Helen Weir column
Helen is a freelance writer based in western Wisconsin. (Her works have also appeared under her former name of Helen Valois.) She is a member of the Militia Immaculatae movement of Marian consecration founded by St. Maximilian Kolbe.
Subscribe to Helen's columnHelen Weir
June 8, 2012
In his concession speech late Tuesday night, Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett described Wisconsin's recall election as an "amazing experience." Not as amazing, one . . .
Helen Weir
July 28, 2011
Seventeenth Sunday in ordinary time, Year A
"Humanae Vitae: of human life"
By Father Joseph Redfern
In today's first reading from the First Book of . . .
Helen Weir
July 11, 2011
As a conservative activist in an area of the country largely believed to be a remote suburb of the Twin Cities, I am increasingly encountering a general . . .
Helen Weir
February 28, 2011
Here in the political three-ring circus known as the Great State of Wisconsin, the spectacle goes on. Governor Walker, thank goodness, is not backing down, . . .
Helen Weir
January 25, 2011
The United States of America was founded on the fundamental civic and spiritual recognition that "all men are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable . . .
Helen Weir
October 24, 2010
In an opinion piece posted at TheHill.com ("The New Republican Right," Oct. 22, 2010), Dick Morris makes some astounding assertions. Declaring the GOP "safe . . .
Helen Weir
October 18, 2010
It was a couple of weeks ago, on a crisp September Saturday when the leaves were just starting to turn, that I joined a few hundred other patriots for a Tea . . .
Helen Weir
September 9, 2010
Drive down the road listening to the radio these days in western Wisconsin, and you will be treated to mind-numbingly condescending, state-sponsored warnings to . . .
Helen Weir
August 31, 2010
"Well, really, you know, I am not aware of a thirst for some ready-made truth which puts an end to intellectual activity in the way you seem to be describing. . . .
Helen Weir
July 10, 2010
This past Independence Day week, Americans were treated to some real fireworks. Who ever imagined that the Executive Branch of the federal government — "our . . .
Helen Weir
June 6, 2010
"How is it possible," asked the Little Prince (in Antoine de Saint-Exupery's touching fairy tale of the same name), during one of his notable stops on the way . . .
Helen Weir
March 30, 2010
As the old song puts it, "Don't know much about . . ." well, in this case, Marco Rubio. Like most other interested non-Floridians, I am following his Senate . . .
Helen Weir
March 1, 2010
According to Barack Obama, the 8 or 9 million Americans who will lose their existing private health insurance coverage if Obamacare is finagled through Congress . . .
Helen Weir
February 6, 2010
"There's a big difference" — as Miracle Max of Princess Bride fame once sagely observed — "between mostly dead and all dead." Where the question of Obamacare . . .
Helen Weir
December 17, 2009
From the First Apology of St. Justin Martyr:
We call this food Eucharist; and no one else is permitted to partake of it, except one who believes our teaching . . .
Helen Weir
November 5, 2009
NY23 — In a stunning climax to Tuesday's most closely watched political duel, Conservative Party challenger Doug Hoffman captured an astounding 45% of the vote . . .
Helen Weir
September 16, 2009
With Obamacare or its repackaged equivalent still looming ominously on the American sociopolitical horizon, there are few voices, at this late stage in the game . . .
Helen Weir
September 11, 2009
"I had been praying at daily Mass for Barack Obama's conversion and for the truth about his health care bill to come out," says Jean Heimann, founder of . . .
Helen Weir
July 29, 2009
"German men and women . . . Paragraph 21 of the Code of Penal Law is still valid. According to this, anyone who deliberately kills a man by premeditated act . . .
Helen Weir
April 21, 2009
We have just received the disturbing and indeed tragic news that, with Obama daughters Malia and Sasha about to embark upon the adventure of advanced childhood, . . .
Helen Weir
April 17, 2009
Perhaps you, like me, woke up on Thursday to discover that — in addition to being labeled a potential "terrorist" — you have also been classified as "anti . . .
Helen Weir
March 10, 2009
The intelligentsia has spoken. In the person of Mark A. Kay of no less esteemed a citadel of higher learning than Stanford itself, we have been provided with . . .
Helen Weir
February 11, 2009
Now that Eluana is dead, it is time to pray not only for the repose of her soul, but also for her father, Beppino Englaro. Beppino, unlike Bob Schindler (the . . .
Helen Weir
February 2, 2009
We are standing before the ruins of inner national unity, which in these last days has been brutally destroyed. . . . Can there be national solidarity with . . . . .
