Sierra Faith

Philadelphia Archbishop Charles Chaput:

[N]o similarly aggressive attack on religious freedom in our country has occurred in recent memory.
The current administration prides itself on being measured and deliberate. The current HHS mandate needs to be understood as exactly that. Commentators are using words like “gaffe,” “ill conceived,” and “mistake” to describe the mandate. They’re wrong. It’s impossible to see this regulation as some happenstance policy. It has been too long in the making.

Despite all of its public apprehension about “culture warriors” on the political right in the past, the current administration has created an HHS mandate that is the embodiment of culture war. At its heart is a seemingly deep distrust of the formative role religious faith has on personal and social conduct, and a deep distaste for religion’s moral influence on public affairs. To say that this view is contrary to the Founders’ thinking and the record of American history would be an understatement.

Critics may characterize my words here as partisan or political. These are my personal views, and of course people are free to disagree. But it is this administration – not Catholic ministries, or institutions, or bishops – that chose the timing and nature of the fight. The onus is entirely on the White House, which also has the power to remove the issue from public conflict. Catholics should not be misled into accepting feeble compromises on issues of principle. The HHS mandate is bad law; and not merely bad, but dangerous and insulting. It needs to be withdrawn – now.

World War I veteran has died.

Well, at least we know what Penn State thinks of children.

It’s all just a big business.

More nonsense:

When the 7-year-olds told her they knew about the North Pole because of its white-bearded inhabitant, she reportedly responded that Santa did not exist and that Christmas presents were bought by their parents.

Gotta love this retort:

Some teachers seem to overestimate their exact place in the childrearing chain of command.

Nice.

My wife has the iPhone 4S and loves the 8MP camera and 1080p video capabilities — high definition in your hand. Who would have imagined that just a few years ago?

And, Siri is a hit as well — that is the dark horse. Folks wanted iPhone 5 without knowing what that meant.

What they got was better: iPhone 4S[iri].

Indeed:

Read this:

Gibbs said she had no problem going through security at Jacksonville International Airport, but rather, when she headed home from Virginia.

“It’s my style, it’s camouflage, it has an old western gun on it,” Gibbs said.

But her preference for the pistol style didn’t sit well with TSA agents at the Norfolk airport.

Gibbs said she was headed back home to Jacksonville from a holiday trip when an agent flagged her purse as a security risk.

“She was like, ‘This is a federal offense because it’s in the shape of a gun,’” Gibbs said. “I’m like, ‘But it’s a design on a purse. How is it a federal offense?’”

After agents figured out the gun was a fake, Gibbs said, TSA told her to check the bag or turn it over.

By the time security wrapped up the inspection, the pregnant teen missed her flight, and Southwest Airlines sent her to Orlando instead, worrying her mother, who was already waiting for her to arrive at JIA.

Really, that’s just pathetic.

Victor Davis Hanson:

Without memory we are nothing. That is what scares me about the present electronic age: everything is the next nanosecond; the last one had become absolutely nothing.

Makes sense:

—America is going back to being a renter nation. Up until the 1950s, the percentage of homeowners stayed at 40 percent. Aggressive government subsidies drove the percentage in recent years to above 65 percent. The housing “industry” ran out of buyers. A good 35 percent of Americans prefer the freedom of movement and lack of responsibility that comes from being a renter. We will likely return to being maybe a 55 percent homeowner nation.

—We will likely go back to having multi-generational families living in the same house. Can your children buy a house?

Very interesting:

It’s rare for vitamin levels to be checked in general. My doctor told me he’s started checking Vitamin D levels and is astounded at how low they’re coming in.

UPDATE: Physician/reader Bernard Davidoff writes: “Measuring B12 levels in older people with memory and thought problems is completely routine.” Well, I said “in general.” But shouldn’t we be measuring levels before someone has these kinds of problems?

I’m afraid we are about to lose Egypt for a long time.

Very thankful we were able to visit this past summer.