Monday, April 30, 2018

Book details anti-Catholicism's role in bringing about American Revolution

https://www.ncronline.org/news/opinion/distinctly-catholic/book-details-anti-catholicisms-role-bringing-about-american
MGB:_That that Congress took both sides of religious freedom in seeking help domestically and in Canada is no scandal. Revolutions are desperate and take all the help can get, including from Papist France at Yorktown.

Whether Catholic immigrants are resisted because they are obedient to the Pope or because they were poor probably has both as an answer, although the poverty angle is probably the truest. Still, if you look at the anti-liberal, anti-democratic encyclicals of that era, Rome certainly did not do anything to disuade the anti-Catholics from their fears.

Today, you have conservative Catholics who will say that voting for a pro-choice candidate is mortally sinful, including bishops who will deny Communion to Catholic politicians with such views. The USCCB was hardly strident in its attempts to tell Trump not to repeal the individual mandate in the Affordable Care Act. They have never warmed to Obamacare, so they are standing with racism in their support for Trump. Maybe the founders weren’ so parochial after all.

Saturday, April 28, 2018

'Anti-Catholicism in America' examines impact of religion, bigotry on early US

https://www.ncronline.org/news/opinion/distinctly-catholic/anti-catholicism-america-examines-impact-religion-bigotry-early-us
MGB:_There are a few additional points to add. The Puritans came to purify English Protestantism which they though was decidedly uneven. Indeed, some braches were ritualistically Catholic, some less so, all within Anglicanism. They wanted to create a city on the Hill. Garry Wills covers this extensively in Head and Heart. Of course, neither book gets into the weeds of some of the personalities. My mother’s family is a who’s who of American protestant and Quaker revolutionaries, culminating in our branch establishing a major toe hold in the Disciples of Christ, although my mother and her sister, andn later her mohter, found it to be bland fare and became Catholic and married Catholic husbands.

Of course, our family’s issues with Rome go back to the time of Elizabeth when the Pope encouraged the branch of the Allen Family who were Earls of Arundel to attempt revolutuion and regicide. That branch is now, justifiably extinct, although not the Lords of Thaxted or their American cousins, which include the vast majority of Allens in America, including yours truly.

The other key point is that Rome was not exactly innocent in its dealingS with Britian and the ideas of liberalism, liberty and even through St. John Paul, freedom of thought. Again, I have a book on that out with the annotated Encyclicals that prove my points, starting with Gregory XVI, through three of the four modern Piuses andn on to St. John Paul and his counter-revolutionary encyclical Veritatis Splendor. Nowdays, of course, this couter-revolution against democracy is taken up under the guise of the Pro-Live movement, as Evangelium Vitae makes clear. Indeed, Rome was suspeicious of American Bishops, lest they commit the phantom Americanist Heresy insisting that American ideals forced Catholic doctrine to be adapted to our culture. This was crazy, of course, like many curial rantings, although it is true that the question of abortion occurs differerntly in American law than in European Parliamentary democracies.

Thursday, April 26, 2018

Links for 4/26/18

https://www.ncronline.org/news/opinion/distinctly-catholic/links-42618
MGB: I read once that new popes had to take an oath to preserve the Holy See, but I don't see it mentioned in any article about the conclave. Nothing about opposing Modernism either. It is amazing how that topic keeps coming up when I have a book out about the Papal Anachronists.  I don't think Cardinal Burke will like it.  As for adoring the host, I have never experienced grace in any other way from the host except by consuming it. Anything else is idolatry.  Finally, the Third Secret conforms nicely to St. Malachy's last prophesy, but I hope it does not apply to Francis because Benedict still lives.

Unionization is the answer to immigration concerns from both sides, although no sweat shop will hire foreign workers if a union prevents the boss from exploiting them. Ending right to work will end migration as well.

The problem is not Starbucks, its Philly.  The city is very polarized racially. Starbucks is probably in violation of most urban commercial codes.  Bathrooms have to be free if you offer seating, which may be in the Universal Commercial Code.  Regardless, never be unkind to someone who may eventually buy your product.

