Here comes Sinteklaas!

It is snowing heavily in the Twin Cities - here in Minnesota, that is. And all the little kids know it heralds the arrival of St. Nicholas, to prepare them for the feast of the Nativity of the Lord.

Art: Illumination of St. Nicholas restoring the three youths to life. Legend has it they were murdered and pickled in a barrel of brine. Hence St. Nicholas is venerated as the patron of children, in this case, abused and missing children.

Go here for a fun Sinterklaas resource.

Sometimes you just feel like there is no other choice...

[Thanks to Jer-Bear for the cartoon.]

Finish the sentence...

Yeah, so after they had evicted Cathy from the bar...

Place Vendome...

From Paris Daily Photo.



My favorite site in Paris - well one of them - all done up for Christmas. I have a small collection of Grand Tour replicas of the column pictured. Napoleon originally commissioned the column to commemorate the victory at the battle of Austerlitz, 1805. Currently the figure atop the column is the Emperor dressed in Roman attire, although at one time the monument supported Napoleon depicted in the pose most of us are more familiar with, standing with his hand resting in his waistcoat. I have examples of both.

St. Nick

I almost forgot!

It is the novena for the feast of St. Nicolaus! I'm praying for all of you, as well as poor and suffering children (adult children too!) and most especially, little kids who are abused and sexually exploited.

Go here for a cool site on everything St. Nicolaus.

Yes - I am excited about Christmas...

And I don't care who knows it...

Ray sent me a photo of Cathy's Christmas tree. He said she's been busy emptying bottles of beer and therefore unable to blog, but she managed to get that tree up for Thanksgiving. (Looks like she got her shopping done too - or is she re-gifting again?)

This isn't funny...

Nor is it meant to be.

A note from the cartoonist, John Francis Borra:

To anyone familiar with the Third Reich, it’s obvious what I’ve done here. This is a play on the iron gates surrounding Auschwitz concentration camp. The actual iron gates read Arbeit Macht Frei (Work Makes You Free). This was, of course, the big lie fed to inmates in order to keep them manageable as they were led from cattle cars to their deaths in the showers. Planned Parenthood’s big lie to society is strikingly similar: Abortion Makes You Free. The parallel is dramatic and perfectly appropriate. As a matter of fact, it’s not unlike any other cartoon I’ve done about the culture of death; the truth is so grotesque, so clear, so galling that little imagination– and no exaggeration at all– is required to spin editorial material from it.

[Thanks to my friend Linda for the cartoon.]

True confessions...

Three things you may not have known about me and my family.

#1) I always think of dogs as boys, and cats as girls.

#2) My one cat was married before - well... she had children.

#3) My parents were married by a Justice of the Peace, but they posed for wedding photos on the steps of the Cathedral.