Paul Bunyan's Axe

We got it and we want to keep it.

Happy Birthday Badger Catholics!

Two years old!  Aaawwww, they grow up so fast.  I noticed last year Larry D and I were talking Big Ten football as well.  Our good patron, that glorious Franciscan St. John Capistrano, has his feast suppressed today in the new calendar since it is on a Sunday. 

Bustin a Cap-istrano

As the battle rages on, cheers and slainte!
Kapisztrán Szent János, ora pro nobis!!

If I were running for parish council....

Someone's gotta be the dude.

... so as you might know, I'm a member at the Cathedral parish in La Crosse.  I've been asked(begged because of lack of interest) the last two times the parish council elections have come up to run because there were not enough people to run to fill the open seats(there ended up being a couple more people than seats).  Both times I said I was okay being on the ballot, but told everyone I knew not to vote for me because I did not have enough time.  To seal the deal I outed myself as a traddie.  This was my bio I think from last year.

Matt Korger is married to his wife Hollie of three years.  They have two sons and another baby on the way.[This guy is obviously not familiar with environmentalism and overpopulation..]  They live on the south side of La Crosse.  Matt works as an Analyst at SAP in downtown La Crosse and does website work on the side.[A geek, just what we need]  He began attending Cathedral while attending Western Tech College for Web Programming[does that unwashed miscreant think that kind of "education" (LOL) is something to make public?] and has been a member for around 10 years.  He joined in response to a bulletin ad reminding visitors to join if they attended Cathedral regularly.  At Cathedral he helps with website work[have you seen the website?  Terrible!  Can we elect to kick him out of the parish], fills in as altar server, and sings in the First Friday Latin Mass choir. [Latin??  umm...]  Matt describes himself as a traditionalist[OMG, you can NOT be serious!  Haven't we got rid of these looneys yet?  Get with the times, grandpa!].   He also manages the The Badger Catholic blog. [probably a hate monger and a bigot, trying to oppress women, especially those seeking ordination]

To my delight I lost again.   I've been too busy, but I was going to write an even "worse" bio, talking about instituting a weekly Traditional Latin Mass, restoration of the interior, reduction of communion ministers, placement of the tabernacle, you name it, all those kinds of things.  Something for everyone to dislike. I once offended someone from the parish by complaining about how hideous the Milwaukee Cathedral was.  It makes me feel like I should have entrance music like a WWF wrestler when I walk into a room, bad guy music. 

In other news, we are successfully transitioning to our new home in La Crosse this week.  I would like to be at the Pro-Life Wisconsin Auction Dinner this weekend and meet Walter Hoye but we are tied up.  Things are going well in that regard despite the fact we still haven't sold our previous house.  I think we will pray another novena to St. Joseph, or burn the house down and take the insurance money.  I haven't really decided yet.

With the house stuff clearing up I'm hoping to write a few posts I've been thinking about, like one on how to go about parish shopping and another on why I ended up going traddie.  I've got a rant or two up my sleeve. 

I'm doing some brainstorming on Badger Catholic 2.0.  I may be bouncing some ideas off of you my beloved readers.  Even you readers who can't stand me but want to know what's going on in Sconnie-land. 

I think I'm recovering well from the end of the Brewers season, although the thought of Bob Uecker retiring sends me into a frenzy.  I'll just busy myself with unpacking and Badgers/Michigan St. so as not to think about it.   Oh, and did you know Michigan was voted the #1 Catholic blogging state?

My weekend

While I was watching Game 1 of the NLCS, a family member had taken our two boys to the park.  Our 1 1/2 year old fell face first off of the top of a 8-9 foot playground slide(like the old metal ones) and walked away with nothing but a fat lip and some scratches.  Before the park when laying him down for his nap we prayed the guardian angel prayer of which he knows most of the words, usually we only pray it when he's going to sleep for the night.  Hearing the account, he should have been severely hurt and wasn't.  I am so grateful to his guardian angel.  I mean, it was a miracle he is safe and sound.  After we iced the lip down, I told him only liberals bury their head in the ground and that we are not liberals.  I think he got it.

The La Crosse Chesterton Society hosted Dale Ahlquist and other Chesterton societies from the area this weekend.  I could only stay for the first part but it was fantastic.  Dale is an excellent speaker.  I found out that there is a homeschooling group in Sparta(who are Anglicans) who have been studying Chesterton in depth.  Also did you know there is only one regional Chesterton society in Minnesota(Dale lives in the Twin Cities) and there are six in Wisconsin?  No wonder they started moving the annual conference around the US instead of holding it in St. Paul every year. 