Puerto Rico may turn into a tourist area and a set of slums unless the Control Board does its job to manage a soft landing.

There are voters who still think, even in the age where Trump has proven himself (like most CEOs) a self-serving idiot, that somehow that class of people is more worthy of office. Insanity is making the same mistake over and over again.

I love what Lorenzo says about wanting to be the Ecumenical Patriarch.


Wednesday, April 25, 2018

Archbishop Chaput sees joy in letter from young father, but I don't

https://www.ncronline.org/news/opinion/distinctly-catholic/archbishop-chaput-sees-joy-letter-young-father-i-dont
MGB:_Authoritarians like Chaput find joy in being validated. I suspect the author is a Church Militant viewer and I predict he’s going to hate my latest book on papal anachronists. Chaput is not the future of the Church. When you are in Philly and you still wear purple rather than red, don’t count on serving past 75. Philly is used to conservatives and has the flock to match, so you have to really be on the Pope’s bad side to stay purple. Of course, authoritarians are immune to criticism. I am sure he sees nowhere that he has any fault.

Tuesday, April 24, 2018

Links for 4/24/18

https://www.ncronline.org/news/opinion/distinctly-catholic/links-42418
MGB:_I am about to publish a book on Papal Anachronists that LifeSiteNews is going to hate. Can’t wait to send them the link. Needless to say, Francis did not make the list, but Pius did. Three of them.

The Archbishop is doing what the Governor should be doing to both eliminate debt and secure continuing funding. Where is their Delegate in all of this?

Being evenhanded on who is worse when the Democrats get their news from MSNBC, which is good journalism, while Republicans get their news from FoxNews, which is pure propaganda, is itself lunacy. MSW, embrace your liberalism.

Trump made an effort to get Evangelical Authoritarians (which is not all of them). He did not need to work to get the Catholic Authoritarians. They believed what he said he believed about abortion hook, line and sinker. You don’t need Arroyo when you have Burke and Chaput.

Syria cannot be fixed. It needs to be absorbed into an Arab kingdom containing Lebanon, Iraq, Jordan and the Palestinian and Arab portions of Israel. Now that is a two-state solution.

Barabara was a sweet lady. As for higher education, public and private schools containing the last two years of high school and the first two of college (with a residential option for couples) should have unionized teachers, with the last two years of college and graduate school operating as employee-owned institutions, either inside larger cooperatives or alone serving many fimrs. Tenure is about self and mutual ownership, not a license to offend. That is where the term collegiality comes from.

What substance does Gobry want? The days when institutional Catholicism has rights over non-Catholic citizens should be a thing of the past. That is should get its share of public funds over education and welfare fund is more than obvious, both here and in France.

Good for unionization. Which ones? Sadly, it should mean more ownership and control of the workplace, not just more heft for bargaining.

Monday, April 23, 2018

Christian democracy could help what ails American politics

https://www.ncronline.org/news/opinion/distinctly-catholic/christian-democracy-could-help-what-ails-american-politics
MGB:_Christian Democracy has an American voice, The Center for Public Justice. It is even Calvinist, although the Kuyper variety. They frequently rerun columns by Michael Gerson. At their growth rate, we should have Chirstian Democracy by the fourth millenium.

The only way for Christian Democracy to succeed is for Social Democracy to organize into an effective party, shedding the Wall Street faction of the Democratic Party but without adopting the Green Party’s aversion to real fundraising. For this to win, Bernie Sanders or someone like him has to either leave the Democrats or win the primary in 2020 and then win the election big. Big enough so that the Republican Party is ruined enough to exile the social conservative racist faction it depends on now, forming common purpose with the exiles from the Democrats and forming what amounts a Christian Democratic Party.

Will they represent Wall Street? Only if Wall Street survives a movement toward employee ownership with official support and tax funding by the Social Democrats (Occupy Democracy!). I am betting they won’t, because coopertive socialism will include cooperative funding of mortgages, retirement and consumer credit. No one will go to the finanncial system for money that they can get for free.

