Given The Rest Of The World, The United States Is Indeed THE Exceptional Example Of What A Nation Should Be

Pardon the long title, but it speaks for itself and the nation, my nation, and the nation of 300 million other United States citizens. It certainly does a much better job of speaking for this nation than most of the 1,094 words used by Neal Gabler in his pitiable column "One Nation Under Illusion," which ran in today's Boston Globe. Gabler, who's also the author of "Walt Disney: Triumph of the American Imagination," found a very convenient parking spot for this column, the Globe as opposed to the Orlando Sentinel.

And no, I'm not bothering to link his book. He can sell his own damn books by himself. Moreover, as a former Walt DisneyWorld Cast Member, I'd be damned if I'd give him my usual link(s) to either Barnes & Noble and/or Amazon, especially after reading today's screed.

Gabler does a masterful job of dragging up all the statistical data showing where we fall behind some other patch of global real estate when it comes to this, that and who-knows-what-else. It's all in the column.

So?

We're not perfect; but a nation doesn't have to be perfect in order for it to still be the greatest nation on earth.

If Gabler, the Left, and the nation's other Perpetual Sisters of Pity-Poor-Us-Forever-Unredeemable-Americans -- especially those whose Convent-Towns bear names like Amherst, Berkeley, Cambridge, Ann Arbor, Coral Gables and so forth -- have the guts to bone up to it, even they could possibly come to their senses and see the same light so many of our newly arrived immigrants, both legal and "undocumented," have seen for years.

It's hard to see the lights of anything when your heads are either too high above the clouds due to your own classicist arrogance fed by inhaling too much laughing gas emitted from intellectual snobs; or worse, never lifting your heads out of the trough of public monies that've been delivered by the bucketloaders in Congress ever anxious to appease their pals in academia.

This is a particular specialty of northern liberal pols. They've mastered this art like no one else on Capitol Hill and in state capitols across the fruited plains of grants all fertilized by taxpayers in every rank but the wealthy who keep bankrolling the same old manure distributors, one election after another.

Notwithstanding what this world, sorry as it is, and has been in many places and times between 1945 and the present, is there any body left in the more liberal ranks of the 4th estate and the kind of company Gabler keeps who ... if given even more than even a moment or two could riddle through this gem of "comparative analysis?"

"Even when one considers anecdotal evidence - “If this isn’t the greatest country then why do so many people want to come here?’’ - the case isn’t particularly persuasive. Mexicans cross the border to the United States for economic opportunity. Turks go to Germany, Indians and Pakistanis to Great Britain, Arabs to France. This isn’t a sign of our special greatness, just a sign that desperate people seek a more powerful economy for their betterment."

"The point of all this isn’t that America doesn’t have a lot to be proud of. It does. The point is that just about every country has a lot to be proud of, and America has no more right to assume it is the greatest nation in the world than does France, Switzerland, China, or Russia."
(Color and italicized emphasis, mine./sb)

Turks also come to the U.S., and Germans come to live here, too.

Indians love coming here; so do the Pakistanis, and both are doing quite well. The British aren't exactly enamored with Gordon Brown's brownout of their once scepter'd isle.

Arabs come here as well and they have for decades. (But for those who don't, they've got to be desperate as hell to even consider moving to France!)

Why, to read Gabler's piece, you'd think the only people coming here are "wetbacks" and Haitians. American liberals don't put it this way (for public consumption) -- but when you scratch their ever-thinning veneer these days when it comes to how they assess their homeland, even the most self-professed "progressive-thinking" and "enlightened and socially conscious" people can be just like Archie Bunker in their own peculiar way. Like Gabler, they'll never condescend so far as to say we have nothing to be proud of. They just have a hard time ... admitting it, without a cough or sputter.

What a splendid display of hubris on his own part to say the United States is no greater than "France, Switzerland, China, or Russia." However deeply scarlet be our sins, I dare say we still have a lot of ground to give in order for any of those nations to match us in terms of greatness.

Let's see: How great were the French shortly before WWII broke out, when they, along with the British Empire, had the chance to end Hitler's pieceful dreams of German exceptionalism when it came to respecting the rights of other nations to exist? How great were the Swiss when it came to their footdragging on the matter of recompensation and restoration of property claims filed by Jews who were ripped off the same German government which deposited all their loot in Swiss banks? Were the Swiss outraged at such end-runs pulled by their Nazi neighbors. Nein! They kept their mouths shut and consciences locked in safety deposit boxes.

