Archive for the In a nutshell Category

Oscar Awards – 11 year old Kid Critic

Posted in In a nutshell with tags , , , , , , , on March 7, 2010 by Joann

Lights. Camera. Jackson! – FOXNews.com.

Let’s see how the 11 year old kid critic, Lights Camera Jackson, does this year.  Last year the kid was four for four.

Lights Camera Jackson picks this year:

Best Picture: The Hurt Locker                        ……..Not Avatar!!!

Best Director: Kathryn Bigelow (The Hurt Locker)

Best Actoress: Sandra Bullock (The Blind Side)              …….Not Meryl Streep!!!

Best Actor: Jeff Bridges (Crazy Heart)

Picking’s harder this year – more nominees (printable list):

“And the award goes to……….?” Only time and destiny will tell!

But Oscar.com gives you the picks and a printable ballot.

Adoration at the Grotto

Posted in Catholic, Christ, Christian, In a nutshell, People, Photography with tags , , , , , , , , , , on March 4, 2010 by Joann

Obama “Is Now at the Level of Prime Minister”

Posted in American, Charles Krauthammer, Conservative, Government, In a nutshell, Obama, Opinions, Politics with tags , , , , , , , , , , , , on February 28, 2010 by Joann

No Proof – No God?

Posted in Catholic, Christian, Culture, In a nutshell, Just Thinking Out Loud with tags , , , , , , , , , , , , on February 10, 2010 by Joann

Continuing the theme:  being “amazed how people can have core beliefs with no proof behind them?”

A response:

And amazed you should be! Seems you use that amazing brain of yours to go well beyond the five senses (you depend on for proof.) Proof, though, deals with measures. You can’t measure wonder, hope, compassion, mercy and forgiveness but you can experience them. (I forgot love.)

The response to my response:

What is it that makes you base your beliefs on the Catholic ideas rather than Jewish, Hindu, Buddhist, Scientologist, etc? I think they all have explanations for what’s immeasurable. Is that where the hope comes in? Just pick one and hope the others are wrong?

Amazed someone was actually asking, I got carried away:

Jewish, Hindu, Buddhist, all reflect experience of this life and contain much that is true. God is not limited to speaking to Catholics. People of all faiths seek and listen for Him. However, the act of seeking and listening doesn’t make everything we image or conclude true. I think many people will  except only what doesn’t conflict with their wills and desires. Truth is not relative, however. It simply is. One belief is not as good as any other. Having an explanation doesn’t make the explanation true. For instance, Hindu pantheism saying that everything is one and everything is God; God being a force, impersonal and pervading everything throughout the universe. In fact, the universe is God. That makes God part of the material world, which obviously means He can not be spiritual in his entirety.He must share our material imperfections. He’s now subject to change. Now he possesses something. Now, he doesn’t. “Not very Godly,” I’m thinking. In fact, very limited in space and therefore not all-present. Makes it very difficult to call the Hindu idea of god, God. He’s part matter and therefore made up of parts. The Hindu God is described as impersonal making Him not a person. I am a person and possess person-hood which the Hindu God does not. I’m now one up on their idea of god. I am a person precisely because I have spiritual substance, soul. I have immaterial thoughts and like you deal with, manipulate and generate thoughts every moment of consciousness. Yet the Hindu god in not conscious, just pervasive nothingness. You can believe this if you like, but then you have to reject other ideas that contradict it. Can’t all be true, even with the best, most broadminded,  intentions. Disregarding logic makes it easier; enter pop-culture, pop-everything; not well thought out, just popular for a time. It works for awhile, but there’s still that elephant in the room-the Four Last Things.

Bringing up Death is an appeal of sorts for a need to survive, even if it only in memory or our work, our art, our writings, etc. Probably not the smartest argument to make for as Dinesh D’Souza writes, quoting Woody Allen, in D’Souza’s book, “Life After Death-the Evidence”:

“I don’t want to achieve immorality through my work. I want to achieve immorality by not dying. I don’t want to live on in the hearts of my countrymen. I want to live on on my apartment.”


All Eyes On Massachusetts – In Hopes of Liberty from Tyranny

Posted in American, Constitution, Government, In a nutshell, People, United States, Video with tags , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on January 16, 2010 by Joann

H/T Michelle Malkin and YouTube’s mnmajoritydotorg

Freedom-loving Americans from across our nation are rising-up to support Republican candidate Scott Brown. In the days leading up to the election, Brown has advanced such that some polls now actually show him within the margin of error.

Brown would provide the critical 41st vote in the Senate to break the Democrat’s filibuster-proof majority and stop the unprecedented assault on our personal liberties that is now taking place in Congress. (mnmajoritydotorg )


The Fall of Obama

Posted in American, Charles Krauthammer, In a nutshell, Opinions with tags , , , on January 16, 2010 by Joann

Check it out:

via The Fall of Obama.

