Uprising at Ave Maria University & Town - Al Gore (Grudgingly) Hailed as Prophet
May 20, 2012

NAPLES (AP) - Today hoards of Ave Maria University students and faculty and Ave Maria Town residents gathered in massive protest against Supreme Chancellor Tom Monaghan for breaking his promises to everybody.

Despite the many promises that Ave Maria University & Town would be a world class university and viable town for years to come, less than ten years since opening its doors for business, Ave Maria University & Town are today completely underwater.

"I saw that movie, you know the one with Al Gore in it, back in 2006 and spoke to Tom Monaghan about it. He promised me that it wasn't true, and that real Catholics would buy property in Ave Maria Town and invest in the University," said one water soaked resident. "I believed him, I believed that he was a real Catholic! Now what am I going to do? Who would have thought to buy insurance against global warming? I should have insured myself against the promises of Tom Monaghan!"

At a special meeting of both the Ave Maria Town residents association and the student and faculty communio both constituencies voted NO CONFIDENCE in Supreme Chancellor Tom Monaghan and immediately called for his resignation for leading so many wealthy and not-so-wealthy Catholics to invest their money, careers and families into the bottom of the ocean floor.

After refusing to meet with the students, faculty and residents of Ave Maria, the Board of governors released this statement:

The Board of Govenors affirms its full confidence in the Supreme Chancelor Tom Monaghan. We value his visionary clarity and the soundness of his authoritarian (sic). The Board of Govenors rejects the attempt of these pee-ons (sic) to destroy what Ave Maria University & Town has achieved.

"It's like they are all taking drugs or something," said Prof. Henry, Department Head of Psychology. "The fricken place is under hundreds of feet of water, and they are affirming the leadership of this nut-bar! . . . ehm, excuse my frankness, but I just can't believe what I'm reading. These people are idiots!"

After welcoming the comments from the Board of Govenors, the Supreme Chancelor Tom Monaghan announced a change of direction for the University and Town.

"As a businessman, I have learned that being successful means turning lemons into lemon-aid. So, today I am proud to announce a new strategic direction for the University & Town. From this point forward Ave Maria University & Town will be known all around the world as: AQUA MARINA UNIVERSITY & TOWN."

"This exciting new direction will make Aqua Marina University & Town the premier underwater university and town in the world. Not only will it rival Atlantis, but it will have a division one scuba team and snorkel squad. Now Nortre Dame definitely doesn't have that! . . . Oh, and there won't be any abortion clinics underwater either!"

At the press conference, the New Aqua Marina University prospectus was released. Detailing the specifics of equipping a whole university and town for operation under hundreds of feet of ocean water.

"No one's investment will be wasted at AMU," the Supreme chancellor said, "this is going to be the lifestyle of the next century. Some thought it was going to be space travel, no underwater living is the next wave of real estate growth and development."

The students, when asked what they think about having been duped into investing in Ave Maria University & Town and now have to take classes and live in a university which is totally underwater.

One student said, "I hate to say it, but Al Gore had it right, he was a prophet of sorts, if only I had listened to what he had to say, if only all of us had just taken a minute and thought about it. I mean, who builds a university where there is even a POSSIBLE risk of it being underwater in 100 years. It isn't a strip mall, its a university! Universities are supposed to exist for 100's of years not 50 to 100. I should have at least erred on the side of prudence when I saw that All Gore movie, but it was all just so politically motivated at the time it was hard to take seriously . . . "

Another student, being underwater, couldn't give a verbal comment on the broken promises and the current plan to equip "Aqua Marina" University with underwater facilities, but did express his disfavor with the unexpected turn of events in what is now sunken Naples, FL. (editorialized content)

Today's Word of the Day is: Eejit

eejit • (pron:"E-jeet") pl. eejits, n, noun, excessively foolish fellow, stereotypical Irish insult. Plain "idiot" according to the Oxford English Dictionary. Having clear roots in the word "idiot," the Irish sensibility phonetically softened this insult while adding an affectionate connotation to the meaning and thereby lessening the severity of calling someone a "pure idiot." In contrast, an eejit suggests a simmilar meaning to being a "loveable rogue", or an "old duffer", or simply an "oaf." One might call a friend or member of one's family "a complete eejit" for their obvious bumbling, but this wouldn't be as gauntlet throwing as calling him "a complete idiot."

USAGE: An example used in a sentence:

"The Fifty-Five Catholic Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives are complete eejits!"

