Wednesday, May 31, 2023

GO JESSE: "QUITE AN EARFUL!"


YOUTUBE: Senators are meeting in emergency session to discuss two bills that will provide more than $64 million in typhoon recovery assistance. Mayor’s Council of Guam president Jesse Alig was there to brief senators on conditions in the villages, and gave them quite an earful. 

HERE

HELPING TOM BURY MARY - AND MAY 30, 1951

By Tim Rohr


A couple weeks ago I wrote a post titled HELPING TOM BURY MARY and wherein I set out some of the challenges my non-Catholic cousin was having procuring a Catholic funeral and burial for his Catholic sister. 

The issue in short was: while my cousin's "church" had a dedicated ministry to burying their dead at no cost to the dead or the bereaved, his sister's Catholic parish had a rather daunting price list of services.

My cousin, knowing I'm Catholic, contacted me for help and I agreed to meet with the pastor to discuss the matter and today was the day I met with him (the pastor).  

The pastor was an African, as a lot of them are in this area (I'm presently off-island). He had just returned from a few weeks away and I was his first appointment. I was quite sure that he hadn't time yet to check his schedule as he seemed a bit surprised to see me.

I was immediately impressed. 

The first thing Father did after asking my name and sitting down in his office was to launch into about a two minute prayer invoking the blessing of St. Timothy upon me and ending with a Hail Mary. I sort of wondered if he was testing my Catholicism when he went into the Hail Mary, so I prayed it audibly along with him. 

He seemed assured.

I thanked him for the prayer and told him I appreciated a priest who prayed. 

Bottom line is that after I told him of my cousin's challenges with trying to get his sister buried pursuant to her wishes for a Catholic funeral and burial and the charges my cousin was quoted, the pastor was perplexed, maybe even a little angry. He said "I'm going to have to talk to my staff. This is not the Church I belong to." (Referencing the prices quoted my cousin by the parish secretary.)

So no charge for anything, not the use of the church (and it's a church that is as large as the Agana Cathedral), not the utilities, not the priest, and not the services of a priest or deacon at the interment/burial at a cemetery at least 30 minutes away. 

Thank you, Father. 

Meanwhile, we intend to make a donation of all we can. 

P.S. As I was waiting for Father, I was thumbing through some documents I had re my deceased cousin and sort of rustling through my many memories of her, even though most of those memories were from many years ago. Then, near the top of one of the papers I noted her birthday. It was today, May 30, 1951. 

I won't say "Happy Birthday in heaven, Mary," because, as Catholics, we believe that only God can know that. But, as Catholics, what we do believe is that a proper Catholic funeral and burial will help her get there just in case she isn't there "yet." So I'm glad that's what she'll get. Finally. 

Monday, May 29, 2023

LET'S PUT MEMORIAL DAY BACK


There's a saying that says "What you do speaks so loudly that what you say I cannot hear." It's a version of "Actions speak louder than words," and the like.

A real example of the truth of this maxim, in a negative way, is what happens every year on Memorial Day. 

Over and over again we read, see, and hear stuff like "remember all those who served," or something to the effect of remembering or honoring all service men and women. 

And over and over again we read, see, and hear reminders that Memorial Day is NOT for those who wore the uniform but for those who DIED in it.

Particularly irksome is hearing or reading "Happy Memorial Day! WTH? Seriously? Happy?

The reminder of what Memorial Day really is never seems to gain ground. 

And here's why.

Government goof balls desecrated this day when they made a three-day weekend out of it. That's fine for some holidays, but NOT Memorial Day. 

Here's what the History Channel says about how and why that happened:

For decades, Memorial Day continued to be observed on May 30, the date General Logan had selected for the first Decoration Day. But in 1968, Congress passed the Uniform Monday Holiday Act, which established Memorial Day as the last Monday in May in order to create a three-day weekend for federal employees. The change went into effect in 1971. The same law also declared Memorial Day a federal holiday.

The concept of a three-day weekend is just that: a party weekend. And that's what most of America appears to do. 

In other words, no matter how many reminders we get about what Memorial Day is supposed to be, the fact that our government turned a sacred day to remember our heroic dead into nothing different than Labor Day or the 4th of July, has made Memorial Day into just another day to BBQ, booze it up, and take out the boat. 

It's one thing to serve. It's another thing to die serving. 

Memorial Day is a sacred day, a day set apart like no other. Let's put it back to May 30 and leave it there. 

Party some other time. 

Saturday, May 27, 2023

METEOROLOGIST: "SO WHAT DOES THIS ALL MEAN?"

By Tim Rohr

As Typhoon Mawar was approaching Guam, it intensified to a Supertyphoon with gusts up to 175mph and was making a beeline for my home in Agat. While my home has been through such winds before (Paka and Pongsana), that was awhile ago, and I had some other special reasons for being concerned about my home this time around. 

So, like many, if not most of you, I spent some extra time on my knees (as I did in Paka and Pongsana), praying that the wrath of Mawar might be turned away, or at least just a bit. And that's what happened, as described by meteorologist, Mike Middlebrooke, in this Facebook post. Thank you Mike for saying it like you said it. 


Below is copied the full text of Mike's post in case you can't link to the above, with his pics inserted:


All those who prayed prior to and during the passage of Typhoon Mawar across Guam might be interested to know that in response to the prayers of many, Mawar went from being a 155 mph super typhoon out ESE of Guam down to a 135-140 mph non-super typhoon just east of the island before crossing the north tip of Guam at that lesser intensity. Once Mawar got safely west of Guam, it intensified again and as I write this (Thu 11 PM CDT) it is now a Cat 5 super typhoon with max winds of 185 mph.




The first picture shows STY Mawar ESE of Guam Tue 23 May at 240 AM CDT, 540 PM Tue at Guam, with max winds of 155 mph. 





