Pazdziernik II

We Will Survive

Gambian President Yahya Jammeh (b. 1965) "defended Gambian laws banning homosexual behavior in comments to the country’s National Assembly last Friday" (April 27, 2012):

“If you want us to be ungodly for you to give us aid, take your aid away, we will survive,” said Jammeh,...

“We will rather eat grass than accept this ungodly evil attitude that is anti-God, anti-human and anti-creation.”

Acceptance of homosexual acts would compromise the nation’s dignity and “insult God,” he said. The country is predominately Muslim, but is also home to many Christians. He noted that Gambia had lost many of its traditional practices to the influence of western culture, but said that this was an issue where the country would stand firm.

“We lost our traditional head scarf for a necktie, but we will not lose our humanity for the so-called human rights,” he said.

“We will respect human rights where a human being behaves like a human being.” He added: “Let me make it very clear that if you want me to offend God for you to give me aid, you are making a great mistake. You will not bribe me to do what is evil and ungodly.”

Source:

LifeSite—April 27, 2012

Sarah Palin Defends Rush Limbaugh

On Tuesday March 6, 2012, former Alaska Governor and Republican Party Vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin defended Rush Limbaugh:

“I think the definition of hypocrisy is for Rush Limbaugh to have been called out, forced to apologize and retract what it is that he said in exercising his First Amendment rights and never is that the same applied to the leftist radicals who say such horrible things about the handicapped, about women, about the defenseless,” Palin told CNN in an interview from Wasilla, Alaska.

Source: Politico

A certain charm and passion and magic

Aerosmith's Steven Tyler had very edifying comments this week in defending common decency on television and on "a certain charm and passion and magic" in not revealing everything. Read for yourself Steven Tyler to Supreme Court: Watch the language

"There's a certain charm and passion and magic in not showing full-frontal nudity" or using constant profanity, Tyler said, as the high court prepared to take up a First Amendment case on the regulation of the airwaves.

"It's really hot when you only show a little," he said.

Thanks Steven!

American Decentrialization

I just finished Senator Jim DeMint's (R-South Carolina) book The Great American Awakening: Two Years that Changes America, Washington, and Me (2011) on the rise of the Tea Party and principled conservatism in 2009. I highly recommend this well-written and short book.

In keeping with the "short" theme of Senator DeMint's Book I decided to limit my self to a single citation which, in my estimation sums up, the Tea Party and principled conservatism: decentralization.

Decentralization is not a new idea for American government; it is the idea. It's called federalism. In America's original design, individuals held most of the authority and responsibility in America. From the individual, authority moved to families, churches, and volunteer organizations. Local and state governments provided a framework of law and order, and the federal government was created by the states to provide for the national defense, ensure justice, and to facilitate interstate commerce. But very little of what federal government does today was ever intended to be functions of a centralized national government.

There are two good reasons why we must restructure the federal government and devolve many federal programs back to the states: (1) we can't afford them, and (2) it has been proven beyond reasonable doubt that the federal government cannot manage programs effectively or cost-efficiently.

The question Americans should be asking is not what else the federal government should do to solve out problems, but what the federal government must let go of to save our nation.

Excellent Spiritual Direction from Dr. Edward Peters

We can all get caught up in our own problems, problems of society and problems of our world — very real or very imagined. September 6th Fr. Frank Pavone of the Diocese of Amarillo , Texas was recalled by his bishop, Bishop Patrick J. Zurek to his home diocese. Fr. Pavone had permission to engage in apostolate outside his diocese in the form of Priests for Life , a worthy pro-life organization based in Staten Island, New York.

Fr. Pavone was not to pleased about this based on reading his public comments. On September 16th Edward N. Peters, JD, JCD (civil and canon lawyer) responded to some of Fr. Frank Pavone's public comments with clarity and in a ways that we can all take to heart.

