Test Results.

In an effort to keep down the cost of health insurance, the company where I work is providing a free, on site clinic for the employees who have the company's health insurance.
To take advantage of this, I had to have a medical evaluation which included a blood test. The results of the test came in a few days back and I had my consultation with the nurse practitioner Thursday.
Most of my numbers look fine.....with the exception of my triglycerides and LDL which were both a little too high.The NP remarked how pleasantly surprised she was with the level of my HDL. She said most men have very low levels of HDL.....far below the 40 mg/dL minimum. Mine was 51 which puts my LDL/HDL ratio at 3.2 which ain't bad. I believe the HDL number I have comes from my eating a lot of fish and drinking a lot of tea.
Still, even with the 3.2 ratio, it's a good idea to reduce my LDL. The NP recommends I try omega 3 fish oil supplements. I'm also going to cut down on the fried foods, egg yolks and switch from whole milk to low fat.
I've an appointment to have another blood test in August so we can see if changing my diet can change my bad cholesterol levels.
I'm optimistic.

Silly Susan.

I wish I had a dollar for ever time a Hollywood celeb announced that if "such and such" Republican candidate is elected President of the U.S., they've leave the country.......but are still here in spite of what they'd promised.
Now it's Susan Sarandon's turn. She said recently, that if John McCain is elected, she'll move to Italy.
Odd, she should choose Italy, considering her dislike of Pope Benedict XVI. She is quoted as saying,
"This particular Pope is not one of my favourites," she says.
"I am pretty suspicious of him and my only message to him is that he should become more compassionate and more involved in what the world needs now instead of his archaic kind of outdated, misogynist infrastructure the Church has going now."
My choice for Pres. is Libertarian, Bob Barr, but I'd like to see McCain win - if only to see her leave.

Vatican Confirms Excommunication of St. Louis Group.

Today, I read an article in Zenit about the decision by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith to confirm an earlier declaration from the St. Louis Archbishop Raymond Burke to excommunicate the board of directors of the St. Stanislaus Kostka Corporation ( formerly, St. Stanislaus Kostka parish ) and their priest, Marek Bozek.
Of the priest, Zenit has this;
"The priest involved, Father Marek Bozek of the Diocese of Springfield-Cape Girardeau, had left his priestly assignment against the expressed will of his bishop, Bishop John Leibrecht, in order to be hired by the St. Stanislaus Kostka Corporation."
In an interview from April, 2006 Bozek said,
"In November, I asked Bishop [John] Leibrecht for a leave of absence from Springfield. I explained that I felt called to serve these people without sacraments. A few days later he called back and said the archbishop didn’t want me in St. Louis. On December 2, I told Bishop Leibrecht that I needed to follow my conscience."
Now, less than five years after he was ordained (on his 28th birthday) in the diocese of Springfield-Cape Girardeau, Missouri, Bozek finds himself excommunicated.
In Archbishop Rayond L. Burke's weekly column in the St. Louis Review , the Archbishop writes,
"On December 15th of 2005, I was obliged to declare the excommunication of the members of the Board of Directors of Saint Stanislaus Kostka Corporation because of their persistence in schism. The members of the Board had committed the most grievous delict of schism by hiring a suspended priest, that is, a priest not in good standing in the Church, for the purpose of attempting to celebrate the sacraments and sacramentals at Saint Stanislaus Kostka Church, all outside of the communion of the Catholic Church. The priest in question, the Reverend Marek B. Bozek, a priest of the Diocese of Springfield-Cape Girardeau, had left his priestly assignment against the expressed will of his bishop, Bishop John Leibrecht, in order to be hired by the Board of Directors of Saint Stanislaus Kostka Corporation."
From the Archdiocese of St. Louis web site:
Background to the Decision of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith Issued May 15
December 15, 2005: Archbishop Burke declares the members of the Board of Directors of the Saint Stanislaus Kostka Corporation excommunicated because they formed an "independent entity" outside the Church and hired a suspended priest as their pastor.
March 23, 2006: The Board of Directors appeals the archbishop's decision to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the Vatican office that has jurisdiction over matters of schism.
May 15, 2008: The Congregation rejects the appeal made by the Saint Stanislaus Kostka Board, because the Board was "negligent" in fulfilling formal requirements for an appeal. The Congregation confirms the Decrees of Excommunication issued by the archbishop, because the Board members continue to operate in a state of schism.
The Congregation encourages the Saint Stanislaus Kostka Board members to withdraw from their schism. They have 30 days to exercise their right to present an appeal to the Congregation's "Cardinal and Bishop members."