China and Russia are "great" nations indeed; great for the size and wide scope of their waves of oppression. But don't bring up the Native Americans or African Americans. Comparing apples to oranges and both fruits to potatoes won't do justice to anyone. Nor will it do to bring up the Japanese internment camps during WWII.

Go ahead and see if our sins can be compared to those of Stalin's and Mao's: the two single greatest mass murderers in history. Horrible as he was, Hitler was way behind what Stalin and Mao put up in numbers when it came to killing people wholesale. Don't forget Pol Pot, whom all the eggheads in the many academic theme parks across the country, said was "liberating" Cambodia and "wouldn't start a blood bath."

No, no. Watch what happens when American pro-abortion liberals hear Pro-Lifers criticize the legacy of U.S. Court Harry Blackmun, the late author of the majority decision allowing legal abortion in 1973. Expressions become awfully tense. Fifty million dead innocent children weren't even sacrificed on the altar of "revolutionary social justice," but good old convenience and a terribly court-construed reinvention of privacy. That part of history gets an automatic pass when it comes to liberals handing out exceptions.

This old Watercraft dock hand for Walt's world also has experience working in Academialand; where Alice's Wonderland seems relatively normal. Might I also add, the world the United States stands out quite exceptionally should inspire Disney's Imagineers to come up with a new ride: "The U.S. & The Rest." Why, there could even be an audioanimatronic Muammar Khaddafi and Hugo Chavez giving their famous "addresses" at the UN; Gordon Brown speaking at Normandy last Summer, referring to Omaha Beach as "Obama Beach," and that little man wearing the khaki golf jacket from Iran. He could be matched with the leisure-suited "Dear Leader" from North Korea, and placed right between them is a mock A-bomb that neither fruitcake says their nations are building.

After coming out of that "ride" or exhibit, even the least educated Disney's guests wouldn't need a Ph.D in diplomatic studies to understand why American Exceptionalism has a far more valid claim than whatever its detractors can lob against it ... which is usually at best, the mud taken from a Third World "patch of paradise."

The Not-So-Nobel "Peace Prize" Goes To .... Barack Obama? LAUGH OUT LOUD!

There's nothing so jarring as having your radio alarm go off at 5:15 a.m. only seconds later to hear that the most inexperienced and undeserving nominee for the Nobel Peace Prize, Barack H. Obama, won the Nobel Peace Prize.

Take cheer, I thought, the pointy-heads in Norway will soon start "hearing it." And have they ever ... deservedly so, too.

One such commentator, Aaron David Miller had this to say in a column for CNN:

The award says more about the world's love affair with Barack Obama and its collective sigh of relief that George W. Bush is gone than it does about the president's substantive foreign policy accomplishments. And in the end, America doesn't want to be loved by the world; we want to be admired and respected, and that will depend not on celebrity, process or celebration that the Democrats are back in office, but on real foreign policy accomplishments. (Color emphasis, bold face and italics, mine./sb)

Oh, to hell with the joke of the so-called "Peace Prize," and especially to hell with Europe's viscerally snobbish leftist intelligentsia, especially if they happen to be Norwegians.

Miguel Diaz Might As Well Have Been Obama's Best Pick For The Vatican Post: He Honors His Boss More Than His Lord

I was wrong about our new emissary to the Pope, excuse me...Holy See. Miguel Diaz, Ph.D. is perhaps just the perfect man to represent the Obama Administration, which has already gone out of its way to snub the Vatican, loyal (to the Church, first) Catholics and even moderately conservative non-Catholic Christians in more ways than I'd care to think of, much less take the effort to put them in writing again, and again, and again, ad nauseum, very nauseum!

A while back, I shared that Diaz, along with his fellow heel-clicker Douglas Kmiec, Amb. to Malta, had more or less taken a Fuhrer Oath in order to become part of the Obama campaign's inner circle of influentials when it came to "faith matters." Go ahead, it's okay to give a good sigh. You'll be doing more of that after reading some of his remarks given the other day to the Italian press.

In a story filed by Francis X. Rocca for Religion News Service, the newly minted ambassador let it be known under no uncertain terms that he was there to put Caesar before God. Oh yes, I understand he has a job to do, but when it comes to the push and shove of his moral obligations to his truly highest pay-grade, God, he dropped the ball at the one yard line only to see the fumble picked up for a 99-yd touchdown return.