The second picture is a screen grab from an excellent live briefing on FB by the Warning Coordination Meterologist for Guam, Landon Aydlett. It is an enhanced IR satellite image of Mawar in which the eye has deteriorated significantly, indicating weakening, and is now crossing the northern tip of Guam. 





From the radar image in the third picture it appears that there was a massive intrusion of dry air into the eye from the north, wiping out the northern half of the eyewall. This is NOT the radar signature of a STY, and at this point JTWC had downgraded Mawar to a non-super typhoon with max winds at 120 kt, or 138 mph. (The lower limit for super is 130 kt, 150 mph.) But the strongest winds of 130-140 mph were in the heavy rain band south of the center, and Mawar dragged those winds and the heavy rain over the island, resulting, as everyone on Guam knows, in considerable damage and flooding. 




In the last image, from the 25th at 11 AM CDT, 26th at 2 AM on Guam, we see STY Mawar has intensified rapidly since leaving Guam behind, and had winds of 170 mph at image time. As indicated earlier, now those winds are assessed at 185 mph. 

So what does this all mean? 

1. Well, hundreds or even thousands of God's people were praying for Guam, that Mawar would weaken or shift course or do both. Mawar weakened just in time to spare Guam the terrible destruction of a 160 mph STY in favor of a lesser 135-140 mph storm. 

2. As bad as Typhoon Mawar was, it could have been A LOT WORSE, and I think a miracle occurred. I can't imagine what it would be like if Mawar had passed over Guam at, say, 185 mph!

3. But having said that, we also see that a 140 mph typhoon can still do a lot of damage and be very dangerous even if it isn't super.

We should give thanks to the Lord and praise Him for the way things turned out! Now we all need to pray for a fast recovery, with power and water restored as soon as possible. God bless all of you on Guam; we are still praying.

+++++

Monday, May 22, 2023

GOODBYE PNC

By Tim Rohr

SOURCE

Anyway. That was the headline on May 11, 2018, in a news story, reported by Jolene Toves, and broadcast on what used to be PNC News. 

As an aside, it was interesting timing. May 11, was "our" 32nd wedding anniversary, and also the same date "the other party" retained an attorney who was intimately related to the woman who would be governor (it's a matter of public record), a woman I had battled with for more than a decade over the abortion issue.

Moreover ..."11" was the number of children "the other party" and I brought into this world. 

(As the case wore on, "11" and even May 11, would factor in an uncommon way into this case - a story I may tell at another time.)

The PNC story was one of four hit pieces on me that ran that week in May 2018: the first two by KUAM, and then followed by the Guam Daily Post, and finally PNC. (You can read all of them here.)

At least, Krystal Paco, the then-KUAM reporter who first trashed me for two nights in a row on public television, gave me an opportunity to make a statement in my defense. However, PNC DID NOT. 

NOTE: Because I was then represented by counsel, I checked with my attorney as to whether or not I should provide a statement to the media. She (the attorney) basically told me that if I talk to the media that I could find another attorney. I should have. And eventually did. But that’s a story for later. 

PNC (Jolene Toves) simply picked up on the KUAM story, regurgitated the allegations, and never attempted to present the other side: MINE.

So now PNC is DEAD:

After almost twenty years of presenting news to our island and the region, the Pacific News Center is ready for our next stage of evolution...The thirty-minute television production of PNC will be taking a temporary hiatus as we reimagine and prepare for the future of news on our island. 

LOL. "evolution...reimagine..." NOT.  PNC - at least its TV presence -  is done

Meanwhile, JW, continues to clip along into the many millions of views from every country on the face of the earth. (See the sidebar.) Call it "serendipity" or "justice" or maybe even "divine justice." 

But now, back to Krystal Paco's "breaking" expose on Tim Rohr as a wife-beater and child-molester of his own children. 

I'm going to give you the abbreviated version and in the interest of time I am not going to provide all the supporting docs. Just know that I can.

+++++

On the morning of May 9, 2018. I received a text from Krystal Paco, then of KUAM, with certain copies of the other party's filings alleging the aforesaid "domestic violence and abuse." 

I wasn't surprised or shocked, in fact I replied to Krystal that it was "expected." 

To understand why it was "expected," one would have to understand the complex workings of what I had been involved in to take down the world's most notorious empire of clergy sex abuse (per capita), headquartered right here on "Chancery Hill," and propped up by the nefarious "Kiko's" - and some perfect storm stuff on the family side. 

I don't have time to explain the Kiko's roll. Just search for "Kiko's" in the above search bar for starters. And I'm not going to drag my family through this again, at least not now, even though some were willing partners with the media (and the Kikos) to drag me through it. (I have the emails.)

Krystal's screenshots were of papers filed in an unfortunate domestic matter. And given that normally real news reporters do not sit around at the court waiting for the latest papers filed in domestic disputes, I asked Krystal how she came to know of "this case." 

Well...might as well copy the Whats App chat here exactly as it happened. I'm on the right. Krystal's on the left:



So Krystal was given the "case number as my tip." 

So: 1) WHO would know the "case number"; 2) WHO would want to give it to Krystal Paco as "a tip;" and 3) and WHY?

I know WHY and I have stacks of stuff to back it up. But it's a story for another day. 

+++++

PS. The only Guam media that did not attack me on this matter was the Pacific Daily News. After enduring a week of filth aimed at me, I contacted Haidee at the PDN to see if she was going to trash me too. To Haidee's credit (and the PDN's), it went like this:


Tim Rohr <timrohr.guam@gmail.com> Sat, May 12, 2018 at 5:17 PM
To: Haidee Eugenio <heugenio@guam.gannett.com>


Well so far the PDN is the only news org that hasn't trashed me. If you're planning a story, let me know. While I can't talk to the press, there's somethings I can point you to that the other guys missed in that file.

