Links for 05/29/15 | National Catholic Reporter by MSW. MGB: It was not just NDU that took a hit in the recent matter, it was the entire argument in the Fortnight for Freedom. I personally think the judge should have ruled the issue moot because the language most offensive to the Church, indeed which Valerie Jarrett designed to be offensive to the Church, has been changed to what was likely the original language - which was likely consistent with the December 2000 EEOC ruling requiring insurance companies to provide contraceptive services as part of the standard package. If HHS had not been required to add regulations confirming this principle, then we would not have had Dolan, et al, in a panel before a House committee. That is called walking into it. They did it to themselves and any decent lawyer would have told them that they were arguing with settled law. As for Scalia, it often seems like he has results in mind and reasons his way too them, case in point, the Heller case on guns. Democracy Reborn's concluding chapter still has the best take down of Scalia and his supposed ignorance of the intent of the 14th Amendment (which only lasts until he needs the 14th Amendment to get his result.
Let me just add that George Weigel is what is what is wrong with tenure. He belongs in a think tank full time, one of the ones funded by the Koch brothers, rather than Catholic University of America, or possibly the von Mises Institte at George Mason University. Of course, that would end his deal in most diocese who run his column where he embarrasses himself weekly. The irony of his German problem is Pope Benedict, who seems deeply committed to the welfare state in Germany and worldwide - which neo-liberals like Weigel seem to hate so much, if only because the people who endow their chairs pay them to. As I state previoulsy, there are reaons for empty German churches. Democratic Socialism is not one of them*unless they are teaching Marx in school -which they used to do in the East). I think its mainly Holocaust guilt - with the feeling that if God does not see them in Church, he won't notice them. Better to quit believing then to deal with the guilt, even though the message is not guilt, it is forgiveness. The utter lack of committment to that practice is what is so disturbing about George Weigel.
Bravo to Bishop Lynch for making his rounds personally rather than making the first Mass (or even the Consecration) of his successor become about him. Of coruse, I would still rather that flock be the ones to accept or reject his retirement (or to demand his resignation), rather than the Nuncio or the Pope. The same is true for finding his replacement. Seems to me that some of the real creeps we have had as bishop woud have been gone much sooner if the flocks in democratic countries had the power of selection returned to them. I cannot imagine St. Paul or Philadelphia letting the pain go on so long under a democratic system. Or San Francsco or Boston under Law, or Kansas City or wherever Olmsted is from. There is a difference between conceipt and courage, as Bishop Lynch would surely tell you.
Friday, May 29, 2015
Pataki for President! | National Catholic Reporter
Pataki for President! | National Catholic Reporter by MSW. MGB: Huckabee will win Iowa and the backwater South again. The media does not like John Ellis Bush, but I am sure the establishment does (and he might win the South instead). One or both of them will be on the ticket. It won't be Santorum, Rubio, Cruz or Walker. Not Kasich or Pence either. Certainly not Pataki, maybe Romney. Corporations are people too! He's not sure about the unborn and certainly not the takers. Romney still symbolizes what the Party really stands for. Wouldn;t it be delicious if he were forced to put Huckabee on the ticket? Come on, third time's a charm!
Thursday, May 28, 2015
Links for 05/28/15 | National Catholic Reporter
Links for 05/28/15 | National Catholic Reporter by MSW. MGB: The author of the piece is from First Things. The article itself is in ridicule mode (and yes, Parish Social Ministry IS meant to be the grass roots political arm of the Church). While the encyclical is about man and the biosphere, it is mostly about the victims of capitalism, in this case the poor who are uprooted or killed by warming. As for Federalist, they are no libertarians.They are the idiots who take point on the notion that national power should almost never be used (what is not libertarian), but that state governments should run point on all dometic issues, from race and wedding cakes for gay weddings (which they would not mandate states do), to abortion law. Indeed, the Pro-Life movement RELIES on their approach to make its bones. Their poster child is Antonin Scalia. Hardly Libertarian. Stll, one cannot say he is a pro-lifer and deny the Federalist approach.
Love the use of a quote posted by Sarah Silverman. This was hyberbole, probably written by a staff member who got a scrip from his boss for medical marijuana. If anyone goes to Senator Paul's house in the middle of the night, it won't be for eye care, but for medical marijuana. In reality, insurance just means that you can get paid by all your patients, the medical oath means they get seen. In the middle of the night, its usually a hospital and you are on call (rare if you have your own medical society).
The closest we come to attacking religious belief is by having welfare - it is the conservatives who claim it is a religious, rather than a civil responsibility - that they don't have to pay taxes or raise the minimum wage or not serve gays or blacks - unless they are slaves (or pseudo-slaves like Latino migrants or drug convictgs).
The reality is that most of what people point to as violating their religious principles is an assertion that they can ignore the rights of others, who should have no recourse at all - save compliance with the moral issues that they don't want changed. Examples are treating Latino citizens as a protected class (rather than as white people who don't get protected, even when discriminated against - and why any Latino who is pro life does not know history), gays, women in need of contraception or abortion, Catholics in areas where the prevailing belief is that the Pope is the anti-Christ, gays who want to serve in the military (and women). We don't care what you believe - we are what you do to others. Losing the power to descriminate is not descrimination.
Marilyn Manson (what a perfectly evocative name) is a Satanist, not to really worship Satan, because that implies a God, but to be outrageous in deprogramming religous people. They don't kidnap people for this treatment. You go to them just like any other church. He is not the government and he is protected against Christian office holders who don't get the joke.
Love the use of a quote posted by Sarah Silverman. This was hyberbole, probably written by a staff member who got a scrip from his boss for medical marijuana. If anyone goes to Senator Paul's house in the middle of the night, it won't be for eye care, but for medical marijuana. In reality, insurance just means that you can get paid by all your patients, the medical oath means they get seen. In the middle of the night, its usually a hospital and you are on call (rare if you have your own medical society).
The closest we come to attacking religious belief is by having welfare - it is the conservatives who claim it is a religious, rather than a civil responsibility - that they don't have to pay taxes or raise the minimum wage or not serve gays or blacks - unless they are slaves (or pseudo-slaves like Latino migrants or drug convictgs).
The reality is that most of what people point to as violating their religious principles is an assertion that they can ignore the rights of others, who should have no recourse at all - save compliance with the moral issues that they don't want changed. Examples are treating Latino citizens as a protected class (rather than as white people who don't get protected, even when discriminated against - and why any Latino who is pro life does not know history), gays, women in need of contraception or abortion, Catholics in areas where the prevailing belief is that the Pope is the anti-Christ, gays who want to serve in the military (and women). We don't care what you believe - we are what you do to others. Losing the power to descriminate is not descrimination.
Marilyn Manson (what a perfectly evocative name) is a Satanist, not to really worship Satan, because that implies a God, but to be outrageous in deprogramming religous people. They don't kidnap people for this treatment. You go to them just like any other church. He is not the government and he is protected against Christian office holders who don't get the joke.
Wages & Worker Rights in Red & Blue | National Catholic Reporter
Wages & Worker Rights in Red & Blue | National Catholic Reporter by MSW. MGB: Interesting analysis of laboratories of democracy, although I don't think they had the Koch funed American Legislative Exchange Council in mind when the quote was made originally. Also, the Myerson piece shows that voters in some of the Red States raise their minimums anyway, bucking the trend.
ALEC, and even its grandfather, the John Birch Society, did not exist in 1933. New York experience helped, but the truth is that the New Deal was made possible not as much by Msgr. Ryan as the spectre of a socialist revolution - not FDR's early attempt at social democracy but full on confiscation of factories. Listen to a Green Party activist for long enough and the subject of seizing factories under state charter law may come up. The reason the Greens are largely ignored is that this is the best way to avoid talking about this, as it might force some other blue-green accomodation for workers.
Interesting about Ford raising wages and lowering prices is that this is the essence of consumerism. I suspect that that the socialists scared him too.
Indiana's recent episode was a pander to the right wing religious faction, plain and simple, using the RFRA. Threats to cancel events may have had a part it its demise, but the fact that it was being use in a way that directly violated the Civil Rights Act of 1964, so everyone would their cake, made it null, even before they repealed it.
Companies usually move to avoid unions, not little bitty pay raises. Reagan through W helped them by making organizing really hard by simply not enforcing the law. As troubling is that this pattern persists in red states on immigration - being against reform while looking the other way while Tyson et al bring in factory workers without papers or protection. Unionize the factorty and that stops automatically. No one will pay a US wage to an immigrant or give him protections in the union and pay for the human trafficking too. Workers here will be better off and the strenght of the Union will help other things too, like a higher minimum wage.
The South does not like the Union, mostly because when the Union tried to organize back in the day, no strike benefits were provided. There was no benefit to any who joined, so they the organizers packing and gave their devotion, or at least the fear, the bosses. Such authoritarianism works well when you have autoritarian religious figures keeping social and racial order. Of course, the children of that generation are ALEC/Tea Party supporters. More migrants in (including blacks returning from the rust bel) and more right wing die off and even the Democratic Party will rise again in Dixie, but not the one that fell. (Including the NEA and its women's rights agenda).
ALEC, and even its grandfather, the John Birch Society, did not exist in 1933. New York experience helped, but the truth is that the New Deal was made possible not as much by Msgr. Ryan as the spectre of a socialist revolution - not FDR's early attempt at social democracy but full on confiscation of factories. Listen to a Green Party activist for long enough and the subject of seizing factories under state charter law may come up. The reason the Greens are largely ignored is that this is the best way to avoid talking about this, as it might force some other blue-green accomodation for workers.
Interesting about Ford raising wages and lowering prices is that this is the essence of consumerism. I suspect that that the socialists scared him too.
Indiana's recent episode was a pander to the right wing religious faction, plain and simple, using the RFRA. Threats to cancel events may have had a part it its demise, but the fact that it was being use in a way that directly violated the Civil Rights Act of 1964, so everyone would their cake, made it null, even before they repealed it.
Companies usually move to avoid unions, not little bitty pay raises. Reagan through W helped them by making organizing really hard by simply not enforcing the law. As troubling is that this pattern persists in red states on immigration - being against reform while looking the other way while Tyson et al bring in factory workers without papers or protection. Unionize the factorty and that stops automatically. No one will pay a US wage to an immigrant or give him protections in the union and pay for the human trafficking too. Workers here will be better off and the strenght of the Union will help other things too, like a higher minimum wage.
The South does not like the Union, mostly because when the Union tried to organize back in the day, no strike benefits were provided. There was no benefit to any who joined, so they the organizers packing and gave their devotion, or at least the fear, the bosses. Such authoritarianism works well when you have autoritarian religious figures keeping social and racial order. Of course, the children of that generation are ALEC/Tea Party supporters. More migrants in (including blacks returning from the rust bel) and more right wing die off and even the Democratic Party will rise again in Dixie, but not the one that fell. (Including the NEA and its women's rights agenda).
Wednesday, May 27, 2015
Links for 05/27/15 | National Catholic Reporter
Links for 05/27/15 | National Catholic Reporter by MSW. MGB: If wolves can change their environment in such a short time, how is man doing so such a surprise to some people?
That Hamas acted with even more impunity during a time of war is no surprise either. The shame is the way Israel responded, using lethal force to retaliate against glorified fireworks. You had to be really unlike to die on the Israeli side. It seems that you also had to be really unlucky to be born in Gaza. Turning it back into part Israel proper invites the settlers back in to take the best stuff. Indenence or the strip is about as stupid as indendence for Rholde Island or Israel. Give it to Egypt. Unless these peoople can trace back to Philistine or Samaritan ancestry, Egypt is the best host for it.
ACLI was an alterative to the rise of the Italian Communist Party. That a Pope with possible links to liberation theology is celebrating its anniversary provides a little note of irony.
The Jansenist strain in Ireland is bad enough, but its mixture with triumphalism is deadly to the future of the Church as we know it there. Its death is not a bad thing, something better will grow if we trust the Lord and quite worrying about how both singles and gays get a little harmless release. If that last part made you nervous, you have work to do on your own Janseist demons, same as the Church as a whole over how it looks at unitive sex and birth control. Attacking Jansenism on gay marriage and not attacking it on birth control is yielding turf without surrendering. Its time to surrender.
That Hamas acted with even more impunity during a time of war is no surprise either. The shame is the way Israel responded, using lethal force to retaliate against glorified fireworks. You had to be really unlike to die on the Israeli side. It seems that you also had to be really unlucky to be born in Gaza. Turning it back into part Israel proper invites the settlers back in to take the best stuff. Indenence or the strip is about as stupid as indendence for Rholde Island or Israel. Give it to Egypt. Unless these peoople can trace back to Philistine or Samaritan ancestry, Egypt is the best host for it.
ACLI was an alterative to the rise of the Italian Communist Party. That a Pope with possible links to liberation theology is celebrating its anniversary provides a little note of irony.
The Jansenist strain in Ireland is bad enough, but its mixture with triumphalism is deadly to the future of the Church as we know it there. Its death is not a bad thing, something better will grow if we trust the Lord and quite worrying about how both singles and gays get a little harmless release. If that last part made you nervous, you have work to do on your own Janseist demons, same as the Church as a whole over how it looks at unitive sex and birth control. Attacking Jansenism on gay marriage and not attacking it on birth control is yielding turf without surrendering. Its time to surrender.
Remember, Scalia is the Culprit! | National Catholic Reporter
Remember, Scalia is the Culprit! | National Catholic Reporter by MSW. MGB: The problem is that Scalia has a judicial philosophy that favors democracy provided that the results of that democracy are conservative. California and New York has abortion laws that precede Roe. Absent Roe, would Scalia honor their work? I doubt it. Will he honor gun control laws interpreting what the Second Amendment means? Absolutely not.
When Valerie Jarrett convinced Obama and probably forced Sebelius to push the bishops into a war on women, I doubt they thought the RFRA was in play in any case like Hobby Lobby - and even then this action did not do anything to the law but force the government into an accomodation they would grant anyway. How therequest was made should not have gotten to First Street, NE.
I amsure the Notre Dame case was the first in a group of Fortnight for Freedom cases to hit higher judicial levels. If any go on or win, all will be revisited. Sadly, the Church and Hobby Lobby were requesting relief based on questionable natural law and scientific conclusions (natural reason says life begins at gastrulation, not befoe). In any of these cases, if a finding of fact is made on gastrulation being "it" all the suits fall apart unless there is a finding the other way. The Catholic positon is fertilization if we don't know. But what if we know?
Gay rights is the next frontier regarding employees. If others with civil marriage (which the Church believes is not marriage) get benefits, the Church's argument will be reduced to bigotry. I hope they don't try to jutify bigotry under morality. They might reason themselves into that conclusion, but the law will not and should not let them - at it ruins evangelization if they try (and not sexual evangelization - also based on prejudice since epigenesis is not a choice by an embryo in the womb).