The church's web site has this,
"2005 - Despite many efforts to solve the property dispute with the Archdiocese, which involves administrative rules only and not dogmas or morals, Saint Stanislaus was left without a priest and sacraments for over seventeen months. Upon receiving the approval of the Parish vote, the Board of Directors began the search for a priest courageous enough to minister to Saint Stanislaus parishioners with or without the Archbishop’s permission. On December 2, Father Marek B. Bozek from the neighboring Springfield – Cape Girardeau diocese was hired to be our Pastor. On December 16, both the Pastor and the members of the Board of Directors were excommunicated by Archbishop Burke and all Catholics were warned that participation in any services in Saint Stanislaus constitutes a mortal sin. On December 24, the first Mass was offered in our church in over seventeen months, the Christmas Midnight Mass. Over two thousand people gathered to celebrate the birth of Jesus and rebirth of our Parish. Appeal against excommunication was filed with the Holy See."

The St. Stanislaus Kostka Corporation claims this is just a disagreement over property rights.....the Archbishop ( and now the Vatican ) say it is about the group not accepting the authourity of the Catholic Church over the local parish.
"It is evident that the Board Members have committed the delict of schism by constituting St. Stanislaus Kostka Parish as an independent entity capable of appointing its own clergy apart from the hierarchy of the Church," wrote Cardinal William Levada, Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.

I've seen photos of the church on their web site and it's very beautiful and I can understand the attachment the parishoners have for it, but they have removed themselves from the Church and are now excommunicated because of their love for something "material" ( a building ).

Relevant links:
stltoday.com
creativeminorityreport.com
Recent Decisions of the Holy See Regarding Saint Stanislaus Kostka Corporation

NAUMANN VERSUS SEBELIUS.

An article on the http://www.catholicnews.com web site reports that Archbishop Joseph F. Naumann of Kansas City imformed Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius that she should stop receiving Communion until she changes her stance on abortion.
Archbishop Naumann has met with Gov.Sebelius on a number of occasions and expressed his concern over her receiving the Blessed Sacrament while maintaining her public support of abortion and abortionists.....particularly the infamous Dr. George Tiller.
According to Operation Rescue, Gov. Sibelius likes to hang with Tiller and has been known to party hardy with the not so good Doctor.
At one time, Sibelius was on the short list for running mates for Barack Obama (should he win the nomination). I don't know the status of that list, now. Is it possible that she may be too much of a political hot potato for the VP slot ? With Democrats, you never know. She could be seen as a way for Obama to placate the white, feminist Democrats he dissed with his usurpation of the nomination from Hillary.
Relevant links:
http://www.lifenews.com/state3266.html
http://causa-nostrae-laetitiae.blogspot.com/2008/05/sibelius-and-tiller-partners-in.html
http://causa-nostrae-laetitiae.blogspot.com/2008/05/kansas-coercion-and-flying-monkeys.html
http://thekansasrepublican.blogspot.com/2008/05/kathy-sebelius-and-george-tiller.html

More on the Savannah Trip.

I'm quickly using up my vacation days for this year; we've had a number of extra days off and I used up a few by getting vacation pay for those days.
We received a stimulus check from the Feds but it was going fast as well.
So, we decided to use the Memorial Day weekend to take a vacation while we still have a few extra dollars.
We arranged to meet some friends (who live in Greenville, SC.) in Savannah, GA. I found a motel that still had rooms available (at a reasonable rate) though we had to get rooms about 20 miles from the beach.
Unfortunately, I made the mistake of using Mapquest for directions to the motel. Steps 9 to 12 were wrong:
9: Merge onto GA-21 S via EXIT 164A.
10: Turn RIGHT onto GA-204 W/ABERCORN ST
11: Turn LEFT onto MALL BLVD.
12: End at 114 Mall Blvd Savannah, GA 31406-4728

Step 9 took us WAY off course.

We did manage to find our way to the motel, and the trip was, otherwise, enjoyable. I'll be writing more about the trip in a few days after my photos return from the lab (my wife uses a digital camera, but I prefer the old SLR).