In Diaz' worldview and that of his temporal boss' ... President Obama, "God and Country" are co-equals and make for a nice motto on patriotic-looking artwork, symbols, etc. In the Obamasphere of today's Washington and Rome's Janiculum Hill, where Diaz' digs are located, "God and Country" is a nice statement and no more.

'Tis a far cry from the sentiments of St. Thomas More who willingly gave up his life because he wouldn't even allow his closest friend, King Henry VIII pull an Obama over God in his time.

Addressing the scribes in Italian, our multilingual ambassador wowed 'em with this wonkish nugget of wisdom:

"The points where we have coordination today between this president and the Holy See are more than just one ... We have the possibility of collaboration on so many points."

The reporters couldn't be blamed if they mistook him for one of the more drollish European Union stuffed shirts who feel more at home using so much gobbledygood to say zilch. And of course, he had to rely on an old half of an Obamaesque attempt at "good cop/bad cop" rhetoric:

"In any international relationship between two states, it's normal to have differences," he said, quoting Obama's statement that it is possible to "disagree without being disagreeable."

Wait'll the Vatican gets a call one day from Dr. Diaz saying "... The President's not happy and is ready to call some people in the Vatican and Catholic hiearchy in the U.S. out." Let's see how far he gets with that South Side Chicago lingo in Rome. As if the men and women who've run that tiny state and stood up to Bonaparte, Garibaldi, Mussolini, Hitler, Stalin and now the most anti-Catholic administration in the White House are going to be shaking because of Obama?

Shaking with laughter.

Obama forgets that this Pope escaped from one of the most visciously pro-Nazi Austrian units he was assigned to late in the war. Escaping meant an instant death sentence, and Benedict, then a teenaged Joseph Ratzinger was willing to risk it all than to put "his fuhrer over God" and commonsense. (If the heel-clickers in this administration haven't gotten this down yet, they will eventually.)

Apparently Dr. Diaz knows he's in over his head, despite all his academic honors, etc., earned mostly through very liberal theology departments beginning with our co-alma mater St. Thomas University's (Miami, FL). He has to know he's no match for this Pope and the Magisterium if they have any substantive theological discussion on the real tough issues, beginning with abortion and his slavish devotion to duty on behalf of this very pro -abortion administration. After all, how does a man who claims to be a loyal devout Catholic square this; especially during a conversation with the Holy Father. Nice try.

So, what did the ambassador do when asked about the prospects of him having any such discussions? He fell back on his and his boss' (misinterpretation of "God and Country," or rather "Caesar and God" typifiying the Obama Weltausschung (world view.)

"As ambassador of the United States, I'm not here primarily to be having theological conversations with the Holy Father ... I'm here to represent my president, my people, my country in the effort to build diplomacy."

In other words, "I'm only following orders."

Jimmy Carter's Much Better At Using A Hammer Than He Ever Was With Using His Mouth

In all the years since I volunteered for the Carter Re-Election Campaign in Florida while living in Central Florida (1979-80), the title I just picked for this post would've probably been the last I could've imagined myself thinking, much less putting into print.

Jimmy Carter's done wonders using a hammer and other tools for Habitat for Humanity since he started volunteering for the organization not long after his forced early retirement, gratis of Ronald Reagan and a very disappointed American electorate in November, 1980. Even though I had my doubts, I always wanted to cut him some slack. My views were more to the left of what they are now. Peg that to age, or simply distancing myself far enough to make a better judgment of his term in office.

It was pretty sad now that I look back. Let me correct that: it was very sad, lackluster, and a cave in to so many things he stood against when he first ran for office.

It's said that Carter grew in stature after he left office, thanks to his, and his wife Roslyn's work with Habitat, their center for peace studies, resolving world hot-spots -- whatever -- and her efforts to combat mental illness. All laudable endeavors; well, on her part, anyway.

There wasn't a Red dictator or character out of a central casting list for banana republic thugs he couldn't wait to appease. That's all that needs to be said for his "peace efforts." And of course, who can forget his over-all-imaginable-peaks-for-TOPS-shameless-campaign-to-obtain-the-Nobel-Peace-Prize through his public efforts to undermine and publicly embarrass one of his successors on the eve of our going to war (with Iraq) in 2003.

