Pantano witchhunt begins today.

The death of our military begins when we start prosecuting soldiers, making them second-guessing themselves. We never would have won WWII with our disloyal media and government officials.

The pretrial hearing of 2nd Lt. Ilario Pantano opened yesterday with testimony from two government witnesses and a continued dispute over the investigating officer chosen by the Marine Corps to recommend whether the charges of premediated murder of two Iraqis should proceed to a court-martial.

Pantano, a platoon leader in the volatile Sunni Triangle last spring, insists he acted in self-defense against suspected insurgents after they attempted to drive away from a house where weapons were found. The Marine Corps -- which presented two fellow officers at the Camp Lejeune, N.C., hearing -- contends Pantano commited numerous violations of the Uniform Military Code and executed the Iraqis to send a message to the enemy.

Pantano's civilian attorney, Charles Gittins, told WorldNetDaily he evaluated the opening session as "a net-zero day."

"It didn't go to prove anything other than [the Sunni Triangle] was a dangerous place," he said.

Marine Corps spokesman Maj. Matt Morgan did not return WND's call requesting comment.

The prosecution has said it plans over the next few days to offer more than 10 witnesses to prove Pantano disobeyed standard operating procedures.

Gittins expects the hearing to continue through Friday. After completion, investigating officer Maj. Mark Winn will have seven days to make a recommendation to Maj. Gen. Richard Huck, commander of the 2nd Marine Division.

Huck can decide Pantano's fate regardless of the recommendation, which could be to dismiss the charges, proceed to a court-martial or handle it in some other way.

Habemus Papam!!!!!

On the fourth ballot, John Cardinal Ratzinger was elected Pope and chose the name Benedict XVI.

Capital Punishment

Well, if lethal injection is cruel and painful, I think we should starve them to death. Well ABC news reported (see picture below) that starvation was serene. It had also been described as euphoric as recently as 3 weeks ago by media members

LONDON (Reuters) - American researchers have called for an halt to lethal injection, the most common method of capital punishment in the United States, because it is not always a humane and painless way to die.
Some executed prisoners may have suffered unnecessarily because they had not been sedated properly, they said

Pope John Paul II

Pope John Paul II was laid to rest today in Rome. Over 4 million people turned out for his funeral, including 9 kings & queens, and 70 presidents and prime ministers.

Over the past week, the outpouring of emotion has been magnamous. Why was John Paul loved so, by so many people?

He was energetic in his faith.
He spoke to all people as if they were the most important person in the world.
He deeply believed in his convictions and wasn't moved by pop culture, yet youth loved him more than any pop icon.
He took time to see so many people and countries.
He sought reconciliation between religions and peoples.

Pope John Paul II has been the only Pope ,I have ever known. It is odd to be without him. Unfortunately, by the time I was old enough to appreciate him, he had been stricken with Parkinson's Disease, which made him hard to understand and robbed him of his oratorical vigor and physical energy. I wish I could have seen and heard him in the early 80s. Yet through his illness, he was an example of living with suffering. The disease robbed him of his body, but not his mind.

The following is a tribute in pictures:

















In nomine Patris, et Filii, et Spiritus Sancti.Amen.

NY Times clueless on faith

The New York Times almost had a good story about a young Karol Wojtyla. It started out good, but the writer seems clueless about religion. He is apparently unable to comprehend the fact that Karol saved the Jewish girl because of his faith and his religion. His strong Catholic faith isn't just a set of rules saying homosexuality is wrong as some liberals believe. It commands to help the needy and the sick. The fact that she was Jewish has no bearing. The term "Good Samaritan" comes from the Bible where a Samaritan (a lowely class of person) helps a wounded man when others who were considered of the "more holy" classes didn't.

"What moved this young seminarian to save the life of a lost Jewish girl cannot be known. But it is clear that his was an act of humanity made as the two great mass movements of the 20th century, the twin totalitarianisms of Fascism and Communism, bore down on his nation, Poland....

Pope John Paul II is widely viewed as having been a man of unshakable convictions that some found old-fashioned or rigid. But perhaps he offered his truth with the same simplicity and directness he showed in proffering tea and bread and shelter from cold to an abandoned Jewish girl in 1945, when nobody was watching."

Reporters don't understand faith

The New York Times almost had a good story about a young Karol Wojtyla. It started out good, but the writer seems clueless about religion. He is apparently unable to comprehend the fact that Karol saved the Jewish girl because of his faith and his religion. His strong Catholic faith isn't just a set of rules saying homosexuality is wrong as some liberals believe. It commands to help the needy and the sick. The fact that she was Jewish has no bearing. The term "Good Samaritan" comes from the Bible where a Samaritan (a lowely class of person) helps a wounded man when others who were considered of the "more holy" classes didn't.