When Valerie Jarrett convinced Obama and probably forced Sebelius to push the bishops into a war on women, I doubt they thought the RFRA was in play in any case like Hobby Lobby - and even then this action did not do anything to the law but force the government into an accomodation they would grant anyway. How therequest was made should not have gotten to First Street, NE.
I amsure the Notre Dame case was the first in a group of Fortnight for Freedom cases to hit higher judicial levels. If any go on or win, all will be revisited. Sadly, the Church and Hobby Lobby were requesting relief based on questionable natural law and scientific conclusions (natural reason says life begins at gastrulation, not befoe). In any of these cases, if a finding of fact is made on gastrulation being "it" all the suits fall apart unless there is a finding the other way. The Catholic positon is fertilization if we don't know. But what if we know?
Gay rights is the next frontier regarding employees. If others with civil marriage (which the Church believes is not marriage) get benefits, the Church's argument will be reduced to bigotry. I hope they don't try to jutify bigotry under morality. They might reason themselves into that conclusion, but the law will not and should not let them - at it ruins evangelization if they try (and not sexual evangelization - also based on prejudice since epigenesis is not a choice by an embryo in the womb).
Ireland's Reality Check - and Ours | National Catholic Reporter
Ireland's Reality Check - and Ours | National Catholic Reporter by MSW. MGB: There is no doubt that Ireland is a victory for the left, both for its affinity for gay couples seeking there rights but also for the defeat of a Church that was particularly prone to throw its weight around on all issues, including prohibiting divorce and abortion as if it were part of the government. To a large extent, the giant has been killed (it has been dead a long time in the US as that kind of force, although in that case the Court killed it). Reality check #1.
I am not sure what happens at hositals in Ireland, but gay marriage has its origins here in the denial of next of kin companions in favor of a family of origin who still does not understand their son's primary relationship. Those problems created a movement in the U.S. and probably everywhere else. There is no scapegoat, but this was not some leap into modernity for its own sake. There are accounts to settle. Letting this happen with some dignity is the first measure to do so. That is the reality check as well.
For the youth, this might have been a movement thing, and the danger to the Church is that it was as much about killing the giant as justice for gays. It also is a shot across the bar on the nature of truth. It does not exist in letters written in Latin. It exists for each generation just a bit differently. The traditional marriage we know was doomed either way, just at the coventure marriages of our parents and grandpartents are gone (although my great grandparents included a feminist, so we got a head start at ending male privilege before its time). One can think that such change is an end to the world. It is not and it never was.
For better or worse, the marriage of Christ and his people will be an equal one, not a hierarchical one. Christ is the friend, not the master. Teach that and your Church will full. Live that and you will be electing the bishops, not sending a list to Rome. In the US, the Church was looking at a bad and dangerous choice by going whole hog agaist marriage equality. We warned them. They did it anyway. Indeed, even if by some miracle the Ohio case goes in their favor, it would be a great defeat for the Body of Christ. The Church in Ireland won too many times. its why the Churches are empty.
As for reality checks, listening sessions sound like an opening for affirming old teaching. That is not where we need to listen (and frankly, the opening frank talk on self-pleasure would so make the clergy present defensive it would ruin the whole thing). Its time to do. First, do admit the error of our ways on a variety of things, from masturbation to supporting the GOP agenda on abortion that actually stopped no abortions nor could it, to actually celebrating gay marriages, which are sacramental with or without the ceremony. The couple performs, not the priest, and performance of a different kind makes the marriage, not fecundity.
Second check, the intrinsically disordered meme has always been stupid. Gays are different, as we now know because of epigenesis as an embryo - which means this disorder is variation - and their God given sexuality can fit that variation. What is more, the whole concept of a natural order must be junked. It is a sophistry to allow the Church to eat from the Tree of Knowledge and claim that sins violate the natural order, because a perfect God cannot be hurt by sin (which is true). Sins hurt individuals, not concepts. They are forgiven or commanded to make restitution to be forgiven, for their own sakes, the sake of society and those damaged. There is no ledger beyond that except as to whether those who have been forgiven also forgive. Also, no more indulgences.
Third check, as I said, hetorsexuals are thaught that they make the marriages, the priest is a witness. Those who read Canon law know that infertility is not an impediment to marraige (meaning not a requirement). Impotence is, but not infertility. Apologize for perjury by making an argument both false and heretical and start scheduling both gay weddings and the renewal of vows. That's the penance, do it or expect a new generation of bishops to do it later. Doing it now will bring the youth back and get some very spiriutal parishoners in the pews. Oh, and ordain women. Just because. Actually, the because is the truth of the future is different than what you see now. Just do it and if you don't get that, take a real epistomology class off of a catholic campus. Its the only way to be ready for the inevitable passage of time.
I am not sure what happens at hositals in Ireland, but gay marriage has its origins here in the denial of next of kin companions in favor of a family of origin who still does not understand their son's primary relationship. Those problems created a movement in the U.S. and probably everywhere else. There is no scapegoat, but this was not some leap into modernity for its own sake. There are accounts to settle. Letting this happen with some dignity is the first measure to do so. That is the reality check as well.
For the youth, this might have been a movement thing, and the danger to the Church is that it was as much about killing the giant as justice for gays. It also is a shot across the bar on the nature of truth. It does not exist in letters written in Latin. It exists for each generation just a bit differently. The traditional marriage we know was doomed either way, just at the coventure marriages of our parents and grandpartents are gone (although my great grandparents included a feminist, so we got a head start at ending male privilege before its time). One can think that such change is an end to the world. It is not and it never was.
For better or worse, the marriage of Christ and his people will be an equal one, not a hierarchical one. Christ is the friend, not the master. Teach that and your Church will full. Live that and you will be electing the bishops, not sending a list to Rome. In the US, the Church was looking at a bad and dangerous choice by going whole hog agaist marriage equality. We warned them. They did it anyway. Indeed, even if by some miracle the Ohio case goes in their favor, it would be a great defeat for the Body of Christ. The Church in Ireland won too many times. its why the Churches are empty.
As for reality checks, listening sessions sound like an opening for affirming old teaching. That is not where we need to listen (and frankly, the opening frank talk on self-pleasure would so make the clergy present defensive it would ruin the whole thing). Its time to do. First, do admit the error of our ways on a variety of things, from masturbation to supporting the GOP agenda on abortion that actually stopped no abortions nor could it, to actually celebrating gay marriages, which are sacramental with or without the ceremony. The couple performs, not the priest, and performance of a different kind makes the marriage, not fecundity.
Second check, the intrinsically disordered meme has always been stupid. Gays are different, as we now know because of epigenesis as an embryo - which means this disorder is variation - and their God given sexuality can fit that variation. What is more, the whole concept of a natural order must be junked. It is a sophistry to allow the Church to eat from the Tree of Knowledge and claim that sins violate the natural order, because a perfect God cannot be hurt by sin (which is true). Sins hurt individuals, not concepts. They are forgiven or commanded to make restitution to be forgiven, for their own sakes, the sake of society and those damaged. There is no ledger beyond that except as to whether those who have been forgiven also forgive. Also, no more indulgences.
Third check, as I said, hetorsexuals are thaught that they make the marriages, the priest is a witness. Those who read Canon law know that infertility is not an impediment to marraige (meaning not a requirement). Impotence is, but not infertility. Apologize for perjury by making an argument both false and heretical and start scheduling both gay weddings and the renewal of vows. That's the penance, do it or expect a new generation of bishops to do it later. Doing it now will bring the youth back and get some very spiriutal parishoners in the pews. Oh, and ordain women. Just because. Actually, the because is the truth of the future is different than what you see now. Just do it and if you don't get that, take a real epistomology class off of a catholic campus. Its the only way to be ready for the inevitable passage of time.
Monday, May 25, 2015
Keep Memorial Day Safe & Non-Partisan | National Catholic Reporter
Keep Memorial Day Safe & Non-Partisan | National Catholic Reporter by MSW. MGB: Memorial Day has always been about binding the nation's wounds, which is the phrase Lincoln used at Gettysburg, however once Freemen started the pactice of cleaning Union cemeteries purely to shame those defeated traitors who let them go to seed, the Confederate veterans got really interested in a nostaligia that left them partners in an epic struggle rather than the paid soldiers of the Slave Power. That myth made Jim Crow possible and forever changed the history of the 20th Century.
Is for Iraq, Obama's advisors wanted a new status of forces agreement but they also did not want to bow to ending extraterritorial justice for American soldiers an marines. Obama inherited this stalemate from Bush and saw nothing for America in staying. That would have been like Canadian troops intervening after Shiloh and not being able to leave because they were policing the treatment of Freemen. Now THAT might be a neat alternative history story. Truth is that Berkowitz who should rename his by-line Real Clear Zionism) and his neoconservative readers, espeicially MSW, want a pressence in Iraq as a bulwark against some mythical Iranian attack on Israel. They think revenge force keeps Iran from genocide or from stopping the Israeli Aparthied (I have Jewish and Samaritan ancestors, as close as my father, so don't you dare call me anti-semetic). If Israel would bind its wounds with the Arabs and Palestinians, the Iraq and Iran issues would go away.
I wonder when the Baathists were fired from the military and sent to Syria, whether some weapons of mass destruction did not go with them. Both sides got them someplace. We need to interview some people to find out. I would start with Cheney and find out at least who worked the issues (they can then tell us who knew what when and who was the decison authority. I like the idea of a civilian control day. Of course, nowadays the military can't really step out that far - unlike during th wars where the generals did not have or need babysitters. Thing is, the problem is the civilians, specifically the appointees who think they work for the soldiers. That attitude kills any oversight at all. It was one of my pet peeves when I was a civil servant. Of coure, then you have the elected officials who go over board (you can't fire a Vice President). Iraq and its aftermath would be different if you could.
Is for Iraq, Obama's advisors wanted a new status of forces agreement but they also did not want to bow to ending extraterritorial justice for American soldiers an marines. Obama inherited this stalemate from Bush and saw nothing for America in staying. That would have been like Canadian troops intervening after Shiloh and not being able to leave because they were policing the treatment of Freemen. Now THAT might be a neat alternative history story. Truth is that Berkowitz who should rename his by-line Real Clear Zionism) and his neoconservative readers, espeicially MSW, want a pressence in Iraq as a bulwark against some mythical Iranian attack on Israel. They think revenge force keeps Iran from genocide or from stopping the Israeli Aparthied (I have Jewish and Samaritan ancestors, as close as my father, so don't you dare call me anti-semetic). If Israel would bind its wounds with the Arabs and Palestinians, the Iraq and Iran issues would go away.
I wonder when the Baathists were fired from the military and sent to Syria, whether some weapons of mass destruction did not go with them. Both sides got them someplace. We need to interview some people to find out. I would start with Cheney and find out at least who worked the issues (they can then tell us who knew what when and who was the decison authority. I like the idea of a civilian control day. Of course, nowadays the military can't really step out that far - unlike during th wars where the generals did not have or need babysitters. Thing is, the problem is the civilians, specifically the appointees who think they work for the soldiers. That attitude kills any oversight at all. It was one of my pet peeves when I was a civil servant. Of coure, then you have the elected officials who go over board (you can't fire a Vice President). Iraq and its aftermath would be different if you could.
Friday, May 22, 2015
Links for 05/22/15 | National Catholic Reporter
Links for 05/22/15 | National Catholic Reporter by MSW. MGB: Archbishop Sanchez (Sorondo is the maternal family name) hit the nail on the head on the Tea Party and its relationship with Voice of the Family, using abortion as a test of purity. I think they backfired by going after the Archbishop and by extension, his Holiness. I am sure the Archbishop now has there number and that the Pope is eager to hear his impressions. It will be interesting to see whether the Pope seeks more information on how the movement operates, particularly in the U.S. Cardinals Burke and Dolan, Archbishops Chaput, Lori and Cordiole and bishop Loverde may have some questions to answer as to whether the movement is about abortion or Republican electoral politics. I think its fixation on Roe for relief it will never get is a scam and any Catholic pro-lifer needs to ask herself whether they are in on it (which means confession, but to who?) and if not, they think about leaving movement and the GOP.
The Irish situation on gay marriage is regretable, not because traditional marriage is threatened, it should already be dead - the days where the marriage was to reflect the relationship between Jesus and the Church, and the Church and the people should be long gone as authoritarian artifacts long past their prime, unless the Church wishes to adopt a more modern and egalitarian model for its relations with the faithful, in which case I am listening - and urging that they annoint women and witness gay marriages. What is regretable in the interim is that what is a civl right was put up to a vote. You don't do that with rights. Rights are individual, not a grant from the populace. Its what separates us from most of Europe, where you have rights only where granted rather than giving the government power only if consented.
Pope Francis' Homily is mostly about the readings in a household Mass - not a Mass or message for the world. I would hope that most priests gave about the same message this morning (rather than downloading a copy and reading it. The main point, of course, is making our relationship with Jesus as personal as that he had with Simon Peter. While the risen Lord part gave Peter no issues, the whole ascended Lord part makes it harder. It means we seek the Lord in Meditation, where Francis prays he seeks us or we do it in the Eucharist, which does have larger implications, especially regarding the Synod.
The Irish situation on gay marriage is regretable, not because traditional marriage is threatened, it should already be dead - the days where the marriage was to reflect the relationship between Jesus and the Church, and the Church and the people should be long gone as authoritarian artifacts long past their prime, unless the Church wishes to adopt a more modern and egalitarian model for its relations with the faithful, in which case I am listening - and urging that they annoint women and witness gay marriages. What is regretable in the interim is that what is a civl right was put up to a vote. You don't do that with rights. Rights are individual, not a grant from the populace. Its what separates us from most of Europe, where you have rights only where granted rather than giving the government power only if consented.
Pope Francis' Homily is mostly about the readings in a household Mass - not a Mass or message for the world. I would hope that most priests gave about the same message this morning (rather than downloading a copy and reading it. The main point, of course, is making our relationship with Jesus as personal as that he had with Simon Peter. While the risen Lord part gave Peter no issues, the whole ascended Lord part makes it harder. It means we seek the Lord in Meditation, where Francis prays he seeks us or we do it in the Eucharist, which does have larger implications, especially regarding the Synod.
