Tack För En Underbar, Vanlig Dag

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Cartoon in progress...

Inspired by an Agnetha Fältskog song.

Agnetha is best known to English speaking audiences as 'the blond one' from ABBA. Most North Americans aren't familiar with the history of this multi-talented vocalist, songwriter and pianist, who was a sucessful recording artist in her own right in Sweden and Germany before worldwide fame with Benny, Bjorn, and Frida.

This song, translated as Thank You For a Wonderful, Ordinary Day, from Agnetha's 1976 solo album Elva Kvinnor i ett Hus (Eleven Women in a House) was meant as a sketch of a 'simple' faithfilled woman who thanked God for the most 'ordinary' blessings. From what I've read of Agnetha's own recollections the song (with lyrics by Bosse Carlgren) was intended only as a portrait of one of her eleven women and didn't necessarily reflect her own personal spiritual attitude, but I still think it's a great song in its own right and captures Faithmouses' attitude of obedience and gratitude quite well.

Too bad I don't have a recording of the song to post, but I'll continue to look around. Agnetha's version of Everything's Alright from the Swedish cast recording of Jesus Christ Superstar is crystal clear and very touching; perhaps I can find that was well. In the meantime, enjoy this youtube video of ABBA's I've Been Waiting For You.

True Preacher's MySpace Capuchin Blast!

Brother Chris, otherwise known as O.F.M. Cap, is a 26 year old Capuchin Brother in Colorado. I discovered his site while backtracking a link to an image I created for American Papist.

Crank volume, allow page to load, stand back.

True Preacher's MySpace Capuchin Blast!

Facing The Giants

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Opens today in 435 theaters.

Facing The Giants

Facing the Giants Rated PG for “Mature Themes” Not Christianity: MPAA - LifeSite

I was reminded of the Facing The Giants opening by Rob at the Jesus Music Yahoo Group, at which I've been a lurker for the past few years. Rob did the sound recording for the film.

I've designed new eyes for Faith in this cartoon. I sort of like them; they're much more expressive, and she still looks like Faith. What do you think?

Minnesota Patriot Guard

Our local Patriot Guard chapter has a new website-

Minnesota Patriot Guard.

Thanks to Southwest Metro Ride Captain John 'Kingpin' Redfield for the info.

Abortion, Offensive To Children

Mother of Seven Arrested Without Warning for Showing Abortion Image - LifeSite

I spend a few hours each day keeping up with news and posts relevant to faithmouse and searching for stories which might make for a good cartoon. Rather than just absording headlines on Spirit Daily or Agape Press I try to fan out to a number of secular sites for those 'missed' stories. The above item I discovered by way of the Catholic Ping List at Free Republic.

I regularly collect these stories and drop them into my favorites basket, many times never to be thought of again. More entertaining I think just to post them here so that you the visitor can note them as well.

Thanks to Pookie18 at his Today's Toons thread at Free Republic for posting a few recent toons in his weekday collection, which in turn are culled and then reposted by fans on additional sites including this Yahoo Republican Humor group. Thanks to Alan Keyes' Renew America for posting two recent toons. Thanks to the G-Man on Rob's D*mn Boards for posting the 9th Circuit / Library toon. Sweetpea90 originally posted the Padre Pio toon on the MSN board God's Embrace, but made the common mistake of posting the address for the hotlink. Thanks to Alibit for attempting to post a link to the cartoon on her Destiny's Embrace.

'Meddling With God's Work'

Politician peeved by sit-down potty rule - United Press International

Badgered

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Unfair Treatment - The Daily Cardinal Editorial Board

UW-Madison Will Not Fund Catholic Group - For Now - Free Republic

One more iron I couldn't resist throwing into the fire. The first panel is finished in the Jerry Falwell / Hillary Clinton cartoon posted below; should have the remainder online sometime around noon or so on Wednesday.

Napoleon Devilcat

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Falwell: Hillary Better Than Lucifer - Newsmax.com

Bratz

Cartoon in progress...

Today's dolls too provocative, says survey of Moms - Reuters

I Did Not Have Sex With That Bin Laden

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Bill Clinton: Play It As It Lies -Ronald A. Cass / Fox News

Stop The ACLU / Katrina Memorial Cross

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For the Sunday Funnies at Stop The ACLU.