I asked Dale a question about the cause for GK.  Now, I didn't ask the question because I want everyone to hero worship him.  Chesterton continues to be ignored in exactly the places where he is most needed.  If what Chesterton taught is true, and he was indeed a good man who bore his cross well, then the Church should give affirmation to that so that the faithful can consume his works with that assurance.  He wasn't just another writer.... but I digress.  Dale said the bishop of his home diocese in England is heading up the cause but has no knowledge of Chesterton(go figure).  The Chesterton Society itself is doing the footwork right now but it hasn't even been formally introduced to the Congregation for the Cause of Saints yet.  He did have some prayer cards at his table but I had to run and didn't get a chance to grab one.  I think they have them online somewhere but I have yet to find it. With that I'll share a story related to me. 

There was a young couple attending the wedding reception next door who stopped by for a smoke at the end of the night. Dale, Kevin, Rita, the loud man wearing a kilt who was always talking about smoking, and some others were outside when the couple walked up to ask if they could join them. The conversation started by talking about the persecution of smokers and ended with Dale giving them an autographed copy of his book and Rita inviting them to join the local G.K. Chesterton society. Apparently someone asked if the couple if they had ever heard of Chesterton. Both responded no. Dale then yelled out that "it isn't your fault!" Another humorous moment is when the young woman (I think the couple was our age) said she is a stay-at-home mother, the entire group of Chestertonians erupted in applause.

At any rate the event was fantastic and I hope they do it again next year.

Brewers Fever is gripping Wisconsin.  I've been literally dreaming about it.  Seeing Prince get choked up after that amazing Game 5 of the NLDS got me choked up.  The whole thing is much different than the Super Bowl run.  I feel so much more a part of this Brewers team.  The kids all love doing Beast Mode and singing Take Me Out to the Ballgame; this is what life is all about, lol.  Sometimes I have to let my oldest stay up because he wants to watch the Brewer game with Dada.  He might never see this again!

Don't like Wall Street?  Become a Distributist!  Or are you still letting a Socialist professor tell you how to think?

Virginia did her own version of Beast Mode, but she's posting about that later this week.  

Did Bishop Hying really have a "Life Teen Mass"?  Poor guy.

We had an open house on Sunday.  One person came.  Say a prayer for us to sell our house if you would be so obliged.  Hey, and if you know somebody who's looking in the area, have them take a look. 

Alright, lunch break over.  Back to work.

Happy Birthday to my lovely wife

Official members of the Temple Police

She'll probably be so mad at me for posting this... 

Happy Birthday dear! 

Just today I told the story about her giving birth in the car.  The co-workers love that one. 

Thank you to Our Lady of the Rosary for bringing us together.

Side note: I met someone who reads the blog and they said they hardly recognized me without my mustache...  that is possibly the greatest thing I've ever heard regarding this blog.

Life Chain, who knew?

Life Chain in Wauwatosa

Discombobulation.  That's the best word to describe the chaos of my mind.  So I admit I did not hear about this Life Chain effort until Sunday during the homily at Blessed Sacrament in La Crosse.  Wow, great pro-life homily, by the deacon there btw.  We had a baptism so we would not be able to attend, but when we were headed back through La Crosse, I was impressed with the turnout, probably 100-200 people lining the streets!  I guess there were several similar rallies throughout the state.  Great to see such good numbers.

I was also at Game 1 on Saturday when the Brewers took on the Diamondbacks.  I have never been to a playoff game before but wow, it was electric in Miller Park!  If you watched, Ryan Braun's throw out at home in the first inning was just crazy.  It was as loud as a football game with half as many people there!  What was strange is that once I was in the stadium I could not call out or upload any pictures, but I could send text based messages.  Someone told me the towers are US Cellular and unless you have 4G it blocks data intense signals.

Oh so the point of the story was I sat next to a really nice young couple.  I don't remember how it came up but I mentioned I had three children and they were amazed.  After wowing them with (only) three children, they mentioned that they had just got a new puppy and how much that had changed their lives.  I told them actually we eat puppies since we cant afford groceries(kidding!!).  It does remind me that there can definitely be a fear out there for good married couples to have kids, especially "alot" (greater than two) of kids.  My advice is simply to recklessly abandon yourself to the Providence of God.  Sometimes the screw-ups in parenting will actually end up spinning the parents in the right direction.

Picking my brain and not my nose

So I just want to take a second to thank Virginia for another fantastic week of posting.  She says she's not attempting to usurp yours truly but I still have my doubts.  If you see the Italian Kingdom coat of arms start appearing as the blog template.... you know the revolution has happened. 

I'm down from 12 hour to 10 hour days at work.  I feel like I'm regaining some of my sanity.  All of this logical thinking makes me feel so German.  Now I just need some theses to nail to a door, a few cuss laden tirades against the pope, and a pinch of alcoholism and I'll be all set.

I'm still way behind on emails, but I will be following up with everybody in the upcoming weeks. 

My family and I will be moving to a larger house with more bedrooms for lots of babies.  Don't tell Joe Biden, or he'll be on my doorstep with some scissors and a rubber band. 