There were many good patriotic Americans who opposed the war for a variety of reasons; but look at who went out of his way to demonstrate he could speak on their behalf, as well as the world's (as if he had any right to claim any of our war's opponents' and the world's

So, he got his prize. Aren't you impressed? To this writer, it rates down there with the "scrap of paper" Neville Chamberlain waved on his return from Germany to proclaim he'd secured "peace in our time" with Hitler. It's also down there with Henry Kissinger's "Peace With Honor" scrap of paper he signed with North Vietnam in 1973. And it's really in the sewers with Al Gore's inconvenient myths about global warming that'll prove far more inconvenient in years to come when we're paying the bill that real polluters like India and China in the real world aren't willing to sign on to. (And who can blame them since they have a lot more mouths to feed?)

So now Carter decides he's going to play Grampa Jimmy and give us miscreant children, especially the white ones, lessons on how to behave in a more racially mixed world. He's taken the stage on NBC lately to lecture the nation he once led, about our supposed inability to accept the fact that an African American is in charge now. This of course, implies another irritant for us to remember Grampa Jimmy for. Does he think we're that memory-challenged that we don't remember whom so many voted for last year? Barack Obama didn't just garner minority votes; he garnered votes from all races, both genders and swamped the McCain Palin ticket.

When did a rising tide of opposition to a presisdent's proposed piece of very expensive and still confusing legislation morph itself into a racial issue whereas it wasn't before except in the minds of only a relatively small portion of the opposition? It morphed when Carter opened his mouth earlier this week to blame much of the President's political bumps on white racism.

Nice going, Mr. Carter. Even the man you're trying to help, our first African-American President is putting some necessary added space between you two on this. This certainly says a lot more for his character than your judgment.

Where was this ever-so-concerned-hand-wringing-Grampa Jimmy on racial matters when Boston was torn apart by real raw and palpable racial tensions & acts that occured during the first two years of his presidency while was still working in the U.S. District Ct. Clerk's Office in Boston?

'Tis The September Season Of Sorrows: (Or Is Somebody Putting Kool Aid In The Tea Bags?)

I guess some day in the future, and I hope I'm wrong, little girls stop inviting adults to their "tea parties." Right now, it's probably not too far a stretch to suggest that there's something funny in the tea being served up at these Glenn Beck-inspired (or conspired) "tea parties" designed to voice the angst of the "working stiffs" that are tired of the Obama Administration's programs. The term "working stiffs" directly from the movement's national mini-fuhrer, Mark Williams who was interviewed by CNN's Anderson Cooper. In addition to Williams, he was joined by James Carville, who along with Paul Begala, organized Bill Clinton's successful run against Pres. George H.W. Bush back in 1992. In addition to Carville, Williams also joined by David Gergen, who served Presidents Reagan and Clinton.



Go to Google.com and type in "Mark Williams, tea party." You'll not only find Williams' website, but a lot of other sites, or to be more accurate, cites, about his big moment on the boob tube last night. A lot of the cites ran the same story line about Cooper "destroying" Williams.

I'm sure Cooper probably doesn't mind picking up a win, or a save here and there, but Williams loaded his own bases and proceeded to wild pitch all the runners home. If anybody was a boob on the tube last night, it was Williams and ... well, review that video clip again. Then ask yourself, if you think somebody would want to pay him to represent "XYZ Movement," especially after millions had just witnessed James Carville, smack dab in the middle of the screen just grinnin' and laughin' to his heart's content.


Here's my suggestion to Williams:

You forfeited your right to represent any sizeable group of American voters after embarrassing their cause with your own brand of asinine racist attacks on the President, and of course calling the American taxpayers "working stiffs."


'Tis the September season of sorrows, so Mark Williams, take your place in line. My, my, what company you're keeping, Kanye West and Rep. Joe Williams, (R-SC)?

Mercy!

But don't expect it from Carville; he's still probably too busy laughing!

Ancient Past Wisdom & A New Approach To Help Us Deal WIth Today's Heartaches

Today's Theme: A Psalm quoted from the 1662 Book of Common Prayer, (Church of England) [Online version -- see below.]

I originally planned to have posted this yesterday on the 8th anniversary of Osama bin Ladin's crime of mass murder perpetrated not only against the United States of America, but the entire world as well considering the hundreds of victims representing many other nationalities among the nearly 3,000 killed at the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and the Flight 93 crash site in western Pennsylvania.

