Ladewig.com

Archbishop Raymond Burke, head of the St. Louis Archdiocese, has decided to wade even further into the political arena. Not content to deny Communion to candidates who support abortion rights, he is now going after Catholic voters. According to an article in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Burke says that you are committing a grave sin if you vote for a candidate who supports abortion rights.

So the Archbishop thinks I will be committing a sin by voting for Kerry instead of Bush? I can live with that. I wonder what he’ll try next, maybe threaten Catholic voters with excommunication?

I’m curious whether each individual vote for a candidate is a separate sin, or do they all roll up into one big sin? They should put up an FAQ at the Archdiocese web site. They could have an interactive sin calculator where you select the candidates for whom you vote, and it will tell you how big a sin you committed and what kind of penance you should do.

Instead of giving out stickers at the polls that say “I Voted”, someone can give out ones that say “I Sinned”.

The Bush-Cheney web site used to have a poster generator that you could use to create your own signs with any slogan you entered. Apparently the system didn’t check to see if the slogans people created actually supported the campaign. They figured this out eventually and shut it down.

Thankfully, people are collecting the posters that were made so they can be viewed online. Check out BushCheneySloganator and the Sloganator Memorial. The Memorial is a slide show complete with music to celebrate the brief but productive life of the Sloganator.

If Bush and Cheney ever decide that telling the truth is something they want to try, they should use some of these signs in their campaign.

CNN is reporting that the bodies of a father from Chicago and his two sons, missing since May 6, washed ashore on a beach in Pleasant Prairie, Wisconsin. The bodies were tied together with nylon rope and also were tied to bags filled with sand. The police chief is quoted as saying that the deaths are “very suspicious” and they are “being treated as a homicide.”

Gee, I wonder what tipped them off?

Pleasant Prairie is in Kenosha County, where I’m from. When I was a kid it seemed Kenosha was only in the national news when someone discovered a body dumped by organized crime out of Chicago. The Anthony Biernat murder and the Callahan-McDade murders were probably two of the most famous.

Saw Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban today. By myself. Kristin doesn’t like anything dealing with fantasy, so no Harry Potter, no Lord of the Rings, for her. I loved it. Definitely the best of the bunch so far. I enjoyed the first two, but this one had a different feel to it courtesy of the director, “Alfonso Cuar

According to Deb Peterson’s column in today’s Post-Dispatch, Mayor Pat Kelly of Brentwood has confirmed that the first Trader Joe’s in the St. Louis area will be in Brentwood Promenade. As expected, it will be in the former Zany Brainy location. Finally!