Pavone: Well, friends, here in Amarillo I am working hard at my computer on various pro-life projects as I await further instructions from the diocese. Nothing yet…

Peters: Nothing? What’s that mean? Does a young, healthy priest, in his home diocese, with full faculties for ordained ministry therein, really need to be told what to do with a large, unexpected block of time? If so, I have some suggestions.

Besides engaging in the “period of prayer and reflection” to which you were directed, how about offering to cover some masses for your over-stretched diocesan brothers who are saying two, three (and, shhh!, sometimes four) masses a day for the local faithful? Or how about slipping, a la John Paul II, into a parish confessional for a few extra hours each day to tend whatever souls God might send you? If the liturgical or sacramental work of a secular priest is not your forte, maybe you could visit your elderly and infirm brothers, or fill relief boxes at a community shelter and share some moments with people in need. Would the daily grind of tending souls ransomed by Christ, but at such grave risk in this world, be such a poor use of your time?

...

Pavone: [It’s distressing to have to endure] disruption to a mission which is at the core of my life.

Peters: Stop. Something is seriously askew here. Nothing, not even the most visible (and arguably the most effective) pro-life work in the world, is at the “core” of any priest’s life; nothing is there, besides the High Priest Jesus Christ. That is no pious platitude. For any priest, religious or diocesan, to assert before the world that anything is at the core of his life besides the Son of God is very disturbing.

...

Pavove: Tears, sleepless nights, anger, righteous indignation – this and more come to me each day because something is happening to the youngest members of the human family.

Peters: Forgive my impatience, Father, but I don’t see anything in this litany of woes that can’t be claimed by virtually every conscientious Christian parent trying to raise children in this wicked age. And nothing in this list has not been endured by every normal adult who, in his or her own way, is trying to make the world a better place, often in the face of appalling injustices (one of which, to be sure, is abortion, and most of which aren’t) but with much less freedom and far fewer resources than you have been blessed with. The vast majority of such folks, however, don’t go around blogging about it. They just quietly do the best they can with what they have.

Dr. Peter's response to is worthy of study and, in my estimation, should be taken to heart by all. We all need good and prudent direction so we can be enabled to give good and prudent direction to others. The full text can be found on Dr. Peter's blog In The Light of The Law

The Restoration of Responsibility

British Prime Minister David Cameron, 43, of the Conservative Party and PM since May 2010, recently had some edifying, insightful and exacting analysis on the summertime riots in Great Britian: Prime Minister says British riots showed consequences of relativism .

What last week has shown is that this moral neutrality, this relativism - it's not going to cut it any more,” Cameron said in an August 15 speech delivered at a youth center in his constituency of Oxfordshire. “One of the biggest lessons of these riots is that we've got to talk honestly about behavior and then act - because bad behavior has literally arrived on people's doorsteps.”

Widespread rioting in London from August 6 through 9 left five people dead, and has resulted in the arrests of over 2,700 people. The days of chaos began after a 29-year-old Tottenham father of four, Mark Duggan, was shot and killed by north London police officers attempting to arrest him during an illegal firearms operation.

In his Oxfordshire speech, Cameron denied that the resulting wave of looting and burning was a form of social or political protest. He stressed that participants came from all racial backgrounds, and said the participants “targeted high street shops, not Parliament.”

And those attributing the violence to poverty, he countered, were insulting “the millions of people who, whatever the hardship, would never dream of making others suffer like this.”

Cameron said the riots were ultimately “about behavior” – specifically, an “indifference to right and wrong,” “complete absence of self-restraint,” and a “twisted moral code.”

He placed heavy blame for this condition on “politicians shying away from speaking the truth about behavior, about morality,” saying their timidity had “helped to cause the social problems we see around us.”

“We have been too unwilling for too long to talk about what is right and what is wrong,” Cameron declared. “We have too often avoided saying what needs to be said - about everything from marriage to welfare to common courtesy.”

He described a political climate in which “you can't say that marriage and commitment are good things - for fear of alienating single mothers.”

“You don't deal properly with children who repeatedly fail in school - because you're worried about being accused of stigmatizing them. You're wary of talking about those who have never worked and never want to work - in case you're charged with not getting it, being middle class and out of touch.”