Vatican official rebuts pro-life concerns with recent climate conference | National Catholic Reporter
Vatican official rebuts pro-life concerns with recent climate conference | National Catholic Reporter by Brian Roewe. MGB: Archbishop Sanchez (Sorondo is the maternal family name) hit the nail on the head on the Tea Party and its relationship with Voice of the Family, using abortion as a test of purity. I think they backfired by going after the Archbishop and by extension, his Holiness. I am sure the Archbishop now has there number and that the Pope is eager to hear his impressions. It will be interesting to see whether the Pope seeks more information on how the movement operates, particularly in the U.S. Cardinals Burke and Dolan, Archbishops Chaput, Lori and Cordiole and bishop Loverde may have some questions to answer as to whether the movement is about abortion or Republican electoral politics. I think its fixation on Roe for relief it will never get is a scam and any Catholic pro-lifer needs to ask herself whether they are in on it (which means confession, but to who?) and if not, they think about leaving movement and the GOP.
Meanness and Irony in Kansas | National Catholic Reporter
Meanness and Irony in Kansas | National Catholic Reporter by MSW. MGB: The next reform for TANF should be to remove the marriage, or even the common law marriage penalty, especially if it includes letting free all those men whose main crime is wanting to vote for a more progressive political party than the one in power - there is no other need to put marijuana offenders in jail. By the way, buying weed or worse is already illegal with TANF funds and studies show that it is an unlikely purchase by recipients.
To correct MSW, TANF is never used for food because anyone getting it also gets SNAP and Medicaid. For the childless, disability assistance can provide cash income - and the federal variety can provide a lot of cash income. - and it is outside the realm of Brownback and his mean spirited party.
Its a wonder they ever get votes. If it were not for the demonizing of pregnant women who see these cuts a signal to get abortion, the Kansas GOP would have long gone the way of the dinosaur (who some of them think were on the Ark - of course, there is scientific evidence for dinosaurs, not so much for the Ark). That comment on the pro-life movement as being key to keeping these clowns in power should be double underlined in red.
To correct MSW, TANF is never used for food because anyone getting it also gets SNAP and Medicaid. For the childless, disability assistance can provide cash income - and the federal variety can provide a lot of cash income. - and it is outside the realm of Brownback and his mean spirited party.
Its a wonder they ever get votes. If it were not for the demonizing of pregnant women who see these cuts a signal to get abortion, the Kansas GOP would have long gone the way of the dinosaur (who some of them think were on the Ark - of course, there is scientific evidence for dinosaurs, not so much for the Ark). That comment on the pro-life movement as being key to keeping these clowns in power should be double underlined in red.
Thursday, May 21, 2015
Links for 05/21/15 | National Catholic Reporter
Links for 05/21/15 | National Catholic Reporter by MSW. MGB: The Nebraska Catholic Conference statement on the death penalty seems like a pretty standard pro-life press release, which is why we make dogma in person with an audience. I suspect this was done by staff who usually does anti-abortion work. The part about wrongful convictions is a nice touch, but they could have gone further by equating life without parole to death and parole while elderly an infirm to cost shifiting,and not in a good way. I was amazed to find that Nebraska had three diocese and Virginia only two. Of coruse, Nebraska is a very Catholic state. Its why any let up on abortion as a criticical issues (it,isn't by the way), would make the state blue overnight.
I am sure George Weigel's anti-Germanism extends to the Pope Emeritus as well as to Cardinal Kaspar and his colleagues. I can see why right wing Catholics fear a social democratic, which is Germany in a nutshell. If the state takes better care of people than the Church, they often abandon the Church. Of course, they could be punishing the Church for not creating more martyrs against their last right wing government our of control. Or they could be hoping there is no God, for a vengeful God would annihilate them all (instead of the Palestinians, who had no part in the Holocaust or the Porajmos). The culture as buried its feelings about these events - and of the atrocities of the American and British Air Forces on German Civilians and that part of industry that did not make weapons. The die off we allowed to happen from famine did not help either, regarding either the USA or God. Stopping the insanity from the right wing on marriage and gays will not solve the problems of the empty pew. Dealing with smoldering issues that took one generation out of Church, which be default takes the next ones out, just might. (In the 19th century, French churches were empty - probably still are). God cares what people do the rest of the week, something which George Weigel and his supporters find even more terrible than history is to the Germans.
Robert Christian at Millenial hits a lot of those points addressed this week on how some Churches put the moral social issues over the moral action issues - at least in rhetoric. When he takes the focus off of Churches and puts it on the parties, he hits the nail right on the head. It is not the Church who stands for protecting life until birth, but certainly some protect the fetus Republicans start singing from the hymnal of personal financial responsibility one the child is strapped into the car seat for the first time. Then they talk about limiting sex, not just managing it - usually putting the woman in charge of that. That should be a non-starter for the Church, oddly because sex is part of unitive love in Humanae Vitae. The Church, however, does little to jump up at that point and tell the anti-sex crowd NO! Sadly, some are in that crowd.
On social issues, the odd thing is that the Catholic Church was huge in getting Social Security passed. Would that it had done more on health care. There is actually further to do than the current social democratic solution for the elderly. For one, we could do parish level intake - with parish funds filling gaps in public social services as they happen (like making sure people have some cash for Metrorail or shampoo when SNAP does not cover these things. Family can help, but not always).
It can also be open to supporting more advanced solutions in the public square, like a greatly expanded refundabe child tax credit payable with wages - say $1000 per month per child (who would ever have an abortion?) or being less unfriendly to teen pregnancy or teen sex. Here is a kicker, using diverted and equalized Social Security revenue to buy employer voting stock - not for new projects but exisiting shares - until there are no capitalists to go to the Catholic Charities Annual Ball, not because they are ticked, but because they are gone. That is radical.
I am sure George Weigel's anti-Germanism extends to the Pope Emeritus as well as to Cardinal Kaspar and his colleagues. I can see why right wing Catholics fear a social democratic, which is Germany in a nutshell. If the state takes better care of people than the Church, they often abandon the Church. Of course, they could be punishing the Church for not creating more martyrs against their last right wing government our of control. Or they could be hoping there is no God, for a vengeful God would annihilate them all (instead of the Palestinians, who had no part in the Holocaust or the Porajmos). The culture as buried its feelings about these events - and of the atrocities of the American and British Air Forces on German Civilians and that part of industry that did not make weapons. The die off we allowed to happen from famine did not help either, regarding either the USA or God. Stopping the insanity from the right wing on marriage and gays will not solve the problems of the empty pew. Dealing with smoldering issues that took one generation out of Church, which be default takes the next ones out, just might. (In the 19th century, French churches were empty - probably still are). God cares what people do the rest of the week, something which George Weigel and his supporters find even more terrible than history is to the Germans.
Robert Christian at Millenial hits a lot of those points addressed this week on how some Churches put the moral social issues over the moral action issues - at least in rhetoric. When he takes the focus off of Churches and puts it on the parties, he hits the nail right on the head. It is not the Church who stands for protecting life until birth, but certainly some protect the fetus Republicans start singing from the hymnal of personal financial responsibility one the child is strapped into the car seat for the first time. Then they talk about limiting sex, not just managing it - usually putting the woman in charge of that. That should be a non-starter for the Church, oddly because sex is part of unitive love in Humanae Vitae. The Church, however, does little to jump up at that point and tell the anti-sex crowd NO! Sadly, some are in that crowd.
On social issues, the odd thing is that the Catholic Church was huge in getting Social Security passed. Would that it had done more on health care. There is actually further to do than the current social democratic solution for the elderly. For one, we could do parish level intake - with parish funds filling gaps in public social services as they happen (like making sure people have some cash for Metrorail or shampoo when SNAP does not cover these things. Family can help, but not always).
It can also be open to supporting more advanced solutions in the public square, like a greatly expanded refundabe child tax credit payable with wages - say $1000 per month per child (who would ever have an abortion?) or being less unfriendly to teen pregnancy or teen sex. Here is a kicker, using diverted and equalized Social Security revenue to buy employer voting stock - not for new projects but exisiting shares - until there are no capitalists to go to the Catholic Charities Annual Ball, not because they are ticked, but because they are gone. That is radical.
Cardinal Wuerl's Talk on Environment | National Catholic Reporter
Cardinal Wuerl's Talk on Environment | National Catholic Reporter by MSW. MGB: Any sane environmental paradigm must be homo-centric. The entire earth below the first mile or so of crust does not notice. Pella connot be appeased. Of course, even ZPG advocates are about resources available in the future, particularly to the poor, but seem to have no imagination redistrubution to them. The Church does not suffer from that short sightedness. The first principle is vital because environmental racism is real thing.
The second principle of protecting the natural order is not so important. In a scientific paradigm featuring evolution rather than creation and a fossil and ice core record that shows the Saharah and Greenland fertile plains at several points in human history and beyond, any recent warming seems just a blip. Helping our family in need is essential. Preserving the current status quo is not. Change is not as gradual as the scientists predict and oddly the rich have much more to lose - although they are better able to lose it. This is not Pompei, but it is a situation where a lot of neat stuff owned by rich people will wash away quickly - and guess who is going to come forward asking for a bailiout? I'll trade that bailout for the keys to their nice cars - all of them. Amazingly, the Church is still stuck in a creationist paradigm, believing the first parents myth still is valid (it isn't). while the fundamentalists believe God will do a miracle to stop the flood, which is even siliar and totally unmerited.
The third principle is human ecology for future generations. As I said, stopping tragic change is not desirable because the progress our children deserve, coming in the form of desalination technologhy and advances in individual home hydroponics and perfecting that stem cell burger (currently they are horid because they took bloodless and fat free a bit too far), as well as a decent ability to travel in space, might not happen without some drought or flood. The thing we develop in climate change may save us in a nuclear or biological war. We might also use these events to buy out the capitalists or fund He3 fusion, which makes the Koch family fortune a much smaller thing consisting of a controlling interest in Georgia Pacific (and a later reference to an ever young cartoon named Beevis). If carbon taxes fund alternatives, the rich suffer - make them. If other taxes eventually fund buying out the rich (not over global warming but on general principle), all the better, since once they realize their green paper cannot be recyled, they can put it in bags to trade for food.
The global warming issue will not bring the Millenials back to Church. Democratizing the leadership might - as in we select, not Rome - and I mean we very broadly. What most will is having kids - and if the Church fights for an adequate child tax credit for each kid paid with wages, that might be attractive. Especially if we do that habitat stuff I mention above so that population pressure is no longer a thing.
The conclusion of MSW's piece is interesting, as the worry seems to be some of the bishops singing out of the Ayn Rand hymnal instead (or at least the Burke hymnal). Lets hope that this issue is like immigration, no explicit right wind dissent (although sticking to a creation line is still archaic in an evolutionary world).
The second principle of protecting the natural order is not so important. In a scientific paradigm featuring evolution rather than creation and a fossil and ice core record that shows the Saharah and Greenland fertile plains at several points in human history and beyond, any recent warming seems just a blip. Helping our family in need is essential. Preserving the current status quo is not. Change is not as gradual as the scientists predict and oddly the rich have much more to lose - although they are better able to lose it. This is not Pompei, but it is a situation where a lot of neat stuff owned by rich people will wash away quickly - and guess who is going to come forward asking for a bailiout? I'll trade that bailout for the keys to their nice cars - all of them. Amazingly, the Church is still stuck in a creationist paradigm, believing the first parents myth still is valid (it isn't). while the fundamentalists believe God will do a miracle to stop the flood, which is even siliar and totally unmerited.
The third principle is human ecology for future generations. As I said, stopping tragic change is not desirable because the progress our children deserve, coming in the form of desalination technologhy and advances in individual home hydroponics and perfecting that stem cell burger (currently they are horid because they took bloodless and fat free a bit too far), as well as a decent ability to travel in space, might not happen without some drought or flood. The thing we develop in climate change may save us in a nuclear or biological war. We might also use these events to buy out the capitalists or fund He3 fusion, which makes the Koch family fortune a much smaller thing consisting of a controlling interest in Georgia Pacific (and a later reference to an ever young cartoon named Beevis). If carbon taxes fund alternatives, the rich suffer - make them. If other taxes eventually fund buying out the rich (not over global warming but on general principle), all the better, since once they realize their green paper cannot be recyled, they can put it in bags to trade for food.
The global warming issue will not bring the Millenials back to Church. Democratizing the leadership might - as in we select, not Rome - and I mean we very broadly. What most will is having kids - and if the Church fights for an adequate child tax credit for each kid paid with wages, that might be attractive. Especially if we do that habitat stuff I mention above so that population pressure is no longer a thing.
The conclusion of MSW's piece is interesting, as the worry seems to be some of the bishops singing out of the Ayn Rand hymnal instead (or at least the Burke hymnal). Lets hope that this issue is like immigration, no explicit right wind dissent (although sticking to a creation line is still archaic in an evolutionary world).
Wednesday, May 20, 2015
Links for 05/20/15 | National Catholic Reporter
Links for 05/20/15 | National Catholic Reporter by MSW. MGB: The Koch Brothers have been funding the American Legislative Exchange Council, including the ham handed attempts to get Roe v. Wade back before the SCOTUS - the ultimate Caholic wedge issue to try to pry Catholics out of the Democratic Party. Such efforts have been successful - not in actually doing anything about abortion (which would kill the movement as a political tool - just as the gay lobby is wondering what it will do when the SCOTUS nationalizes gay marriage). Using the Pope to keep Latino Catholics in the party is one of theose instances where turnabout is fair play.
I was thinking HRC was Human Rights Campaignn - MSW is using it as Hillary Rodham Clinton. Then he highlights a New York Post editorial that starts quoting FoxNews and goes down from there. If this is the best the right wing has got, Bill needs to start looking for a new pattern for the White House china. There is such a thing as being too desparately against someone that you listen to lies, especially Big Lies. I fear MSW has crossed that line.
Patrick Deneen's quote is what we call faux populism. The truth is that the federal RFRA is about ameliorating religous discrimination resulting from necessary government action. It was never meant to overturn the public accomodations in the Civil Rights Act of 1964. It is good that by hook or by crook, Indiana was shamed into not doing so. There is no direct First Amendment protection either - moral scorn by individuals, whether in the barracks or the bakery, is the constitutional equivalent of yelling fire at the AMC. Contraception insurance is RFRA relevant. Gay weddings are not, save that the 14th Amendment requires that they be allowed, moral scorn by the Catholic bishops in NOM notwithstanding.
I was thinking HRC was Human Rights Campaignn - MSW is using it as Hillary Rodham Clinton. Then he highlights a New York Post editorial that starts quoting FoxNews and goes down from there. If this is the best the right wing has got, Bill needs to start looking for a new pattern for the White House china. There is such a thing as being too desparately against someone that you listen to lies, especially Big Lies. I fear MSW has crossed that line.