Eugenio, Haidee <heugenio@guam.gannett.com> Sat, May 12, 2018 at 5:35 PM
To: Tim Rohr <timrohr.guam@gmail.com>


As far as I know, we are not running a divorce proceedings story. I’m not aware of any plan.

Tim Rohr <timrohr.guam@gmail.com> Sat, May 12, 2018 at 6:15 PM
To: "Eugenio, Haidee" <heugenio@guam.gannett.com>


Much appreciated

Sunday, May 21, 2023

FROM 1989 - AND WHY ROE (IN 2022) CAME TUMBLING DOWN

By Tim Rohr



This is heavy reading, but JUSTICE SCALIA'S opinion here in 1989 demonstrates why Roe eventually came tumbling down:

The real question, then, is whether there are valid reasons to go beyond the most stingy possible holding today. It seems to me there are not only valid but compelling ones. Ordinarily, speaking no more broadly than is absolutely required avoids throwing settled law into confusion; doing so today preserves a chaos that is evident to anyone who can read and count. Alone sufficient to justify a broad holding is the fact that our retaining control, through Roe, of what I believe to be, and many of our citizens recognize to be, a political issue, continuously distorts the public perception of the role of this Court. We can now look forward to at least another Term with carts full of mail from the public, and streets full of demonstrators, urging us — their unelected and life-tenured judges who have been awarded those extraordinary, undemocratic characteristics precisely in order that we might follow the law despite the popular will — to follow the popular will. Indeed, I expect we can look forward to even more of that than before, given our indecisive decision today. And if these reasons for taking the unexceptional course of reaching a broader holding are not enough, then consider the nature of the constitutional question we avoid: In most cases, we do no harm by not speaking more broadly than the decision requires. Anyone affected by the conduct that the avoided holding would have prohibited will be able to challenge it himself and have his day in court to make the argument. Not so with respect to the harm that many States believed, pre- Roe, and many may continue to believe, is caused by largely unrestricted abortion. That will continue to occur if the States have the constitutional power to prohibit it, and would do so, but we skillfully avoid telling them so. Perhaps those abortions cannot constitutionally be proscribed. That is surely an arguable question, the question that reconsideration of Roe v. Wade entails. But what is not at all arguable, it seems to me, is that we should decide now and not insist that we be run into a corner before we grudgingly yield up our judgment. The only sound reason for the latter course is to prevent a change in the law — but to think that desirable begs the question to be decided.

It was an arguable question today whether § 188.029 of the Missouri law contravened this Court's understanding of Roe v. Wade, and I would have examined Roe rather than examining the contravention. Given the Court's newly contracted abstemiousness, what will it take, one must wonder, to permit us to reach that fundamental question? The result of our vote today is that we will not reconsider that prior opinion, even if most of the Justices think it is wrong, unless we have before us a statute that in fact contradicts it — and even then (under our newly discovered "no-broader-than-necessary" requirement) only minor problematical aspects of Roe will be reconsidered, unless one expects state legislatures to adopt provisions whose compliance with Roe cannot even be argued with a straight face. It thus appears that the mansion of constitutionalized abortion law, constructed overnight in Roe v. Wade, must be disassembled doorjamb by doorjamb, and never entirely brought down, no matter how wrong it may be.

- “That question, compared with the question whether we should reconsider and reverse Roe, is hardly worth a footnote...” 

...“Of the four courses we might have chosen today — to reaffirm Roe, to overrule it explicitly, to overrule it sub silentio, or to avoid the question — the last is the least responsible” Webster v. Reproductive Health Services, 492 U.S. 490, 537 (1989) 

Webster v. Reproductive Health Services, 492 U.S. 490, 534-37 (1989)

PSALM 106

Couldn't help but thing of Guam as I read this. Guam, a land of so many blessings.



They even offered their own sons
and their daughters in sacrifice to demons.

They shed the blood of the innocent,
the blood of their sons and daughters
whom they offered to the idols of Canaan.
The land was polluted with blood.

So they defiled themselves by their deeds
and broke their marriage bond with the Lord
till his anger blazed against his people:
he was filled with horror at his chosen ones.

So he gave them into the hand of the nations
and their foes became their rulers.
Their enemies became their oppressors;
they were subdued beneath their hand.

Time after time he rescued them,
but in their malice they dared to defy him 

Friday, May 19, 2023

THANK YOU FOR YOUR STORY, RUSS.

By Tim Rohr


At about 1:35:00 into Bob Klitzkie's Tall Tales this past Thursday, a caller named "Russ" calls in and makes the argument: "why don't you use birth control...then we wouldn't need abortion." 

Russ isn't alone in this seeming logical argument. But of course the fact is that all manner of "birth control" has been cheap and available for decades. 

Any dude can pick up a pack of condoms along with a pack of cigarettes at any gas station for a couple bucks. In fact, the condoms are cheaper than the cigs.

Moreover, birth control is pretty much free: "[t]he 2010 Affordable Care Act requires insurance companies to cover all Food and Drug Administration-approved contraceptive methods and sterilization procedures without co-pays or deductibles beginning August 2012 on new policies."

So what's up? 

Well, abortions are up. 

Infographic: U.S. Abortion Rate Ticks Up After Three-Decade Decline | Statista

So wait. Birth control is more available now more than ever, and cheaper now more than ever, and in fact, in many cases, if not paid for by "Obamacare" then at least distributed for free (Condom Availability Programs).

But abortions are "ticking up." 

Huh?

It's not hard for the thinking person to figure out. So let's give it a go.

First, let's establish the fact that after "the pill" and female sterilization, condoms are the most "popular" method of birth control. In fact, we don't have to guess. 



So then we go to the CDC and look up the stats on condom effectiveness and we find that condoms have a 13% failure rate. Umm, guys. That's like 1 out of 7. Minus one bullet, that's like putting a six-shooter to your head with one loaded chamber and pulling the trigger. 



