.html

THIS MOVIE WAS FILMED IN WINNETKA, ILLINOIS, WHICH HAS THE HIGHEST MEDIAN INCOME IN THE STATE. LIVING HERE AIN’T CHEAP

Pope Francis: Wrong Again

On October 11, 2017, Pope Francis said the Catechism of the Catholic Church should be revised to reflect his opinion that capital punishment is contrary to the Gospel.

He’s wrong. The teaching of the Church on the permissibly of capital punishment has stood for 20 centuries and it’s taken from Divine Revelation, which means it is infallible, and not subject to change, not even by a pope.

Read about it here:

Pope Francis Is Wrong about the Death Penalty. Here’s Why.

NARAL quotes the pope? BWAHAHA!

The pope ALSO says abortion is murder. Ahem.

I don’t know if Pope Francis actually said that rescinding DACA was not pro-life. But even if he did, it has no bearing whatsoever on the FACTS that:

(a) Obama overstepped his authority in ordering it in the first place, and
(b) Trump was on solid constitutional grounds in rescinding it and telling Congress to pass it properly if they care so much.

Nobody ever said the pontiff from Argentina knew diddly squat about our form of government.

Source:

• https://twitchy.com/dougp-3137/2017/09/11/doh-naral-sets-hypocrisy-trap-for-trump-then-stumbles-right-into-it/

Some things belong to Caesar

Stephen P. White writes at the Washington Examiner:

Jesus instructed the Pharisees: “Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.”

This is often taken as a warning to rulers who would usurp the things of God and to Christians who would worship political idols.

But it’s also an important reminder that politics deserves its proper autonomy; some things do in fact belong to Caesar.

So, while I applaud the insistence that our faith should inform our politics, none of us should expect the teachings of the faith to do the work of politics for us. The Beatitudes aren’t policy prescriptions.

http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/as-trump-meets-the-pope-trumps-detractors-are-still-failing-to-persuade-his-catholic-voters-away-from-him/article/2624079

FLOTUS is a Roman Catholic

I did not know this!

A spokeswoman for the first lady said Mrs. Trump’s decision to wear a black lace veil known as a mantilla followed Vatican protocol that women who have an audience with the pope must wear long sleeves, formal black clothing and a veil to cover their head.

In fact, every woman in the U.S. delegation wore a veil, including Ivanka Trump, the president’s daughter who converted to Judaism before marriage.

The Vatican’s rules of attire are not strictly enforced. Many women, including high-ranking dignitaries, have visited the pontiff with their heads uncovered, including German Chancellor Angela Merkel in 2015 and Aung San Suu Kyi, Myanmar’s top civilian leader, this month.

But many women wear veils out of respect. Mrs. Trump is Catholic, which likely made accompanying President Donald Trump for a meeting with the leader of the world’s more than 1 billion Roman Catholics all the more meaningful to her.

When a Vatican official handed her a rosary, the first lady immediately gave it to the pope to bless. She also spent time in front of a statue of the Madonna at the Vatican’s children’s hospital and laid flowers at its feet. She also prayed in the hospital chapel and spoke with the children in Italian.

When former first ladies Truman, Kennedy, Nixon, Reagan, Clinton, Bush, and Obama visited the pontiff, they likewise respected the Vatican’s request that they wear long sleeves, formal black clothing and a veil.

It has been noted that Mrs. Trump did not wear a hijab or headscarf in Saudi Arabia.  The government did not request that she do so.

In Israel, President Trump donned a yarmulke when he visited the Western Wall, where it is customary, and again at Yad Vashem, Israel’s Holocaust memorial, where it is not required. Trump likely did it out of respect.

Sources:

• http://ksn.com/2017/05/24/why-melania-trump-covers-her-head-one-day-but-not-the-next/
• http://eastwingrules.blogspot.com/2009/07/first-ladies-meeting-pope.html?m=1

El Presidente et Il Papa

‘I won’t forget what you said!’ Trump tells Pope after Francis urges him to be an ‘olive tree for peace’ at Vatican meeting – where he jokes with Melania about what she feeds the president
Trump was greeted by the Vatican secretary of state and whisked up an elevator to meet His Holiness in the ‘little throne room’
He and Pope Francis posed for photos and sat across a desk in the private Papal study
‘Thank you very much. This is such a great honor,’ Trump said as he and Francis began their chat in the Pontiff’s private study
Later he greeting Melania Trump, who wore a traditional black veil, and asked her in Italian: ‘What do you give him to eat?’

