Case in point.

Our first day open was Monday evening. We didn't expect anyone to show up that night, or even the next day for that matter, until word got around that we had free baby supplies.I was not even slotted to volunteer that night, but I live right across the street, so I said I would go and help out the girl who was volunteering. She had not been to the CC and was not there while we set up, so she needed someone to show her where we were stationed. Lo and behold we had a small line. I guess it was a good thing I was there.

We are supplied by donations. I pray the Lord continues to supply for our needs. As it is, we have tons of newborn diapers, yet everyone who came requested size 5. If you can offer up a "Hail Mary" for us, we would be much obliged!

She sums up the gist of it in her WND column:

Pro-lifers voting for president in November will have to choose McCain. He knows that. We know that. But if he makes one wrong maverick move on the pro-life issue from here until then, such as trying to weaken the Republican pro-life platform, many of us will bail.

The same old dilemma-being Catholic and voting.

PS-I agree with Alan Keyes: if you are going to be pro-life, be pro-life. If you feel that is a child who is being murdered, the circumstances of their conception makes no difference. If you do not feel it is murder, then why be pro-life? Makes no sense.

Now the headlines claim "arrested for prom dress", which is not exactly true. The police were called over the commotion caused when she was asked to leave because her dress was inappropriate.

That being the case, I really don't see how this is as newsworthy as the original headlines make it out to be.

However, I am just so frustrated. Why do girls no longer see beauty in something beautiful? Why do they only see beauty in skimpy? How skimpy does a dress have to be these days to be the nicest dress, because Oh Girl's doesn't leave any room for hers to be topped. I keep thinking about when I was a very small girl, and how I would love to play dress-up with my patent-leather Mary Janes, little white gloves and anything frilly and pink. How sad for someone so young to have already lost that childhood simplicity.

I often feel like The Modesty Police and oddly, it is not a subject I am that obsessed with. I am just tired of women being objectified. God gifted us when he made us the more visually beautiful of the two sexes. But this isn't beauty. I don't know what this is.This is taking God's delicate art and saying "it needs more color" and spray painting it fluorescent pink.

What I also don't understand is where are her parents? Why isn't her father barring the door with a shot gun "Hell no you ain't going out the house looking like that!" Isn't that what fathers do? Why isn't her mother telling her "I know you think this is pretty, but this is not appropriate, let's find a compromise." Isn't that the point of mothers?

Wonder Bread up 74%
Boneless center-cut pork chop up 124%
Farmland Skim Plus milk up 38%
Arnold Stone-Ground wheat bread up 36%
Rib-eye steak up 64%
Carr's water crackers up 39%
Bird's Eye frozen sweet corn up 28%
Bananas up 41%
Bird's Eye frozen baby peas up 21%
Diet Coke up 10%

Notice the crap on the list-the Diet Coke- is the price that has inflated the least. I am too tired to speculate about the meaning because I am too busy trying to feed a family of eight nutritious and palatable real food on a budget.

I am running out of all those bright ideas I used to have.

Says Hef: "Sure, she’d be welcomed in the magazine. Very pretty lady. And I think to make such a big to-do over something as innocent as those [Vanity Fair] photos, I think is a reflection on how schizophrenic America is about sexuality."

Young Ladies, this is why modesty is important. You do NOT want the attention of dirty old, old (did I mention old?) men calling you pretty...If Miley Cyus has any sense, now she is getting the creepy crawlies and thinking "Ohmygosh, no more suggestive pictures again!"

Ugh...shivers.

The frenzy over Miley Cyrus' Vanity Fair cover shots was inescapable earlier this week -- everyone seemed to have an opinion on the snaps, and most of them were critical of the tween star and her parents. But that's starting to change, as some familiar names -- like Sally Field and Rosie O'Donnell -- have come out in her defense.

So here I am reading these dopey celebrity quotes from the likes of Rosie O'Donnell and Nick Cannon when the last one came up. I could not have written anything better myself to back my point up:

"I think it's hot. When I was 15, I was doing the same thing except I bared it all ... She's just showing her back. She's growing up. I don't think she's doing anything harmful ... I think she's hot!" -- Tila Tequila

On the one hand it freaks me out. I had no idea there was so much happening at once surrounding schools. It sort of gives me that usual "good thing I home school" vibe. On the other hand, what is the point of this? I hate reacting to scare tactics, or dwelling on all the evil going on the world. Where is the line to simply being informed and living in fear? Is it that times have become so dreadful that this is a new phenomenon or are we just more informed about what is happening as soon as it happens?

What do we do with this information? Most of us would not dream of taking guns to school, so it is not as if the average citizen contributes to the violence.Or is there something we are doing to contribute? Are we supposed to stay inside forever?

Perhaps we are just called to pray more and work harder to spread peace in our everyday actions. I am just not sure how to do that, and if someone has some tangible advice, I am open. It is just a wonder I get supper on the table every night.

On the music I have nothing to say but "of course." A few years ago, I attended a Eucharistic Congress in the Archdiocese of Washington, and the choices for the Mass were just the same: "Look how diverse we are!"**

But at the same time, wasn't it great that the Archdiocese was putting on a Eucharistic Congress at all? With an Adoration chapel right there in the Convention Center?

And as for the Papal Mass, the Archdiocese had 100 priests available to hear confessions -- and still had to ask more priests to come and help, so that everyone waiting in line could go to confession before the Mass started. (I did attend the Papal Mass in Baltimore in 1995, and if there were confessors available, I completely missed that memo.)

What a blessing.

* am I the only one who feels weird watching Masses on TV? I never have TV on unless I'm doing something -- housework or some kind of craft -- but it doesn't feel right to be folding socks during the Consecration.

** okay, I just have to mention that the Latin Masses I attended at St Matthew's and the Shrine (Ordinary Use) had impressively diverse-looking congregations.