ACLU vs. NOLA Parish Over Hurricane Katrina Memorial - Fox News

Padre Pio

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For today's Memorial of St. Padre Pio. My original idea for this drawing was to show both the younger and older eyes of Saint Padre Pio. I stopped at the younger eyes, as they seemed to make for an effective image on their own.

Thanks to Amy for the post of an earlier version of the Sister Leonella Sgorbati portrait on her Another Catholic Mom. Thanks to Christine for doing the same at her Domestic Vocation. I'm grateful to Alan Keyes' Renew America for these recent posts; the Three Cheers-Stop The ACLU toon, the post of the Smoke Free/Prayer Free toon, and a link to the Die Academicus toon and commentary. There's a post of an older Archbishop Flynn/Cardinal Arinze toon somewhere on this Swedish Kardinal Dante-Sällskapet / Cor Unum (-for hangivna papister only) forum. Thanks to justme for the 'unique prayer cartoons' posts and plug on his funniest-cartoon blogspot site. Someone borrowed one of my tulip garden pics for a mass e-mailing; adding a tagline to the bottom of the photo crediting the photographer hasn't prevented it from appearing on this Islamic site. Found this album of older cartoons on the German MSN Groups Muziekkamp posted by superjan ( Faithmouse is supercool !! zie meer op www.faithmouse.com.) A little belated, but Dank und Gott segnen!! As for that Die Academicus toon, Twiddledee at his LiveJournal site makes the mistake of posting a link to the address for the regularly updating image and asks 'what the **** does this comic mean?'

Smoke Free / Prayer Free

Appeals Court Overturns Ruling Allowing Prayer in Public Libraries - Fox News

Lines Of Duty / Sister Leonella Sgorbati

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Sr. Leonella’s Victory -The Anchoress

Die Academicus

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The title of this cartoon is taken from the beginning of Pope Benedict XVI's speech before the University of Regensburg on September 12, his first visit to the university where he first taught in 1959-

We would meet before and after lessons in the rooms of the teaching staff. There was a lively exchange with historians, philosophers, philologists and, naturally, between the two theological faculties. Once a semester there was a dies academicus, when professors from every faculty appeared before the students of the entire university, making possible a genuine experience of universitas: the reality that despite our specializations which at times make it difficult to communicate with each other, we made up a whole, working in everything on the basis of a single rationality with its various aspects and sharing responsibility for the right use of reason-- this reality became a lived experience.

The Pope goes on to criticize the radical skepticism of the secular world which regularly dismisses the thought that the religious community can integrate both reason and faith into a coherent world view. The Pope explains that it's vital to a healthy world that faith not be denigrated to subculture status. Then, as any good lecturer would, he starts with a provocative point, as if to demonstrate that the sort of discussions which take place between Christian and Islamic scholars behind the walls of university can be a model for the entire world to follow. He directly and properly addresses the greatest threat to the well being of the world-Islamic Fascism. The thrust of his speech is that violence is not an expression of God, but the logos (the word, or original expression of God, as first expressed in Genesis) is. He includes an Islamic scholar in his references, and even goes so far as to refer to the Old Testament, New Testament and the Qur'an as the three laws.

The secular press, which regularly pines for intelligent dialogue in our factionalized world, freaks. It sees the reference to Mohammad in the Pope's address and shouts heresy against Mohammad! from the rooftops. The result is the torching of Catholic churches on the West Bank, the murder of a nun in Somalia as she left the hospital where she worked as a nurse, and vows by Islamic Fascists for the Pope's assassination.

Stop The ACLU / Three Cheers

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Third version of the cartoon I've posted online in the past day; the former versions were posted directly to the Stop The ACLU site itself. To stop myself from creating additional variations of this cartoon I've destroyed the former ones and flattened all the layers of the print version of the cartoon above. Enough is enough!

I had a pretty clear idea of the 'message' of this cartoon (the ACLU defends some Christian cases, particularly ones which further their own partisan agenda, but on the whole aggressively attacks Christian free expression) but the 'gag' was just too idea laden and kept imploding under its own weight. Finally I compromised with the cartoon and allowed it to express the spirit of my original idea. It's surreal, I know, but it works for me.