Patrick Deneen's quote is what we call faux populism. The truth is that the federal RFRA is about ameliorating religous discrimination resulting from necessary government action. It was never meant to overturn the public accomodations in the Civil Rights Act of 1964. It is good that by hook or by crook, Indiana was shamed into not doing so. There is no direct First Amendment protection either - moral scorn by individuals, whether in the barracks or the bakery, is the constitutional equivalent of yelling fire at the AMC. Contraception insurance is RFRA relevant. Gay weddings are not, save that the 14th Amendment requires that they be allowed, moral scorn by the Catholic bishops in NOM notwithstanding.
The Rollout of the Encyclical on the Environment | National Catholic Reporter
The Rollout of the Encyclical on the Environment | National Catholic Reporter by MSW, MGB: The fascinating fact is that for hundreds and hundreds of years, a mass extinction has been going on for a variety of reasons - from climate oscillation to industrialization. No other species had committees and debates and propoganda regarding what was occurring. Species adapted, migrated or died. Mostly the latter. While every species has some kind of gradation between elite members and normal members, being elite did not prevent one from dying first. How different we truly are. We have elites that deny climate change and the mass extinction are even happening - not because they have facts, but because they have economic interests that would harmed if they cooperated with the heard. Indeed, they seem to thik that if much of the herd died out, they would be fine.
The encyclical will be about how our morality says that this is not the case - that making a local branch of the human herd extinct does damage the entire herd. Rich people quietly trading lower lying beach front property for something more inland while others in poorer countries could die is beyond obscene and counter-evolutionary. You see, rich people tend to marry in their class, which is a very small subset. The masses are our genetic diversity - it is risky to let any of them die. If you are rich, the genetic future you save may be your own. We don't need an entire species that resembes Steve Forbes - who seems to be the West Virginia of the 1%.
The encyclical will be about how our morality says that this is not the case - that making a local branch of the human herd extinct does damage the entire herd. Rich people quietly trading lower lying beach front property for something more inland while others in poorer countries could die is beyond obscene and counter-evolutionary. You see, rich people tend to marry in their class, which is a very small subset. The masses are our genetic diversity - it is risky to let any of them die. If you are rich, the genetic future you save may be your own. We don't need an entire species that resembes Steve Forbes - who seems to be the West Virginia of the 1%.
Tuesday, May 19, 2015
Links for 05/19/15 | National Catholic Reporter
Links for 05/19/15 | National Catholic Reporter by MSW. MGB: Demography is destiny for the GOP, even as soon as 2016. You would think more ambitious Republican would be office seekers would switch.
On San Fransico and Chinese missions, it is amazing, even with a large population of Chinese immigants and first generations citizens, that they would send an Irish priest. I hope he at least went to Chinatown to learn the language and culture. Speaking of Irish priests, it is good to see Cardinal O'Malley with a weed wacker. He not only has the smell of the sheep, but the smell of the weeds. Of course, the Archbishop of Chicago went to the turf of the Archbishop of Boston for a commencemet address. Wonder if he took a turn at the weeds? I wonder if Dolan thinks they are plotting?
On San Fransico and Chinese missions, it is amazing, even with a large population of Chinese immigants and first generations citizens, that they would send an Irish priest. I hope he at least went to Chinatown to learn the language and culture. Speaking of Irish priests, it is good to see Cardinal O'Malley with a weed wacker. He not only has the smell of the sheep, but the smell of the weeds. Of course, the Archbishop of Chicago went to the turf of the Archbishop of Boston for a commencemet address. Wonder if he took a turn at the weeds? I wonder if Dolan thinks they are plotting?
The Clintons, the Bushes & Queen Anne | National Catholic Reporter
The Clintons, the Bushes & Queen Anne | National Catholic Reporter by MSW. MGB: On foundation finace, both the Clinton and Bush foundations are required to file a Form 990 and those forms are all published on The Foundation Center web page. This is not dark money. As for Secretary Clinton's multi-thousand dollar speech, that is standard for presidential candidates. It is not for her to just support herself but to support the organizing of her campaign. While Bill could write the checks to feed her on the campaign trail, doing so from what he earns from a 990 organization or his own speeches would be considered even more questionable. This time, some distance from Bill is likely a good perception to create -as the appearance that this is a dodge on the 22nd amendment is already in the air. For the Bushes, we could have only wished that W. had followed in his father's footsteps on Iraq.
Any insinuation that raising big money somehow makes one crass in working to alleviate poverty is just plain silly. Even though Francis lives simply, the still presides over an organization with huge money, more bad 14th and 15th Century art than it can hang properly and bigger legal bills than the Clintons will ever have - as well as a huge funding stream from the organization that Secretary Clinton is competing to lead. Because the money is probably to organize the campaign, the attack on it is sophomoric. As far as the press corps, I am glad that public operation has not yet started - its too early and the issues of today will probably not be the issues of January 20th, 2017.
Anyone who has read the parts of Game Change having to do with the Clintons knows they can turn a bad day around quickly (but to do so they should hire George Stephenopolis back) and can turn certain victory into crushing defeat. There is no other reason, aside from his poltiics, that I have any hope for Senator Sanders. She could lose, but not for the silly reasons MSW cites, especially about any nonsense about a sense of entitlement. Recall that during the Lewinsky Affair, she claimed a lareg right wing conspiracy. Turns out she was right, as the Paula Jones legal team was sharing information with the Speical Counsel - and they disbarred Bill in the end. They should have also disbarred Starr, the Jones lawer and the House Managers, especially Hyde.
As for my royal cousin, Anne, she was actually the first test of whether the Glorious Revolution would work. Its why everyone watched her. It did, as we saw for certain when a pariaimentary election essentially ended the British resolve to keep prosecuting the America insurrection (even though a few companies of regulars could have routed what was left of the Continental Army). No one looks to Hillary's every move and the mainstream media knows about candidates earning a little pre-campaign money to live on and to set up the actual staff. I am sure FoxNews will pick up the story (a lovely companion for MSW), but they may not because they know that MSNBC would go after every Republican candidates speaking fees and incomes in retaliation. Of course, with the NBA Finals and the NHL Finals coming up, as well as the time when most peole actually start paying attention to the MLB, no one will be looking at Hillary.
Any insinuation that raising big money somehow makes one crass in working to alleviate poverty is just plain silly. Even though Francis lives simply, the still presides over an organization with huge money, more bad 14th and 15th Century art than it can hang properly and bigger legal bills than the Clintons will ever have - as well as a huge funding stream from the organization that Secretary Clinton is competing to lead. Because the money is probably to organize the campaign, the attack on it is sophomoric. As far as the press corps, I am glad that public operation has not yet started - its too early and the issues of today will probably not be the issues of January 20th, 2017.
Anyone who has read the parts of Game Change having to do with the Clintons knows they can turn a bad day around quickly (but to do so they should hire George Stephenopolis back) and can turn certain victory into crushing defeat. There is no other reason, aside from his poltiics, that I have any hope for Senator Sanders. She could lose, but not for the silly reasons MSW cites, especially about any nonsense about a sense of entitlement. Recall that during the Lewinsky Affair, she claimed a lareg right wing conspiracy. Turns out she was right, as the Paula Jones legal team was sharing information with the Speical Counsel - and they disbarred Bill in the end. They should have also disbarred Starr, the Jones lawer and the House Managers, especially Hyde.
As for my royal cousin, Anne, she was actually the first test of whether the Glorious Revolution would work. Its why everyone watched her. It did, as we saw for certain when a pariaimentary election essentially ended the British resolve to keep prosecuting the America insurrection (even though a few companies of regulars could have routed what was left of the Continental Army). No one looks to Hillary's every move and the mainstream media knows about candidates earning a little pre-campaign money to live on and to set up the actual staff. I am sure FoxNews will pick up the story (a lovely companion for MSW), but they may not because they know that MSNBC would go after every Republican candidates speaking fees and incomes in retaliation. Of course, with the NBA Finals and the NHL Finals coming up, as well as the time when most peole actually start paying attention to the MLB, no one will be looking at Hillary.
Monday, May 18, 2015
Links for 05/18/15 | National Catholic Reporter
Links for 05/18/15 | National Catholic Reporter by MSW. MGB: We have not heard much from Archbishop Chaput lately. Now we know why - he is up to his eyeballs plannning the International Summit on Families. So keep him busy and he behaves? Too bad the conference was not for 2016! Still, he has a point about direct charity to the poor, rather than relying on a check to Catholilc Charities (and presumably taxes). Still, as one who gets some relief, more money is good, as what we are giving is not enough for the need. Volunteering time does help the heart soar and the money go further - especially in the form of adult literacy. My opinion is that it is the most imporatant thing.
MondayVatican misses the point of what Truth is in Caritas in Veritate. Truth has to with justice, whether that is for the poor who want to expand their families in the face of interational eugenics efforts, or for the poor who don't want their benefits cut any more than they have in the name of austerity to the victims of capitalism. Its not about doctrine as much as putting it to action - including politically.
I see why MSW has mercy as dogma on the brain in his review of Meghan Clark's new book demonstrates. Its definitely long on references to philosophers and Church documents and dogma. Not to much on what we need to do next, aside from integrating dogma and charity. Of course, my readers know I have my own ideas on that and they are not heavilty footnoted with the elements of the Magisterium. My theology is a bit more humanistic, but no less Chrisitian and it has implications for both social dogma and the organization of the Church - as well as cooperative socialism - that no one seeking that big C Catholic label will likely go to.
MondayVatican misses the point of what Truth is in Caritas in Veritate. Truth has to with justice, whether that is for the poor who want to expand their families in the face of interational eugenics efforts, or for the poor who don't want their benefits cut any more than they have in the name of austerity to the victims of capitalism. Its not about doctrine as much as putting it to action - including politically.
I see why MSW has mercy as dogma on the brain in his review of Meghan Clark's new book demonstrates. Its definitely long on references to philosophers and Church documents and dogma. Not to much on what we need to do next, aside from integrating dogma and charity. Of course, my readers know I have my own ideas on that and they are not heavilty footnoted with the elements of the Magisterium. My theology is a bit more humanistic, but no less Chrisitian and it has implications for both social dogma and the organization of the Church - as well as cooperative socialism - that no one seeking that big C Catholic label will likely go to.
Douthat, Poverty & Partisanship | National Catholic Reporter
Douthat, Poverty & Partisanship | National Catholic Reporter by MSW.MGB: MSW stole my thunder about the USCCB as the source of Obama's reaction. And not just Obama. Of course, it is hard for the Church to stay cutting edge on poverty and education when it embraces a management structure and style unchanged since the middle ages. It is true that the bishops are in the middle of fundraising for poverty. What is also true is that the checking account the funds go into are legally the property of the bishop. Would it kill the church to go from feudalism to modern profits with independent boards? Its not like they are going to be dominated by the local chapter of Planned Parenthood.
The bishops distrust the people as much - not about abortion but things they care about more - ordaining women (even though the laity can't ordain anyone, but can cut off the bishop's budget if he won't - of course, it the people wanted to make that point, it can do so now with its checkbook). Sadly, the Gospel of Life is never more clear than when preached with a female voice. Nuns are powerful by a female bishop would be even more so.
The Church lose the perception of being obsessed with overturning Roe and trying to stop marriage equality by dropping its support for the National Right to Life Committee and the Organization for Marriage. Both approaches are lost causes. We can increase family incomes for each child to stop abortion - and we would though the conservatives and libertarians would argue for individual responsibility (irony anyone?) and civil marriage equality cannot be stopped. Indeed, since civil marriage is discouraged for heterosexuals but honored for employees of the Church, the same rule needs to be applied for gay civil marriages or bigotry is the only conclusion we can draw. As for religious marriages, a largely gay priesthood will be privately giving blessings soon. The bishops should let them as their penance for Proposition 8 and how it mandated gay long time companions be treated in Catholic hospitals (which has been revered but not atoned for).
We do a lot as a Church for the poor. but our voices could do a lot more. We could also open private prisons for drug offenders and treat them like secure hospitals - with such energy that CCA goes bankrupt. We could fight for a huge child tax credit for working and poor families and could open votech high schools and our own remedial high schools, paying the students in both cases (the government does) and giving them the same health plan as their employees get.
The bishops distrust the people as much - not about abortion but things they care about more - ordaining women (even though the laity can't ordain anyone, but can cut off the bishop's budget if he won't - of course, it the people wanted to make that point, it can do so now with its checkbook). Sadly, the Gospel of Life is never more clear than when preached with a female voice. Nuns are powerful by a female bishop would be even more so.
The Church lose the perception of being obsessed with overturning Roe and trying to stop marriage equality by dropping its support for the National Right to Life Committee and the Organization for Marriage. Both approaches are lost causes. We can increase family incomes for each child to stop abortion - and we would though the conservatives and libertarians would argue for individual responsibility (irony anyone?) and civil marriage equality cannot be stopped. Indeed, since civil marriage is discouraged for heterosexuals but honored for employees of the Church, the same rule needs to be applied for gay civil marriages or bigotry is the only conclusion we can draw. As for religious marriages, a largely gay priesthood will be privately giving blessings soon. The bishops should let them as their penance for Proposition 8 and how it mandated gay long time companions be treated in Catholic hospitals (which has been revered but not atoned for).
We do a lot as a Church for the poor. but our voices could do a lot more. We could also open private prisons for drug offenders and treat them like secure hospitals - with such energy that CCA goes bankrupt. We could fight for a huge child tax credit for working and poor families and could open votech high schools and our own remedial high schools, paying the students in both cases (the government does) and giving them the same health plan as their employees get.
Friday, May 15, 2015
Links for 05/15/15 | National Catholic Reporter
Links for 05/15/15 | National Catholic Reporter by MSW. MGB: Interestinng set of links with point and counter-point on liberty and Marxism.
The Bleeding Heart Libertarian is trying to humanize the movement, but he is puttimg lipstick on a pig, I am sure the Barefoot Lawyer from China could go on for pages on the value of liberty over authoritarianism, but claiming that capitalism perfected the family is wrong. Industrial capitalism cave us massive child labor and progressive governance was required to stop it. Capitalism gave us the nuclear family, but that is not necessarily a good thing.
Bravo to Chen for standing up against authoritarianism, which for those who are interested in economicsm, is not really part of socialism. The party is enriching itself, not for the workers, but for the state capitalists at the top.
As for Jayabalab, I was not about to read such insanity so I thank MSW for the quotes. Wnat I think his side fears is not that the Pope is a Marxist (that was more Benedict and the men who wrote Caritas in Veritate), Its that he is not an authoritarian. I think his type of libertarian likes authoritarians. They make the trains run on time and will respond to incentives. Francis won't respond to incetives. The pseudo libertarians who promote wage slavery and environmental denial cannot buy him, which scares them to death, because to really fix the enviroment you do need to come for the capitalists.
