You've seen that "Susan G. Komen Foundation" pink ribbon and logo on just about every product you can buy. It, especially in the last few years, has been popular for companies to financially support the Komen foundation by making their products pink. I recall seeing pink AA batteries a while back. Some NFL players wore pink and there's even a pink fire truck driving around. KFC, the chicken restaurant, went so far as selling chicken in pink buckets and donated $4.2 Million to the Komen Foundation.

All of this to raise awareness and funds to combat breast cancer in women by providing breast cancer screenings to women who might not otherwise get them.

Of course we want to do every morally acceptable thing we can do to fight cancer. Nobody would disagree with that. And I do realize not all of the "pink" out there supports the Komen Foundation, but a huge amount of it does.

The problem is that the Komen foundation gives large sums of money to Planned Parenthood so that that organization can perform breast cancer screenings. This is a terrible idea. Planned Parenthood is the largest abortion provider in the United States. Their annual report last year pointed out that they recieved $487.4 million in TAX DOLLARS, did 329,455 abortions, and made fewer referrals for adoption than previous years.

On January 31st, the Komen Foundation said it was going to stop giving grant money to Planned Parenthood. This was a very good thing. Anything that removes support for Planned Parenthood is a good thing.

What is amazing is the absolute outrage that followed, especially among our nation's leaders, about this relatively small amount of money. At least 22 Senate Democrats signed a letter calling on Komen to reconsider its decision. There were speeches given in protest of this decision in our congress. One petition calling for Komen to reverse their decision garnered 250,000 signatures ... in about 3 days. New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg plans to give $250,000 to Planned Parenthood in the wake of this news.

The rage of so many people that are speaking in the media and in our government toward ANYTHING that might threaten their sacred institution, Planned Parenthood, is itself outrageous.

Unfortunately, the Komen Foundation caved under this pressure and have reversed their decision. They continue to support Planned Parenthood.

Planned Parenthood should be destroyed. We should stop giving them tax money. We should stop supporting anyone who supports them. We need to support organizations that actually help women, not ones that abort them and push contraceptives. None of these help women or society. Write your legislators to tell them that you want any government support to these organizations cut off.

-Fr. Jason

It was 50 degrees today, so I decided to get outside and hunt for a geocache south of Bismarck entitled "Going to the Beach." Unfortunately, I didn't find it.

Along the way, I shot some video of my cache hunt using my phone. Check it out--I've never seen a pickup encased in ice like that before! I'm glad it's not mine.

This video gave me a chance to try out Adobe Premiere Elements on my new laptop. It works much better than it did on the old, thankfully.

-Fr. Jason

With only 45 days left here at Kenrick Seminary in Saint Louis, I must admit that "deacon-itis" (a seminary version of the dreaded disease known as "senioritis" in high schools and colleges) has started to set in. I can also tell that my classmates are starting to get a bit restless. It's an exciting time, but sad as well. We're about to scatter across the Midwest, and the seminary we know is about to be radically renovated.

Anyway, this slideshow has snapshots from 2006-2011, which is the time I spent here. They, of course, make sense to those of us who lived through it all.

God Bless,
-Deacon Jason

Spring has arrived in Saint Louis. The daffodils appeared back in February, but are all in bloom now. And the flowering trees, one of which is seen here, are really taking off. I went out and took snapshots of this huge, magnificent magnolia tree (at least that's what I think it is). These flowers never stay around long on this tree. Once it gets windy for a few days, they're gone. Back in North Dakota we have a few flowering trees, but Missouri is loaded with them, which makes spring especially interesting.

As an aside, some construction has already begin here at Kenrick seminary. In May, everyone will evacuate the building for a year while a massive remodel is underway.

-Jason

A while back four of us (Deacons Kevin Vogel, James Weeder, and Marco DeLoera) stayed at a lake cabin / hunting lodge for the weekend as part of our "spring break." We hiked, kayaked, went out on the water, and watched a lot of episodes of "24." Apparently Marco is addicted to the series, so we watched Jack Bauer save the world for a while.

It was a good time. Now, back to the books. According to the countdown timers on my desktop I have 51 days left in the seminary and 98 days until ordination to the priesthood. These last five years have gone fast.

-Deacon Jason