Links for 02/09/16 | National Catholic Reporter

Links for 02/09/16 | National Catholic Reporter by MSW. MGB: I wonder how many of the New Hampshire "nones" are former Catholics - as well as New York transplants.  I bet some are also Jewish.  Being a none seems to be like being an independent.  The reality is, however, that most independents vote with their old parties in the general election and most nones go back to their native faith to mark marriages and deaths.



The Whole Life Movement looks suspiciously like the Seamless Garment of Life that Cardinal Bernardin preached.  Of course, if one accepts that the pro-life movement as currently constituted is a branch of the Republican Party - and always has been - it is both an improvement and an equivocation.  Can the pro-life movement be saved from its current associations by going Whole Life?  I really doubt it, since the two have never been separate.



Regardless of the prioritizing of finance over service, the main fault in Flint was the lack of scientific rigor in making the switch to Flint River water.  Either the hydrologist in charge was incompetent or he warned the politicians what would happened and was shouted down (or knew and let it happen without raising his voice - which would be even worse). I will be interested to see which it is.  As far as responding - the obvious need is to fix it - even if the majority of the cost is debt serviced and added to the next 50 years of water bills.  Its not like the lead pipe did not need replacing anyway.  Control boards are often cover for these types of expenses and fiscal reorganizations - to not do so is authoritarianism for its own sake.



That conservative elites have disdain for working class voters is not new.  What is sad is that those working class voters are also conservative and are being manipulated with social issues, like abortion (see above) to get them to ignore that disdain extends to treating them like the control board treats Flint.