However, even the CDC stats are "optimistic" because they don't account for The Peltzman Effect which posits:
...when safety measures are implemented, people’s perception of risk decreases, and so people may feel that they can now afford to make riskier decisions. As a result, the phenomenon predicts that mandatory safety measures actually experience a lower benefit than we would expect, because the safety benefits brought about by these measures are offset to some extent by increases in risky behavior.
In other words, we're more likely to do stupid stuff, and more frequently, when we think we are "safe." So, functionally, increased reliance on birth control equals increased risk of pregnancy. And what do people do when they conceive a child they were not expecting to conceive? 

You can fill in the blank, but the answer is abortion: the ultimate "birth control."

Aside from abortion, this also explains why Guam is a national leader in chlamydia:
In 2016, Guam reported 934 cases of chlamydia and in 2017, 1,107 cases were reported among men and women of Guam. This represents an increase of 18.5%. Guam’s rate of chlamydia of 663.3 per 100,000 was higher than the US rate of 528 per 100,000, a difference of 25.6%. - State Action Plan - Women/Maternal Health - Annual Report - Guam - 2020



Ever since the initial AIDS scare, condom use has been heavily promoted under the moniker: "safe sex." However, a virus is much smaller than a sperm. And if a condom fails 13% of the time to "corral" sperm, then how many viruses (or whatever you call them) are getting through? 

Apparently "lots!" LOL (or maybe not) 
Note: About ten years ago or so, I was in a meeting with the then-director of HHS. Venereal disease in general was a mounting issue and chlamydia was already a scandal. Yet, the meeting was about promoting condom use. I didn't object, but politely posited that perhaps, at least, the failure rate of condoms, pursuant to the the published CDC data, should at least be made known. The then-director scoffed and said "we can't do that because then no one would ever use a condom." Or something like that. Funny. That pack of cigs has a warning on it...not so that pack of condoms. Meanwhile, people die...and babies die. 

+++++

Back to Russ' call on Tall Tales. Russ ends with a heart-warming testimony which goes something like this:
"I gotta say this one thing. And it chokes me every time I even think about it, but my daughter, who was young, got pregnant. I thought about abortion and kinda recommended it to her …. And now I regret ever having said that because I got a beautiful grandson that I love to death and the thought that I ever even thought of that was … I don’t know. I think you know what I’m thinking and feeling." 
Russ, in making a personal case against abortion, sort of makes his case against birth control as well. Whether it be birth control or abortion for his daughter, Russ would have been denied the "beautiful grandson that I love to death." 

Russ, I hear you. My wife and I brought eleven children into this world. And aside from the first one, every pregnancy scared the hell out of me. I had no clue how we were going to "afford another baby." No clue. Nothing. 

And to be frank, I seriously considered birth control and even vasectomy at one point. It's another story. But I didn't. And today I have eleven children that "I love to death," especially the last three...who we had "no business" having. At least that's what the doctors told us.

Thank you for your story Russ. I hope you have many more grandchildren and that you all go to heaven. God bless and keep you. 

HELPING TOM BURY MARY

By Tim Rohr



Today I agreed to assist a relative (I'll call him "Tom") to bury his sister (I'll call her "Mary"). 

Tom and Mary were born and raised Catholic. However, many years ago, Tom joined an evangelical church (I'll call it a "church" for convenience) and Mary remained Catholic. 

Tom's church is like many such evangelical churches: tight-knit, responsive, outgoing, helpful, and very personable. Mary's Catholic parish is like many parishes: anonymous, unresponsive, inward, not helpful - at least not unless you ask...and ask again, and impersonal. 

God bless you if your Catholic parish is not like Mary's.

Recently Mary died. The only relative who cared about her was Tom. In fact, Tom was really the only person in the world Mary had. She died quietly of brain cancer while sitting next to Tom watching TV. 

The reason I'm involved, other than being a relative, is that Tom is having trouble getting Mary buried. 

Mary, before she died, made it clear that she wanted a Catholic funeral. Upon her death Tom called Mary's parish church. His call was answered by a parish secretary who had no idea who Mary was (she was always a quiet person) and reflexively read off the funeral charges from a price list. 

This is a side note, but perhaps one of the most important jobs for a pastor is choosing and educating the right person to be the church secretary, since this is the person who almost everyone, parishioner or not, will interact with first, and will always be seen as an extension of the pastor. Sadly, my almost constant experience is... Well, I'll let that go for now.

Long story short, the price of a Catholic funeral and burial - just the charges for the church, the Mass, and the priest, are a hardship for Tom since Mary died with nothing to her name and Tom has already used most of his own meager resources dealing with the other aspects of Mary's death.

Tom tried to negotiate with the secretary but she said he would have to meet personally with the pastor to discuss it and the pastor was on vacation for a couple of weeks. Meanwhile, Tom lives about 100 miles away. 

Tom called me for help. He was very nice about it. He didn't criticize the Catholic church, but he let me know that he is a member of a bereavement ministry at his church and that they immediately attend to the needs of deceased members at no charge and even provide a reception. If the family of the deceased can donate, that's fine. Otherwise, everything is taken care of - including the cost of a burial plot, casket, whatever, if that's what's needed.

What a great ministry. 

If our poor, publicly-battered Catholic Church ever wanted to restore its public image and bring alienated Catholics back to the fold, this would be the way to do it. In fact, it's already required that we do it as a Corporal Work of Mercy.

True, Canon Law mandates the following: 

  • "Deceased members of the Christian faithful must be given ecclesiastical funerals according to the norm of law." Can. 1176 §1
  • "A funeral for any deceased member of the faithful must generally be celebrated in his or her parish church." Can. 1177 §1. 
  • "Regarding offerings on the occasion of funeral rites, the prescripts of can. 1264 are to be observed, with the caution, however, that there is to be no favoritism toward persons in funerals and that the poor are not deprived of fitting funerals." Can. 1181 

Note the word "offering." These are not "fees." And in "summary," a deceased Catholic cannot be denied a Catholic funeral because someone can't afford the aircon bill. 