I recently read some of an interview with Bob Dylan, where he revealed that he tries to capture an overall aural quality to his songs which matches the elusive one he totes around in his head. This sound, he explained, is similar to an early morning walk down a busy street, minus the jack hammers. It's his 'jingle-jangle morning'. I can understand this, because much more important than any particular political or religious idea, I try to capture a certain atmosphere I feel regarding the confluence or non-confluence of these themes. I understand that people enjoy gags, but I've never been very good at them.

Wash For Life

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Please feel free to post today's cartoon on your own site to help promote this worthwhile youth event, which will benefit local pregancy resource centers.

Wash For Life

Neverborn / Wash For Life Coloring Page
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Thanks to Alan Keyes' Renew America for posting today's Wash For Life toon. Thanks as well to Pookie18 for posting a number of toons on Friday's Today's Toons thread at Free Republic. Adam at Adam's Blog under 'What Price Beauty?' has posted the Fetuses? You're soaking in them! cartoon. Suzanne at Blue Wave Canada has done the same under the title 'Remember the old dish soap ads?' Sharii at her Save The Babies MySpace post has also linked to the cartoon. A post of the older Women's rights begin in the womb toon can be found on this forum from Croatia. Something Awful (adult content) has a thread revisiting the Fiestacat cartoon from last month. Christine has posted the Neverborn 'Life' flower toon on her Domestic Vocation. Those with an account at ESPN can view this post of the Delivery refused, return to sender cartoon. Ray from Stella Borealis has tagged me with Five Things Meme, and I don't own a backpack.

Snookered

'God Bless America' poster yanked - Santa Maria Times

Cartoon in progress.

Another preview image from the Steve Irwin Crikey! cartoon, which is also in progress.

I'm working on a promotional cartoon for the first annual Wash For Life, which I learned about by way of the Generations For Life newsletter. The Wash For Life takes place this Saturday September 16 at a location near you, with proceeds to benefit pregnancy resource centers. I've have this new Neverborn cartoon, which will be similar in flavor to the recent Neverborn 'life' flower cartoon, posted online for both this Friday and Saturday. If you have a Pro-Life blog, please consider posting the cartoon on your own site to promote this worthwhile youth event.

Wash For Life

Crikey!

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Still working on that Steve Irwin toon-here's a preview image for those who have returned for the completed image. The Baxter County Right To Life toon is finished though, and can be seen in the post immediately below.

Alan Keyes' Renew America has posted the most recent Stop The ACLU toon, in addition of the previous Fetuses? You're soaking in them! Thanks to Rudi for posting the recent happy 9/11 toon to this Pennsylvania Patriot-News PennLive forum. DOG10025 has posted the same in this Twin Cities StarTribune forum. Pookie18 has included the cartoon in his Tuesday Today's Toons forum at Free Republic. LiveJournal's Libellulidae wonders 'Oh Faithmouse, will you ever learn?' A new thread regarding my stability can be found at Portal Of Evil.

Baxter County Arkansas Right To Life Cartoon

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Right To Life groups are welcome to use this version of the above cartoon which I've made into a Life-Chain sign-up sheet image.

Life Chain Sunday - October 1, 2006.

For the Baxter County Right To Life booth at this week's Baxter County Fair, Arkansas.

Stop The ACLU / Happy 9/11

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For the Sunday Funnies at Stop The ACLU.

Thanks to J. A. Gillmartin for adding faithmouse to his 'frequent: king's blogs' blogroll at Sheep's Crib. Melban at Foobar State Of Mind is one of the sites displaying the current ACLU toon via the Stop The ACLU feed. Thanks to Pro Life at her We_Are_Pro_Life MySpace page for posting two older cartoons.

Fetuses? You're Soaking In Them!

