Kate's Day

“Be who God meant you to be and you will set the world on fire.”

~ Catherine of Siena

Kate Middleton got married on her name day, the feast of St. Catherine of Siena, Doctor of the Catholic Church.

Because of my Latvian in-laws, I am well acquainted with my name day, the day that transcends a birthday in celebratory importance in many European cultures. So when the royal wedding date was first announced, I immediately wondered if the day had been intentionally chosen to coincide with St. Catherine's day.

When I saw St. Catherine quoted and her "festival day" mentioned in the opening line of the Bishop of London's wedding sermon, I believe I had my answer. And at least for today, in the dazzling glow of worldwide media coverage and the lavish outpouring of love and support from her countrymen, the former Kate Middleton, now Duchess of Cambridge, has certainly set the world on fire. Rock on, Kate.

The Case for Change

Hugh Hewitt has launched "The Obama Project: The Case for Change," linked here, 50 reasons why no sane American should vote for Obama in 2012.

I've always wanted to see all of Obama's big screw-ups spelled out in one giant master list, but somehow I thought the task would be too daunting. But now, coutesy of Hugh, here it is. The article brought back some really painful memories, but it's required reading. This disturbing list is quite an impressive array of presidential disasters, with a long runway fraught with peril still ahead before the 2012 election.

Let's HOPE for CHANGE in 2012.

Update: More reasons added.

Easter Sunday

He is not here: for he is risen, as he said.

~ Matthew 28:6

Wired to Read

I received a Kindle for Christmas from my daughter. As a lifelong book-lover, I've looked askance at e-readers since their appearance a few years ago. How could any modern gadget possibly rival the look and feel of your favorite book? Having reveled for endless hours in untold thousands of paper books since age 4, I was completely disinterested. It never occurred to me even to investigate the brave new world of e-reading.

Never. Until I got a Kindle.

Well, since it was a gift, I decided I should give the Kindle a try. One download later, it was like I was hooked on e-crack. They're smart, those Amazon geeks. The screen is not backlit, so the print actually looks like that on a book page. No eyestrain, and you need a light to read. Reading glasses aren't needed--the font size can be adjusted. Classics are available for free--F-R-E-E-!!! Many books are just a dollar or two. Bestsellers can be downloaded--in seconds--for considerably less than the hard cover price. There's no fear of running out of space, as this little slice of reading heaven can hold more than 3,500 books. I can now board an airplane with an entire library tossed into my carry-on.

So now, I've had to assign myself a book budget. Otherwise I know I'll go hog-wild buying books. The other night I set up a "collection" (that's Kindle-speak) named "Childhood Favorites." I went berserk downloading all the books I repeatedly read cover-to-cover as I was growing up--including, of course, The Phantom Tollbooth. At $6+, that was the most expensive item. Did I care? When I could have the first three books of the Anne of Green Gables series for 89 cents? And Little Women and Black Beauty, both for F-R-E-E? Ha! Library late fees, I laugh at you!

Currently I'm rereading Black Beauty, which in my childhood I never noticed was quite a forceful indictment against animal cruelty. I'm debating which childhood favorite to rediscover next. But meanwhile, my reading glasses are still getting a workout. I'm in the midst of reading the hard cover of Extraordinary, Ordinary People, the autobiography of Condoleezza Rice, which is on loan to me from a friend. I had actually purchased that hard cover book for his birthday gift. Somehow, I think the book-lover's honored tradition of the "lending library" will continue for a long time.

For reader exchanges alone, paper books need to survive. I insist that paper books are mandatory. Because nobody's going to touch my Kindle.

Steyn Says It Best

Mark Steyn perfectly nails the destructive arrogance of the current administration in Ending Medicare, or ending America?, linked here. As usual, he can make you laugh through his vivid and acerbic depiction of bad news.

My favorite paragraph is below:

"America, 2011: A man gets driven in a motorcade to sneer at a man who has to drive himself to work. A guy who has never generated a dime of wealth, never had to make payroll, never worked at any job other than his own tireless self-promotion literally cannot comprehend that out there, beyond the far fringes of the motorcade outriders, are people who drive a long distance to jobs whose economic viability is greatly diminished when getting there costs twice as much as the buck-eighty-per-gallon it cost back at the dawn of the Hopeychangey Era."

Steyn is incredulous that we are passively witnessing our own demise through the incompetence of our current government. "The death of the greatest nation in the history of the planet," I heard him term our dire financial situation in one radio interview. If only our "leaders" would be as passionately concerned about our longterm fiscal health as Steyn, a Canadian schooled in Britain who chose the U.S.A. to settle for life and career. He is someone who understands the critical importance of our country to the world.

Sadly, that is a fact that seems beyond the grasp of too many of our current "leaders."

Hopeless Change

Politicians have been rearranged

But in Washington, nothing has “change”d.

If you’re searching for “hope”

Good luck as you cope

With "leaders" now fully deranged.