Certainly our pastors know all this, but most "regular" Catholics do not. And they are usually not told. They, like Tom, are just read a price list by the church secretary. 

At Tom's church, when one of their members dies and the church secretary gets a call, the caller is immediately referred to Tom's bereavement ministry and they spring into action to see to everything that is needed. 

Upon getting Tom's call today asking for help to bury his sister in the Catholic way that his sister wanted, I did a search and found that there is a non-profit Catholic organization in Mary's diocese which provides assistance to bury the dead much in the way Tom's church does. 

However, Mary’s church secretary was either ignorant of this help or didn't care to share it. She just read off a price list and when Tom objected he was told he'd have to meet with the pastor who was on vacation for another two weeks and would have to drive 200 miles round trip to meet with the pastor when he returned. 

Meanwhile, Mary’s body remains in storage. I don't know what it's costing Tom, but it may be more than what Mary's church is charging by the time we finally get her buried.

I told Tom that I'd meet with the pastor and take care of it. 

Meanwhile, we have so many "ministries." Why not one like Tom's?

I'll join.

Thursday, May 18, 2023

KEEP BREATHING. PAY ATTENTION TO YOUR DATA. DON'T GUESS.

By Tim Rohr

Okay - to take a break from all this usual heavy JW stuff, I want to share something a bit lighter and sort of personal.

I believe it was Carl Rogers who once said "what is most personal is most universal." 

If you have to pause on that, it basically means that, at root, at the level of our deepest personal being, we really are all the same, i.e. we hurt the same, etc. 

So the following is not really "personal." It is really universal - in a way. 

And it was framed for us in a magnificent human event from which we all can draw hope. 

Always hope. 

The following is a short reflection posted on my Facebook page in 2019. Thanks for reading. 

+++++

After more than a year, I have come to the Epilogue of the book Apollo 13 (Jim Lovell and Jeffrey Kruger). It’s the book that inspired the movie. And like they say, the book is always better than the movie. 

But as riveting and amazing as the real story of how those men got back to Earth is - and for all the great lessons learned in that story (e.g. don’t lose your cool) - the investigation into how Apollo 13 came to be the only Apollo “failure,” as the Epilogue catalogs, provides the most fascinating lessons. 

Like most disasters, it wasn’t one thing, but a perfect storm of many small oversights and errors, going back to whoever forgot to remove a single bolt in 1965. 

The Apollo program was, and remains still, the pinnacle of human technical achievement. Think about it. Putting a man on the moon and bringing him back to Earth with but a tiny fraction of the computer power that is in the simplest of today’s smart phones. 

And to accomplish that feat, something many NASA experts say cannot even be repeated today - 50 years later, there were layers and layers of checks and double checks and triple checks and test after test after test. Yet, an extremely tiny thing escaped unnoticed. 

 And BANG!


For those of us dealing with those kinds of BANGS in our fragile lives...we, like those three men, CAN STILL GET HOME! 

Don’t panic. Keep breathing. And trust your ground crew. 

My favorite line from the book is by Jim Lovell, who, reflecting on a question from a reporter in a post-mission press conference who asked if Lovell had panicked. Lovell replied: 

“We could have bounced off the walls for ten minutes and we would have been in the same position ten minutes later.” 

Keep breathing. And as Flight Director Gene Kranz told Mission Control when he realized what had happened: “Pay attention to your data, people. Don’t make things worse by guessing.” 

+++++

Big hearts to those guys. Thank you for helping me find my way home. 

A "PROCRUSTEAN BED" - SCOTUS. CAN YOU HEAR ME NOW? CAN YOU HEAR ME NOW?

By Tim Rohr


My interest was recently piqued when I came across the term “Procrustean bed.” 

At first glance I thought I was seeing the word “crustacean” and thought the reference was to a lobster or something. 

However, after a few tries, I got the spelling right and located the definition of  “procrustean.” And here it is according to vocabulary.com:

“Tyrannical governments can be Procrustean, as can certain clubs and organizations. This marvelous adjective characterizing pointless or ruthless demand for conformity owes its meaning to a son of the Greek god Poseidon: Procrustes, who stretched his guests or cut off their legs in order to make them fit his bed.”

Wow “cut(ting) off their legs!"

What is even more interesting is that the phrase "Procrustean bed" is used by the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) in the abortion case: Webster v. Reproductive Health Services, 492 U.S. 490, 517 (1989)

Here is what the Court said:

We think that the doubt cast upon the Missouri statute by these cases is not so much a flaw in the statute as it is a reflection of the fact that the rigid trimester analysis of the course of a pregnancy enunciated in Roe has resulted in subsequent cases like Colautti and Akron making constitutional law in this area a virtual Procrustean bed. - Webster v. Reproductive Health Services, 492 U.S. 490, 517 (1989) 

How apt given that abortion not only cuts "off their legs" but their arms, head and torso too.

This is who you elected, Guam. And twice. 


Note to "Archdiocese of Agana." Can you hear me now? Can you hear me now? 

AN ANNIVERSARY TO REMEMBER

By Tim Rohr

When I woke up this morning and saw the date May 17, I couldn't immediately recall why this date reminded me of something important. And then I did. May 17 was the day the world changed, for the Archdiocese of Agana, for Guam, and for me in a personal way. 

May 17, 2016, was the day the unthinkable happened. 

A man stood on a Hagatna street in front of a crowd and publicly accused Archbishop Anthony S. Apuron of molesting him when he was a twelve year old altar boy. 

Later that month, Apuron and his cronies threatened to sue me and all hell broke loose. And it's still loose. 