We don't mourn one day, put it past us and walk on as if nothing happened. That's simply impossible for human beings. What about that saying "With God all things are possible?" That's true, if we attempt or long for things we know in our hearts God would truly approve of. For that you need to ponder on your Tradition, Scriptures, and other sources of God's word through sermons, religious writings, publications that promote love, respect for others, harmony, etc. I don't know or even desire to pretend to know where every person who glances at this blog now and then, is coming from. So, that's why I've chosen to write the widest possible "invitational" preface possible.

There are things most of us can agree upon that are good, and things that are harmful, vile and abhorrent to humanity. What transpired 8 years ago reflected all of the above in the latter sentence. What came out of the trauma, also reflected the former sentence, too. And it's this we have to be thankful to Him for.

How do we demonstrate that gratitude? The ways are too numerous for me to list in this or any posting.

We start, however, by taking a single "baby step," if need be. Remember, no matter how wise we fashion ourselves, no matter how "educated," or no matter how many candles we get to blow out every year ... and be grateful to Him for every candle ... we can never be so clever as to fool ourselves into thinking we've thought of everything possible we can do and no more.

Take cheer, He knows we can only do so much in a given day, but He also knows of and gives us what we need to keep at it the following day and the rest to come.

But will He?

See for yourself! What would it hurt you to try?

What good would you like to accomplish that you haven't done yet, or feel you haven't done often enough of lately? Just as I writing these sentences alone, a rush of thoughts came to mind as to the many ways even those nagging "reminders" might've been phrased to get me going, or you, or somebody you know of who could use a positive push.

Nagging, a human trait thought to have positive qualities at times, can only go so far before whatever good we know we should be doing becomes an object of derision, or worse. even ourselves. How often in our lives have we seen what one person considers "constructive nagging" -- even to one's self, lead right to procrastination.

Is there a "solution:" Yes, and it's right within every one of us with an open mind, warming heart and conscious soul. So often it rightly seems we have to want to do it for God before we want to even do it for ourselves.

Please first read Psalm 94 as I've copied it in its ancient original wording. How un-contemporary! Yes, but, Whose Word am I quoting? And if we're going to hear what He has to say about how what happened 8 years ago yesterday as I'm writing this now at 9:30 a.m. -- and how best to address the continuing emotional challenges it presents -- perhaps it wouldn't hurt us a little to stretch and accept some ancient formality, or "gravitas" to meet them.

After you've read the Psalm in both ancient, and/or if need be, in contemporary wording, just take out a short piece of paper and start jotting down the good things you'd like to accomplish for others in a way that also brings satisfaction to yourself. It's not selfish to initially think this way in the beginning so long as your primary goal is to bring joy to others.

During the past year I've delivered some pretty scathing criticisms at President Obama. Yet, his call for service was one of the best one's he's made since taking office. Given the turmoil of the past month-and-a-half over health care reform, etc., perhaps just doing something different, putting our minds to doing something for a special person, a church or local civic club, whatever it is ... even pet sitting for your neighbors or visiting an elderly shut-in ... believe me, you won't be rehashing what you've heard on the airwaves. And it'll pick you up as much as it's helping the person(s) before you.

Let God take the sting of defeat, and let Him take the burden of vengeance and repayment of our broken hearts and troubled minds; be it the crimes of bin Laden or something else that's traumatized you in life. Your Divinely buoyed spirit and gifts of love will crush the likes of him and the Evil One who inspired him far greater than you can ever imagine.