This example might not be immediately obvious, but simply read their recent Statement of Principles on being Catholic and legislators, and compare it to the Bishop's response.

Here is a sample:

The 55 Eejit Catholic Democrats:

We are committed to making real the basic principles that are at the heart of Catholic social teaching: helping the poor and disadvantaged, protecting the most vulnerable among us, and ensuring that all Americans of every faith are given meaningful opportunities to share in the blessings of this great country. ... As Catholic Democrats who embrace the vocation and mission of the laity as expressed by Pope John Paul II in his Apostolic Exhortation, Christifideles Laici, we believe that the Church is the "people of God," called to be a moral force in the broadest sense.

The USCCB Task Force on Catholic Bishops and Catholic Politicians respond:

[W]e also need to reaffirm the Catholic Church’s constant teaching that abortion is a grave violation of the most fundamental human right – the right to life that is inherent in all human beings, and that grounds every other right we possess. Pope John Paul II’s apostolic exhortation on the vocation and mission of the laity, Christifideles Laici, which the Representatives’ statement cites, declares: The inviolability of the person which is a reflection of the absolute inviolability of God fínds its primary and fundamental expression in the inviolability of human life. Above all, the common outcry, which is justly made on behalf of human rights -- for example, the right to health, to home, to work, to family, to culture -- is false and illusory if the right to life, the most basic and fundamental right and the condition for all other personal rights, is not defended with maximum determination…. The human being is entitled to such rights, in every phase of development, from conception until natural death; and in every condition, whether healthy or sick, whole or handicapped, rich or poor (# 38). While it is always necessary to work to reduce the number of abortions by providing alternatives and help to vulnerable parents and children, Catholic teaching calls all Catholics to work actively to restrain, restrict and bring to an end the destruction of unborn human life.

When a fellow Catholic who not only identifies himself as a Catholic, but also takes it seriously (like reading the WHOLE document Christifideles Laici, rather than just the parts that are politically useful) sees his beloved brothers and sisters making of themselves public asses, he can only sigh with affection and say,

"The Fifty-Five Catholic Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives are complete eejits!" The Statement of Principles by the Fifty-Five Catholic Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives is the equivalent of standing up with buttons declaring:

"I'm PROUD to be an EEJIT!"

(Those Catholic Democrats say the darndest things, but who can blame them when they have NOW, Planned Parenthood, NARAL and the Feminist Majority taking turns sticking their arms of these Democrats' butts with a fist full of dollars. These poor eejits are likely to say anything, and do anything, and unfortunatly, that is not very funny . . . )

Reviving the Church's Social Doctrine for the 21st Century

NORFOLK, Virginia, SEPT. 11, 2003 (Zenit.org).- There's nothing new under the sun, says the Book of Ecclesiastes. John Sharpe thinks that adage is particularly applicable to social ills.

That's why Sharpe started IHS Press, a publishing company aimed at making old books on Catholic social teaching available to a contemporary audience.

Sharpe, a free-lance writer and lecturer who founded IHS two years ago, shared with ZENIT why books written decades ago can be so important to understanding and healing society today.

Q: What inspired the creation of IHS Press?

Sharpe: The Press was created to fill a gap. There are books on all kinds of Catholic subjects readily available, except for serious works on politics and economics from a Catholic standpoint. Much of the Catholic social justice writings from the 1960s and 1970s have a Marxist or materialist bent.

The clear, substantial works on what a Catholic society should look like come from the 1930s, the last decade to witness a serious movement for Catholic social principles. IHS was formed to help people rediscover those works, and to form a movement of people concerned about where society is headed. People can base their sense of what's wrong with the world on the clear thinking of Catholic social teaching.

Q: What is Catholic social teaching, and how is it an alternative to the political ideologies of today?

Sharpe: Catholic social teaching is that part of Catholic moral teaching that deals with man's social life -- it suggests what society should look like in its social, political and economic aspects, based upon the ultimate purpose of temporal life in society.

The social doctrine teaches principles specific enough to identify what's right and wrong, but general enough to allow the laity to work out the details of temporal life in conformity with those principles.

Catholic social teaching bases its approach on truths that philosophy teaches and that revelation confirms; thus it differs from other political positions in that it is founded upon the truth and is not merely pragmatic. This is fundamentally different than all other ideologies -- the social doctrine differs not only in its approach to sociopolitical questions but also in its underlying assumptions.