Trump brought Francis a set of first-edition books by Martin Luther King Jr.; the Pope gave him a large medal in the shape of an olive tree – a peace emblem

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4536468/This-great-honor-Trump-meets-Pope.html#ixzz4i1QQ1Ro8

Melania and Ivanka Trump Wore Veils to Meet the Pope

“Per Vatican protocol, women who have an audience with the Pope are required to wear long sleeves, formal black clothing, and a veil to cover the head,” Stephanie Grisham, spokesperson for the first lady, said in a statement to CNN.

http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/melania-and-ivanka-trump-wore-veils-to-meet-the-pope/ar-BBBu33k?li=BBnb7Kz&ocid=UE12DHP

COMPARE THE DIFFERENCE HOW THE TWO FIRST LADIES SHOW RESPECT:

Pope Francis Looking Super Sad With The Trumps Is A Divine New Meme

Trump’s differences in opinion with the pontiff over issues such as immigration and climate change are well documented. But it would be unfair to say the pope looked completely forlorn throughout the president’s visit.

Reuters news agency noted how he “smiled faintly” as he greeted Trump, but also pointed out that the pontiff was “not as gregarious as he sometimes is with visiting heads of state.”

Fake News

Unrestricted Immigration: It’s not a Catholic thing

The Roman Catholic Church has a longstanding teaching, drawn from natural law, that the nation is an extension of the human family.

As the father of a family has not only the right but also the duty to protect those in his charge, the properly constituted authorities of a state have a duty to use their power to advance the common good of the nation.

“Political authorities, for the sake of the common good for which they are responsible, may make the exercise of the right to immigrate subject to various juridical conditions, especially with regard to the immigrants’ duties toward their country of adoption. Immigrants are obliged to respect with gratitude the material and spiritual heritage of the country that receives them, to obey its laws, and to assist in carrying civic burdens — The Catechism of the Catholic Church #2241

The mistaken idea that the RCC supports unrestricted immigration stems from its teaching on the personal right of migration.  This teaching says that someone in straitened circumstances should be allowed to leave his country of origin, bringing with him those under his care.  However, it does not include the unlimited right of migrants to settle wherever they wish.

“The more prosperous nations are obliged, to the extent they are able, to welcome the foreigner in search of the security and the means of livelihood which he cannot find in his country of origin.” — The Catechism of the Catholic Church #2241 BOLD added

The key phrase is “to the extent they are able.”  The authorities of the receiving country have a primary duty to act in the common good of their own citizens, because each country, as Pope Francis said, has the “right to control its borders.”

Source:

• https://www.catholic.com/magazine/online-edition/a-nation-has-a-right-to-control-its-borders

Pope Francis, the Fed Ex guy

If you’ve heard anything about the current controversy in the Catholic Church, I encourage you to carefully read this article.  It explains what the controversy is about and discusses the limits on the pope’s authority.

“The pope is not an oracle, not a second Jesus, not the Supreme Court rewriting the Constitution as it goes along. He’s like a Fedex guy, and it’s his job to pass on a package. He’s not empowered to open it, rifle through the contents, and replace them with something ‘better’.”

https://www.lifesitenews.com/opinion/an-faq-on-the-popes-authority-for-baffled-catholics-and-softly-snickering-p

Please stop trash talking my peeps

Yesterday, I saw a snotty comment on a Tea Party site about how Pope Francis allegedly heads an organization that does nothing more than molest children and teach people to talk to imaginary friends.

I dunno if the poster was a Christian or not, but it hardly seems to matter.  I’ve seen the same trash spewed by people who are devout followers of Jesus Christ, people who I am fairly certain believe in Jesus’ teachings about charity and truth telling.

I’m also fairly certain that such people know that the Left hates Christians and that their politicians, journalists and educators lie about us a lot.  So, when it comes to climate or fracking or any of a host of other hot button issues, they are rightfully skeptical.

But when it comes to trash talked about me and my fellow Catholic Christians, many Bible Thumpers seem to just open up their gullible mouths and swallow whole.

• FACT: The incidence of molestation of children by men in the U.S. is between 1% and 5%.  The incidence of priest molestation is .1%.  Not one percent.  POINT one percent.  Children are safer with priests than with teachers, coaches, or dads BY AN ORDER OF MAGNITUDE.
• FACT: The Inquisition didn’t kill millions.  For one thing, there were not millions to kill.  Southern Europe didn’t have that many people in it at that time.  Best historical estimates put the number of executions in the low thousands and these were spread out over several centuries.  Shall we talk about how many people Protestants and Muslims have executed out of religious zeal?

I could go on, but there are loads of books and websites that debunk anti-Catholic lies.

If you’re one of these people who loves Jesus, but thinks Catholics are eeeeeeeeeeeeeevil … do yourself a favor.  Not me, YOU.  Because Jesus is going to judge you on this stuff.

Do some research!  Read something that Catholics have written about what Catholics believe.  Please.

A couple of good sites are Catholic dot com, EWTN dot com, and the Catechism of the Catholic Church, which is online, searchable and free @ ccc.usccb.org/flipbooks/catechism/index.html.

Sources:

• lifesitenews.com/news/forgotten-study-abuse-in-school-100-times-worse-than-by-priests
• yellodyno.com/html/child_molester_stats.html
• catholic.com/tracts/the-inquisition