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Women Paid to Carry Baby to 12 Weeks before “Harvesting” for Beauty Treatments - LifeSite

A barbaric kind of beauty - Daily Mail

Thanks to Rebecca at the Catholic bioethics Mary Meets Dolly for posting today's cartoon. Pookie18 has posted a few recent cartoons on his Today's Toons thread at Free Republic. Pookie's collections are regularly re-posted on a number of sites, including this thread at the Republican Humor Yahoo group (registration required). Honored to have two recent toons linked on the Wikipedia page for Iowa's 1st Congressional District Republican candidate Mike Whalen. I've seen my Jesus Enters Jerusalem cartoon, which features an appropriately middle-eastern looking Christ (as a camel) used now in a few places on the web, including this recent adaptation for a personal icon by Guest_7izo on his IMVU page.

Faithless Democrats.com

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Democrats launch Christian Web site - Free Republic thread

Faithful Democrats.com

A Howard Donkey toon on the subject of the new 'Faithful Democrats' site. 'FD' was launched by former chairman of the Democratic party David Wilhelm, an action which pretty much goes against Democratic think-tank suggestions earlier in the year that when it comes to matters of faith, Dems would be better off just changing the subject.

I've been experimenting with a little different layout for the blog- just two main posts with a larger main image and less graphic links on the sidebar. Upload time is probably similar to before, but hopefully it makes the site a little more graphically engaging.

Thanks to Nico del Fuego for posting a Chaplain Capodanno toon on ta2dmomma's MySpace page. Abyo at her aLife Xanga site has posted a prayer cartoon from the archives. The Labor Day toon has been posted somewhere in the forum of the oldest school in Poland-Marshal Stanisław Małachowski High School, otherwise known as Małachowianka. Thanks to joncha who in the Eventis forum states that 'faithmouse has got to be the greatest web cartoon in the history of forever'.

Wrong Madonna

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Ignatius stops sale of Charlotte Church works after singer's TV pilot - Catholic Online International News

Free Republic thread

Angel Queen has a thread regarding the recent female priest controversy at St. Joan of Arc's which also features an image from my continuing Father Altier/Archbishop Flynn series (really need to get back to that). Sunday's Social Schmocial toon has surfaced on a number of sites via Stop The ACLU's feed; jasonpsimon at LifeJournal is one of them. Thanks to Faith for the supportive post at her Weekly Christian Conservative. A Memorial Day toon from last year recently appeared on a Russian thread at Luckasoft and is sharing space on the same page with some relatively recent Leonard Cohen lyrics. Thanks to our local alternative City Pages for making faithmouse the site of the day.

State Fair Pics

Our local MN State fair wrapped up on Monday. The original faithmouse and I found some time to visit, despite my halacious and lingering head cold. Here are a few pics-

Booth for the Minnesota Human Right Department. These are the same people who recently protected the State from Easter Bunny displays.

For sale outside DFL headquarters. Make your own jokes.My favorite, the native fish display.

The Miracle Of Life display was in a larger building this year. I've always wanted to draw a cartoon on the subject-perhaps showing a sleazy, additional admission area in the back emanating mood lighting and wacka-wacka music.

The picture above is of a live birth which happened shortly before our arrival. Timing is everything.

Labor Day Cartoon

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Stop The ACLU / Social Schmocial

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Judge Rules Christian Prison Program Unconstitutional- Agape Press / Free Republic

Prison Fellowship

I decided that the current Iowa series toon will actually make for a better Sunday Funnies Stop The ACLU toon than the 'Disaster Cross' sketch in the previous post.

The Iowa district judge who ruled against the Prison Fellowship program is Robert Pratt, who was appointed to the bench by Bill Clinton in 1997. In 2002, Judge Pratt struck down an Iowa law that required convicted sex offenders to live at least 2,000 feet from schools, day care centers and other child care facilities. Judge Pratt is a member of the Volunteer Committee of Lawyers, an affiliation who's members 'share strong misgivings about the wisdom and consequences of America's perpetual drug war'. On an article on the VCL site, Judge Pratt refers to the war on drugs as the "war on drugs" and laments the taxpayer dollars wasted by the fight.

No matter Judge Pratt's noble intentions, how effective would decriminalization be if he and the ACLU were successful at removing from prisons a voluntary program which so many ex-convicts credit with their own rehabilitation? Perhaps the answer is that, lacking an effective and proven alternative to programs such as those run by IFI / Prison Fellowship, decriminalization itself would be considered by some to be the acceptable secular alternative.

Worldwide Faithmouse cartoon of the day-