Other political positions differ equally from the social doctrine in that they tend to be: skeptical, not recognizing an absolute Truth upon which to base political action; materialist, seeing the purpose of man's life in society as mere enjoyment of this life, rather than as preparation for the next; and naturalist, not recognizing the existence of realities and truths that cannot be seen, touched and measured.

The social doctrine approaches politics in a radically different way. For Catholics, political life is a question of practicing virtue within the context of social living, and any structure of society that encourages virtue is to be praised because it helps people get to heaven. The opposite is true for societies that encourage vice -- like ours -- or make the practice of virtue difficult.

There are points of overlap between modern political positions and the social doctrine. Opposition to abortion, unlimited immigration, support for workers' rights and concern for the poor are all positions that the social doctrine supports.

Non-Catholics can accept the various principles of the social doctrine without accepting the Church because the principles reflect the natural law, which based upon reason. So Catholics and others can collaborate in certain specific areas for specific policies that conform to Catholic social principles.

As a complete sociopolitical creed the social doctrine really is a third way that isn't just between the Left and Right -- it rather transcends both Left and Right and rises above them with its own vision of social order.

Q: Why is it important to rediscover the writings of the Catholic social thinkers of the early 20th century? What wisdom can they offer?

Sharpe: The thinkers of the 1930s were confronting the problems that we face today: unemployment, an industrialized economy, a financial system with ridiculous national debts and rampant usury. Their approach to these problems was based upon an articulation and application -- without compromise or apology -- of the true Catholic position. Today, sadly, there is a tendency of some to water down the teachings of the Church, to adapt them to the world. Many works on the Catholic social vision are neutralized by a desire to not shock modern readers too much and to affirm aspects of modern society as acceptable that are not acceptable at all. The thinkers from before World War II spoke the truth in all its purity -- which is why our program takes their work as a starting point and hopes to pick up from there.

Q: The editors of IHS Press have stated that they are convinced the wisdom of Catholic social thought is, today, largely a buried treasure, relatively untapped and almost wholly neglected. Why do you think it was forgotten and has not been rediscovered until now?

Sharpe: World War II and Vatican II. These were two major events of the 20th century that somewhat eclipsed the work being done in implementing the Church's social principles.

World War II seemed to confirm the triumph of capitalism and political liberalism, so that it became difficult, if not ungrateful, to oppose them. Laissez-faire economics and secular democracy -- never mind that it was allied with militant, atheist Communism -- triumphed over the Axis.

To many people, that physical triumph suggested that capitalism and political liberalism were in fact morally right, though the conclusion doesn't follow at all. The position of papal teaching is that neither capitalism nor liberalism is an ideal social system.

Following World War II, criticisms of them could be dismissed as either totalitarian, politically; or socialist or communist, economically. Today, however, in the era of stock market bubbles, Enron, Wal-Mart, the Patriot Act and a tendentious war on terror, it is easy to see that the triumph of liberalism and capitalism in the 1940s was not an unmitigated blessing for humanity.

Nevertheless, the movements that flourished in the 1930s were decimated, at least ideologically, by the war.

The Distributist League, founded in 1926, fizzled away. The Scottish and English Catholic Land Movements, founded in 1929, ended in the middle 1940s.

And the Catholic schools of thought in France -- theirs was corporatism -- and Germany -- the solidarism of Heinrich Pesch -- were respectively discredited with the fall of the Vichy government in France, which had implemented a good bit of Catholic social doctrine, or drowned out by the din of the rise and fall of the Third Reich.

Meanwhile, the confusion accompanying the implementation of Vatican II throughout the world was later to do as much damage to the theoretical prospects of the social doctrine as World War II did to the practical prospects.

It has to be admitted -- as many prominent churchmen including Cardinal Ratzinger have said -- that the interpretation of the truths of the faith were, in some circles, watered down during the late 1960s and early 1970s. The social doctrine suffered a similar fate.

Even though the council documents suggest that the Catholic layman has the duty of implementing Catholic principles in social life, some reinterpreted those principles in a worldly context.

On the Left were the liberation theologians and Marxist priests who lost all sense of the otherworldly destiny of man and thought that Christian social action consisted in initiating a material paradise on earth. On the Right there was -- and still is, in a bad way -- a tendency to shy away from criticizing capitalism for fear of seeming reactionary. So, the Church's clear stance against economic liberalism was and is watered down into a kind of Catholic capitalism that doesn't square with the faith.

