Don't use these:



Banished Words for 2003

Twentieth Anniversary of Al Gore's founding of the Internet



vnunet.com Happy 20th birthday to the internet

First Baby of 2003 has Two Moms



A New Year's Baby With an Additional Difference: 2 Moms (washingtonpost.com)

A Story Neglected by the Press in the U.S.A.



Yahoo! News - Cameraman flies over cyclone-hit South Pacific island; reports devastation





Cyclone Zoe, packing winds of up to 360 kph (225 mph), hit Tikopia and Anuta islands in the Solomon Islands on Sunday. It wiped out communications and made initial damage assessment impossible. There was no word on possible casualties.



"Every tree on the island has been blown over or shredded, the island is completely denuded of vegetation," Geoff Mackley reported on his Web site after flying over Tikopia.



"Almost every building has been damaged, a few remain intact, while others have been shredded, and the sea has come through some villages, burying them," he added.

From a Reader of my latest book:



Finished your How-To book of the Mass yesterday.



I'm a revert Catholic and have become very critical of my new-age feminist Catholic grade-school/CCD upbringing and my childhood parish - especially when visiting family and attending Mass over the Holiday.



Your book is what I needed to put the Mass back in perspective and appreciate what is there and not concentrate on the abuses. Thanks for the section on how to experience a great homily every time - it worked!



I'm attending an RCIA class and will pass your book along as a recommendation for reading for all.



You're a great writer - thanks again!



Thanks!

A Saint's Name for Your Next Child-- St Quodvultdeus



From the Office of Readings for today from a sermon by St. Quodvultdeus:



The children die for Christ, though they do not know it. The parents mourn for the death of martyrs. The child makes of those as yet unable to speak fit witnesses to himself. See the kind of kingdom that is his, coming as he did in order to be this kind of king. See how the deliverer is already working deliverance, the saviour already working salvation.



But you, Herod, do not know this and are disturbed and furious. While you vent your fury against the child, you are already paying him homage, and do not know it.



How great a gift of grace is here! To what merits of their own do the children owe this kind of victory? They cannot speak, yet they bear witness to Christ. They cannot use their limbs to engage in battle, yet already they bear off the palm of victory.

The weather...



One of my favorite subjects. None of the weather forecasters were correct in their predictions with regard to us. Even the local television stations were predicting a mere dusting a few hours before the snow actually fell. Contrast that with a week before when they were predicting a more substantial dumping and nothing--absolutely nothing fell. With all their computer simulations, satelite imagery--the weather people are still fairly dumb as a lot. Perhaps a better indicator that something was about to happen here was the racoon who appeared in broad daylight in our backyard midafternoon on Christmas Eve either headed for Christmas dinner somewhere or preparing for an oncoming storm that would dumb close to 9 inches of snow here.