Helen Weir
November 5, 2008
Flicking off Fox News Tuesday night when the defeat of the McCain/Palin ticket began to look inevitable, I went to bed and lapsed into a wicked nightmare. My . . .
Helen Weir
November 1, 2008
. . . where the prospect of an Obama presidency is nothing to be particularly concerned about. The Democratic contender may be friendly with domestic . . .
Helen Weir
September 11, 2008
The cover of Glenn Beck's Fusion magazine currently and compellingly asks: "Barack Obama: Messiah or Mussolini?" In light of the recent "lipstick on a pig" . . .
Helen Weir
September 9, 2008
What was it the Obama campaign and its media echo chamber had to say, when there seemed to be a chance that John McCain would attempt to eclipse their "Greek . . .
Helen Weir
August 27, 2008
"(My dad) and my mom poured everything they had into me and (my brother) Craig.
It was the greatest gift a child can receive:
never doubting for a single . . .
Helen Weir
August 20, 2008
Have you entertained the notion of robbing a bank this week? Neither have I. In fact, I can unequivocally state that such a course of action has never come up . . .
Helen Weir
June 13, 2008
Now that the primaries process of the two major parties is essentially resolved, our presidential choices are down to two. It's Obama or McCain, and for . . .
Helen Weir
May 6, 2008
From the point of view of a purple kangaroo,
all the world is hers to rule.
She "protects" her child from the perils of the wild
in tyrannical "pouch-school. . . .
Helen Weir
March 18, 2008
It's about time that the leadership of the mainstream pro-life movement got its graduation certificate from Basic Puppy Training, don't you think? It is . . .
Helen Weir
February 25, 2008
"Mom, we had a substitute teacher today," my son, a fourth-grader at a Catholic school, mentioned a while back.
"Oh, really, Honey? How did that go?"
. . .
Helen Weir
February 14, 2008
It's poetic justice, really. Listen to Sean Hannity these days, and you'd think he'd been a Keyes Republican all along. He's been clamoring — and more power . . .
Helen Weir
February 9, 2008
If I were Mr. Snerdley,
to Rush I would complain.
He blames the base absurdly
for the rise of John McCain!
Those "purists" who did not go vote
for RINOs . . .
Helen Weir
January 24, 2008
I was talking with a friend of a friend the other day, who has been residing in Arkansas during Republican aspirant Mike Huckabee's entire tenure as governor of . . .
Helen Weir
January 14, 2008
With the presidential primaries now upon us, the candidates on both sides of the nominal divide are feverishly expounding on their policy preferences on the . . .
Helen Weir
December 24, 2007
It's hard to understand. This election cycle has seen evangelical icon Pat Robertson getting behind socially liberal Rudy Giuliani, Minuteman co-founder Jim . . .
Helen Weir
October 31, 2007
As all the little ghosts and goblins make their rounds this year, it's hard to keep from wondering what kind of country they will be growing up to face. We . . .
Helen Weir
October 20, 2007
Bill O'Reilly has an amazing talent for getting things wrong, even in the midst of getting them right. To have such a high-profile and potentially wonderful . . .
Helen Weir
September 28, 2007
"I want to do everything I can to get Alan Keyes the nomination, and to convince the Republican leadership that he can win," Will Duffy insists. Thirteen . . .
Helen Weir
September 22, 2007
Bill Clinton knows about the Mexico City Policy. Immediately upon taking office as President, on behalf of his virulently pro-abortion base of support, Clinton . . .
Helen Weir
September 7, 2007
They're still signing on. People from across the country are going to the petition at AlanKeyes.com every day and adding their names and remarks to the list of . . .
Helen Weir
August 7, 2007
"Hello, Dr. Laura?* This is the Republican base. Thank you for taking our call. We're in dire straits these days, and we were hoping you could help us out. . . .
Helen Weir
July 25, 2007
If anyone still needs decisive evidence of liberal media bias and its devastating impact on the current political climate, here it is: "Who's Alan Keyes?" This . . .
Helen Weir
July 8, 2007
Yesterday, the news arrived that our Holy Father Benedict XVI, in a fit of retrogressive anti-Semitism, tipped his hand about the troglodytic nature of the . . .
Helen Weir
June 20, 2007
Yesterday, I was looking over a petition that arrived as an insert in our copy of National Right to Life News. It is addressed to the GOP top brass, asking . . .