God will always have the ultimate and final say.
　
Psalm 94. Deus ultionum

LORD God, to whom vengeance belongeth : thou God, to whom vengeance belongeth, shew thyself.
2. Arise, thou Judge of the world : and reward the proud after their deserving.
3. Lord, how long shall the ungodly : how long shall the ungodly triumph?
4. How long shall all wicked doers speak so disdainfully : and make such proud boasting?
5. They smite down thy people, O Lord : and trouble thine heritage.
6. They murder the widow and the stranger : and put the fatherless to death.
7. And yet they say, Tush, the Lord shall not see : neither shall the God of Jacob regard it.
8. Take heed, ye unwise among the people : O ye fools, when will ye understand?
9. He that planted the ear, shall he not hear : or he that made the eye, shall he not see?
10. Or he that nurtureth the heathen : it is he that teacheth man knowledge, shall not he punish?
11. The Lord knoweth the thoughts of man : that they are but vain.
12. Blessed is the man whom thou chastenest, O Lord : and teachest him in thy law;
13. That thou mayest give him patience in time of adversity : until the pit be digged up for the ungodly.
14. For the Lord will not fail his people : neither will he forsake his inheritance;
15. Until righteousness turn again unto judgement : all such as are true in heart shall follow it.
16. Who will rise up with me against the wicked : or who will take my part against the evil-doers?
17. If the Lord had not helped me : it had not failed but my soul had been put to silence.
18. But when I said, My foot hath slipt : thy mercy, O Lord, held me up.
19. In the multitude of the sorrows that I had in my heart : thy comforts have refreshed my soul.
20. Wilt thou have any thing to do with the stool of wickedness : which imagineth mischief as a law?
21. They gather them together against the soul of the righteous : and condemn the innocent blood.
22. But the Lord is my refuge : and my God is the strength of my confidence.
23. He shall recompense them their wickedness, and destroy them in their own malice : yea, the Lord our God shall destroy them.

(Red letter emphasis on verses dealing mostly with gratitude and inspiration, mine./sb)

Even King Solomon's Legendary Patience Would've Been Sorely Tested By This Kind Of Homeschooling

Good thing for Solomon that he didn't have to pull out his sword for this doozy of a post-marital spat between two ex's in New Hampshire over their daughter's religious formation insofar as to how it fits in with the ten year old's overall homeschooling curriculum. The mother, Brenda Voydatch has been ordered to stop homeschooling their daughter Amanda and place her in a local elementary school. To have read the majority of news reports filed already, you'd either be thinking New Hampshire's judiciary had granite for hearts or the much feared liberal establishment mainstaream media suddenly retired.

Oh, the poor dear, she'll be wrecked for life thanks to those heartless bastards for court officials up there. Well, thankfully at least one fairly conservative source published a story about this OneNewsNow which contained a passage indicating how the very strident evangelical Protestant flavor of curriculum Ms. Voydatch set up for Amanda has indeed "paid off" in a very big way Ms. Voydatch could not have imagined years ago when she started her daughter along this path towards both educational and spiritual hyper-righteousness.

Did I say parties? And did I mention "ex's"? Sure I did. No, I haven't forgotten the key figure here, but being a dad myself, life does have a way of making sure we kinda stay in the background until needed. (Then we'd damn well better be there, as in "Five Minutes Ago!")

Meet Mr. Kowarski, Martin Kowarski, whom, like his ex, Brenda, originally hailed from Massachusetts and headed up to Granite Country. Never a good move; never. People who leave this state thinking their problems will be left behind in the Peoples' Republik of Taxachusetts are in for a horrible shock. Not only do they have to practically kill themselves to afford the highest property taxes ... no sales, & no income taxes and no revenue save for lotto tix, dog races and toll booths, plus Federal funds which you and I pay to keep the place from crashing, on top of our taxes. "Live Free or Die" actually means "On your own" or "We rely on the other 49 to help us stay so cheap." So people go up there, and find out that it's not the extended lovely bedroom sprawling suburb of Boston after all. It's the land of dog-eat-dog-ism. So, I'll bet that might've played some havoc on the Kowarski's earlier state of marital bliss.

Somewhere along the line of life, the wheels came off and the family split. Now Amanda's living with her mom and step dad. And, from reading the defendant's (Voydatch) counter claim filed by Alliance Defense Fund's local NH lawyer, John A. Simmons, Kowarski was an inattendant and "dead-beat dad," had some bad blood with Amanda's step-dad and was really messing things up by trying to interfere with her spiritual formation by insisting that the girl attend public schools to broaden her mind. Wow, what a tough guy this Kowarski seems to be. Imagine that: wanting his daughter to have a more open education.

If you're familiar with the more hard-wired conservative brand of Evangelical Protestantism, you can well imagine how threatening Kowarski's ideas are. Good Heavens, exposure to other religious views besides "Bible Christianity" could lead to a liberalizing of Amanda's mind. Mm, mm. Who knows, it might even lead to more opportunities for her to start attending Catholic Masses with her flesh and blood Dad, Mr. Kowarski, whom I'm going out on a "safe" limb to presume is Catholic. I've met a few Polish Protestants before, but not a hell of a lot; especially up here in New England.

