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Beginning as I write this...

The choir of the Cathedral of Notre Dame -- which I've been listening to for about an hour now -- is exquisite, formidable, au-delà de comparer.

And now I'm pausing to participate. Pope Benedict is being welcomed and will preside at this service.

Regarding an article by John Allen, Jr. in the National Catholic Register:

"...there's a bit of political irony for Catholics. Given Palin's strong pro-life credentials, it's likely she will appeal to the most strongly "denominational" Catholics, those most devoted to traditional Catholic identity and teaching. Meanwhile, what one might call "post-denominational Catholics," meaning those for whom religious branding carries less theological significance, may embrace Palin's Democratic rival, Delaware Senator Joseph Biden, the lone Roman Catholic on either ticket, because of his progressive stands on social and political matters.

"In other words, the denominationalists on the Catholic side will back the post-denominationalist, while the Catholic post-denominationalists will probably pick the candidate who bears the Catholic denominational label."

There is this added commentary at The Catholic Blog:

"...Sarah Palin's son is a concrete reminder that she not only espouses pro-life talk, but that she lives a pro-life life. I think this is particularly "disturbing" to the 90% of women who upon learning that they have a Down's Syndrome baby choose to abort it.

"Final note - read Allen's article. in the last paragraph he finds humor in the fact that conservative Catholics will vote for Palin, a former Catholic, while many Protestants will vote for Biden, a current Catholic. I would of course disagree with his assertion that Biden is Catholic, in any flavor."

I agree with both of them.

What's emerging is that there are Catholics-who-are-Catholics and then there are Liberals who attend or associate as Catholics who are mostly Liberals such as Joe Biden is: their support of issues as advised by the Catholic faith is "movable" depending upon their political interests, which then define their religious issues perspectives.

To the contrary, most of us who are Catholics-who-are-Catholics are voting for the pro-life team of John McCain and Sarah Palin, while the others complain about the rest of us.

I'm going to write more about this voting characteristic as to the "Catholic vote" -- which is being underestimated by the Liberal media if not but for the mere fact that most of the Liberal media does not understand Catholics and they write accordingly -- in another few days. So check back later...

"The penguin who became a knight"

The world's most decorated penguin p-p-p-picked up it's greatest honour...

Penguin on parade: The day they knighted a very special bird.

Nils Olav already has medals for good conduct and long service. He made honorary colonel-in-chief of the elite Norwegian King's Guard in 2005. And today he was knighted.

In my view, Nils Olav the Penguin being colonel-in-chief, and then being knighted, is the big deal.

Here's the video.

I'm wishing everyone today a very Happy Father's Day, and, remembering my own Dad with immense affection. There is rarely a day goes by and has for years now since his passing on that I do not think of him, regret my own youthful lack of awareness in expressing more to him how much he meant to me, and in sharing more with him as to what he was about and the events of his life. We all, I do believe, take so much for granted about our fathers as unique and separate individuals from our own lives, and, our obvious youth as they then are aging puts that added vaguery between child and father even into our adult and older father relationship ages. It's only as I myself grow older since my father's passing on that I sometimes -- literally -- hang my head and pray that my father, now in Heaven, forgives me my awkward insensitivities as I grew.

Happy Father's Day to all, fathers, children, all of us, this human condition, these men, fathers, who are so important and so little told with what love and appreciation they are held and then recalled, missed and with what immense love they are.

Yeee-haw!

Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona - View Full Resolution.

These are the times that technology is good. Very, very good.