Flying to Philly soon, and then to ......Alabamy (yeap!)

Yeap! I'm heading back to Philly for several days this month, to visit family and a bunch of old friends. From there I'll be briefly visiting the Charlotte, NC, airport on my way to......................... Birmingham, Alabama!

"Why Alabama?" you may ask.

Well, it's sort of a spiritual pilgrimage/retreat. The great and vibrant Catholic cable network, EWTN, is just outside of Birmingham (in Irondale, AL). And the Shrine of the Most Blessed Sacrament (the cloister/monastry where Mother Angelica - the founder of the network - resides is just north of the network in Hanceville).

Both places have pilgrimage tours of the grounds, the shrines, the network itself, plus I'll be in the audience for Fr. Mitch Pacwa's TV series, "Threshold of Hope" on the evening of May 16th. In that series, Fr. Pacwa systematically goes through the late Pope John Paul II's encyclicals. I'm hoping to also snag a ticket to get into the Wednesday evening broadcast of "EWTN Live". If not, then I'll probably spend the early part of that day in Hanceville, then head back to Birmingham to check out a museum before flying back to L.A. on the 18th.

Anywayz... for about 10 days mid-month I'll be away from internet action.

So... you say you're giving 110%, huh?

I got this from a friend, and I laughed my a** off. The whole "I gave it 110%" phrase has always been one of my pet peeves. So, without further ado...

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What makes 100%? What does it mean to give MORE than 100%? Ever wonder about those people who say they are giving more than 100%? We have all been to those meetings where someone wants you to give over 100%. How about achieving 103%? What makes up 100% in life?

Here's a little mathematical formula that might help you answer these questions:

If:
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z is represented as:
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26.

Then:

K-N-O-W-L-E-D-G-E
11+14+15+23+12+5+4+7+5 = 96%

and

H-A-R-D-W-O-R-K
8+1+18+4+23+15+18+11 = 98%

But,

A-T-T-I-T-U-D-E
1+20+20+9+20+21+4+5 = 100%

And,

B-U-L-L-S-H-I-T
2+21+12+12+19+8+9+20 = 103%

AND, look how far ass kissing will take you.

A-S-S-K-I-S-S-I-N-G
1+19+19+11+9+19+19+9+14+7 = 118%

So, one can conclude with mathematical certainty that while Knowledge and Hard Work will get you close, and Attitude will get you there, it's the Bullshit and Ass Kissing that will put you over the top.
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File this under: "Quid Pro Quo"

Polipundit has a comment from one of its readers on the illegal immigration issue here. Tongue in cheek, of course... but oh, so dead-on target. (heh!)

Meanwhile, I've updated my blog roll to the right. Feel free to enlighten yourself by reading them regularly.

Also, two movies I will definitely want to see in the theaters over the next two weeks:

"United 93" and "The Lost City"

Charlatan in the Church...

Unfortunately, there are some in my local parish who praise this guy and his writings . His name is Fr. Richard Rohr. I've read some of his writings, and listened to a set of his audio CDs. There was a period in my life when I strayed a bit from my Catholic upbringing into the New Age arena, though I never went off the deep end. And, since then, I've returned to the Catholic Church and her teachings. Because of my spiritual diversion, I'm well-tuned to abhorrent spirituality. Red flags started waving when I read some of Rohr's "words of wisdom." Granted, there are some decent nuggets of Catholic theology in his writings, but you sometimes have to dig through quite a bit of questionable stuff to get to it. Upon hearing him speak via his audio tapes/CDs, I got (in my opinion) a certain picture of the type of person he reminds me of - a charlatan. I know that sounds harsh, but if you read or listen to some of his stuff with a clear set of eyes you may be able to discern this. If you want a recent summation of this guy's teachings and affiliations, read this to get a clearer picture.

The OSV Interview with Archbishop Chaput...

(Hat-tip to Hugh Hewitt)

Here is an indepth interview with Archbishop Charles Chaput (Denver Diocese), covering the issue of the abuse scandal within the Church inside the U.S.

You can also find more tough yet fair and impartial commentary by Fr. Richard Neuhaus in past issues of First Things.

Another bit of immigration info...

From Redstate, here's an interesting excerpt quoting Rush (yeah, that Rush):

Ironically... in Mexico immigrants [meaning those who immigrate to Mexico] are not allowed individual property rights, must speak Spanish, must have job skills, have no right to vote or run for office, and have no right to government welfare programs. Immigrants must also invest in the country in an amount equal to forty thousand times the daily minimum wage. Further, immigrants are not allowed to protest the government.

It goes on to list some suggested solutions to the illegal immigration issue here in the US. Some interesting points are made, though I don't agree with abolishing the minimum wage (as quite a few comments also iterate).

UCLA vs. Florida??? (ugh!)

The only way the NCAA Championship Game match-up could've gotten any worse than tomorrow's UCLA vs Florida (the team that defeated my beloved Villanova Wildcats) is a match-up of Georgetown vs any Bobby-Knight-coached team. (ugh...... UGH!...... groan)

I'm begrudgingly rooting for Florida.

On the issue of border security and illegal immigration...

Here are several links to some great reads on the subject at hand - dealing with legal vs. illegal, guest worker programs, border security, the type of jobs and who will or won't do them, etc. etc. etc.

Polipundit has a post on border security here. They also have another post on the subject here.

Rich Lowry at NRO tackles the topic of "jobs that Americans won't do" here.

The Buffalo News has a story on problems with the guest worker projects of the past.

The Washington Times has an in-depth article here on the ratios and the positions of an overwhelming majority of Americans.

And RWN has a detailed 13-point compendium on the variously related issues here.