Catholicism is undoubtedly a more "flexible" faith to practice, notwithstanding all the tough nun, and Catholic guilt trip jokes. Within some Protestant circles, if you're not convinced one can only enter Heaven through personally knowing ... and I mean that they mean PERSONALLY KNOWING Jesus ... you're gonna end up as a crispy critter. It's that simple. No multiple chances through the Sacrament of Reconciliation and Purgatory. It's just your word of your committment to Jesus, your relationship to him and your dedication to fulfilling a Biblically Christian lifestyle. That in and of itself isn't necessarily a bad idea; Catholics wrote the Book and we believe in the infallible truths it teaches on matters of faith and morals. We just don't put it "UP THERE" like a Paper Pope. (At least we have a real living one, and he's the vicar of the Creator's Son. Big huge difference in authority here, and does that ever help!)

But with some of the more hard-wired and hyper evangelicals, it's a "Jesus and me, and that' all I need" proposition. If life was always that simple. What happens though, when a young girl's education is so interwoven with smothering (almost ideologically smothering) "faith" that's been practically jammed into this girl's head and she goes into automatic hyper-proselytism at the worse possible moment for her and her mother who's trying to keep h er out of the public sch ools and her ex out of her daughter's education and spiritual formation. Hey, this "awful" guy only wants to open his girl's mind some more? Ohh, bad, right?

After he filed his papers, the court had to step in because under NH law (and I presume in every other sensible state) when the two separated or divorced parents can't see eye-to-eye on some pretty important things, say, the child's all around education, or how the child will worship God, the state has to step in. Not to say which faith to follow, but how to work out a fair and equitable pattern that'll prevent future in-house crusades and gender jihads between warring ex's.

The government has no interest in the theological differences betwixt Rome and Geneva or Canterbury or even the local Freemason's Hall for that matter ... but it sure as hell has an interest in whether or not the children won't be living in a constant war zone.

But try telling that to the die-hard fundamentalists and overnight constitutional law experts who seize on every little l ine uttered by our nation's forefathers to ensure that we'd forever live in a "Christian Nation" that'd also be free of ANY governmental interference in our private lives, which includes how we pray. Sure.

It's only been since that old hag, Madalyn Murray O'Hair won her case in 1963 to get mandatory school prayer knocked out of public schools that the "professional doomsayers" have been proclaiming the DEFINITE AND SURE DEMISE OF OUR DOOM'D AND DAMN'D REPUBLIC OF ALL SORTS OF INIQUITIES TO HELL. (And to think sensible people get all lathered up over Jeremiah Wright. Ever listen to yahoos like John Hagee lately?

As a military dependent, I got to travel around the country and Europe. Spoiled rotten you might say. Go ahead and be my guest. But I'll never forget what a sharp difference it was between the expected morning prayers in the private setting of whatever Catholic parochial parish school my parents could afford to enroll me in -- as opposed to the Government MANDATED Protestant version of the Our Father everybody had to at least stand for and/or say (well, up to the " Thine is the Kingdom ..." part for us few Catholic kids anyway.) Talk about sticking out like the proverbial sore thumb time every morning. Catholic and Jewish kids learned real fast how few they were in numbers compared to the rest.

Oh, but who was out advocating for us? Even President Kennedy couldn't have stopped this very authoritative Pentagon approved King James Version of the Our Father. It took a Court, the Supreme Court to level the praying field. And in New Hampshire, if it takes a local court to level a parental praying field for this girl and so many other kids in her situation who are getting a very narrowed spiritual "rearin'" ... Thank God for the court systems we have. They're not perfect; but neither are we. After all, if we were, would we be needing the Clergy and Courts; Scripture, and Clerical and Secular Canons?

In the meantime, I'm praying for Mr. Kowarski to have more quality time with Amanda. Yes, he might've "blown it" in the past ... find me one dad or mom who hasn't shed a tear for every time he or she more time was spent with with their kids in and out of a church, synagogue or mosque.

I hope anti-Catholicism isn't the smoldering "real reason" behind this unnecessary family feud; but there's no way any sensible Christian can discount it; after all, it's been one of those unmentionables since this story broke.

Wonder why.

(This should be a wonderful "Fall Series Show" to watch.)