"What moved this young seminarian to save the life of a lost Jewish girl cannot be known. But it is clear that his was an act of humanity made as the two great mass movements of the 20th century, the twin totalitarianisms of Fascism and Communism, bore down on his nation, Poland....
Pope John Paul II is widely viewed as having been a man of unshakable convictions that some found old-fashioned or rigid. But perhaps he offered his truth with the same simplicity and directness he showed in proffering tea and bread and shelter from cold to an abandoned Jewish girl in 1945, when nobody was watching."

AFP takes a swipe at Pope John Paul II

The AFP (Agence France Press) produced a story where some "AIDS activists" blame the Pope for the spread of AIDS. It should be no surprise that the liberal French press take a swipe at the Pope who isn't even yet buried.

As for the "AIDS" activists, do these people actually believe that if the Pope said it was okay to use condoms, that would stop or even slow the spread of AIDS? The people out there fornicating and sharing needles won't suddenly seek strict religous counsel when it comes to using birth control. Does anyone think that just before going into a bathhouse to participate in a homosexual orgy in a bathhouse, a gay guy says to himself "Oh should I use a condom? Well the Pope says 'no'. Okay, 'no' it is then." Come on, get real.

PARIS (AFP) - AIDS campaigners sounded a jarring note over the papacy of John Paul II, describing his ban on condom use, abhorrence of homosexuality and conservatism on women's rights as bleak failures in the fight against HIV.
The pope's tenure straddled the emergence of the first cases of AIDS to its spread
as a global pandemic that by last year had claimed more than 20 million lives and left nearly 40 million others infected with HIV.
As the catastrophe unfolded, the pontiff repeatedly called for support for people sickened with the human immunodeficiency virus and always pleaded for the cause of AIDS orphans.
"At a time of mourning, it's important to note that whatever else can be said, he did help to ease AIDS stigma," an official with an international health agency, involved in the fight against HIV, told AFP.
Set against that, though, the pope took a deeply conservative line when it came to the causes of infection and preventing its spread. In his edicts, he fought indefatigably against condoms, branded homosexuality immoral and emphasised a passive role for women as family anchor and child bearer....
Radical AIDS campaigners said Monday that, in their view, by stigmatising homosexuality, denying condoms and hampering female empowerment, the pope may even have helped propagate HIV.

"Millions of people in developing countries are orphans, having lost their parents to AIDS because of the pope's anti-condom dogma," said British gay campaigner Peter Tatchell of the group OutRage.
"We mourn for the eight million Catholics who have died of AIDS, and worry for the more than 10 million Catholics who are infected," said Khalil Elouardighi of the French branch of the lobby group Act Up.
"It should not be forgotten that millions have died in Africa as a result of this theological rigidity," said the British centrist daily The Independent. "Blindess in the face of AIDS," was the headline in France's left-of-centre daily Liberation.
A pro-reform Catholic group, We Are Church, founded in 1996, said John Paul II's pontificate "was full of contradictions."
"Among the human rights still crying out for recognition in the church are gender equality... and the use of condoms to prevent the spread of HIV-AIDS," it said....

The AP and the Church's future

The AP has taken a couple of stabs at the Catholic Church due to it's conservative stance on social issues. Adaption of Church should be limited to it's proceedures, but not it's doctrine. Doctrine isn't supposed to be flexible, bending with the prevailing pop culture.

If the Church caves to the wants of liberal socialists, it would be marginalized. Although the convential wisdom may be that the Church would become instantly popular if they liberalized their views, they really would stop being respected in the long run. People would no longer look to it for moral guidance. Look at the Church of England. No one goes. It isn't respected by the youth because they've been quiet on the decline of social standards. People have lost respect for it.

People also seek structure and authority in their lives. If we don't have the Church to go to for moral guidance, that we are lost and alone. If we don't have the Church harping on our conscious as to what is right, then who will do it?

Giudicessi, who attended Roman Catholic schools before going to college, hopes the next pope will set a more accepting tone on issues such as homosexuality and on women taking leadership roles in the church.
"The church is going to have to adapt to survive," he says. "A lot of us feel that
the Catholic church is a little bit behind the times." Margaret Lero, a student at the University of Notre Dame in Indiana, agrees. She calls John Paul "a major figure in my life." But she also wonders whether his more traditional stances on such issues as birth control and women's leadership roles were more suited to her parents' generation. AP

Prayers for the Pope

As Pope John Paul II nears his final hours, we can celebrate his life, his works, but mourn that such a wonderful man will no longer be with us. We can also pray that our next Pope will be just as benevolent and strong.