The Bleeding Heart Libertarian is trying to humanize the movement, but he is puttimg lipstick on a pig, I am sure the Barefoot Lawyer from China could go on for pages on the value of liberty over authoritarianism, but claiming that capitalism perfected the family is wrong. Industrial capitalism cave us massive child labor and progressive governance was required to stop it. Capitalism gave us the nuclear family, but that is not necessarily a good thing.
Bravo to Chen for standing up against authoritarianism, which for those who are interested in economicsm, is not really part of socialism. The party is enriching itself, not for the workers, but for the state capitalists at the top.
As for Jayabalab, I was not about to read such insanity so I thank MSW for the quotes. Wnat I think his side fears is not that the Pope is a Marxist (that was more Benedict and the men who wrote Caritas in Veritate), Its that he is not an authoritarian. I think his type of libertarian likes authoritarians. They make the trains run on time and will respond to incentives. Francis won't respond to incetives. The pseudo libertarians who promote wage slavery and environmental denial cannot buy him, which scares them to death, because to really fix the enviroment you do need to come for the capitalists.
Church as an 'On-Ramp' | National Catholic Reporter
Church as an 'On-Ramp' | National Catholic Reporter by MSW. MGB: The first progressive movement was anchored by, of all things, prohibition. There were all the tax and civil service reforms, female suffrage and farmer empowerment and a federal reserve.
Its odd that ending the drug war and releasing prisoners, including dads, is probably the backbone of the next movement, so MSW will have to learn to live with libertarians. It should also include non-governmental funding of education, including parochial schools, early child development and adult literacy, as well as health care and advaced education. The whole on-ramp.
This might come from tax reform, where taxes are collected from employers and they file, not the workers and they distribute the funds to parishes and public schools and agencies, according to the wishes of the workers (with some rebalaching at the top). Of course, some large employers might have their own schools, doctors and even parishes.
While we are at it, parishes might change to. Even with priests, maybe lay deacaons might oversee both the physical property and the schools and programs. If the people have new ideas for services, they could bring them up,so they are more then MSW's five or my list. Of course, I assume parishes will copy each other.
What could a lay deacon be? Not being clerical, no promise of celibacy or remaining celibate (or continent) and being of any gender (including some of the new ones). Even the harshest opponent of female ordination links it to offering Mass (which is using too much symbolism to be taken seriously as a defense against sexism) and which does not apply to lay deacons, who do not offer Mass - ever. Of course the bishop could make them confessors, as this is a delegatable episcopal power - and all may baptize in a pinch or witness marriage. We could also have clerical deacons for this, also including females.
My mention this at all? Because our phyiscal povery might be related to our poverty of the spirit. Not of the poor (although I am currently poor), but of those who would help them. Fix the sexism and clericalism and let the Spirit soar.
Its odd that ending the drug war and releasing prisoners, including dads, is probably the backbone of the next movement, so MSW will have to learn to live with libertarians. It should also include non-governmental funding of education, including parochial schools, early child development and adult literacy, as well as health care and advaced education. The whole on-ramp.
This might come from tax reform, where taxes are collected from employers and they file, not the workers and they distribute the funds to parishes and public schools and agencies, according to the wishes of the workers (with some rebalaching at the top). Of course, some large employers might have their own schools, doctors and even parishes.
While we are at it, parishes might change to. Even with priests, maybe lay deacaons might oversee both the physical property and the schools and programs. If the people have new ideas for services, they could bring them up,so they are more then MSW's five or my list. Of course, I assume parishes will copy each other.
What could a lay deacon be? Not being clerical, no promise of celibacy or remaining celibate (or continent) and being of any gender (including some of the new ones). Even the harshest opponent of female ordination links it to offering Mass (which is using too much symbolism to be taken seriously as a defense against sexism) and which does not apply to lay deacons, who do not offer Mass - ever. Of course the bishop could make them confessors, as this is a delegatable episcopal power - and all may baptize in a pinch or witness marriage. We could also have clerical deacons for this, also including females.
My mention this at all? Because our phyiscal povery might be related to our poverty of the spirit. Not of the poor (although I am currently poor), but of those who would help them. Fix the sexism and clericalism and let the Spirit soar.
Catholic-Evangelical Poverty Summit: A Report | National Catholic Reporter
Catholic-Evangelical Poverty Summit: A Report | National Catholic Reporter by MSW. MGB: I was wondering what I was going to write about until MSW mentioned the President, the war on women and I gather a bigotry exemption for the churches on LGBT issues having to do with marriage. Thing is, the war on women was simply offering some of the bishops a chance to look foolish. Its not his fault they took the bait in a gulp. As for gay marriage and churches, most dislike civil marriage in general, but recognize those of their workers. Not using the same rule for gay married is bigotry, I find that if I simmer on an issue, I am the one who is wrong.
My disagreement with Obama is not how he talks about capitalism, it is that he cannot do so more radically and get Congress to act. He is running our to time to do many things, including some regarding the Church -- especially in the area of drug felon rehabilitation and adult ed.
Except the libertarians, left and right do agree alot on poverty - especially as it has to do with the Church. The problem is getting their legislators to act. As for prayer, it must be done in locked rooms, not in the streets or even the public square. St. Francis was right, only when neccissary.
My disagreement with Obama is not how he talks about capitalism, it is that he cannot do so more radically and get Congress to act. He is running our to time to do many things, including some regarding the Church -- especially in the area of drug felon rehabilitation and adult ed.
Except the libertarians, left and right do agree alot on poverty - especially as it has to do with the Church. The problem is getting their legislators to act. As for prayer, it must be done in locked rooms, not in the streets or even the public square. St. Francis was right, only when neccissary.
Wednesday, May 13, 2015
Links for 05/13/15 | National Catholic Reporter
Links for 05/13/15 | National Catholic Reporter by MSW. MGB: I am glad articles are now being done on polarization. Readers may remember my comments at http://xianleft.blogspot.com/2015/05/notre-dames-conference-on-polarization.html The Obama remarks at Georgetown are available. Anyone go after their President? Did he answer MSW's questions? On the topic of world leaders considering God's judgment. I wish the Saudi's would stop doing so, as they are the major funders of the Wahabi backed terror movement. I do hope they start considering the working poor more and the financial markets less.
Review: Beyond the Abortion Wars | National Catholic Reporter
Review: Beyond the Abortion Wars | National Catholic Reporter by MSW. MGB: It's good Prof.Camosy wrote this book. There is a danger in saying what is missing in a book without having a copy before me, however I suspect that if he mentioned these points, MSW would have screamed bloody murder. Still, Camosy nails it on the mushy middle and I suspect he is correct on the possibility of compromise, if only because it would shut the rest up.
I will submit first that Abortion in America is much more about politics than morality. The debate over the Affordable Care Act proved that. There was no chance of the Catholic bishops ever endorsing the Act and the most tenuous arguments were used against it. The unaptly named Susan B. Anthony fund took the inch by the bishops and spun a mile of yarn to rid Congress of Pro-Life Democrats who voted for the bill. One look at who sits on the National Right to Life Committee would likely prove how much the bishops have become involved with the GOP, except that they don't post that information on their web page - but go to the March for Life if you have any doubt. And if you want to see someone run from a proposal, suggest that they make a $1000 per month, even $500 per month, per child (the last of which is easily paid for by getting rid of the child exemption, the mortgage interest deduction and the property tax deduction - now that would be tax reform! Camosy, do you read your reviews? By the way, this solves the problem of the economics of having another child,
Then we have the other side. Public school teachers unions. Most of the women you see at Democratic National Conventions are teachers. Some are retired and are old enough to remember the bad old days pre-Roe, where there were more abortions, many more deaths and harrassment - not so much of doctors but of advocates for legal abortion. They are not budging, but they might like that tax credit - although they fear it might lead to the old restrictions. Indeed, even the prospect of state by state action, which we essentially have with trap laws is a matter for concern. No one quite believes such laws are for the health of the mother.
The personhood argument is interesting. My readers can probably recite it. No one questions the personhood of a second or third trimester fetus. Either something is majorly wrong - Downs, or fatally wrong. On the fatally wrong side, the bishops are against taking action in the face of the inevitable. Doctors want it done yesterday and the doctors are right. At this stage, the argument is not one of innocence. Its danger - as in giving birth to a child with no chace to even survive birth can be fatal with the wrong kind of chromosomal defect (these migrate past the fetal blood barrier in the placenta with potentially fatal cardio-vascular effects. You didn't know? Shame on you. We can certainly have ethics boards, but only if the Catholic bishops change their health care directives to take out their fear of doctors playing God. Non-negotiable. No evangelization should even occur to a Church whose bishops are sure that God is an Ogre. So, the moral analysis must admit that the issue is danger, not innocence - although the innocence argument is great for the GOP agenda.
On the Downs topic. No making it illegal until the Church, with or without public funds, houses or offers respite care to the families of all Downs children. The state's history in housing these folks is aweful and it has used the opportunity to enforce Eugenics. The whole group home thing? I have a mental health diagnosis and if you believe what the deinstitutionalization forces said, there should be a free group home bed waiting for me - and for every Downs patient not living at home. Still waiting.
Continuing with personhood. This time in the first trimester. The problem with assuming personhood for all embryoes is that it turns the embryoes who die in miscarriage as subjects of law. (There is no such thing as a first trimester fetus. You didn't know? Double shame on you and the person who did not teach you the right terms.) Being a subject of law means that if you die, there can be an inquest. Its funny when a pro-life public servant hears about my argument and says we need to investigate every micarriage. He obviously did not get the joke. Avoiding that nonsense for families grieving the loss of a child is why we don't do that. We also don't want tort suits against doctors in this area. Nothing is more morally repugnant, even then abortion, then the thought of an army of Ave Maria and Liberty law grads aggressively seeking to make their names seeking these suits - and making miscarriage a public event would give them names on the public record. That flaw makes any first trimester ban untenable.
Then there is before pregnancy. Fertilization to gastrulation. This one is easy. Not a person. While it has DNA from both parents, only the maternal DNA is active in growth. When both sides work, you are a person. In some species (not ours) fatal hybrids continue to develop until gastrulation. Assuming for a second that happened to humans, do dog-human hybrids that are destined to die have souls? Lets do another animal that does allow hybrids. Do human-horse combinations before gasturlation have souls? Do they go to Heaven? I am not even going to do twinning, which also stops at gastrulation.If you had a Catholic ethics class before Evangelicum Vitae, you know that twinning was the standard argument against life at fertilization. Now the lame retort is that God gives the twin a soul at twinning. Pure fiction.
What about the pro choice side? That is easy. Go to the NARAL-Pro Choice America web page or the one for the National Center for Reproductive Rights if you doubt the need for their work. NCRR is the law firm that works on abortion cases - big success rate - their major loss was partial birth abortion - if you call that a loss. The goal of the law was a shot at overturning Roe. The pro-lifers were certain their boy W had given them the right justices in Roberts and Alito. Nope. Roberts and Alito went with Kennedy on a decision that invoked the Commerce Clause to give Congress the power to do the law (odd that they could go there on abortion and not mandates in the ACA). Does the Democratic Party love this an issue? Sure, but if the pro-life movement suddenly was raptured, the Pro-Choice movement would go away. Also, I suspect most of the movement would love to see the Child Tax Credit increase I suggested above pass, even though it might put a big chunk of the abortion practice out of business (no more abortions for economic danger). Pity the bishops won't get behind it. When they do, when they provide such a wage for their employees, I will believe they are serious.
What about pro-choice Catholic politicians? They are cowards. They know most of the facts I have laid out above - even the ones about personhood. They certainly know the implications of the bishop's cooperation with the political scam that is the pro-choice movement. Yet they say nothing but repeat the lame defense offered by Cuomo - pluralism. Letting the current political regime goes on does have electoral advantage, but mostly it is done out of fear that the truth will alienate Catholic voters who don't like seeing the Church attacked, even if they agree it is wrong. Maybe soon, courage will be rewarded, starting with that tax cut.
I will submit first that Abortion in America is much more about politics than morality. The debate over the Affordable Care Act proved that. There was no chance of the Catholic bishops ever endorsing the Act and the most tenuous arguments were used against it. The unaptly named Susan B. Anthony fund took the inch by the bishops and spun a mile of yarn to rid Congress of Pro-Life Democrats who voted for the bill. One look at who sits on the National Right to Life Committee would likely prove how much the bishops have become involved with the GOP, except that they don't post that information on their web page - but go to the March for Life if you have any doubt. And if you want to see someone run from a proposal, suggest that they make a $1000 per month, even $500 per month, per child (the last of which is easily paid for by getting rid of the child exemption, the mortgage interest deduction and the property tax deduction - now that would be tax reform! Camosy, do you read your reviews? By the way, this solves the problem of the economics of having another child,
Then we have the other side. Public school teachers unions. Most of the women you see at Democratic National Conventions are teachers. Some are retired and are old enough to remember the bad old days pre-Roe, where there were more abortions, many more deaths and harrassment - not so much of doctors but of advocates for legal abortion. They are not budging, but they might like that tax credit - although they fear it might lead to the old restrictions. Indeed, even the prospect of state by state action, which we essentially have with trap laws is a matter for concern. No one quite believes such laws are for the health of the mother.
The personhood argument is interesting. My readers can probably recite it. No one questions the personhood of a second or third trimester fetus. Either something is majorly wrong - Downs, or fatally wrong. On the fatally wrong side, the bishops are against taking action in the face of the inevitable. Doctors want it done yesterday and the doctors are right. At this stage, the argument is not one of innocence. Its danger - as in giving birth to a child with no chace to even survive birth can be fatal with the wrong kind of chromosomal defect (these migrate past the fetal blood barrier in the placenta with potentially fatal cardio-vascular effects. You didn't know? Shame on you. We can certainly have ethics boards, but only if the Catholic bishops change their health care directives to take out their fear of doctors playing God. Non-negotiable. No evangelization should even occur to a Church whose bishops are sure that God is an Ogre. So, the moral analysis must admit that the issue is danger, not innocence - although the innocence argument is great for the GOP agenda.
On the Downs topic. No making it illegal until the Church, with or without public funds, houses or offers respite care to the families of all Downs children. The state's history in housing these folks is aweful and it has used the opportunity to enforce Eugenics. The whole group home thing? I have a mental health diagnosis and if you believe what the deinstitutionalization forces said, there should be a free group home bed waiting for me - and for every Downs patient not living at home. Still waiting.