If in some circles Vatican II was used to try to appease the modern world by meeting it on its own terms -- that, too, undercut any attempt to conform the world to the faith according to Catholic principles.

Everyone now admits that the effects of Vatican II weren't all marvelous. That, along with the realization that the post-World War II triumph of liberalism and capitalism weren't unmitigated blessings, provides the opportunity for a restatement, re-appreciation and implementation of the integral social doctrine.

Q: Why does your press highlight the writings of thinkers who call themselves "Distributists"?

Sharpe: The Distributist School was the main group of English thinkers from the 1930s who enunciated the vision of Catholic social doctrine with the most clarity and vigor. They wrote in English and are accessible to us. G.K. Chesterton and Hilaire Belloc, both famous in their own right, were among their numbers.

Most important, though, is their clear articulation of the Catholic position in the face of the twin evils confronting it -- capitalism and socialism. They understood that position fully, enunciated it in excellent prose and acted upon it by founding leagues, movements and journals that attempted to conduct an effective propaganda for the social doctrine and to make it a reality in the world.

One example is a book by Harold Robbins, a leader of both the Catholic Land Movement and the Distributist League, called "The Sun of Justice -- An Essay on the Social Teaching of the Church." That book is one of the best on the Distributist case for the social doctrine.

The Distributists are a very good place to start in beginning to reconstruct and re-popularize the social doctrine, and in attempting to implement the solutions it offers to the manifold problems facing the modern world.

"I have to live my life according to what I believe is right!"

Wow! What a profound message of love. Who would have thought that the film Brokeback Mountain would signal a clarion call to pull back the veil on the complexities and beauty of man-man hot love. Film makers are responding and making films that matter - matter to real people like you and me. The above quote is the profound message of love at the heart of a new film soon to be released by Universal.

It is a story of man-boy hot love that spans across space and time. And it is a novel film in that it is a cross-over-sci-fi-sequal . . . let me tell you about it!

Now that Brokeback Mountain is set to sweep the Oscars, we, the viewing public are now able to recognize the true depths of love that can overcome two seemingly straightmen. Ah! How free it feels to be liberated from those oppressive moral constraints that imposed a blindness on the viewing public. Horray for Hollywood! Liberators of the masses!

No longer will the obvious homo-erotic themes of films like Forrest Gump, Blade Runner and The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants be relegated to the subtext of the plot. Now that we have Brokeback, we can face what we always suspected in the back of our minds - man-man hot love is everywhere! Yippy-Yea!

This latest film from Universal is the exciting story of a man-boy coming of age hot love style . . . BROKEBACK to the Future III.

Who can wait for the Oscars next year!

The Left Following the Lead of Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young: "Teach your children well . . ."

Be warned, this book is so absurd that it will give you seizures of laughter, you might just die laughing. "Mommy, what's that funny smell?" is only the beginning of this ridiculousness.

This one is a bit more cynical. But it gives us a look into the Democrat's self-understanding of its own values. I can't help but wonder where Daddy is in this book, and how ultimately the natural conclusion a child will draw from the book is, "If the Democrats are so like Mommy, then why do we need Mommy at all?" And indeed that is what It takes a village is all about - the Nanny State in which men are unnecessary and women never again have to concern themselves with being a mommy to a baby.

(Hat tip to Mark Shea)

What does this Dude have to do with "The New Counter Culture"?

The reality is that he just might be you, that is if you are an orthodox Catholic, have localist sensibilities and think John Paul II got it right when he wrote:

As one called to till and look after the garden of the world (cf. Gen 2:15), man has a specific responsibility towards the environment in which he lives, towards the creation which God has put at the service of his personal dignity, of his life, not only for the present but also for future generations. It is the ecological question-ranging from the preservation of the natural habitats of the different species of animals and of other forms of life to "human ecology" properly speaking 28 - which finds in the Bible clear and strong ethical direction, leading to a solution which respects the great good of life, of every life. In fact, "the do- minion granted to man by the Creator is not an absolute power, nor can one speak of a freedom to ?use and misuse', or to dispose of things as one pleases. The limitation imposed from the beginning by the Creator himself and expressed symbolically by the prohibition not to ?eat of the fruit of the tree' (cf. Gen 2:16-17) shows clearly enough that, when it comes to the natural world, we are subject not only to biological laws but also to moral ones, which cannot be violated with impunity".

To learn more about this development, which has been in the works for some time, hop over to Our Lady's Shire for more.