The CD’s signature issuemayl be abortion, but hopefully they will pursuit it without the fraud inherent ih the pro-life movement. It may also be making sure that religious organizations are accepted providers of social services to cooperatives. It could also be more democracy IN the Church. That would be a nice change.

Friday, April 20, 2018

Bishop McElroy: Politics should pursue common good, not special interests

https://www.ncronline.org/news/opinion/distinctly-catholic/bishop-mcelroy-politics-should-pursue-common-good-not-special
MGB:_Hillary lost, in part, because she defended partial birth abortion in the debates rather than retorting to Trump that such procedures were already illegal and that blanket opposition to the President had prevented any reform in how late-term abortions were treated. She could have then attacked the GOP elements of the pro-life movement as being more about electoral politics than reducing abortion. This is the tack that Obama took in 2008 and it neutralized the movement enough for him to win the Catholic vote in the same percentages as the public at large, something Hillary did not do.

There are four sins that cry to Heaven for vengeance. Abortion is only on the list if it is considered murder or infanticide. Putting sodomy on is quaint, but at least the Church was smart enough not to stress it in any new version of Faithful Citizenship because the public is against them on this. Two of the others are exploiting workers, which the GOP is guilty of in attacking organized labor and ignoring the cry of the poor, which the GOP does because it believes the poor need incentives, not assistance. If the last two were given the weight McElroy (and Francis) desire, it would gut the implicit argument that Catholics cannot vote Democratic.

The solution to abortion is to hear the cry of workers and the poor, because the law is not changing or even changeable with legilsation. As for the sour grapes over gay marriage, the Republican bishops need to get over it. The presidency of Donald Trump has been an embarrassment, which even Republican members of Congress agree with privately. The current version of the GOP is a sinking ship. It is time to abandon it.

Thursday, April 19, 2018

Links for 4/19/18

https://www.ncronline.org/news/opinion/distinctly-catholic/links-41918
MGB:_There is a part of me that hopes that the CDF goes after Arroyo and EWTN, et al, but there is a better part of me that would and did object to the CDF going after theologians that stepped out of line. I think would be Catholic University offering Father Charles Curran his old job back with no preconditions. If that were allowed, I would say the Church is finally growing up and shedding the insanity of the anti-Modernist popes.

The next shoe to drop on tax reform results will be corporate annual reports detailing bonuses to executives.

The numbers on Austrian economics never add up until you realize that their concern is not general economic growth but asset growth for the rich, who they assume are benevolent in their selfishness. This is just not the case. Luckily, the Omnibus spending bill will suck up most of the tax cut into bond sales, so the explosion in asset prices will not happen until someone tries to cut spending.

The experience of CUA shows that Catholic Identity should never be an exclusive thing. Once it becomes Catholic Nationalism, just close the doors.

It is an interesting question to examine whether it is the Charism given to Francis or to the Church, with Francis surrendering to it, that is the secret to his success. It is probably a bit of both. May all of us be gifted with that Charism, especially our priests and especially our bishops, most especially the Charism of admitting error.

There should never be a conservative or liberal view in recognizing the rights of others, even children. That pro-life Democrats sometimes appear to waiver in that is what scares people. Abortion is not a legislative issue in this country and it should not be except on the issue of how early in the pregnancy abortion becomes infanticide, which is fully punishable in law (mothers too). Talking about preventing abortion is fine, as long as the preventative is debating how much higher the Child Tax Credit must be to eliminate all economically induced abortions.

Economic reform is important, as long as democratic norms are strong enough in Mexico to not have the wealthy backtrack on democracy when threatened with unions and tax increases. Sadly, that has become an issue here as well.

There is a point where libertarianism and women’s rights converge in the abortion debate. It is a point where male freedom of speech is not necessarily appropriate. Down’s children are better protected by making sure that they and their families have adequate care in childhood and that their disability rights, and the income for all the disabled, are adequate for them to live in dignity, which is to the case at current Supplemental Security Income rates (they are about a quarter of what constitutes an adult lifestyle).