Helen Weir
May 29, 2007
The theme of the Star Wars saga — so the Speaker of the House informed us on last night's History Channel special, "Star Wars: The Legacy Revealed" — is that . . .
Helen Weir
May 12, 2007
Alan Keyes said something thought-provoking the other day. That in itself is unremarkable; it happens every time the man opens his mouth. One particular . . .
Helen Weir
March 23, 2007
It is not a piece of legislation, so there is no one to lobby directly in order to thwart or halt it. It is not essential to national security, since none of . . .
Helen Weir
March 10, 2007
Those who consider Sean Hannity a "great American" are used to the popular talk show host's signature style. Self-effacing, affable, and dapper, Sean never . . .
Helen Weir
February 25, 2007
Have you ever heard a liberal say, "I really like Hillary, but let's face it, she just has too much baggage to make it in the general election"? I don't mean . . .
Helen Weir
February 22, 2007
On February 22, 1943, Hans Scholl, his sister Sophie, and their friend and associate Christoph Probst were executed by the Nazis. Their "crime" was the . . .
Helen Weir
February 21, 2007
The significance of something that happens in this country can be gauged by comparing it inversely with the amount of media coverage received. Inversely, mind . . .
Helen Weir
February 6, 2007
Orwellian euphemism is nothing new in the realm of contemporary American political discourse. Choice, translated by the left, refers to the chopping up of . . .
Helen Weir
January 22, 2007
Let's say a masked gunman is testily aiming an automatic weapon at two helpless hostages — an able-bodied man, and a trembling toddler. "Please, I beg of you," . . .
Helen Weir
January 13, 2007
What has happened to Gordon Klingenschmitt and his family is certainly a shame. This now ex-Navy chaplain, who stood up for his and others' right to pray in . . .
Helen Weir
December 9, 2006
The "N"-word is humiliating. It is degrading. Those towards whom it is directed stand in need of both emotional and financial compensation, if Gloria Allred . . .
Helen Weir
November 12, 2006
You've heard the expression, "a heart of stone." Well, the heart of the Republican Party appears to be made of steel — Michael Steele, that is, the Lieutenant . . .
Helen Weir
November 2, 2006
With the midterm elections fast approaching, President Bush has asked us all to consider an important question. In the time since 9/11, has his administration . . .
Helen Weir
October 19, 2006
Rush Limbaugh, by his own admission, feels rejected. He feels confused. He even took the staggering step of declaring himself "unqualified" to be our host for . . .
Helen Weir
September 9, 2006
So it has happened at last. It had to eventually, I suppose. I don't mean the spectacle of the Democrats bridling at the suggestion that national security . . .
Helen Weir
June 25, 2006
I have a blue friend (meaning, of course, not that she is inclined to be melancholy, but that she voted for John Kerry) who has been expressing consternation . . .
Helen Weir
May 18, 2006
If you are like most of the rest of the country, you probably never want to hear the word "immigration" again. Not that the issue isn't of paramount importance . . .
Helen Weir
May 15, 2006
Have you heard what happened at UW-Eau Claire? If not, you're not the only one. Even here in the vicinity of the campus itself, very few people know of the . . .
Helen Weir
May 1, 2006
As of this writing, the clock is still running for Andrea Clark, the 54-year-old Texas woman who has been redlined by St. Luke's hospital in Houston where she . . .
Helen Weir
April 14, 2006
At the end of last month, we observed the first anniversary of the death by starvation/dehydration of Terri Schindler Schiavo. For me and for many, however, . . .
Helen Weir
March 29, 2006
When one reads stories about Terri Schindler-Schiavo, one often encounters a timeline which places her on a continuum with Karen Ann Quinlan and Nancy Cruzan. . . .
Helen Weir
March 25, 2006
As the anniversary of Terri Schiavo's horrific state-ordered slaying by starvation/dehydration approaches, people are again turning their attention to the . . .
Helen Weir
April 6, 2005
Palm trees, swimming pools, and a sudden, blessed release from the gripping chill of mid-March in the north would normally spell "vacation!" to the American . . .
Helen Weir
November 11, 2004
"It's great about Bush getting re-elected," my conservative friends have been saying to me these days, "but, hey! You must be bummed about Keyes' big loss in . . .
Helen Weir
October 14, 2004
As a present-day cheesehead who grew up a flatlander (read: a resident of Wisconsin, raised in Illinois), my interest in the race to replace Peter Fitzgerald as . . .