Charles Krauthammer asks and answers:

What went wrong? A year ago, he was king of the world. Now President Obama’s approval rating, according to CBS, has dropped to 46 percent — and his disapproval rating is the highest ever recorded by Gallup at the beginning of an (elected) president’s second year.

Soaring But Empty Words Mark Obama Presidency

Posted in American, Charles Krauthammer, In a nutshell, Opinions, Political with tags , , , , , , , , , , on December 30, 2009 by Joann

Charles Krauthammer hits home on Obama’s misses:

“We lost a year. But it was not just any year. It was a year of spectacularly squandered opportunity. In Iran, it was a year of revolution, beginning with a contested election and culminating this week in huge demonstrations mourning the death of the dissident Grand Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri — and demanding no longer a recount of the stolen election but the overthrow of the clerical dictatorship.”

“Why is this so important? Because revolutions succeed at that singular moment, that imperceptible historical inflection, when the people, and particularly those in power, realize that the regime has lost the mandate of heaven. With this weakening dictatorship desperate for affirmation, why is the U.S. repeatedly offering just such affirmation?

Apart from ostracizing and delegitimizing these gangsters, we should be encouraging and reinforcing the demonstrators. This is no trivial matter. When pursued, beaten, arrested and imprisoned, dissidents can easily succumb to feelings of despair and isolation. Natan Sharansky testifies to the electric effect Ronald Reagan’s Evil Empire speech had on lifting spirits in the Gulag. The news was spread cell to cell in code tapped on the walls. They knew they weren’t alone, that America was committed to their cause.

Yet so aloof has Obama been that on Hate America Day (Nov. 4, the anniversary of the seizure of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran), pro-American counter-demonstrators chanted “Obama, Obama, you are either with us or with them,” i.e., their oppressors.” Read More

Our Santa Claus Government

Posted in American, Government, In a nutshell, Just Thinking Out Loud with tags , , , , , , , on December 6, 2009 by Joann

Where are we headed America?

Here are some Santa Claus moments:

On October 7th of this year in Detroit’s downtown, a mob scene of thousands for what was believed to be “free money”, “Obama Money.” Actually it was just free applications for free money.

Here’s the exchange of one hopeful citizen and reporter Ken Rogulski of WJR News:

ROGULSKI:Why are you here ?

Woman: To get some money

ROGULSKI: What kind of Money ?

Woman: Obama money

ROGULSKI: Where’s it comin; from ?

Woman: Obama

ROGULSKI: And where did Obama get it from ?

WOMAN: I don’t know, his stash. I don’t know. I don’t know where he got it from, but he’s givin’ it to us. And we love him. That’s why we voted for him. O-ba-ma. O-ba-ma.

(…)

ROGULSKI: Did you get an application to fill out yet?

WOMAN: I sure did. And I filled it out, and I am waiting to see what the results are going to be.

ROGULSKI: Will you know today how much money you’re getting?

WOMAN: No, I won’t, but I’m waiting for a phone call.

ROGULSKI: Where’s the money coming from?

WOMAN: I believe it’s coming from the City of Detroit or the state.

ROGULSKI: Where did they get it from?

WOMAN: Some funds that was forgiven (sic) by Obama.

ROGULSKI: And where did Obama get the funds?

WOMAN: Obama getting the funds from… Ummm, I have no idea, to tell you the truth. He’s the president.

More here.

Mainstream Media “Medicalizing Mass Murder”

Posted in American, Charles Krauthammer, In a nutshell, Opinions, Video with tags , , , , , , , on November 14, 2009 by Joann

Bending over backwards or just bending over, the liberal media twists truth to fancy yet again.  Charles Krauthammer, commenting on their gyrations, states the obvious and odious.  Personal professional knowledge and former on the job experience leads Krauthammer to note:

It’s been decades since I practiced psychiatry. Perhaps I missed the epidemic.

But, of course, if the shooter is named Nidal Hasan, whom National Public Radio reported had been trying to proselytize doctors and patients, then something must be found. Presto! Secondary post-traumatic stress disorder, a handy invention to allow one to ignore the obvious.

 

Pro-choice and Moral Schizophrenia

Posted in Catholic, Christian, In a nutshell, Political, Religion with tags , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on October 31, 2009 by Joann

Nine ways of participating in the sin of another:

1. by counsel

2. by command

3. by consent (“I’m personally opposed to it but” )

4. by provocation

5. by praise or flattery

6. by concealment

7. by being an accomplice

8. by partaking

9. by Silence!

Once you snuff out a child in its mother’s womb you have crossed the line and there is no sin off-limits to you. Society can’t hide behind our laws and our complicit politicians. Yes those in positions of authority bear the greater responsibility but their accountability does not set us free!  How deafening the silence.  Silence in our churches, our schools, our universities, our laboratories and the halls of government.