Wednesday, April 18, 2018

A divided Supreme Court needs to step up, be the grown-up in our republic

https://www.ncronline.org/news/opinion/distinctly-catholic/divided-supreme-court-might-start-moving-too-slowly
The Court rarely challenges Congress or the Executive, however the 14th Amendment and the Civil Rights Act of 1875 give them free reign to overturn the actions of states regarding equal protection and due process.  Abortion and gay marriage rulings were made using this power.  It is also very willing to challenge the person of the President, as they did regarding Nixon. There seem to be no issues they will need to settle involving Trump. Most of the government is looking for any excuse to get rid of him.

The Court has been more ideological than liberal, especially when it guarded the interests of property, including the human property of both slaves and laborers. It does a bit better now, but it is hardly made up of rabid Marxists. As a rabid Marxist, I wish they would recognize the rights of labor to their share of the work product.

Redistricting is harder than it looks. Some, especially the occupants, do not object to majority minority districts, which both secure them a position and make the remaining districts more conservative, unless of course the President is a big enough fool that even his own voter base turns on him, throwing out members that refuse to impeach him. If impeachment becomes the issue it should be, the GOP may shoot its own dog as soon as the primary season is over. It may be the only way to to see Pence removed as well.

Tuesday, April 17, 2018

Links 4/17/18

https://www.ncronline.org/news/opinion/distinctly-catholic/links-41718
MGB: The new regime is not perfect and it is not new. Pastors have been blessing second marriages and readmitting people to the sacraments for decades. This is why Amoris came from the whole Church, not the Pope. Sadly, this does not go far enough.  People like Gingrich, who divorce in order to marry the newest girlfriend are really committing adultery and should never be allowed in a Catholic marriage.

The more FoxNews slanders someone, the truer their story.  Comey is telling Gospel.

The truth is no corruption of university culture.  There is never an excuse for ethnic nationalism, especially when it comes at the cost of those living there. Israel must change. While they ignore Torah (even if Leviticus is a product of the exile), the Ark of the Covenant will never be returned to the Temple. God will not abide in an apartheid state.

Since most Christians do not fixate on abortion politics, which is mostly about fundraising and volunteer activation, there is plenty of room on the left for those who would oppose Trump.

People like to think the Syrian war was a popular uprising. Some of the demonstrators may have drunken the Arab Spring Kool-Aid, but the muscle behind the revolution was Daesh trying to get a foothold.  Outside Rojawa, there are no good guys in this war and there are many victims. The military tyranny with Alowite overtones has little way forward, even if it wins. It is time to expand Jordan to include the Syrian and Iraqi lands. There is no more potent symbol than the throne of the Prophet.

I owe my life to the work of Eunice and her husband. If only all hospitals were run by the Public Health Service and operated like the Clinical Center at NIH.

The meme of the Opioid crisis is that now that the victims are mostly white, punitive measures should be dropped. This is true, but they should be dropped for everyone and treatment should be offered to everyone, from the mentally ill to the addict and alcoholic - although the word offered is still a bit weak.  Some offers should not be refusable.  Not destroying yourself is one of them.

If Napa happens after congressional primary season is over, everyone will be glued to the House and the Senate. No time for plutocrats.  Moderate conservatives in the past may have gone to this thing. Trump has alienated them all, or at least stopped them from wanting to openly defend people like him.

Monday, April 16, 2018

Puerto Rico needs bold, visionary effort, especially in energy

https://www.ncronline.org/news/opinion/distinctly-catholic/puerto-rico-needs-bold-visionary-effort-especially-energy
Sadly, the Governor of Puerto Rico is young and unseasoned with a staff to match. Someone needs to tell him these events are not about him but about his people. It is not his job to be aligned with the Oversight Board. It is his job to fight for every dime he can get going to the public budget and not the creditors. Regardless of the fact that he will be vetoed by the board, he needs to be dragged kicking and screaming to their solution, even though they hold all the cards. Sometimes, that will have an influence of the amount of austerity allowed. It certainly did in D.C. when Marion Barry was Mayor and had to deal with a board. In private, everyone was on the same page, but in public, his job was to fight for investing in the District, which we did quite well with. Sadly, Marion is not around to take the Governor under his wing. Perhaps what the governor needs is someone who has seen this show before. Maybe someone from Flint, who need water rather than power. Both places need a new Governor.