THE ARCHDIOCESE OF AGANA 

CHANCERY OFFICE 196 Cuesta San Ramon Ste. B HagĂĄtña, Guam 96910-4334 Tel: (671) 472-6116, (671) 562-0000 Fax: (671) 477-3519 

May 31, 2016 ATTACKS AGAINST ARCHBISHOP CONTINUE AS PREDICTED 

Another malicious and calumnious accusation against the Archbishop has surfaced; this time from the mother of a man who has been deceased for eleven years. The Archbishop strongly denies this accusation as he had done so before. 

The fierce attacks against the Archbishop exploded three years ago when he removed the administration of the Cathedral-Basilica, the Museum and the Catholic Cemeteries of Guam for reasons of financial mismanagement. 

Tim Rohr and his associates launched a vicious and calumnious attack on the Archbishop and the Church. They demanded that the Archbishop return to the former ways of financial administration, when the archdiocese was increasing debts every year because of mismanagement. They wanted to sell the seminary in Yona to cover the substantial debt accumulated by the previous administration of these three entities. The Archbishop was adamantly opposed to the idea of selling the seminary to cover these debts. Thus began a malicious campaign to denounce and attack the Archbishop at whatever cost to get him out of the way. 

The perpetrators of these calumnies have resorted to insults and violence revealing their true intention to destroy the Catholic Church and discredit the Archbishop by whatever means. Their method is to confuse and mislead the faithful, even to the point of inducing some to bring false testimony. This was predicted even before the first accusation was revealed. 

Those who are orchestrating this campaign are inciting people into hatred of the Archbishop and the Catholic Church. They have produced scandal, confusion and grave errors with the cruel intent to injure the Archbishop, the Catholic Church in Guam and many other people of good will who have been outraged and harassed. Therefore, the Archdiocese of Agana is in the process of taking canonical and legal measures against those perpetrating these malicious lies. 

Archbishop Anthony urges the faithful not to be afraid, and to stand for the truth and he asks for your prayers. 

LINK TO ORIGINAL


DRAMA IN THE CHURCH STILL GETTING THE MOST INTEREST

Despite JW launching into other local issues, the drama in our local Catholic Church continues to provoke the most interest, and per our flag counter, a significant amount of that interest is coming from outside Guam. This is the view count over the last 90 days.


 

Wednesday, May 17, 2023

KLITZKIE TESTIMONY ON PROPOSED MINIMUM WAGE BILL

Following is a copy of Bob Klitzkie's testimony submitted to Sen. Roy Quinata's committee relative to a proposed increase in the minimum wage. 

Robert Klitzkie, Esq.

22 Baki Ct., Yigo, GU 96929

 (671) 653-6607

klitzkie@hotmail.com

May 5 

Re: Minimum wage


Honorable Roy Quinata, Chairman, and honorable members of the Committee on Infrastructure, Economic Development, etc.

  

 The real minimum wage is $ ZERO!


The Minimum Wage is $0.00 for many. It is against our law to hire anyone and pay him less than $9.25 per hour. For the person whose labor is not worth that $9.25, there is no job, sentencing him (1) to unemployment. 


Considerations:

  1. I went to work on my first real job at 15 in 1954 at fifty-five cents an hour. I was probably worth about thirty-five cents an hour. I had to learn what it meant to have a job. I learned and came to grips with the fact that being a soda jerk at King Morgan Drug Store would never yield a living wage nor was it a career position.

  2. If the statutory minimum wage is really effective at raising real wages (2) why are we screwing around with miniscule amounts, e.g., $9.25? Why not go for $92.50 so that everyone can be “rich?”

  3. Assuming the existence of Homo economicusas the default employer, how does the 15-year-old or an occupationally immature adult learn what it means to have a job? NB Homo economicus (3) will not pay for labor at a rate higher than its value. No law can increase the value of a person’s labor. But perhaps in times of labor scarcity a minimum wage law can engage in wealth redistribution by providing what amounts to a subsidy to one who is marginally productive

.

  1. I submit that your goal should be:


An effective, efficient government that provides basic services in accordance with the rule of law on at least a break-even basis.


While the phrase “basic services” will evoke quibbling in some parts, l submit that wealth redistribution ain’t it! I hold that the “basic services” does not include setting the price of anything (4) —certainly not labor. Attempts to do so distorts markets and causes misallocation of capital.


Respectfully submitted,


Robert Klitzkie


PS Some random facts gleaned from a piece by Matt Vespa at Townhall.com:


  • 98% of Americans make more than the minimum wage

  • Americans working for the minimum wage fall within the top fifth of world wealth distribution

 
Footnotes

(1) Him, IAC standard English usage rules, means members of both sexes.

(2) A real wage rate is a nominal wage rate divided by the price of a good and is a transparent measure of how much of the good an hour of work buys. It provides an important indicator of the living standards of workers, and also of the productivity of workers.

(3) The homo economicus is a cornerstone of the neoclassical economics approach, particularly in microeconomics. In modern economics, the neoclassical theory rests on three assumptions: rational decisions, maximization of utility, and a self-interested orientation.

(4) Certain regulated industries, e.g., are the exception that proves the rule.


Sunday, May 14, 2023

IT IS OFFICIAL: GUAM HAS A NEW INVASIVE SPECIES

Posted by Frenchie 






For anyone familiar with Guam, we are acutely aware of the re-occurring  problem of invasive species.

These unwanted guests, who arrived on Guam by different means, and often totally by accident are often responsible for great damages, and even painful discomfort.

If you ask anyone on our beautiful island about it, people could cite without hesitation, the African toad, the Brown tree snake, the red ants and more recently the Rhino beetle.

All of them have brought destruction and problems in their own way. Gov Guam even runs ads on social media, and on TV to make the public aware of the dangers of introducing invasive species on the island.