“In this risk-free ground of moral neutrality,” he lamented, “there are no bad choices, just different lifestyles.”

He went on to name many of the social disorders fostered by a morally neutral attitude: “Irresponsibility. Selfishness. Behaving as if your choices have no consequences. Children without fathers. Schools without discipline … Communities without control.”

The prime minister said the British “must fight back against the attitudes and assumptions that have brought parts of our society to this shocking state.”

And the government, while not all-powerful, will have to play its part. “People's behaviour does not happen in a vacuum,” Cameron pointed out. “It is affected by the rules government sets, and how they are enforced; by the services government provides, and how they are delivered; and perhaps above all, by the signals government sends about the kinds of behavior that are encouraged and rewarded.”

...

“Families matter,” he stated. “I don't doubt that many of the rioters out last week have no father at home. Perhaps they come from one of the neighborhoods where it's standard for children to have a mum and not a dad.”

“So if we want to have any hope of mending our broken society, family and parenting is where we've got to start.”

Cameron said he wanted a “family test” applied to all future domestic policies.

“If it hurts families, if it undermines commitment, if it tramples over the values that keeps people together, or stops families from being together, then we shouldn't do it.”

...

He closed by emphasizing that every sector of British society must examine its conscience in the wake of the riots.

“Government doesn't make the video games or print the magazines or produce the music that tells young people what's important in life,” he pointed out. “In the highest offices, the plushest boardrooms, the most influential jobs, we need to think about the example we are setting.”

Cameron stressed that behavior at the top of British society showed clear signs of the same moral confusion found elsewhere.

“In the banking crisis, with MPs' expenses, in the phone hacking scandal, we have seen some of the worst cases of greed, irresponsibility and entitlement.”

“The restoration of responsibility has to cut right across our society.” 

Speaker Boehner on the President Obama

"I know the president is worried about his next election. But my God, shouldn't he be worried about the country?" — House Speaker John Boehner on President Obama's threat of veto of a plan that did not raise taxes, increase spending and raise the federal debt limit.

Source: Boehner: GOP ready to act alone on debt deal

Blessed Pope John Paul II

As a Catholic and as a Christian I am overjoyed that earlier this Divine Mercy Sunday and Second Sunday of Easter, in Vatican City, Pope Benedict XVI beatified John Paul II (1920 — 2005). As one of 100% Polish heritage, I am particularly grateful for the pontificate of Blessed John Paul II and thankful to Pope Benedict and to God for this new recognition. Blessed John Paul II has certainly been a true hero and inspiration of mine since 1978. In particular, he has been a source of courage in my life in countless ways; both to follow Christ and live in a human way.

Catholic theologian and popular author George Weigel, has a good piece in the Washington Post, this week reflecting on John Paul II:

John Paul II was arguably the most consequential pope of the last five hundred years.

His radical Christian discipleship, and his remarkable capacity to let that commitment shine through his words and his actions, made Christianity interesting and compelling in a world that thought it had outgrown its “need” for religious faith. He was a man of extraordinary courage, the kind of courage that comes from a faith forged in reflection on Calvary and the murder of the Son of God; the kind of courage that inspires courage in others. Against the cultural conventions of his time, he showed that young people want to be challenged to live lives of heroism. He lifted up the dignity of the human person at a moment when the West was tempted to traipse down the path to Huxley’s brave new world of manufactured and stunted humanity. And he proclaimed the universality of human rights with a power that helped bring down the greatest tyranny in human history.

I’m often asked about the most striking human traits I saw in John Paul II over more than a quarter-century of observation and during twelve years of intense personal conversation. One answer I frequently give is that the late pope was the most intensely curious man I’ve ever known. His mind was always oriented toward the present and the future. He always wanted to know about the new books, the new articles, and the new arguments in my corner of the intellectual and cultural world. He even wanted to know the latest pope-jokes.