Friday, April 13, 2018

Paul Ryan leaves behind nothing but failure

https://www.ncronline.org/news/opinion/distinctly-catholic/paul-ryan-leaves-behind-nothing-failure
MGB:_Thank God that Ryan failed. As a disciple of Ayn Rand, he bought into the libertarian ethic that helping the poor made them dependent and that the best social policy was low wage work. I can’t say that I have any desire to work on my pension, aside from writing comments to blogs and Congress, but I earned it by working through my disability. Had I not been able to, as a human being, I still deserved the same kind of money. Indeed, without proceed from divorce, I would be in financial pain that would be undeserved, though Ryan would say it would be an incentive.

I wish him well in his retirement, and with his family cardiac issues, I hope it is longer than expected, but I am glad his agenda was largely unaccomplished. When I was 15, I had the same thoughts about transfering payment for entitlements to states and letting them fully fund them. I grew out of such nonsense, although I would allow cooperatives to opt out of the federal and state taxes supporting them, ideally a subtract value added tax on employers, but only if the employers provided the same services. Ryan would make offering those services at all a personal moral decision. I call such decisions theft from the poor, and so does Christ.

A tax cut is almost inevitable when Republicans take the White House, even if they only take the Senate too. Ryan had little part in shaping this tax cut, which is a shame because he would have eased us into consumption taxes. Instead, he just went along for the ride. The tax cut would be bad for the economy were it not for the deficit, which Ryan agreed to. It is better to borrow the money returned in tax cuts than to allow investment in asset speculation, which ideally is what Ryan wanted but knew he could not get passed an emergent Democratic minority in the Senate. He made the right deal and Trump was too stupid to stop it.

Not running is an act of patriotism at best and partisan cupidity at worst. There may be evidence that Mike Pence was in on the Russia situation. If impeachment happens in 2019, both Trump and Pence could be touched. Ryan staying on through January allows him to keep Pence out of it, allowing the GOP to shoot its own dog and possibly not be destroyed in November.

Will he run for President? I doubt his cardiologist will let him. His family history is so bad he may yet die in office, so we don’t need the snide remarks about why he is leaving.

Thursday, April 12, 2018

US has no good options for response to Syria

https://www.ncronline.org/news/opinion/distinctly-catholic/us-has-no-good-options-response-syria
MGB:_Samantha Power is part of the problem of Syria. In 2008, I gave Joe Biden a set of proposals to regionalize and essential partition Iraq which she opposed and which led to the birth of Daesh and its power base in Iraq, which a stroger Sunni republican would have crushed (as it eventually did with our help, but at great cost).

Whatever answer Trump proposes, it will be the worst possible idea, probably put in his head by Fox and Friends. hopefully the foreign and defense policy establishment will come up with something and manipulate him into taking it. Options are few unless we can get the Russians to withdraw, say by destroying Syria’s harbor so utterly that they lose interest in the deal, although I cannot see an occupation coming.

The best hope is to shore up Rojawa and may covertly remove or kill Turkey’s Islamist President, who is threatening it because of his hate for the Kurds. Rojawa is place where the yeast of their transformation might transform Syria as a whole, but I don’t think Trump would endorse their cooperative socialism. Indeed, he is likely unaware. We should keep it that way so we can continue to assist them.

Wednesday, April 11, 2018

Links for 4/11/18

https://www.ncronline.org/news/opinion/distinctly-catholic/links-41118
MGB:_The piece is mainly about Arroyo’s guests, who are horrid, than what Arroyo brings to the party.

Just to add to what I said yesterday, this encyclical won’t appeal to the ”Don’t touch yourself” Catholic Trads.

Why would Chaput give air to an enemy of Francis? Because he is a Trumpster, first and foremost. He has sold his episcopal office to the Republican Party in what is reverse Simony.