Continuing with personhood. This time in the first trimester. The problem with assuming personhood for all embryoes is that it turns the embryoes who die in miscarriage as subjects of law. (There is no such thing as a first trimester fetus. You didn't know? Double shame on you and the person who did not teach you the right terms.) Being a subject of law means that if you die, there can be an inquest. Its funny when a pro-life public servant hears about my argument and says we need to investigate every micarriage. He obviously did not get the joke. Avoiding that nonsense for families grieving the loss of a child is why we don't do that. We also don't want tort suits against doctors in this area. Nothing is more morally repugnant, even then abortion, then the thought of an army of Ave Maria and Liberty law grads aggressively seeking to make their names seeking these suits - and making miscarriage a public event would give them names on the public record. That flaw makes any first trimester ban untenable.
Then there is before pregnancy. Fertilization to gastrulation. This one is easy. Not a person. While it has DNA from both parents, only the maternal DNA is active in growth. When both sides work, you are a person. In some species (not ours) fatal hybrids continue to develop until gastrulation. Assuming for a second that happened to humans, do dog-human hybrids that are destined to die have souls? Lets do another animal that does allow hybrids. Do human-horse combinations before gasturlation have souls? Do they go to Heaven? I am not even going to do twinning, which also stops at gastrulation.If you had a Catholic ethics class before Evangelicum Vitae, you know that twinning was the standard argument against life at fertilization. Now the lame retort is that God gives the twin a soul at twinning. Pure fiction.
What about the pro choice side? That is easy. Go to the NARAL-Pro Choice America web page or the one for the National Center for Reproductive Rights if you doubt the need for their work. NCRR is the law firm that works on abortion cases - big success rate - their major loss was partial birth abortion - if you call that a loss. The goal of the law was a shot at overturning Roe. The pro-lifers were certain their boy W had given them the right justices in Roberts and Alito. Nope. Roberts and Alito went with Kennedy on a decision that invoked the Commerce Clause to give Congress the power to do the law (odd that they could go there on abortion and not mandates in the ACA). Does the Democratic Party love this an issue? Sure, but if the pro-life movement suddenly was raptured, the Pro-Choice movement would go away. Also, I suspect most of the movement would love to see the Child Tax Credit increase I suggested above pass, even though it might put a big chunk of the abortion practice out of business (no more abortions for economic danger). Pity the bishops won't get behind it. When they do, when they provide such a wage for their employees, I will believe they are serious.
What about pro-choice Catholic politicians? They are cowards. They know most of the facts I have laid out above - even the ones about personhood. They certainly know the implications of the bishop's cooperation with the political scam that is the pro-choice movement. Yet they say nothing but repeat the lame defense offered by Cuomo - pluralism. Letting the current political regime goes on does have electoral advantage, but mostly it is done out of fear that the truth will alienate Catholic voters who don't like seeing the Church attacked, even if they agree it is wrong. Maybe soon, courage will be rewarded, starting with that tax cut.
Tuesday, May 12, 2015
Links for 05/12/15 | National Catholic Reporter
Links for 05/12/15 | National Catholic Reporter by MSW. MGB: If you want to give to a Church run feeding program in Cuba, we have a link for that. The other link is from Cardinal Nichols homily in a London LGBT Parish. He says good things about Communion changing us - but that is true of all Sacraments, although I am not sure some of his brother bishops got the memo. As important is that they provide comfort when the painful part of change is apparent. That includes Matrimony - where sometimes the Grace of the Sacrament kicks in before you destroy each other - and sometimes it does not - you have to call for it.That is true for modern hetero and LGBT marriages - and even the traditional male dominated ones that probably need it the most.
The 'Credo Priests' Petition | National Catholic Reporter
The 'Credo Priests' Petition | National Catholic Reporter by MSW. MGB: The Credo Priests are wrong from the first word - their name. All off these matters are essentially natural law - not the kind used to justify tradition no matter what - but a real exploration of what is truly beneficial - a blessing - to families - both straight and gay, whole and broken. Old answers from the Bells of St.Mary's and Ozzie and Harriet era won't work, if they ever worked then (they certainly did not work for gays - even those who were pushed into the priesthood and consecrated life to provide them the structure of self-loathing. One can argue with a straight face that nothing has changed but obedience to demands that did not seem human - but were rather designed of an unhealthy fear of damnation by the faithful and disobedience by the clergy. This is not a good place to discern moral reasoning or the will of God (which, by the way, is happiness in both the next life and this one. Best does not necessarily mean easy all the time, but it does not mean impossible or heroic either. Heroism and martyrdom are special gifts, not mandates.
I am actually going through a marriage break up and while I would welcome a reunification I am not going to default to the easy answer and use doctrine or our vows to force an unwilling partner back into a marriage she wants out of. That does not mean, however, that I wish to be heroicly celibate or even heroicly chaste. I can discern that without the Church, as well as act on a belief that should I marry again, doing so is not an act of adultery agaist a partner who ended the marriage already. Most of this generation feels this way and either attends Mass, does not (it may not have been their practice, or finds another sect - I would hope a true pressence sect because going Evangelical, which some do, kind of defeats the purpose of finding a place to celebrate the Eucharist, landing somewhere that it is regarded as a mere symbol - now that is the kind of question Credo should address - although they often get that wrong for political and loyalty reasons having nothing to do with the pressence of Christ in the Sacrament.
Note that I did not raise all the process concerns over how the message from Credo was delivered. Indeed, if one person drafts a position and his fellows agree with it, I see no reason to fear its format in a petition - or do I care about how the bishops communicate and back channel on this issue. I am more concerned about processes which exclude the vast majority of the faithful, including non-regular Mass attendees, from having their say on the Synod. I also question how structured the questions are - there should be more of an open ended free for all - indeed what I just wrote should be the kind of response the Synod Fathers need and I doubt they will get it - which means that there is doubt that those not reached will care about the result and will simply keep doing what they think is right - which is very moral but bad for Church unity.
I am actually going through a marriage break up and while I would welcome a reunification I am not going to default to the easy answer and use doctrine or our vows to force an unwilling partner back into a marriage she wants out of. That does not mean, however, that I wish to be heroicly celibate or even heroicly chaste. I can discern that without the Church, as well as act on a belief that should I marry again, doing so is not an act of adultery agaist a partner who ended the marriage already. Most of this generation feels this way and either attends Mass, does not (it may not have been their practice, or finds another sect - I would hope a true pressence sect because going Evangelical, which some do, kind of defeats the purpose of finding a place to celebrate the Eucharist, landing somewhere that it is regarded as a mere symbol - now that is the kind of question Credo should address - although they often get that wrong for political and loyalty reasons having nothing to do with the pressence of Christ in the Sacrament.
Note that I did not raise all the process concerns over how the message from Credo was delivered. Indeed, if one person drafts a position and his fellows agree with it, I see no reason to fear its format in a petition - or do I care about how the bishops communicate and back channel on this issue. I am more concerned about processes which exclude the vast majority of the faithful, including non-regular Mass attendees, from having their say on the Synod. I also question how structured the questions are - there should be more of an open ended free for all - indeed what I just wrote should be the kind of response the Synod Fathers need and I doubt they will get it - which means that there is doubt that those not reached will care about the result and will simply keep doing what they think is right - which is very moral but bad for Church unity.
Monday, May 11, 2015
Questions for Obama & Bush | National Catholic Reporter
Questions for Obama & Bush | National Catholic Reporter by MSW. MGB: (make sure you read MSW first) On Obama - Catholic Charities is just fine and even Henry would be forced to admit that being raped while trafficked (a slave in prostitution) falls within the confines of his amendment. Should GAO have thrown out the provision in contract dispute? Maybe. Still, this is one situation where a two contractor solution would not work because no Charities worker would refer a client to the second contractor and no local bishop would let them. As for the HHS mandate, the Bishops took the bait that Jarrett set out for them. Whose fault is that? ENDA should not have a religious exemption - even for teachers in a ministerial role. There is not ministerial component to math or P.E. - although a gay PE teacher might have issues, but not theological ones and the only child protection ones are in the minds of the paranoid.
Obama has stayed away from abortion, but Biden and Pelosi need to up their game in instructing the Church about the political, rather than moral, nature of the Right to Life Movement as it exists in the GOP. I would like to ask Obama the constitutional scholar how to deal with Geller - who seems to go beyond the First Amendment to fighting rules. While these events are local in nature and below his pay grade, it would be an interesting answer. As for the other issues, EMILY's list is not pulling his chain, he has a respect for women's rights and I would ask him when he will get going on ENDA, regardless of what the Bishops think - as it is ironic that a largely gay clergy created out of the demand by some that gay men stay celibate as their only appropriate lifestyle would not have a friendly opinion to gay staff. Actually, I think that is what the bishops are afraid of most. You should ask them, not Obama.
As for Bush and Falwell, it is simply bad theolgy to assert tragedy to individuals arises from their sin. Jesus talks about it and it applies at least to Katrina but maybe to 9-11 too. Still, it falls within the vindictive spirit of that brand of hucksterist theology. On slavery, that this brand of religion did not speak out against that particular form of capitalism is not shocking, now or then - as we still have slavey, just with migrants and drug addicts in peonage. Bush will ignore this to some extent and I would as Obama what further he can do. I doubt Hillary do much and I am sure Sanders has some ideas that will actually work.
As for religion as a talking point - it has been since the brother of zealots died on a cross for creation and for speaking against the politico-religious leaders of his people, since his disciples continued to speak out and be killed for it, since Nero thought lighting up the town with them would look nice, since Diolectin decided he would go for the record, since Constantine decided the way the Church was emerging with a nice authority structure would be perfect for his empire, since the Frankish king Cletus decided converting would do the same, since the Pope realized that annulling Henry's marriage would make Spain upset and I could go on right to the Republican Party deciding that co-opting the reaction to Roe v. Wade was its intro to the Catholic hierarchy and its most conservative faithful.
Is the Church more political than ever? No. It can't be -we won't give it that kind of power in the U.S., or at least should not. This bishops won't be able to handle themselves.
Obama has stayed away from abortion, but Biden and Pelosi need to up their game in instructing the Church about the political, rather than moral, nature of the Right to Life Movement as it exists in the GOP. I would like to ask Obama the constitutional scholar how to deal with Geller - who seems to go beyond the First Amendment to fighting rules. While these events are local in nature and below his pay grade, it would be an interesting answer. As for the other issues, EMILY's list is not pulling his chain, he has a respect for women's rights and I would ask him when he will get going on ENDA, regardless of what the Bishops think - as it is ironic that a largely gay clergy created out of the demand by some that gay men stay celibate as their only appropriate lifestyle would not have a friendly opinion to gay staff. Actually, I think that is what the bishops are afraid of most. You should ask them, not Obama.
As for Bush and Falwell, it is simply bad theolgy to assert tragedy to individuals arises from their sin. Jesus talks about it and it applies at least to Katrina but maybe to 9-11 too. Still, it falls within the vindictive spirit of that brand of hucksterist theology. On slavery, that this brand of religion did not speak out against that particular form of capitalism is not shocking, now or then - as we still have slavey, just with migrants and drug addicts in peonage. Bush will ignore this to some extent and I would as Obama what further he can do. I doubt Hillary do much and I am sure Sanders has some ideas that will actually work.
As for religion as a talking point - it has been since the brother of zealots died on a cross for creation and for speaking against the politico-religious leaders of his people, since his disciples continued to speak out and be killed for it, since Nero thought lighting up the town with them would look nice, since Diolectin decided he would go for the record, since Constantine decided the way the Church was emerging with a nice authority structure would be perfect for his empire, since the Frankish king Cletus decided converting would do the same, since the Pope realized that annulling Henry's marriage would make Spain upset and I could go on right to the Republican Party deciding that co-opting the reaction to Roe v. Wade was its intro to the Catholic hierarchy and its most conservative faithful.
Is the Church more political than ever? No. It can't be -we won't give it that kind of power in the U.S., or at least should not. This bishops won't be able to handle themselves.
Links for 05/11/15 | National Catholic Reporter
Links for 05/11/15 | National Catholic Reporter by MSW. MGB: Thanks to contributors, of course before I contribute I would have to have the money to subscribe to the print edition. Something about paper.
George Will is taking over for Novak in going after Huckabee. Its a badge of honor to get George's nickers all in a twist. Especially in such an artless take down. Huck's entire plan is to do what George suggests. Its how you win in Iowa and the South - and probably the Mountain West. Its not how you govern but its how you claim a spot on the ticket.
Technically the SF HR Handbook has morals clauses, not morality clauses. A lot of conservative anti-gay labor contracts do - even the Feds have one, although they took being gay off the list. Its why the Employment Non-Discrimination Act is both necessary and should not contain a religious exemption.
Speaking of Church employment, polarizaton will continue as long as bishops long for the old days of compliant clerical theologians. Frankly, until theologians disassociate themselves from a role advising bishops other than scolding them for obvious sins, this will be a topic and there will be a need to have two schools of theology - one for clergy and one lay - and keep your hands of the laity. In any authoritarian structure, especially the Church, if there is a problem like this, it must always be laid at the foot of those claiming authority.
George Will is taking over for Novak in going after Huckabee. Its a badge of honor to get George's nickers all in a twist. Especially in such an artless take down. Huck's entire plan is to do what George suggests. Its how you win in Iowa and the South - and probably the Mountain West. Its not how you govern but its how you claim a spot on the ticket.
Technically the SF HR Handbook has morals clauses, not morality clauses. A lot of conservative anti-gay labor contracts do - even the Feds have one, although they took being gay off the list. Its why the Employment Non-Discrimination Act is both necessary and should not contain a religious exemption.
Speaking of Church employment, polarizaton will continue as long as bishops long for the old days of compliant clerical theologians. Frankly, until theologians disassociate themselves from a role advising bishops other than scolding them for obvious sins, this will be a topic and there will be a need to have two schools of theology - one for clergy and one lay - and keep your hands of the laity. In any authoritarian structure, especially the Church, if there is a problem like this, it must always be laid at the foot of those claiming authority.
Saturday, May 9, 2015
To have a truly just church, Pope Francis must move beyond complementarity | National Catholic Reporter
To have a truly just church, Pope Francis must move beyond complementarity | National Catholic Reporter by MSW. MGB: Complementariy is the first step to hierachy - because it leads right to the Church as wife with God has husband and then back to traditionam marriage, with men being both in charge and the bread winner (to be exploited for the sake of his family, even with a good salary) who must then submit to employers. Women working would have to submit to the husband and the employer, which cannot be and in same sex couples there is no nattural sign of who submits and who is dominant. If there is no dominance in the marriage, how can there by domination by either employer or Church or Christ?
That last part is what really messes up the clergy on marriage. It also takes away the right of Catholic hospitals to pick and choose between gay spouses/domestic partners and families of origin (which caused the entire gay marriage issue - while married partners are treated differently as decision makers. Oddly, families on good terms with a gay spouse have no trouple submitting to their wishes - its where the relationship is bad that law must step in. The Church must not abet families with bad intent and immature formation. By and large, Catholic hospitals have gone beyond this, but families have not - and when they do, same sex marriage in the Church will have new vitality. And yes, there are some of us, like former stay at home dads who marry older women who directly challenge the patriarchy - and we and our gay brothers will continue to do so.