The fact that a law was passed to enable the atrocity of abortion, does not pour clean water over the scarlet decision.  It simply makes our culpablility national and places our country in the cross hairs of retribution. You can declare a human being a non-person, but the DNA, the blood and the flesh, the substance and the soul witness against our immoral “Law.”  Relativism may allow our society to lie to itself, but the law written on our hearts will condemn us. We do have freedom of choice, provides it is the right choice!

I call heaven and earth today to witness against you: I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse. Choose life, then, that you and your descendants may live” - Deuteronomy 30:19

This sin too was nailed in Christ to the Cross.  It is time to leave the darkness and live in the Light.

Say “No” to the Welfare State

Posted in American, Conservative, Culture, Government, In a nutshell, Just Thinking Out Loud with tags , , , , , , , , , , , on October 28, 2009 by Joann

Limbaugh: Bo Snerdley – Black Enough to Criticize Obama

Posted in In a nutshell, Opinions with tags , , , , , , , , , , , , on October 19, 2009 by Joann

Bo Snerdley talks to the Hood about the NFL:

“Yo, my fellow homies. Rush ain’t you’re problem.  He never has been your problem……..”

“Man up.  Square up!”

“Is it Rush Limbaugh stopping your kids from being educated in your run down schools and your rundown  neighborhoods? No?! Who is it?  And where’s Al Shapton and Jesse Jackson on that, instead of flapping their mouth on all this other stuff that they don’t know anything else about?  [To NFL players] How come Al, Jesse and you all, are living large and the hood is still the hood?!”

Obama’s Transparent Administration

Posted in American, Culture, Government, In a nutshell, Just Thinking Out Loud with tags , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on October 15, 2009 by Joann

Not!

Speaking of broken promises: “Blah, blah,blah,Ginger.  Blah,blah blah.”

Is America getting the message?  Is America in the dark?

Obama’s Hypocritical Transparency

Posted in Economy, Government, In a nutshell, Video with tags , , , , , , , , , , , , on October 15, 2009 by Joann

What more need to said?

Senior Citizen Speaks Out

Posted in American, Culture, Government, In a nutshell, Political with tags , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on October 8, 2009 by Joann

Olympic Crony-ism – the Chicago Way

Posted in In a nutshell, Just Thinking Out Loud, News, President Obama with tags , , , , , , , , , , , on September 30, 2009 by Joann

Wake-up America! While we were sleeping, the enemy didn’t rest. Enemies come from the outside and from within.  Casper ten Boom, the father of Corrie ten Boom, author of  “The Hiding Place” said, “A mouse may live in the cookie jar, but that doesn’t make the mouse a cookie”

America can’t afford to rest on her laurels or the time of laurels will pass into history. Americans are waking up to an America they have trouble recognizing.  Vigilance is the watch word of this day. Some are doing their job in this regard.

Michelle Malkin is unrelenting in exposing tales of cronyism, corruption, planned or pending corruption:

When government officials play the Olympic lottery, taxpayers lose. That has been the disastrous experience of host cities around the world (Forbes magazine even dubbed the post-Olympic financial burden the “Host City Curse”). So, why are President Obama and his White House entourage headed to Copenhagen, Denmark this week to push a fiscally doomed Chicago 2016 bid? Political payback.

According to Malkin, who does her homework:

Chicagoans of all political stripes who oppose massive government funding of Mayor Richard Daley’s pet project have inundated my email-box. Reader Will P. sums it all up by noting that the games would “protect the current corrupt structure” and paper over Chicago/Illinois’s myriad woes, including: “Governor after Governor going to jail. Pay to play schemes. Crumbling and outdated infrastructure. Deteriorating public housing. Failing, dumbing-down schools. Hospital cutbacks. Sanctuary city. Never-ending gang wars (outbursts every Spring requiring massive police presence, police outmanned at the Taste of Chicago, innocents shot in the crossfire weekly, current beating video out now). Cemetery scandal (bodies removed and graves resold)…Acorn, Bill Ayers, Rezko, Blago, Wright. Univ. of Illinois “clout” scandal. Illegal preferential city hiring. City inspectors on the take (Operation Crooked Code). Voter fraud. The unemployment rate. Taxes through the roof. Mayor Daley attempting to extend city taxes to the suburbs. All this, and more…”

Read more here and here.