Gagged NASA Scientist Scandal, Possible Conspiracy Link to Ave Maria University's Supreme Chancelor - Tom Monaghan

NASA & Ave Maria, FL - February 17, 2006 - Two seemingly disconnected events have generated speculation today of a possible conspiracy linking the suppression of a NASA scientist and the offical ground breaking of Ave Maria University and Town in Naples Flordia.

Jim Hansen, the director of the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies and top climate modeller, sought to go public with the results of a new satellite study of the Greenland ice cap which showed a massive acceleration of melting than what was previously thought, but political appointees from the Bush administration tried to stop him from going public and sought to suppress his voice and the results of this important study.

However the story got out and was featured prominently on the Drudge Report with the above photo.

As the melting ice cap story broke despite the efforts to suppress, President Bush's brother Jeb Bush was in Naples, Florida with billionaire Tom Monaghan for the ground breaking of the new town and university there.

“This is a historic day, not only for Ave Maria University and Town, but also for Collier County and the State of Florida,” Governor Bush said. “This new town is the result of many years of work and partnership between state and local government and landowners to develop the Rural Lands Stewardship Program in Eastern Collier County. We thank the leadership of Ave Maria University [Tom Monaghan] for choosing Florida as the home for this new world class academic institution.” Monaghan, founder of Domino’s Pizza and former owner of the Detroit Tigers, seeded the University with more than $250 million. “This initial donation will provide a substantial start to Ave Maria University, but to achieve our vision for greatness we will need continued financial support from others,” Monaghan noted.

The NASA ice cap melting news represents a significant threat to the Supreme Chancelor's "vision for greatness" and the injection of hundred's of millions of dollars into Govenor Jeb Bush's state. Why? Because no one wants to plunk their treasure into the middle of what scientists predict will soon become an ocean.

National Geographic News has reported on studies from the Department of Geosciences Environmental Studies Labratory that show the impact of what the melting of the Greenland ice cap would have on global sea levels. The impact is predicted to raise the sea level by 6 meters. The results are shown below:

Using computer models, scientists have created a series of maps that show areas susceptible to rises in sea level. The above map shows that a 6-meter (20-foot) rise would swamp Miami, Fort Lauderdale, Tampa, and the entire Florida coastline, in addition to parts of Orlando and other inland areas.Image created by Jonathan Overpeck and Jeremy Weiss, courtesy University of Arizona Department of Geosciences Environmental Studies Laboratory

With a 6 meter rise in water level, Ave Maria University and Town will look something like this by the time its first graduating class reaches the end of life expectancy:

However, NASA scientist, Jim Hansen predicts, in the supressed story, that sea levels are likely to rise by 25 meters by the end of the century, 2100. If NASA's data is correct, this represents a very serious threat to the Ave Maria University project.

These seemingly disconnected facts have led some close observers to speculate on whether billionaire Supreme Chancelor Tom Monaghan has used his influence in the Bush administration to force the suppression of yet another voice of criticism of Ave Maria University and Town in Naples.

Those close to Mr. Monaghan know that nothing will get in the way of his "vision of greatness." The greatly respected and distinguished Prof. Charles Rice is one of the more prominant persons who have suffered at the hand of Tom's "vision of greatness," not to mention the many students and families who were supporters of Ave Maria College.

The coincidence of the gagged scientist, the ground breaking of AMU & Town, the Bush connection, the hundreds of millions at stake and Supreme Chancelor Monaghan's modus operandi all have fueled mounting speculative chatter as to the existence of a conspiracy.

Close Monaghan & AMU watchers will be looking very closely for any hint of suppression of the scientists at the National Hurricane Center this coming season. If information about hurricanes headed for Naples, Florida are suppressed in the media or if the vast history of hurricanes hitting the area is rewritten in the press, then the Monaghan conspiracy will finally be exposed.

Until then, the speculation will continue and hopefully those who are considering moving to Ave Maria University (such as Ave Maria Law School) will have access to ALL the facts.

[Editorial note for DaVinci Code readers: sat·ire - Etymology: Middle French or Latin; Middle French, from Latin satura, satira, perhaps from (lanx) satura dish of mixed ingredients, from feminine of satur well-fed; akin to Latin satis enough -- 1 : a literary work holding up human vices and follies to ridicule or scorn, 2 : trenchant wit, irony, or sarcasm used to expose and discredit vice or folly]