extreme Catholic 

5-year old censored by NY school will get his day in court : Catholic News Agency

5-year old Antonio Peck had no idea when he turned in his homework assignment--a poster about protecting the environment--that it would land him in federal court.

Peck, then a kindergarten student at Baldwinsville, NY’s Catherine McNamara Elementary School, originally turned in his poster-assignment to his teacher in 1999. It featured, among other things, a cut out picture of Jesus--something he reportedly thought applicable to the environment, and the assignment.

The teachers and school administrators want to do this is a stealth mode, concealing the intimidation of kindergarden kids and their parents.

In the United States today, obscenity is more tolerated than the name (or image) of Jesus in schools.

via National Review Corner

Baldwinsville NY is near Syracuse.

posted by Patrick Sweeney at 10:54 PM   Permalink  

Kellenberg just says no to senior prom culture : Newsday (October 10, 2005)

Why do many parents on Long Island sacrifice to send their children to parochial schools? The decision to cancel this year's senior prom at Kellenberg Memorial High School in Uniondale might provide a clue.

Among various reasons to choose parochial schools, an obvious factor is that these institutions offer something special - an education rooted in faith and traditional moral values.

In an important sense, such an education should be countercultural. It should reject both ever-expanding secularism pushing God to the sidelines and acceptance of an anything-goes-that-feels-good moral relativism. So perhaps it shouldn't have been surprising last month when Kellenberg, a Roman Catholic school, announced it would no longer sponsor a senior prom.

Brother Kenneth Hoagland, the principal at Kellenberg, told me: "We certainly would want to instill [in the students] a proper sense of values, and we felt that the prom culture was going in the opposite direction." He noted that this was not particular to Kellenberg, nor should it be viewed as punishing students.

At the risk of sounding like a prude, I think that certain "traditions" or "parties" have been given a Jekyll-Hyde transformation.

Around the time I turned 21 in the 1970's there was a high-water mark in the sexual revolution. The place that everyone was talking about was Plato's Retreat. Clubs like this were shut down not only for the drugs and prostiution but out of health concerns with the spread of AIDS.

Proms became the gateway drug to sexual anarchy.

It's a sad cultural indicator that's the outrage lasted only a day or two on the story of the Minnesota Vikings sex cruise, which included allegations of drugs, prostitution, and threats and solicitations made to women employees of these ships.

Shocked by the Vikings boat bash? Hardly : Pioneer Press

"We're not immune but desensitized to acts like this," said Doug Hartmann, an associate professor of sociology at the University of Minnesota who studies American culture.

Another social critic on the Vikings from OnMilwaukee

posted by Patrick Sweeney at 9:45 PM   Permalink  

Another tale of the religion of peace

Muslims clash with police outside Egyptian church; 1 dead, 90 wounded : AP

Demonstrators gather at a Coptic Christian church Friday to denounce a play deemed offensive to Islam.

AXALEXANDRIA, Egypt (AP) -- One person died and more than 90 were injured as thousands of Muslims rioted outside a Coptic Christian church Friday to denounce a play deemed offensive to Islam. Police responded by beating protesters and firing tear gas into the crowd, officials said.

Stories like this lead one to conclude that Islam isn't so much a way to worship God, but a way to channel violence. It's almost like a demonstration of how to gather and deploy a mob.

The 20th century's version of Islamic fanaticism nearly destroyed Egypt's Coptic Church. I doubt that this Church will see the end of the 21th century.

posted by Patrick Sweeney at 3:17 PM   Permalink  

Rush served up a version of his radio program on stage covering many of his personal stories: his early days at WABC his cochlear implant, and his trip to Afghanistan as well as covering the political issues of the day.

I sat next to a couple at the show who came down from Toronto and told them about his arrival in New York back in 1988.

posted by Patrick Sweeney at 10:22 PM   Permalink  

Memorial museum: Trade center steel, memories and "immersive" look at attacks : AP

Visitors to a Sept. 11 memorial museum could relive the 2001 terrorist attacks in an "immersive" area that surrounds them with pictures of the falling towers, the sounds of police sirens and the last words of some of the people who died at the World Trade Center.

This is sick. The parallel would be the immersive experience of drowning or being blown to bits on the U.S.S. Arizona in Pearl Harbor or being nuked in Hiroshima.

Just because we have the technology to recreate the experience doesn't mean that it should be done.

posted by Patrick Sweeney at 10:18 PM   Permalink