That last part is what really messes up the clergy on marriage. It also takes away the right of Catholic hospitals to pick and choose between gay spouses/domestic partners and families of origin (which caused the entire gay marriage issue - while married partners are treated differently as decision makers. Oddly, families on good terms with a gay spouse have no trouple submitting to their wishes - its where the relationship is bad that law must step in. The Church must not abet families with bad intent and immature formation. By and large, Catholic hospitals have gone beyond this, but families have not - and when they do, same sex marriage in the Church will have new vitality. And yes, there are some of us, like former stay at home dads who marry older women who directly challenge the patriarchy - and we and our gay brothers will continue to do so.
Friday, May 8, 2015
Links for 05/08/15 | National Catholic Reporter
Links for 05/08/15 | National Catholic Reporter by Michael Sean Winters of National Catholic Reporter on a few interesting topcs, none more than some idiot taking shots at Chicago Archbishop Blaise Cupich. My response follows:
Our Sunday Visitor is taking on the ciritics of the Pope's new encyclical on global warming. These are strange days. I still like what George Carlin said about the earth not needing saving - and that it needed humans to exist because it could not do plastic on its own. Plastic is in abundance, so according to George, our days are numberred. Funny and strange - but not as strange as Catholics challenging a sitting Pope in support of the coal industry.
Some Catholic wingnut whose name does not desrerve mention is equating the Archbishop of Chicago working with the Senate Minority leader on immigration with cooperation with abortion. If that is the case, then almost the entire USCCB have become raving abortionsists. This kind of universal linkage of all issues on one's agenda is what is wrong with poltics, particularly on the Republican side. It also equated promoting abortion with not criminalizing it. Indeed, it is more important in stopping abortion to offer decent wages to families with childen - wages sensative to family size. Hardly anyone on the GOP, if anyone, supports that proposition - should they all be tagged as pro-aborts - who only use the issue of overturning Roe to keep the party faithful engaged? Probably - but that would make everyone pro-abortion, which would explain why its still here but not why the GOP is so deluded on linking the economics to the inicidence of what is a ghastly thing. Maybe its because the anti-immigrant movement is funded not just by xenophobes, but be economic interests who like having Latino workers on the the cheap (as well as not wanting to pay for the subsidies required to end abortion in most cases). In both cases, Capitalism has gone too far.
I am not sure why the Archbishop of San Juan, Puerto Rico has been harrrassed by the Curia, but it would not surprise me. Happy Anniversary Roberto Gonzalez! Keep up the fight!
Our Sunday Visitor is taking on the ciritics of the Pope's new encyclical on global warming. These are strange days. I still like what George Carlin said about the earth not needing saving - and that it needed humans to exist because it could not do plastic on its own. Plastic is in abundance, so according to George, our days are numberred. Funny and strange - but not as strange as Catholics challenging a sitting Pope in support of the coal industry.
Some Catholic wingnut whose name does not desrerve mention is equating the Archbishop of Chicago working with the Senate Minority leader on immigration with cooperation with abortion. If that is the case, then almost the entire USCCB have become raving abortionsists. This kind of universal linkage of all issues on one's agenda is what is wrong with poltics, particularly on the Republican side. It also equated promoting abortion with not criminalizing it. Indeed, it is more important in stopping abortion to offer decent wages to families with childen - wages sensative to family size. Hardly anyone on the GOP, if anyone, supports that proposition - should they all be tagged as pro-aborts - who only use the issue of overturning Roe to keep the party faithful engaged? Probably - but that would make everyone pro-abortion, which would explain why its still here but not why the GOP is so deluded on linking the economics to the inicidence of what is a ghastly thing. Maybe its because the anti-immigrant movement is funded not just by xenophobes, but be economic interests who like having Latino workers on the the cheap (as well as not wanting to pay for the subsidies required to end abortion in most cases). In both cases, Capitalism has gone too far.
I am not sure why the Archbishop of San Juan, Puerto Rico has been harrrassed by the Curia, but it would not surprise me. Happy Anniversary Roberto Gonzalez! Keep up the fight!
Vatican publishes statutes for commission to protect minors | National Catholic Reporter
Vatican publishes statutes for commission to protect minors | National Catholic Reporter by MSW. MGB: I think this is a good start. I would wonder what took so long but I know what was in the way. If it were me, I would end the right of priests to have the Pope see there case - no Pope approved their ordination so no Pople should be needed to fire them. In a European Church with a population decimated by plague, the Pope can weigh everywhere. Its too big for that now. As for the Congregation of the Clergy, if they resist at all, not only put them under new management, but put an auditor in charge of their every action and start with the assumption of bad faith. How long to do it? How long were the American Sisters under review? One more thing, drop every defense that says that bishops are autonomous in lawsuits. The appoints bishops through the Nuncieria. The Pope is therefore liable - start selling art, but don't unprice it (even if it is culturally flawed - Jesus was not an anorectic from Milano and his clan was not white either.
Thursday, May 7, 2015
Links for 05/07/15 | National Catholic Reporter
Links for 05/07/15 | National Catholic Reporter by MSW. MGB: Silk was brilliant. You would hope for Weigel's sake this would sink in - but I doubt George is that self-reflective. He is probably drafting something huffy rather than thinking that maybe, just maybe, criticizing the Pope for something yet unpublished could be considered profoundly disloyal to the Church.
The problem with the whole Synod and more is the question of the state of grace - which some would tell you can only be ascertained by going to Communion. If the Lord is with you when you do, you are in such a state. Of course, some Evangelicals would say you cannot be out if it once saved - but I don't think this is so either. The problem is more than that concept yields a kind of self-absorption that is more soul killing than helpful, especially if one is looking at another's soul. Of course, as someone with a mental health diagnosis, I worry more about the physical side of my soul, since mistakes in medication could kill me - in the sense of me being the agent of my own destruction - a moral problem more profound than remarriage after divorce or the recreational shedding of a few gametes (the latter scaring our Mr. Weigel more than the former, I suspect).
We have music today that is the best of the best. It is a barometer for your soul.
The problem with the whole Synod and more is the question of the state of grace - which some would tell you can only be ascertained by going to Communion. If the Lord is with you when you do, you are in such a state. Of course, some Evangelicals would say you cannot be out if it once saved - but I don't think this is so either. The problem is more than that concept yields a kind of self-absorption that is more soul killing than helpful, especially if one is looking at another's soul. Of course, as someone with a mental health diagnosis, I worry more about the physical side of my soul, since mistakes in medication could kill me - in the sense of me being the agent of my own destruction - a moral problem more profound than remarriage after divorce or the recreational shedding of a few gametes (the latter scaring our Mr. Weigel more than the former, I suspect).
We have music today that is the best of the best. It is a barometer for your soul.
Obama to attend Georgetown University poverty summit next week | National Catholic Reporter
Obama to attend Georgetown University poverty summit next week | National Catholic Reporter by MSW. MGB: This should be an interesting forum. I wonder who else is going and what they will be allowed to say. I am sure the President will bring good remarks and perhaps some ideas - but we have mostly heard them. Some ae good but are they sufficient? Probably not. Will anyone who is going have the needed ideas? Possibly for some cases, but not systemicly, as that would take the kind of cooperative socialism that the sponsors would blanche at. In the US we do have poor people that are as profoundly poor as you get - our untouchable homeless. While they also have resilience, such homelessness is fatal if not intervened on. Of course, the qanswer to that, as is being reported today in the WaPo is to find them a place to live and then treat them -but that takes money. Will taxes help? Yes. So will responsibility - the kind of responsibility a group can bring to the table - not just a bureaucracy. Either way, its not free and must be an obligation. There is lots of room in fulfilling such obligations - but they must be seen as somethng that is not optional - or else we are the poor.
Wednesday, May 6, 2015
Links for 05/06/15 | National Catholic Reporter
Links for 05/06/15 | National Catholic Reporter by MSW MGB: Edgar Cayce had a US map for rising sea levels and polar shift. It was more radical. The fact is, of course, that when the 1000 AD warming happened, Florida did not go anywhere. There is one constant thing in the environment, change.
Politico is repeating a truism - if your state always votes the same way, you get no ads and no visits in the general election -no so sure about the primaries - especially with three Democrats on the ballot - one very much to the left of the others. The questions will be mobilization and turnout - and both take organization and money.
The Marriage piece is fom Asia News Italy, operated out of China. I'm thinking it has a bit of a Trad bias, but regardless, the Pope's comments are in accordance with scripture. The question is, whether the scripture is revelatory or natural law argument. I think the latter. Indeed, that type of traditional marriage is very heterosexual - but it implies that the man is superior - as well as the hierarchy being superior in the Church. That version of God's word is filtered through the biases of the writer who would not dream of saying spouses are equal or that the Church should double down on Democracy (and it was much more democratic in Paul's day than it is now. Maybe some traditions should go back farther than before the last minor glaciation.
Politico is repeating a truism - if your state always votes the same way, you get no ads and no visits in the general election -no so sure about the primaries - especially with three Democrats on the ballot - one very much to the left of the others. The questions will be mobilization and turnout - and both take organization and money.
The Marriage piece is fom Asia News Italy, operated out of China. I'm thinking it has a bit of a Trad bias, but regardless, the Pope's comments are in accordance with scripture. The question is, whether the scripture is revelatory or natural law argument. I think the latter. Indeed, that type of traditional marriage is very heterosexual - but it implies that the man is superior - as well as the hierarchy being superior in the Church. That version of God's word is filtered through the biases of the writer who would not dream of saying spouses are equal or that the Church should double down on Democracy (and it was much more democratic in Paul's day than it is now. Maybe some traditions should go back farther than before the last minor glaciation.
The Internet, the Church & Catholic Journalism | National Catholic Reporter
The Internet, the Church & Catholic Journalism | National Catholic Reporter by MSW. MGB: I hope people give what they can - sadly I can't right now. This blog has been given more free labor than any that has been bought from me with wages. Interestingly, my participation on the TaxVox Blog and on the web page of DC Democratic Socialists of America has gotten the same reaction - you are Mike Bindner? This is followed by discussion - so I know that feeling of recognition and wonder if I would get it at an NCR gathering or one they covered. Of course, in Catholic cirlcles, I am known as Moira Foley Bindner's husband - because they all know her. I would encourage all commentators to use their names - and if doing so is proof that they are blogging while on the clock - wait until later and use your name. You know the advertisers use their names - indeed, the NCR fund drive is a little heavy with banners. Might want to dial it down a bit, just sayin.
Tuesday, May 5, 2015
Links for 05/05/15 | National Catholic Reporter
Links for 05/05/15 | National Catholic Reporter by MSW. MGB: I like Rachel Held Evan's piece. Every bishop with delusions of dragging in Evangelicals who do not share their consdervatism will have their hopes dashed. Indeed, Millenial Catholics feel the same way, very pro gay marriage, very anti-abortion (less so when they start having sex - at least as far as the police power issue) and more traditional - hankerchiefs on the head and all. Still, the idea of the Extraordinary Rite being said at a Gay Marriage would likely appeal to most of them. Of course, not all Millenials foreswear a rocking service. The City Church, which was purchased from the Methodists and is on River near Wisconsin can rock on Sunday Morning - especially Easter. There is that whole Emerging Church Movement, but that may be the generation before the Millenials - who are no more likely to agree with established Church on gay marriage than the Millenials. Pastor Rick Warren, who did the invocation at the first Obama Inauguration is one of these, or so people say. Rachel liked the Episcopal Church - the gay friendly and women ordaining one. So do a lot of my piers - ex-Catholics who had kids and needed a faith to raise them in. Rome needs to lose the bigotry fast or it will be testing the whole promise about the gates of Hell. It could be that the Anglicans are the ones who benefit - and the Orthodox too (althouth they need to get right with God on gays).
I like the Chart - but it would be funnier if t hat darn book advertisement was not over the No train. It illustrates a standard rebuke of gay bashers that I very much agree with. Indeed, and New Testament text that assumes the truth of Leviticus needs to be rethought - and the Pauline stuff was all natural law, so rethinking is possible. Its actually essential - and will happen - the Church probably will survive, but it has to give up being stubborn.
Good for the new CEO of the Chicago Archdiocese. I hope he follows Greek Orthodox practice and makes her and peole in the parishes like her a deacon. Catholic Health is almost always led by a sister or nun. Not sure about Catholic Relief, although their board is largely clerical, which is bad news for the gay married man in the top leadership. I challenge their Board to leave it alone and make that stand as precident for all such agencies in the Church. Sure, it can be dictatorial - but it does not have to be and we will notice if it is. As for Charities, the President-Elect takes office at the Annual Gathering, as is customary. Rev. Larry Snyder is still in charge. I am sure the movement has had a Nun, but its usually a priest. Lay people are rarer, but the Ursalines started what became the organization, so precident has not been set for Charities - who are almost as tolerant of their employees privacy as Catholic Health (few priests on the board). Still, anytime we can get the trifecta progress may await - and the Traditionalists get nervous - but they can't do anything about it but stew. Alway a lovely thought.
I like the Chart - but it would be funnier if t hat darn book advertisement was not over the No train. It illustrates a standard rebuke of gay bashers that I very much agree with. Indeed, and New Testament text that assumes the truth of Leviticus needs to be rethought - and the Pauline stuff was all natural law, so rethinking is possible. Its actually essential - and will happen - the Church probably will survive, but it has to give up being stubborn.
Good for the new CEO of the Chicago Archdiocese. I hope he follows Greek Orthodox practice and makes her and peole in the parishes like her a deacon. Catholic Health is almost always led by a sister or nun. Not sure about Catholic Relief, although their board is largely clerical, which is bad news for the gay married man in the top leadership. I challenge their Board to leave it alone and make that stand as precident for all such agencies in the Church. Sure, it can be dictatorial - but it does not have to be and we will notice if it is. As for Charities, the President-Elect takes office at the Annual Gathering, as is customary. Rev. Larry Snyder is still in charge. I am sure the movement has had a Nun, but its usually a priest. Lay people are rarer, but the Ursalines started what became the organization, so precident has not been set for Charities - who are almost as tolerant of their employees privacy as Catholic Health (few priests on the board). Still, anytime we can get the trifecta progress may await - and the Traditionalists get nervous - but they can't do anything about it but stew. Alway a lovely thought.