My car broke down in Baraboo.  Was it the Masons or possibly former Marquette President, Fr. Robert Wild?  I haven't figured it out yet.  Really, there's probably a top ten list of people who have no idea who I am but wouldn't like me if they read this blog.  I will pour some exorcised salt in the gas tank to see if that helps.  

Taking my wife on a date tonight.  I think we'll go to the liberal haven of The Bodega.  She has asked me not to get up on the table and go on a tirade about Polka Masses.  My response: we will see. 

"I am not absentminded. It is the presence of mind that makes me unaware of everything else."
— G.K. Chesterton

The Badger Catholic nominated for two Catholic New Media Awards

The Badger Catholic got nominated in two categories

- Best Written Blog
- Most Entertaining Blog

I always joke with Virginia that I don't really "write" on this blog.  I copy/paste.  In fact, she's always impressed with my copy/paste skills.  Maybe I will add Ctrl + C and Ctrl + V to my resume.

We are pitted against some fantastic blogs like The Crescat and The Ironic Catholic, not to mention juggernauts like The Distributist Review. It will be tough goings.

But it would seem this blog got at least one vote.... from Fr. Z!

I especially wanted to give some support to Creative Minority Report and Badger Catholic and the Catholic Underground podcasts and iPadre.

If you'd like to vote, you need to register and cast your ballot at Catholic New Media Awards.

We did have 49 people vote in the mustache poll so you never know. 

BC on CV: My Catholic Vote roundup of last night's elections

Editor’s note: We have invited Matt Korger to contribute this posting on the elections in his home state of Wisconsin. Matt is editor of the Badger Catholic blog.

Let’s take a brief trip down memory lane.

In February, Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker proposed a Budget Repair Bill which would rescue the state from a looming $3.6 billion ($3,600,000,000) state budget deficit.  Wisconsin was in much the same place as California found itself in a few years ago.  Either fix a broken system or the state goes broke and looks for someone else to foot their bills (how’s that budget ceiling workin’ for the Feds?).

Things had gotten so bad that in 2009 Minnesota cancelled its tax reciprocity relationship with Wisconsin, something Walker fixed in July.  Part of that budget bill called for a modernization of public sector union benefits.  In the Badger State any public employees in the state have health care coverage that covers 100% of basically anything, with the worker contributing $0; no premium.  This is a bit out of touch with reality.  My family premium per year is $2,600.  One might say that goes against the Church’s teaching on social justice.  Don’t try to tell these nuns though.

Go ahead, read the rest at Catholic Vote

Thanks to Josh Mercer and the CatholicVote gang.  That was fun!

PS> Thank you Virginia with all the help on this one!

Who's reading in July

Rank	City	Visits
1	La Crosse	606
2	Madison	551
3	Milwaukee	479
4	Chicago, IL	164
5	St Louis, MO	162
6	Rockford, IL	146
7	Mequon	117
8	Minneapolis, MN	115
9	Bloomer	107
10	New York, NY	93

St Louis makes a big jump.  I think that's because the very good St. Louis Catholic blog is now linking to me.  An uptick of readers in the Diocese of Superior....

Hmm, let's look at browsers this month.

Rank	Browser	Visits	Percent
1	Internet Explorer	3,440	41.63%
2	Firefox	2,270	27.47%
3	Chrome	1,451	17.56%
4	Safari	981	11.87%
5	Opera	35	0.42%
6	Opera Mini	21	0.25%
7	Mozilla Compatible Agent	19	0.23%
8	Android Browser	13	0.16%
9	IE with Chrome Frame	6	0.07%
10	BlackBerry9630	3	0.04%

My wife still swears by IE.  I still swear at IE. If you look closer though at least folks are above IE 7.0.  IE 8 still has some bad stuff in there.  I heard 9 is actually a decent browser but for any of you doing web work, it takes a lot of extra effort to make sure things work right with Internet Explorer. 

Version	Visits
8.0	2,223
9.0	702
7.0	460
6.0	55

A few notes

I turned on comment moderation which I had been avoiding as long as possible.  A reader(Siarlys) had made some hateful remarks in regards to the Holy Eucharist.  I don't mind commentary from a socialist and non-Catholic(although I am neither), but when it becomes clear the motivation and comments are malevolent it's time to go.  He has called me a coward for the move, but in reality I enjoyed reading his opinion on social matters.  He just had no respect for others who didn't share his faith.

I started a poll over on the right hand side if you haven't seen it yet.  Cast your vote today!  I would seriously be supporting the staching of America but my wife has shut that operation down.  But maybe if enough of you support my stache, we can sway her!  Yes we can!

Online Surveys & Market Research

View results by city


Have some pictures to share from this last weekend Queen of the Americas conference. I'll post them sometime this week.  I met Peggy Hamill(director of Pro-Life Wisconsin) there for the first time this weekend.  What a great woman! 

Went to a rummage sale at the Cistercian Our Lady of Spring Bank Abbey...  I'll also be posting on that this week. 

And in conclusion, Go Brewers!