HAVANA (Reuters) – Ailing Cuban leader Fidel Castro, who has not been seen in public for 16 months, suggested on Monday he might give up his formal leadership posts — the first time he has spoken of his possible retirement.

“My elemental duty is not to hold on to positions and less to obstruct the path of younger people,” the 80-year-old Castro said in a letter read on Cuban state television.

This is interesting because this is the best way he can find to keep communism in power after he dies.  If he dies in office, the likelihood of an uprising is increased.

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Now he’s done it…it was bad enough when he suggested that Christianity is preferable to atheism, and the moral absolutes exist, and that the TLM might be a good thing to make available to the Church.  Now, he’s taken on environmental extremism. As usual, the MSM is blowing it all way out of proportion.  But hey, I’m glad he’s not buying the hype either!

First, here’s what the Daily Mail says he said:

The leader of more than a billion Roman Catholics suggested that fears over man-made emissions melting the ice caps and causing a wave of unprecedented disasters were nothing more than scare-mongering.

The German-born Pontiff said that while some concerns may be valid it was vital that the international community based its policies on science rather than the dogma of the environmentalist movement.

His remarks will be made in his annual message for World Peace Day on January 1, but they were released as delegates from all over the world convened on the Indonesian holiday island of Bali for UN climate change talks.

The 80-year-old Pope said the world needed to care for the environment but not to the point where the welfare of animals and plants was given a greater priority than that of mankind.

And here are some direct quotes:

“Humanity today is rightly concerned about the ecological balance of tomorrow,” he said in the message entitled “The Human Family, A Community of Peace”.

“It is important for assessments in this regard to be carried out prudently, in dialogue with experts and people of wisdom, uninhibited by ideological pressure to draw hasty conclusions, and above all with the aim of reaching agreement on a model of sustainable development capable of ensuring the well-being of all while respecting environmental balances.

“If the protection of the environment involves costs, they should be justly distributed, taking due account of the different levels of development of various countries and the need for solidarity with future generations.

“Prudence does not mean failing to accept responsibilities and postponing decisions; it means being committed to making joint decisions after pondering responsibly the road to be taken.”

Author Simon Caldwell seems to embellish things a bit.  Fortunately, he didn’t pass up the opportunity to quote Cardinal Pell regarding the warming of Mars:

“The industrial-military complex up on Mars can’t be blamed for that,” he said in a criticism of Australian scientists who had claimed that carbon emissions would force temperatures on earth to rise…

Gotta love that quote from Cardinal Pell.

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H/T to Gerald for this one! 

As you know, I have a 2.75-year-old and a little one on the way.  How, then, can I talk about a “First Communion” so soon?  No, the Jesuits didn’t take over my parish (meaning of course only the liberal wing of the Jesuits – no disrespect for the likes of Fr. Mitch or Fr. Fessio!) It’s just that at Mass yesterday morning, my daughter told me she wanted to walk to Communion to receive her blessing.  Since her birth, I have been the one carrying her to Communion.  She’s gotten bigger and my back has gotten sorer each Sunday.  Somewhere 6 or 8 months ago she learned to cross her arms over her chest by herself, instead of having me put them in position for her.

So after we talked about it once or twice during the week, Sunday morning she told me she wanted to walk up by herself, as long as I kept a hand on her shoulder and stayed close behind her.  We were in the Deacon’s line, and he went out of his way to bend over enough to where he could make eye contact with her and she could hear him as he blessed her; when he stood back up to give me the Eucharist, I wonder if he noticed my eyes mysteriously watering….

H/T Curt Jester.

Today the U.S. bishops withdrew the review of the film “The Golden Compass,” which opened in theaters in the United States Dec. 7. The review was written by Harry Forbes and John Mulderig, the director and staff reviewer respectively of the Office for Film and Broadcasting of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. The review was released and posted on the CNS Web site Nov. 29. The USCCB gave no reason for withdrawing the review.

Since CNS is a distributor of media reviews of the OFB, it must respect the office’s withdrawal of its review. Effective Dec. 10, the review of “The Golden Compass” will not be available on the CNS Web site.

Only took a week.  How much damage has been done in that time?  How many Catholic kids will see the movie because the Bishops blessed it (figuratively)?

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In a bit of amazing news, Mike Huckabee once suggested that AIDS patients should be quarantined and that homosexuality was disordered. Now, let’s take the former first. We quarantine people who have tuberculosis, to keep it from spreading. AIDS seems to spread faster than TB (just compare the number of cases each year) yet for some reason those with AIDS aren’t quarantined. Just something to think about. Keep those infected away from those who aren’t. But that’s politically incorrect, apparently.

