An Untraditional Wedding Procession

I have never seen or even heard of anything like this. Wow.

(Muchas gracias to Mr. H. for bringing this to my attention.)

Is Texas Heading Quietly Toward Secession?

It happened before, yes, but come on. Could it realistically happen again? Lots of folks would say no, it couldn't. But given all the weird stuff happening and all the unravelling going on in this country lately . . . a story like this takes on new and unsettling connotations.

Last time it happened was in 1861, and the burning issues of the day back then were states rights and slavery. Today, the new burning issues are, among other things, states rights, abortion, and "health care."

Yes, yes, I agree that it's far-fetched to imagine that, in this day and age, there could ever be a serious bid on the part of a state to break away from the U.S. And yet . . . I think that most of you would agree with me that there are plenty of really bad things going on these days that, 50, 30, or even just 10 years ago, would have seemed preposterously far-fetched. Am I wrong?

AUSTIN — Gov. Rick Perry, raising the specter of a showdown with the Obama administration, suggested Thursday that he would consider invoking states’ rights protections under the 10th Amendment to resist the president’s healthcare plan, which he said would be "disastrous" for Texas.

Interviewed by conservative talk show host Mark Davis of Dallas’ WBAP/820 AM, Perry said his first hope is that Congress will defeat the plan, which both Perry and Davis described as "Obama Care." But should it pass, Perry predicted that Texas and a "number" of states might resist the federal health mandate.

"I think you’ll hear states and governors standing up and saying 'no’ to this type of encroachment on the states with their healthcare," Perry said. "So my hope is that we never have to have that stand-up. But I’m certainly willing and ready for the fight if this administration continues to try to force their very expansive government philosophy down our collective throats."

Perry, the state’s longest-serving governor, has made defiance of Washington a hallmark of his state administration as well as . . . (continue reading)

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Yes, Virginia. Saint Augustine Really Was Catholic.

Dave Armstrong has compiled a handy series of statements from the great bishop-apologist, Augustine of Hippo, detailing his teaching on the sacraments of the Catholic Church. It's a useful corrective against those, such as Calvinists, who attempt to portray St. Augustine as not having been Catholic, at least not in the "Roman Catholic" sense of the word.

This list is worth bookmarking, both for your own personal study of this patristic giant and for those times that may arise in which you need to debunk bogus claims about what St. Augustine really believed.

Oh, and you can find here and here a couple of related items that I posted here on this blog awhile back.