Art-For-Art’s-Sake Theatre: “Would you give your jacket to Johannes?”

Time once again for our usual midday Wednesday feature.

When an eleven-year-old boy named Johannes sat at a bus stop without a jacket in Oslo, Norway, hidden cameras captured a series of very special moments. The experiment was filmed by the Norwegian branch of the SOS Children’s Villages International charity, as part of a campaign to provide warm clothing for displaced children in Syria.

(H/T to ConservativeVideos.com.)
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Saving Christmas in Salley

A father and his three children in Salley, South Carolina, lost everything but the clothing on their backs on Christmas Eve.

"I was at my mom's house putting together one of my youngest daughter's gifts and happened to get the phone call that the house was on fire," he says.

But on this gloomy day after Christmas, Thompson and his kids return to the ruins. Crime scene tape still blocks the remains, but this family is scoping out anything worth salvaging. The TV is melted, the XBOX destroyed, years of pictures are likely gone forever, and a Christmas tree is incinerated, along with the gifts below it.

"All we have is basically the clothes that we had on our back at the time," Thompson says.

At this time, we have been relayed the specific clothing needs of the children.

Angel (12 years old)
- Pants: Women's 10 short
- Shirt: Women's Medium or Large
- Underwear: Women's 6
- Shoes: Women's 10

Chris (9 years old)
- Pants: 14/16 husky
- Shirt: 16 Boy's
- Underwear: Boy's Large
- Shoes: Men's 7

Emmalee (4 years old)
- Pants: Kid's 7
- Shirt: Kid's 6/7
- Underwear: Kid's 6
- Shoes - Kid's 12

If you live in South Carolina or northeastern Georgia, you may be in a position to help them directly. Otherwise, donations may be sent payable to Tony Thompson, c/o PO Box 1002, Wagener SC 29164, or to a Paypal account via email, sdconder at yahoo dot com.

(Tip of the Black Hat to WRDW-TV in Augusta, Georgia, and to Christine Niles of Forward Boldly.)
 

Random Thoughts The Night Before

According to Investors' Business Daily, the re-election of Barack Obama rests on five claims all refuted handily by people who have actually run a business: 1) Bush tax cuts and deregulation caused the recession, 2) He stopped a second Great Depression, 3) His policies are working, 4) A slow recovery was inevitable, and 5) Nobody could have done any better.

We've heard stories of voter fraud, notably voting machines conveniently malfunctioning in favor of the incumbent, in the battleground state of Ohio. Thankfully, our friends at The Daily Beast have come to the rescue. If you see this kind of shenanigans going on at your polling place, click here:

http://www.havingtroublevoting.com/

Many liberal voters will go to the polls with less enthusiasm than they did four years ago. Conor Friedersdorf explains better than most why he refuses to vote for Obama in, of all places, The Atlantic.

... if you're a Democrat who has affirmed that you'd never vote for an opponent of gay equality, or a torturer, or someone caught using racial slurs, how can you vote for the guy who orders drone strikes that kill hundreds of innocents and terrorizes thousands more -- and who constantly hides the ugliest realities of his policy (while bragging about the terrorists it kills) so that Americans won't even have all the information sufficient to debate the matter for themselves?

After all, we are incapable of deciding for ourselves. That's why we have the mainstream media to decide for us, right?

Many conservatives, including prolife Catholics (as opposed to pro-death Catholics, who are a walking oxymoron, but that's another story), would consider Mitt Romney to be the lesser of two evils. Even the Washington Examiner concedes he is not the darling of the conservative base to which he has appealed (while still endorsing him twice). But there is more involved here than the lesser of two evils, as commentator Bill Whittle explains in the video clip above. We are choosing what kind of America we want. On one hand, there is the one the Founding Fathers intended, that of a constitutional republic, subject to the rule of law, as opposed to an effete and arrogant oligarchy. On the other hand, there is a European-style pseudo-socialism, which even Europeans are beginning to reject, one that pits race and class against one another, while its leaders are wined and dined by the socially "enlightened" upper-crust.

(By the way, The Daily Caller already knows the loser for this year.)

Running for a second term as President is a man whose past associations, including a known and self-admitted domestic terrorist who actively supported the man's entry into politics, could not get him past a routine civil service background check. Tomorrow will be the day America decides whether that matters. In so doing, a nation chooses the course it richly deserves. We do not imagine those whose freedoms will be in jeopardy. Indeed, those who profess the Catholic faith already have reason to be alarmed.

But we can still have a little fun with it (while we still can), courtesy of comedian and Brooklyn native Chris Rock. Sort of adds new meaning to the term "Rock The Vote," don't you think?

Or don't you?
 

An Appeal From The Philippines

The Republic of the Philippines is one of the few predominantly Catholic nations left in the world, that still inculcates the Faith in its culture. Their faithful ones do so despite the rapid encroaching of Western secularism, brought on by disingenuous "Catholic" politicians, with the aid of entertainment celebrities (not to mention Planned Parenthood). Now that faith is being tested, as a result of a devastating tropical monsoon that has brought record flooding to the northernmost island-region of Luzon, which includes the national capital region of Metro Manila.

Our friend Filipino-Canadian singer-songwriter Mikey Bustos shot this video while flying over Metro Manila in the past 24 hours. For those here in North America watching TV Patrol on ABS-CBN or The Filipino Channel, the scale of desperation is more than clear, as search and rescue operations are being tested beyond their limits. Please help by visiting The Philippine Red Cross or by calling the GMA Kapuso Foundation Telethon hotline at (+632) 981-1950. You can also call the GMA Kapuso Foundation: 928-4299/928-9351. They are currently in need of ready-to-eat food, canned goods, bottled water, et cetera.

Bustos reports: "This needed to be published right away! I took the video footage from my plane window and I wanted everyone to see what I had seen. Hoping people do what they can to help, even by sharing this video."

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On a personal note, Sal last heard from her family in the homeland just over 24 hours ago. Their casa was taking in water on the second floor, which is unprecedented. The evacuation ordered for their area (Barangay Niugan, Malabon City) was underway. Before we were cut off, her mother, the caregiver, and the housekeeper had yet to be rescued. We are praying hard here at Chez Alexandre. We ask the same of our readership; indeed, the entire Catholic blogosphere.