On Dying Today

Posted in Catholic, Christian, In a nutshell, Religion, Spiritual with tags , , , , , , , , , , on September 27, 2009 by Joann
crucificionicon

icon by the hand of Joann Nelander

A note from the Anchoress on retreat:

Just found this scrawled, uncharacteristically, in the back of a book -

When we meet God face-to-face, it is always a moment of grace,
but too it is a moment of judgment for us.
Judgment day, then, can be any day, any time, any particular
moment of an hour.
And so our death can happen many times,
a process of conversion, a process of turning to.
We die to ourselves, die to a particular sin or attachment,
and begin again, turning toward.
We no sooner die to one thing that we immediately
attach and live to another,
and judgment will come to that, too.
Sacrament of confession
hastens our dying and our rising,
the dying to the old self,
the rising to the new,
always, always, toward Christ.
Toward oneness, completion.
The Whole.
Life is a process of Incarnation.
Our reality, our wholeness, our completeness
in this world comes
through repeated offerings which we receive or refuse.
The Eucharistic Christ contributes to this formation, this process.
He enters us, we welcome Him.
One flesh.
Incarnation.
My whole woeful life just begun, again.

Congressman Mike Rogers’ on Health Care Reform in Washington D.C.

Posted in American, Defending Life, In a nutshell, Political, Politics, United States with tags , , , , , , , , , , , on September 12, 2009 by Joann

How the Mighty Have Fallen

Posted in American, Charles Krauthammer, In a nutshell, Politics with tags , , , , , , , on September 5, 2009 by Joann

H/T Anchoress for the video link:

Charles Krauthammer isn’t as generous in discerning Obama’s motives, agenda and Waterloo saying in part:

In a center-right country, that was problem enough. Obama then compounded it by vastly misreading his mandate. He assumed it was personal. This, after winning by a mere seven points in a year of true economic catastrophe, of an extraordinarily unpopular Republican incumbent, and of a politically weak and unsteady opponent. Nonetheless, Obama imagined that, as Fouad Ajami so brilliantly observed, he had won the kind of banana-republic plebiscite that grants caudillo-like authority to remake everything in one’s own image.

Accordingly, Obama unveiled his plans for a grand makeover of the American system, animating that vision by enacting measure after measure that greatly enlarged state power, government spending and national debt. Not surprisingly, these measures engendered powerful popular skepticism that burst into tea-party town-hall resistance.

Obama’s reaction to that resistance made things worse. Obama fancies himself tribune of the people, spokesman for the grass roots, harbinger of a new kind of politics from below that would upset the established lobbyist special-interest order of Washington. Yet faced with protests from a real grass-roots movement, his party and his supporters called it a mob — misinformed, misled, irrational, angry, unhinged, bordering on racist. All this while the administration was cutting backroom deals with every manner of special interest — from drug companies to auto unions to doctors — in which favors worth billions were quietly and opaquely exchanged.

On Not Judging the Man-Just the Record

Posted in American, Anti-abortion, Catholic, Christian, Conservative, Culture, Culture of Death, Defending Life, In a nutshell, Just Thinking Out Loud, Media, My Journal, News, Opinions with tags , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on August 31, 2009 by Joann

For the record:  judging, discerning, and choosing are part and parcel of life.  From day one, our senses present the world to us and we’re off on the grand adventure.  All is recorded in the Book of Life from cradle to grave.  “Known but to God” can be recorded on every tombstone.  And so, now we come to the death of the “great man”, Edward Moore “Ted” Kennedy.  What constitutes this greatness matters.  Of late, we have seen idols and iconic figures come to their respective ends.  To judge, to discern, to choose is human, wisdom depends on it. Society learns and survives by it.

Let a merciful and just God judge the disposition of a soul.  I’m okay with that for myself and others.  What to make though, of hours and days and in some cases eons of public pronouncements and near cult worship.  Senator Ted Kennedy died and now the myth begins, or has it been spun like a cocoon about him throughout life?  For the butterfly to emerge, the cocoon must be broken.

I’m of the opinion that God isn’t wowed by the Kennedy legacy and I’m certain all spin stops before His throne.  A face to face with God isn’t like Facebook, Twitter or even “Meet the Press”.  Men may flatter us, but the truth is that pride goes before a fall.  Before the Almighty, humility is the better garb.

For my part, I see that Edward Moore “Ted” Kenned, had it all; life lived to the full. He got the chance as the youngest of nine children born to a Catholic mother who practiced her faith, not birth control, to experience family, faith, power, love, fun, sin and foolishness.  He got to make mistakes, ask forgiveness, build bonds of kinship and friendship.  He got to roar like a lion and cry like a baby. I see, too, that this gifted and blessed man, failed to find it in his heart or philosophy to support the unborn, the un-named also conceived by the will of  God, failed to grant them protection or welcome into the same life he so abundantly lived.  May these, the Holy Innocents,  now pray for him, their brother, offering the purest Innocent, the Lamb of God, to a loving Father who even Now, stoops to the lowly when they cry out for mercy.  Lord have mercy!

Ignatius Press sticks to the facts and leaves the funeral fuss, fantasy, and lionization to press, popular myth romantics, and political agendas.

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