Thursday, January 29, 2009

Vatican prelate says bishops partly responsible for election of Obama

AN INTERESTING ARTICLE FROM THE VATICAN appeared this week. Former St. Louis Archbishop Raymond Burke, now the prefect of the Apostolic Signatura (something like the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court) says that the U.S. bishops’ document “Faithful Citizenship” was confusing enough to lead many pro-life Catholics to vote for the pro-abortion Barack Obama in last November’s election. Burke charged that the document created “a kind of false thinking” that issues other than life were worthy of equal consideration. He zeroed in on a phrase in the document that said a Catholic could vote for a pro-abortion candidate as long as they do not do so because of the candidate’s support of abortion. Here is a link to the news article.

Thursday, January 22, 2009

Hail to the Chef … er, yes, the Chef

MY FIREND JULIE HYZY, author of State of the Onion, has another winner with Hail to the Chef, the continuing story of Ollie Paras, new White House chef who finds herself involved in some very high voltage murders.

In Chef, Ollie has to balance the White House Christmas holiday menus with the First Lady’s attempt at matchmaking, and a terrorist plot. All happening while Ollie is under pressure from a senator’s office to rig a gingerbread man decorating contest. Ollie realizes something is up after the unlikely death of a White House electrician in an apparent on-the-job accident and the sudden death of the First Lady’s nephew which is at first ruled a suicide.

A good read with a unique bonus: twenty three pages of recipes for appetizers fit for a commander-in-chief.

A Berkley Prime Crime Mystery, paperback, $7.99