 

 

Image: John Paul II by Grzegorz Gałązka

Barack Obama's Worldview on Philanthropy

WSJ's Daniel Henninger recently penned an insightful and main stream contrarian piece on the current President in regard to his economic philosophy: Obama's Millionaire Obsession (April 28,2011). It provides the occasion to call to mind the success of private sector philanthropy and to record a memorable quote...

Since the Pilgrims, no nation has seen more wealth flow back from those who earned it into the welfare of the nation they inhabit.

Andrew Carnegie alone built more than 1,600 libraries in the U.S. Today, according to Internal Revenue Service data, there are some 110,000 grant-making private foundations in the U.S. Beyond the foundations bearing the names of famously undertaxed plutocrats such as Warren Buffett and Bill Gates there are another hundred thousand or so, often run by modestly wealthy families whose foundations support a vast array of needs—scholarships, schools, hospitals, cultural institutions and even causes across the political spectrum, no doubt including windmills.

The Center on Wealth and Philanthropy at Boston College reports that giving by individuals hit an astounding $243 billion in 2007. As to the millionaires, the report says, "In that year, households with $1 million or more in net worth gave 52%, or $126.15 billion." During the 2008 recession, their giving dropped 4% "because there were 27% fewer millionaire households at that time." But by the end of 2009, giving by millionaire households returned to 52% of the national total.

It is an eternal question whether the deductibility of such spending means the charitable activity by these people is bogus and driven only by self-regard. One man's answer: Eliminate the charitable deduction, drop—or flatten—the top tax rate and total giving will rise, not fall. Giving is what Americans do, at all income levels.

It becomes clearer by the day that Barack Obama's worldview is that if money isn't spent by the federal government, it's somehow irrelevant. What began with the $800 billion stimulus in 2009 has turned into a personal compulsion to fund his galaxy of public "investments," such as high-speed rail and biofuels research.

The Great Myth of Liberalism

I was very much edified to read Jeffrey T. Kuhner's commentary piece in today's Washington Times The Fetal Solution: Victims of American hedonism counted in millions of unborn . In it he describes the "heinous reality" of state-sanctioned infanticide and abortion. It is both an evil and a reality that we must recognize and face.

Our response should be to overcome evil with good relying on God's grace, striving for personal holiness, and serving the true and common good of everyone. In short R-E-S-P-E-C-T for our fellow man which will lead to respect for God. Mr. Kuhner's commentary is pointed and well worth reading. And perhaps also studying.

Abortion is the deliberate, systematic slaughter of babies in the womb. It is state-sanctioned infanticide. It encodes in law the pernicious principle that there is an entire category of people - the unborn - who are less than fully human. Their lives are subject to the whims of their masters. Most societies in history have been based on the oppression of an entire class; the strong dominate the weak. The law of the jungle trumps moral decency.

For example, the Nazis asserted that entire categories of people - Jews, Slavs, Gypsies, the mentally and physically handicapped - were not entitled to basic rights. Slavery enforced this as well: Blacks were simply chattel. They were not viewed as distinct human beings, born in the eyes of God with a sacred dignity and unique individuality. Abortion ought to be viewed as the slavery of our age - the great social cause on behalf of an oppressed and brutalized minority.

Since Roe v. Wade legalized abortion, nearly 50 million unborn American children have been slain. This is more than the number of victims butchered by Nazi leader Adolf Hitler or Soviet dictator Josef Stalin.

....

Conservatives have ceded the culture to the enemy. Tens of millions of unborn babies have been slaughtered; illegitimacy rates have soared; divorce has skyrocketed; pornography is rampant; drug use has exploded; sexually transmitted diseases such as AIDS have killed millions; birth control is a way of life; sex outside of wedlock has become the norm; countless children have been permanently damaged - their innocence lost forever - because of the proliferation of broken homes; and sodomy and homosexuality are celebrated openly. America has become the new Babylon.

Mr. Kuhner ends his piece with ...

Conscientious Americans must work tirelessly to end this abortion abomination.

We should all reply "Amen" and begin our tireless work!