As for the latter, it seems that the MSM is blown away by the fact that a professed Christian would profess views that coincide with the profession of Christianity (not to mention most mainstream religions for that matter.) It’s important to note that Huckabee’s quote is:

“I feel homosexuality is an aberrant, unnatural, and sinful lifestyle, and we now know it can pose a dangerous public health risk…”

The key word in this quote is “lifestyle.” He never said that same sex attraction in and of itself is characterized, but rather the lifestyle is; and of course the lifestyle is actual acting on that same sex attraction. This is the reasonable view of most Christians, excepting the Fred Phelps types. But of course the spin will continue to be “Mike Huckabee hates gays.” Accuracy is far too difficult for the MSM.

One final thought – I like his style. He recommended cutting off federal funding for AIDS research, and instead asking celebs who were speaking out in favor of increased federal funding for research to make donations themselves. Brilliant. Kind of like asking Warren Buffett, who thinks he isn’t taxed enough, to return his tax refund to the treasury.

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Leftist nutjob talkradio host Bernie Ward was charged today with two counts of possessing child pornography .  I listened to Ward during a failed syndication attempt in 1995 (imagine that – left wing talkradio failing in syndication.)  Anyway, according to his lawyers, he possessed the images 3 years ago when he was writing a book, it was just research material, and now he’s been brought up on federal charges.  Now, we all know investigations, especially federal ones, take time, but the left in general is using this as another conspiracy theory springboard, saying that the evil Bush administration is using this to take down a vocal opponent.

Now first, he did break the law and has admitted to it when questions.  Second, why would the administration even want to take down a non-syndicated left wing host that everyone knows to be as nutty as a snickers bar?  Seems it would be much more effective to take out a Beck, Hannity, or Limbaugh, for their criticism of the administration (which happens often, regardless of whether Media Myrmidons admits it.)

Anyway, the Drudge headline as of now refers to him as a Catholic priest, as this KCBS article says he is a former Catholic priest.  On the other hand, this article states he’s a former seminarian, now a father of 4.  Big difference between a priest and a seminarian.  Time will tell which turns out to be true…but without a doubt, the left will have a great time with this because they’ll be able to slam both the Bush administration and the Catholic Church in one story!

Former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee is gaining the in the polls, as we are merely a month away from the first presidential primaries.  Personally, I like a fair amount of what he says, even if he is a Baptist minister…

When asked his beliefs about the origins of the planet and everything on it,

“I believe God created the heavens and the Earth,” he said at a news conference with Iowa pastors who murmured, “Amen.”

“I wasn’t there when he did it, so how he did it, I don’t know,” Huckabee said.

But he expressed frustration that he is asked about it so often, arguing with the questioner that it ultimately doesn’t matter what his personal views are.

“That’s an irrelevant question to ask me – I’m happy to answer what I believe, but what I believe is not what’s going to be taught in 50 different states,” Huckabee said. “Education is a state function. The more state it is, and the less federal it is, the better off we are.”

For a person who believes it didn’t all happen by accident, this seems to be a very clean answer.  Simply put, there’s nothing he’s going to do that’s going to affect what’s taught in schools since he claims to be a states’ rights conservative.

The USCCB Film and Broadcasting Office has given “The Golden Compass” a pass.  “The Golden Compass” is a movie version of a series of books written by militant atheist Philip Pullman.  Pullman himself has stated that he wants to destroy the Church, religion, God, et al., and his books are written in a style so as to attract the young reader (get ‘em while they’re young, eh?)  In typical fashion, the USCCB misses the point with this statement:

Whatever author Pullman’s putative motives in writing the story, writer-director Chris Weitz’s film, taken purely on its own cinematic terms, can be viewed as an exciting adventure story with, at its core, a traditional struggle between good and evil, and a generalized rejection of authoritarianism.

A few points here.  First, in the story line, the good is those fighting against God/the Church, and evil is God/the Church.  The authoritarianism is the Church.  The film ends with the protagonists killing God as I understand it.  So you can see how reality is turned on its ear (though Pullman has stated in interviews that the Church he depicts is how he perceives the real Church to be – in other words he doesn’t think it’s fictionalized.)  On top of that, perhaps the “putative motives” aren’t visible in the movie, but if the movie’s successful, people are going to go out and start buying the books, in which the “putative motives” are blatant from what I have heard.  Therein lies the danger.

For some sanity, let’s turn to the Catholic League…they seem to be the ones approaching this with due caution.

Here’s something some folks have been wanting to hear from Mitt Romney on:

Former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney will deliver a much-anticipated speech on religious faith at the George H. W. Bush library on Thursday, CBS News has confirmed. Romney’s Mormon faith has been an underlying theme of his presidential candidacy but, until today, it has been an area he and his campaign have shied away from addressing directly.

The article goes on to explain that the apparent reason Romney’s choosing to do this (whereas he had previously said he wouldn’t) is because he’s now trailing Mike Huckabee, former governor of Arkansas and ordained Baptist minister, in Iowa, which he was hoping to take in the primary.

Personally, I have found that Huckabee, Hunter, and Thompson are the closest matches to my preferences for President.  Huckabee and Hunter are both right on the FairTax, for example.

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