Carson & Fiorina Join the Circus | National Catholic Reporter
Carson & Fiorina Join the Circus | National Catholic Reporter by MSW. MGB: Dr. Carson is Hermain Cain two - who was funny and a businessman, but a roving commentary on the qualifications of Barack Obama - who we actually elected to fix our moral fibre, except that the GOP responsed with thinly veiled racism. Carson is an attempt to try to cover up that perception. He is fooling no one. Make him Surgeon General - indeed, Obama should have as it is a non-partisan office. We expect some Republicans to serve under Democratic presidents because doctors are likely to be Republicans -some of them even get elected to Congress or the Senate, like Fisk was. Fisk was not presidential either. I have been a politician most of my life as a side gig, but sometimes serving as an appointee. I will take that ten blade (I can't spell scalpal - did I do it right?) in Carson's next surgery. Think he will let me? Its how I feel about him joining my craft. On what is wrong with poverty and the black family? Silenced the GOP and allow two parent families to bet aid and change formulas so it is possible - and let the drug offenders out immediately so they can be fathers. If Carson says that, I will be impressed. I won't hold my breath or I will be on his table looking blue.
Carly is another performance art project who is, as MSW said, someone who can attack Hillary and not be labeled sexist. Of course, the funny thing is that she is the perfect target for Bernie Sanders attacking capitalism and of CEOs who want to gut regs, particularly the ones that keep CEOs from being as rich by reducing their leverage over their workers. Indeed, we need more controls, the kind Sanders would like, over the companies Carly would ruin. I have applied for a position on the Senator's team and if accepted will advise that Carly should be our first target. Of course, the GOP field of capitalist cronies is a target rich environment, but ladies first, by all means.
Carly is another performance art project who is, as MSW said, someone who can attack Hillary and not be labeled sexist. Of course, the funny thing is that she is the perfect target for Bernie Sanders attacking capitalism and of CEOs who want to gut regs, particularly the ones that keep CEOs from being as rich by reducing their leverage over their workers. Indeed, we need more controls, the kind Sanders would like, over the companies Carly would ruin. I have applied for a position on the Senator's team and if accepted will advise that Carly should be our first target. Of course, the GOP field of capitalist cronies is a target rich environment, but ladies first, by all means.
Monday, May 4, 2015
Links for 05/04/15 | National Catholic Reporter
Links for 05/04/15 | National Catholic Reporter by MSW. MGB: I am pleased that the four Republican bishops (and that is what they are) who are protesting about an issue that is not being raised (it will be raised instead by families of gay couples to gay priests who want a wedding blessed - very quietly and very sacramentally - and if you don't understand why its sacramantal, review the real theology of marriage) could not get anyone from Iowa to go along with them. They surround the place, but I am sure the Archbishop of Dubuque told them to bugger off and leave his province alone. What concerns me is that the opinion of these idiots, and they are idiots who have prostituted their office to the Republican Party, will not be honest conduits of the questions for their people. That is sad - they need to join Finn in exile for such an egrecious misuse of power and authority. (was I too gentle?)
Christian Peppard misses why climate deniers are in business. They don't care about the science - if they can make money fixing global warming, they would be on the dias with the Pope a check for good faith (knowing they would make it back). They are concerned with a loss of wealth and that is it. Note care about ZPG or the irony that American funds for that purpose go toward making the President's family less fecund and people like them. It certainly has nothting to do with global distribution of consumerism, that will come when factories start getting built in empty places - and it will happen because nothing ignites consumerism like making stuff for other people. The key is to make sure people don't drown in the process. The focus on that is what this enclical should be about.
I suspect the Kochs are looking silly by preaching freedom to people who came here to find it - although maybe they will be a bit more resulte in fighting the government on immigration with their new commitmetn to freedom. Before taking any such money, they should fire back that the people protesting birth right citizenship should be muzzled by the Kochs.
Andrew Kim's story is delightful. Were that it were true in those places where womens seek ordination, gays marriage rights - including as patients in Catholic hospitals (somewhoat true now), and theologians wish to speak their truth. Sadly, the Republican Bishops and the lawyers have messed this one up.
Christian Peppard misses why climate deniers are in business. They don't care about the science - if they can make money fixing global warming, they would be on the dias with the Pope a check for good faith (knowing they would make it back). They are concerned with a loss of wealth and that is it. Note care about ZPG or the irony that American funds for that purpose go toward making the President's family less fecund and people like them. It certainly has nothting to do with global distribution of consumerism, that will come when factories start getting built in empty places - and it will happen because nothing ignites consumerism like making stuff for other people. The key is to make sure people don't drown in the process. The focus on that is what this enclical should be about.
I suspect the Kochs are looking silly by preaching freedom to people who came here to find it - although maybe they will be a bit more resulte in fighting the government on immigration with their new commitmetn to freedom. Before taking any such money, they should fire back that the people protesting birth right citizenship should be muzzled by the Kochs.
Andrew Kim's story is delightful. Were that it were true in those places where womens seek ordination, gays marriage rights - including as patients in Catholic hospitals (somewhoat true now), and theologians wish to speak their truth. Sadly, the Republican Bishops and the lawyers have messed this one up.
Notre Dame's Conference on Polarization | National Catholic Reporter
Notre Dame's Conference on Polarization | National Catholic Reporter by MSW. MGB: I am not so certain there needs to be a center space for theologians and the bishops to engage. The practice of theology has changed. Gone are the days when theologians were on call to provide a scholastically approved justification for whatever the bishop wanted to do. Modern theologians are not priests whose educatition was paid for by the bishop - they are free agents who likely had fellowships working for another theologian when they got to doctoral level work. They are not, therefore, beholden to the bishops except for the made up requirement that they have a mandate to teach at a Catholic university - a requirement that seems to be a formality until someone speaks in a different direction.
Most bishops don't care and welcome intelligent discussion that may be a bit outside the box - as long as it is confined to those publications that only other theologians and students read. Its when they start proclaiming new truth publicly in the name of the Church that problems happens - or criciticize the Church on something like gay marriage or women priests that they have to take notice. Then we have the conservatives who need no provocation to take the role of grand indquisitor - especially if they work for the CDF. Of course, there is a difference between those who exxplore different possible interpretations of Christ'd divinity and someone who writes a book on the state of the discipline - reflecting just that and not her opinions. Sometimes its very nice to be self taught and unaffiliated if one wants to offer fresh perspective, like I do. I can attack the inquisitors and, if they notice, they are powerless to do anything - as any excommunication has to be based in sin, and calling idiots out is no sin.
To reitierate, who is responsible for the bad state of affairs? The bishops who are trying to get something that one, they did not pay for and two, really does not exist anymore. People, including priests, think for themselves now. Indeed, the promise of obedience is getting a bit too old fasion to maintain. As for the issues of the day - if certain bishops are allowing their office as teacher to be prostituted for the sake of the Republican Party on either pro-life issues (whether it be the death penalty, abortion, contraception or end of life issues - poor Terri Schaivo - the federal courts knew better than they did) or marriage equality (which I suspect they think of as a pro-life issue - though gay sex certainly is not - sex where egg and sperm are not even in the same bedroom is still unitive and loving inside a permanent relationship - and maybe even an exploratory one).
Leon's piece about identity is interesting. I think he assumes that it is OK to hold Jesus hostage in terms of Catholic Identity - and that all other identifications are suspect (although I doubt he would publicaly say that membership in the clerical class or the USCCB is a form of identity - except it is). If you consider the Church as an identity group, then some rethinking is necessary on several authority issues. I doubt Leon goes there, but I certainly do and so do the majority of modern theologians, who of course are a group themselves. As far as Paul, I seem to recall that he also said that to be Jews, he would be a Jew, to Greeks, to slaves, a slave, etc. to preach the Gospe. It is still sound adviced - expecially if you add gay and female to the mix.
I wonder if anyone at the Conference in Notre Dame said the same kind of thing. If not, you should invite me to the second.
Most bishops don't care and welcome intelligent discussion that may be a bit outside the box - as long as it is confined to those publications that only other theologians and students read. Its when they start proclaiming new truth publicly in the name of the Church that problems happens - or criciticize the Church on something like gay marriage or women priests that they have to take notice. Then we have the conservatives who need no provocation to take the role of grand indquisitor - especially if they work for the CDF. Of course, there is a difference between those who exxplore different possible interpretations of Christ'd divinity and someone who writes a book on the state of the discipline - reflecting just that and not her opinions. Sometimes its very nice to be self taught and unaffiliated if one wants to offer fresh perspective, like I do. I can attack the inquisitors and, if they notice, they are powerless to do anything - as any excommunication has to be based in sin, and calling idiots out is no sin.
To reitierate, who is responsible for the bad state of affairs? The bishops who are trying to get something that one, they did not pay for and two, really does not exist anymore. People, including priests, think for themselves now. Indeed, the promise of obedience is getting a bit too old fasion to maintain. As for the issues of the day - if certain bishops are allowing their office as teacher to be prostituted for the sake of the Republican Party on either pro-life issues (whether it be the death penalty, abortion, contraception or end of life issues - poor Terri Schaivo - the federal courts knew better than they did) or marriage equality (which I suspect they think of as a pro-life issue - though gay sex certainly is not - sex where egg and sperm are not even in the same bedroom is still unitive and loving inside a permanent relationship - and maybe even an exploratory one).
Leon's piece about identity is interesting. I think he assumes that it is OK to hold Jesus hostage in terms of Catholic Identity - and that all other identifications are suspect (although I doubt he would publicaly say that membership in the clerical class or the USCCB is a form of identity - except it is). If you consider the Church as an identity group, then some rethinking is necessary on several authority issues. I doubt Leon goes there, but I certainly do and so do the majority of modern theologians, who of course are a group themselves. As far as Paul, I seem to recall that he also said that to be Jews, he would be a Jew, to Greeks, to slaves, a slave, etc. to preach the Gospe. It is still sound adviced - expecially if you add gay and female to the mix.
I wonder if anyone at the Conference in Notre Dame said the same kind of thing. If not, you should invite me to the second.
Saturday, May 2, 2015
Links for 05/01/15 | National Catholic Reporter
Links for 05/01/15 | National Catholic Reporter by MSW. MGB: Lets be clear about St. Joseph the Worker. He was not a hgh end carpenter. He and his sons were day laborers, like the undocumented Latinos who congregate at Seven Eleven looking for work every day. That was their life. Most of us cannot relate, but the undocumented workers can. There is even a day labor story in the Gospel, where everyone who works gets a living wage. THAT is a story that links St. Joseph to the cause of both workes and migrants - and is probably more radical than even Francis wants to be.
I like where Cardinal Turkson puts the poor first in his talk. Indeed, I would like to point out that the Earth itslef has no agenda - it cares little if it is dry or frozen - indeed, to the planet, what happens on the crust in skin rash. The Earth is concerned about continental movement, if anything. Any concern with the climate has to be concern for its impact on the human population. Science got us into this and will get us out - but science must be the servant of humanity, not industrialists. As for the meme that consumerism is bad - tht is entirely false. Consumption is what makes work worthwhile. Without it, more people would be volunteering to get Bernie Sanders elected (like me) - and he would be running in a Socialist Party, not as a Democrat - and believe me, they are not the same thing.
Tony Arnett gives a brief summary of what happened at the entire climate change symposium, including comic relief from the right wing (and sadly how they got ink as the other side when the deseve nothing - sadly, they likely thoght their mission successful - fools). This is definitely a good step up for the encyclical's releae.
Speaking of tracicomedy, we have Rep. Flores of Texas, who blames the Baltimore riots on same sex marriage, rather than on police breaking the neck of a prisoner. He makes no sense. First of all, Jesus was very clear that disasters happen - and riots are not disasters per se - because they do - they are not linked to sin or human events (with now th exception being global warming). If the part of Baltimore that is more heavily populated wiht gays rioted, it would be suspect - but a sale at Bed, Bath and Beyond is not a riot - and they won their fight, no riot coming. If Flores wants to link Gay Marriage - which is not even a bad thing - to riots, we can plan a little party in his district should Scalia convince the rest of the Court to vote his (the wrong) way. Luckily, I don't see it happending - the bad faith actions of the Catholic Church notwithstanding.
I like where Cardinal Turkson puts the poor first in his talk. Indeed, I would like to point out that the Earth itslef has no agenda - it cares little if it is dry or frozen - indeed, to the planet, what happens on the crust in skin rash. The Earth is concerned about continental movement, if anything. Any concern with the climate has to be concern for its impact on the human population. Science got us into this and will get us out - but science must be the servant of humanity, not industrialists. As for the meme that consumerism is bad - tht is entirely false. Consumption is what makes work worthwhile. Without it, more people would be volunteering to get Bernie Sanders elected (like me) - and he would be running in a Socialist Party, not as a Democrat - and believe me, they are not the same thing.
Tony Arnett gives a brief summary of what happened at the entire climate change symposium, including comic relief from the right wing (and sadly how they got ink as the other side when the deseve nothing - sadly, they likely thoght their mission successful - fools). This is definitely a good step up for the encyclical's releae.
Speaking of tracicomedy, we have Rep. Flores of Texas, who blames the Baltimore riots on same sex marriage, rather than on police breaking the neck of a prisoner. He makes no sense. First of all, Jesus was very clear that disasters happen - and riots are not disasters per se - because they do - they are not linked to sin or human events (with now th exception being global warming). If the part of Baltimore that is more heavily populated wiht gays rioted, it would be suspect - but a sale at Bed, Bath and Beyond is not a riot - and they won their fight, no riot coming. If Flores wants to link Gay Marriage - which is not even a bad thing - to riots, we can plan a little party in his district should Scalia convince the rest of the Court to vote his (the wrong) way. Luckily, I don't see it happending - the bad faith actions of the Catholic Church notwithstanding.
Friday, May 1, 2015
Review: The Purposeful Graduate, Part II | National Catholic Reporter
Review: The Purposeful Graduate, Part II | National Catholic Reporter by MSW. MGB: It is interestting that marriage is such a focus. It makes me wonder if this program is as much indoctrination as it is exploration. As for the non-marital aspects, I am sure that students find their purpose - just asking the question is what we call a Hawthorne effect - ask someone about their vocation and they think about it and try to come up with an answer that sounds intelligent - do that enough and they start believing it. Sounds a bit more like indoctrination. I wonder about the hard numbers, the ones that go beyond the Maslovian Self Actualaization that seems to be in play here. How do incomes compare with students in the same school and major that did not participate? Also, the civic side is interesting. One thing they teach in graduate politial science is where it came from. It turns out that before separate academic majors existed, everyonoe wrote their Senior Thesis on a political science topic. I wonder if the discussion in these events is also leading to that exploration. Not saying its a bad thing, but lets be clear on what we are doing. I am sure the same kind of thing would happen if the Landmark Forum and subsequent courses were added as electives. Now that would be interesting.
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