Religious Service Attendance

1. "Women attending [religious] services weekly during the past month, compared with those not attending at all in the past month, were less likely to be depressed [OR = 0.78; CI = 0.74–0.83]..."  (JOURNAL OF RELIGION AND HEALTH Volume 51, Number 1, 20-31, DOI: 10.1007/s10943-011-9549-6, 3/29/12)

Green Coffee Beans

1. "Scientists have just reported striking new evidence that green, or unroasted, coffee beans can produce a substantial decrease in body weight in a relatively short period of time." (ScienceDaily 3/27/12)

Natural Law

1. "The natural law is immutable and permanent throughout the variations of history; it subsists under the flux of ideas and customs and supports their progress. the rules that express it remain substantially valid. Even when it is rejected in its very principles, it cannot be destroyed or removed from the heart of man. It always rises again in the life of individuals and societies: Theft is surely punished by your law, O Lord, and by the law that is written in the human heart, the law that iniquity itself does not efface."  (CCC 1958, 8/18/12)
2.  "The natural law, the Creator’s very good work, provides the solid foundation on which man can build the structure of moral rules to guide his choices. It also provides the indispensable moral foundation for building the human community. Finally, it provides the necessary basis for the civil law with which it is connected, whether by a reflection that draws conclusions from its principles, or by additions of a positive and juridical nature." (CCC 1959, 3/21/12)

Just War

1. "2309 The strict conditions for legitimate defense by military force require rigorous consideration. The gravity of such a decision makes it subject to rigorous conditions of moral legitimacy. At one and the same time:
   • The damage inflicted by the aggressor on the nation or community of nations must be lasting, grave, and certain;
   • All other means of putting an end to it must have been shown to be impractical or ineffective;
   • There must be serious prospects of success;
   • The use of arms must not produce evils and disorders graver than the evil to be eliminated. The power of modem means of destruction weighs very heavily in evaluating this condition.
   These are the traditional elements enumerated in what is called the “just war” doctrine.
   The evaluation of these conditions for moral legitimacy belongs to the prudential judgment of those who have responsibility for the common good." (3/20/12)

Rice

1. "Higher consumption of white rice is associated with a significantly increased risk of type 2 diabetes, especially in Asian (Chinese and Japanese) populations." ( BMJ 2012;344:e1454, 3/19/12

Science

1. "I am very astonished that the scientific picture of the real world around me is deficient. It gives a lot of factual information, puts all our experience in a magnificently consistent order, but it is ghastly silent about all and sundry that is really near to our heart, that really matters to us. It cannot tell us a word about red and blue, bitter and sweet, physical pain and physical delight; it knows nothing of beautiful and ugly, good or bad, God and eternity. Science sometimes pretends to answer questions in these domains, but the answers are very often so silly that we are not inclined to take them seriously." -Erwin Schrödinger, pioneer of quantum mechanics (3/18/12)

Antioxidant

1. "We found no evidence to support antioxidant supplements for primary or secondary prevention. Beta-carotene and vitamin E seem to increase mortality, and so may higher doses of vitamin A. " ( The Cochrane Collaboration, 3/16/12)
2. Eating more antioxidants does not protect against strokes or dementia. (Neurology10.1212/WNL.0b013e3182840c84, 2/21/13)

Patent Foramen Ovale

1. "Patients with a cryptogenic stroke or transient ischemic attack (TIA) who had a patent foramen ovale were randomly assigned to closure with a percutaneous device or to medical therapy. There was no significant between-group difference in the subsequent rate of stroke or TIA. " (N Engl J Med 2012; 366:991-999, 3/16/12)

Prostate Cancer

1. "The European Randomized Study of Screening for Prostate Cancer continues to show a 21% reduction in prostate-cancer mortality in the screening group, after 11 years of follow-up. The number of cancers that would need to be detected to prevent one prostate-cancer death is 37. Screening does not affect all-cause mortality." (10.1056/NEJMoa1113135, 3/16/12)

Sinners

1. "There are only two kinds of men: the righteous who think they are sinners and the sinners who think they are righteous."-Blaise Pascal (3/16/12)
2. I have heard Protestants say that "you only have to sin once to be a sinner." That is like saying "you only have to tell the truth once to be honest." (8/19/13)

Rich

1. The rich are generally more evil. ( PNAS March 13, 2012 vol. 109no. 11 4086-4091, 3/15/12)

Meditation

1. "Meditation Strengthens the Brain" (Science Daily, 3/15/12)

Circumcision

1. " Men who had been circumcised before their first sexual intercourse were 15 percent less likely to develop prostate cancer than uncircumcised men." (Science Daily, 3/14/12)

Anger

1. " He who is not angry when there is cause for anger is immoral" -St. Thomas Aquinas (3/13/12)