Unfortunately, it is always too late, before we are made aware of the infestation and its consequences.

I am very sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but it is now official: we have been invaded by the latest pest to hit our island the RINO (republican in name only) Lawyer.

This is a particularly dangerous infestation, since it moves under cover of deceit and pretense.

Senator Fisher (Republican)

ran a sophisticated and well planned campaign to be elected as a conservative voice of reason and moderation. Instead we ended up with a double face Scheister. A radical infanticide advocate, an ill tempered and manipulative individual, who would never have been elected as a republican, had the electors known his true nature, and the radical face of his agenda.

Among the new senators that were elected, there were several anti-life candidates, but at least they had the honesty of their beliefs. Governor Lou Leon Guerrero  was re-elected despite being the most extremist anti-life and eugenist advocate. This should make us reflect on the moral value of the electors.

Senator Fisher, like the Serpent in the Garden of Eden, was all sweet and convincing, but his true nature is out for everyone to see. He is betting that in 3 years, he can be re-elected because so much water would have flowed under the bridge.

I am taking the pledge to remind people what a double face, low life we have put in power, at every step of the way.

As the adage say: "fool me once......"




WOW!!! HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY

 


Born DEAD at just 23-weeks gestation, Derick Hall's mom had to fight for his life. Now, 22 years later, the 6'3, 250-pound outside linebacker was just drafted into the NFL by the Seattle Seahawks. 🤯

Derick Hall says he owes his success to his mother’s advocacy for his life as a barely viable preemie baby in 2001.

“The doctors wanted me to just let nature take its course. We decided we wanted to fight for him," says his mother, Stacy Gooden-Crandle.

Derick had little chance of surviving after birth, with bleeding in his brain and many other issues. He was tiny enough to be held in the palm of his mom's hand for five months.

“My mom is my queen,” Derick said. “She is everything to me, how hard she worked raising two kids by herself at first, working two or three jobs. She's my Superhero. She's my Wonder Woman. She's the person who kept me living."

Saturday, May 13, 2023

THE FALL OF GUAM: IT'S WORSE AND GETTING "WORSER" - PART 1

By Tim Rohr




+++++

On this past Friday's Tall Tales with Bob Klitzkie, Bob riffed off a piece by Troy Torres which had to do with coming forward and exposing corruption. (LINK at 16:32

Bob's riff singled out what "we went through with Anthony Apuron" and how a lot of people knew for a very long time about the horrors happening deep inside our (Catholic) church and did nothing about it. 

Bob has referenced this fact several times and it's important to keep referencing it, because as Bob points out, nothing can stop these horrors from recurring other than constant vigilance. 

It's too easy to point our fingers at this abstract thing called "the archdiocese" or even "Apuron," or the name of any other cleric we may want to blame. 

Sure, we in the pews have a right to expect sanctity from our clergy and religious - or at least good behavior. But when parents look the other way or bury their heads in the sand as they did for decades as hundreds of their own children were routinely sexually molested, then something else is going on. 

It's simply NOT natural to look the other way while your own child is being abused - let alone sexually molested. And I don't care if it was a priest, a bishop, a nun, a teacher, or Uncle Bill.

Yes, yes, I've heard all of the arguments (excuses really) from culture: that local Catholics were taught never to question the priest or speak ill of him, etc. But seriously...at the expense of your children??? 

Later in the same show, after Bob's usual Friday expose of our now-governor arguing before the Guam Legislature to let babies who survive abortion die in a bio-waste bucket, Bob used the word "miracle" to describe how such an ardent, public, virulent, and even vicious advocate for baby killing could be elected governor - and twice, especially since the majority of those dead babies are CHamoru and the majority of voters are Catholic.

It's really the same thing. 

Parents looked the other way as their sick church superiors helped themselves to their children's bodies. And parents are looking the other way as their sick government superiors have been spending countless tax dollars and judicial resources in an effort to stack up ever more children's bodies - dead ones.  

So what's going on Guam? 

Well, the first thing to note is that we're not alone. 

Abusing children - or murdering them  - in or out of the womb - is not unique to Guam. But - and this is a big BUT - it is worse in Guam than anywhere else that flies the Stars and Stripes. 

JW has already - and many times - made reference to the numerical reality that the clergy sex abuse crisis is, exponentially, worse than anywhere in the entire Catholic World. 

I don't have time to link all this, but the clergy sex abuse crisis - in Guam - as of 2019, was, per capita, 14 times the size of the Boston crisis that provided the story for the Academy Award Winning Movie - SPOTLIGHT.  

14 TIMES! See: MORE

We really shouldn't be surprised. While we celebrate ourselves and plan for the next fiesta, there are these ugly facts:

• Guam has the most liberal abortion laws in the nation, which allow for the termination of nearly one out of 10 pregnancies with more than 60 percent being Chamorro (2012 Guam Medical Records).

• Guam has the highest divorce rate in the world (4.7 divorces per 1,000 population, 2010 Guam Statistical Yearbook, vs. Russia's 4.5 per 1,000, 2011 United Nations Demographic Yearbook).

• Guam has the 14th highest suicide rate in the world and a rate 1.2 times the national average (2011 World Health Organization and A Profile of Suicide on Guam, September 2011).

• Guam has a 20-percent age points higher out-of-wedlock birth rate (60 percent) compared to the rest of the nation (40.8 percent, CDC 2010). Note: Guam stopped reporting "illegitimate" births in 2005 -- 60 percent is based on the average between 2000 and 2005.

• Guam has double the teen birthrate compared to the rest of the nation (June 25 Pacific Daily News).

• Guam's rape rate is 94.4 per 100,000 (2011 Yearbook: 151 reported rapes). This is nearly triple the national average of 29.8. (U.S. Census Bureau, Statistical Abstract of the United States: 2013, Table 314).

• And, worst of all, Guam abuses and neglects its children at nearly double the national average (Guam child maltreatment rate of 76.81 per 1,000 children, based on 2012 CPS report and 2010 census vs. 41.2 per 1,000 children national average as per Table 3-2, Child Maltreatment 2011, Children's Bureau, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services).

Okay, so those look like decade old facts. Yah. They are. They are copied from my letter to the editor printed in the PDN on Jul. 14, 2013. 

It's a good thing I saved a PDF copy of the online version of the letter because not only has the PDN been wiped dry of this letter it doesn't even appear in Newspapers.com 

The stats may be a decade old, however, our every day news tell us that not only has nothing changed in "Catholic" Guam, but it's exponentially worse...and getting "worser." 

KLITZKIE: THE REAL MINIMUM WAGE IS $0

Letter to the Editor by Bob Klitzkie

The minimum wage is $0.00 for many. It is against our law to hire anyone and pay him less than $9.25 per hour. For the person whose labor is not worth that $9.25, there is no job, sentencing him to unemployment. CONTINUED


Wednesday, May 10, 2023

FR. DANIEL MULHAUSER, S.J. - THANK YOU.

By Tim Rohr


Fr. Dan Mulhauser, S.J. passed from this world to the next a few days ago. He was 96 years old. And if you were a Catholic in Guam in the 1980's to the early 1990's, his was a familiar face. 

Fellow Jesuit, and long time friend of Fr. Dan, Fr. Fran Hezel, S.J., composed a nice remembrance of him. In his remembrance Fr. Hezel recalled that he had learned when he first met Fr. Dan in 1955 that Fr. Dan had lost one lung "in the service." Fr. Hezel followed that revelation with "None of us ever imagined Dan in a military uniform."

It would be easy to mistake Fr. Dan for a pacifist given his always saintly peaceful manner, which he apparently emanated even as far back as 1955. However, at least from my experience with Fr. Dan over several years, I would say that it was impossible to mistake Fr. Dan for anything or anybody other than a good priest who lived his entire priesthood in deep union with Jesus Christ.

If Fr. Dan had a personal leaning this way or that, one never knew what it was (or at least I didn't) because he never spoke about himself or what he "thought" about things. Fr. Dan always directed every bit of his energy and attention toward whomever he was with.

Fr. Dan was never a celebrated speaker, writer, or even a homilist, and he wasn't one of those "welcome everybody" engaging types when he said Mass. Yet, there was always an overwhelming expression of love for this priest wherever he went, a love that never waned and even grew after Fr. Dan moved on from Guam and Micronesia nearly thirty years ago. 

I was blessed to have Fr. Dan in my life for several years after my wife and I first moved to Guam in 1987. At the time, Fr. Dan was the chaplain for UOG Catholic Campus Ministry, and we (my wife and I and our first child), had moved into a tiny apartment on a rundown little dead end street about a three minute walk from Campus Ministry. 

It wasn't long before Fr. Dan learned I was a graduate of a Jesuit university (Loyola Marymount Univ. in Los Angeles) and that I had been involved in music ministry. So I was immediately recruited to lead the singing at the "English" Mass at Campus Ministry. (I believe the other was in Chuukese). 

The chapel was small. It was one of those modular homes we in Guam refer to as "J&G" homes - converted into a chapel. Fr. Dan celebrated Mass at a coffee table, usually sitting, and I, with my guitar, sat a few feet away. 

It helped that I knew all the St. Louis Jesuit songs ("Be Not Afraid, Here I am Lord, One Bread One Body, etc.) And I did know them all, and by heart. I had spent my years at Loyola constantly involved in music ministry and church choirs playing and singing those songs. And then after graduating from LMU and moving to the Virgin Islands I continued to do the same both as a high school music teacher and as church choir director at the local Catholic Church. 

So it was a wonderful thing to begin our new life in Guam, so far away from everything and everyone my wife and I knew, by moving right into the Catholic Campus Ministry community and playing those wonderful Jesuit songs while a wonderful Jesuit priest said Mass. 

I don't remember a single thing Fr. Dan ever said during a sermon, and I heard a lot of them, but I very much remember how he said Mass. Sitting only a few feet away from him he was easy to observe. He said most of the Mass with his eyes closed or down. And when he looked up, he didn't look at the people, at least not in a personally engaging way. He appeared to look beyond or above the people or perhaps even into them, seeing Jesus in every person present. At least that's the feeling I got at every Mass.

Even after later moving to Tumon and eventually to Barrigada Heights, we continued to attend Mass at Campus Ministry in Mangilao. I don't think we stopped going to Mass there until about 1994 when we moved to Agat and by that time Fr. Dan had moved to Palau to shepherd vocations there. By then I had frequent business in Palau and always made it a point to spend time with him. 

While at Campus Ministry, Fr. Dan baptized our 2nd, 3rd, and 4th child. This picture of him holding our 3rd child, Christopher, only minutes after Fr. Dan baptized our son, speaks volumes about who Fr. Dan was. He's holding Christopher as if he's my son's grandfather - or even as his own child.


Another thing I remember about those days at Campus Ministry with Fr. Dan was how no one ever wanted to leave after Mass was over. Fr. Dan would hang out with everyone outside the little modular home-chapel and we'd talk and talk and talk while all the kids (and there were many in those days) played and played and played. There was no need to have any "greeters" or welcoming committee. Fr. Dan was that. 

I think that there was such a warm community there not just because it was small, but because Fr. Dan drew us all into a right worship of Jesus when he said Mass, which I believe he was able to do not through any "extras" (some will know what I mean), but because he was such a deeply holy priest. 

Those were beautiful days. And I will never forget them. Thank you Fr. Dan. And may His angels lead you into paradise. Here's a few more pictures of that wonderful time at Campus Ministry with you.