Law of Nature

1. "The laws of nature are but the mathematical thoughts of God." -Euclid  (3/13/12)

Meat

1. Not all meat is the same (3/13/12)
1. Process meat  (3/13/12)
1. The worst kind of meat  (3/13/12)
2. Try never to eat it.  (3/13/12)
2. Red Meat (3/13/12)
1. Bad but not as bad as processed meat  (3/13/12)
2. Try to limit it to once a week  (3/13/12)
3. White meat  (3/13/12)
1. OK  (3/13/12)
2. Limit it to once a day  (3/13/12)
4. Fish (3/13/12)
1. God  (3/13/12)
2. High in omega 3-fatty acids. (3/19/12)
3. Eat at least 3 times a week.  (3/13/12)

Red Meat

1. "Red meat consumption is associated with an increased risk of total, CVD [cardiovascular disease], and cancer mortality. Substitution of other healthy protein sources for red meat is associated with a lower mortality risk." "...the pooled hazard ratio (HR) (95% CI) of total mortality for a 1-serving-per-day increase was 1.13 (1.07-1.20) for unprocessed red meat and 1.20 (1.15-1.24) for processed red meat."  (Arch Intern Med. Published online March 12, 2012. doi:10.1001/archinternmed.2011.2287, 3/13/12) 

Protestant

1. Protestantism and Authority (You/tube, Fr Barron, 3/29/12)

Rumination

1. Rumination is a way of responding to distress that involves repetitively focusing on the symptoms of distress, and on its possible causes and consequences.[1] Rumination is more common in people who are pessimistic, neurotic, and who have negative attributional styles. The tendency to ruminate is a stable constant over time and serves as a significant risk factor for clinical depression. Not only are habitual ruminators more likely to become depressed, but experimental studies have demonstrated that people who are induced to ruminate experience greater depressed mood.[2] There is also evidence that rumination is linked to general anxiety, post traumatic stress, binge drinking, eating disorders, and self-injurious behavior.[1] (Wikipedia 3/9/12)
2. Research on rumination also suggests that maladaptive anger regulation decreases self-control and, consequently, increases aggression." ( Current Directions in Psychological Science February 2012 vol. 21 no. 120-25, 3/8/12)

Aggression

1. "Robust experimental evidence demonstrates that self-control failures frequently predict aggression and, conversely, that bolstering self-control decreases aggression. Research on rumination also suggests that maladaptive anger regulation decreases self-control and, consequently, increases aggression." ( Current Directions in Psychological Science February 2012 vol. 21 no. 120-25, 3/8/12)

Civil Disobedence

1. "The citizen is obliged in conscience not to follow the directives of civil authorities when they are contrary to the demands of the moral order, to the fundamental rights of persons or the teachings of the Gospel. Refusing obedience to civil authorities, when their demands are contrary to those of an upright conscience, finds its justification in the distinction between serving God and serving the political community. “Render therefore to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.” “We must obey God rather than men”: When citizens are under the oppression of a public authority which oversteps its competence, they should still not refuse to give or to do what is objectively demanded of them by the common good; but it is legitimate for them to defend their own rights and those of their fellow citizens against the abuse of this authority within the limits of the natural law and the Law of the Gospel. (CCC 2242, 3/9/12)

Conscription

1. "For centuries the State has enslaved people into its armed battalions and called it 'Conscription'." -Murray Rothbard (3/8/12)

Daylight Saving Time

1. "The Monday and Tuesday after moving the clocks ahead one hour in March is associated with a 10 percent increase in the risk of having a heart attack," (Science Daily, 3/8/12)

God is Hidden

1. "In faith there is enough light for those who want to believe and enough shadows to blind those who don't." (Blaise Pascal, quoted in Thoughts from Earth (2004), p. 9, 3/6/12)
2. "Truly you are a God who hides himself, O God and Savior of Israel." ( Isaiah 45:15, 3/6/12)
3. "No, we speak of God's secret wisdom, a wisdom that has been hidden and that God destined for our glory before time began." ( 1 Corinthians 2:7, 3/6/12)

Kidney Donation

1. The risk of major cardiovascular events in donors is no higher in the first decade after kidney donation compared with a similarly healthy segment of the general population. (BJM, 3/3/12)

Kidney Donation

1. The risk of major cardiovascular events in donors is no higher in the first decade after kidney donation compared with a similarly healthy segment of the general population. (BJM, 3/3/12)

Vaccination

1. "DTaP-IPV-Hib vaccination was associated with an increased risk of febrile seizures on the day of the first 2 vaccinations given at 3 and 5 months, [602%] although the absolute risk was small. Vaccination with DTaP-IPV-Hib was not associated with an increased risk of epilepsy."  (JAMA.2012;307(8):823-831. doi:10.1001/jama.2012.165, 3/2/12)