I bet most bishops did not even mention Dr. King. Bravo to the Cardinal. It is why he is a Cardinal and Chaput is not.

FP is behind a paywall. Authoritarians need to buck up their masculinity because they were mostly victimized by tyranical fathers.

Gerson is still a compassionate conservative. I would not expect him to endorse social democracy or democratic socialism, both of which admired Chavez. There are quite a few of us around. A profile would be nice.

Tuesday, April 10, 2018

'Gaudete et Exsultate': Francis puts 'exhort' back into exhortation

https://www.ncronline.org/news/opinion/distinctly-catholic/gaudete-et-exsultate-francis-puts-exhort-back-exhortation
MGB:_We do not do works of mercy to find joy, we do them because we are sharing joy. We are not grateful because things are good, we seek gratitude in the Lord to acknowledge the good done for us and thereby feel Grace. Gratitude is an action, not a feeling, as any recovered drunk will tell you.

This is not smug encyclical. It requires we move forward, not defend the powerful. It is a warning to Catholic Capitalists and Calvinists. It should make Mr. Sensenbrenner a bit uncomfortable. As for abortion, there is no conflict on the left except for the lazy who would not move more forcefully toward a tax supported living wage. We cannot ban our way into a culture of life.

A teacher of mine looked at Newman’s work and said that the next evolution of the Church was a call for holiness. It looks like we are getting there.

Monday, April 9, 2018

Trump drives the news cycle like a hurricane

https://www.ncronline.org/news/opinion/distinctly-catholic/trump-drives-news-cycle-hurricane
MGB: Donald Trump is Being There's Chauncy Gardner on a diet of FoxNews.  That his supporters watch the same claptrap insulates him from losing any of them.  The reality is that he prefers his network to his military briefers, so he has deployed the National Guard to stop asylum seekers from Honduras sneaking across the border, even though they were going to the official CIS asylum window anyway, with no risk of anyone being raped except by bandits. Not even human traffickers will touch these people, who have a protective detail of media watching them.

FoxNews is telling our President how good his outfit looks (how the Russia probe will soon collapse) when that information is not helping him.  He is naked as the Emperor in the face of Mueller, but the news he believes will never let him know it.

Friday, April 6, 2018

College of the Holy Cross theology firestorm has core values at stake

https://www.ncronline.org/news/opinion/distinctly-catholic/college-holy-cross-theology-firestorm-has-core-values-stake
MGB: Liew's piece seems like more of a parody of queer theory than a real attempt at it. Before anyone is "allowed to resign" the professor should get a chance to explain what is hopefully a strawman. If he is serious, then it could be his trying to be "all things to all men" in the example of St. Paul. If that is the case, he probably took it a bit too far, as he has offended more than attracted. Finally, his making a metophor of the spear is incorrect, as the wound was post-mortem, therefore necrophilia rather than sodomy, making the entire analogy fall apart.

Thursday, April 5, 2018

Links for 4/5/18

https://www.ncronline.org/news/opinion/distinctly-catholic/links-4518
MGB: To put it crassly, propaganda is always the first step in radicalization.

The Left is certainly not a dead end. It just needs to express its goals in terms of the cash and prizes the working class wants and needs, to wit, workers controlling the means of consmption. Once we effectively propogate that idea, we win.

Every modern Muslim accepts an Israeli homeland, and every enlightened person demands freedom for the Palestinians and Israeli Arabs.

Until much of the vacation property on the Gulf Coast is under water, global warming will remain a wedge issue on both sides.

Gates' show is a hidden gem because it is on PBS. Luckily, they do reruns and are on demand. Looks like something to do after Sunday Mass.

Wednesday, April 4, 2018

50 years ago, we lost a great American and a genuine Christian prophet

https://www.ncronline.org/news/opinion/distinctly-catholic/50-years-ago-we-lost-great-american-and-genuine-christian-prophet
MGB: Like most children of the sixties, I learned much of what I know about Dr. King from television, specifically the miniseries in 1978 starring Paul Winfield and Cicely Tyson.  It still holds up, especially regarding the treatment of both Viet Nam and FBI surveillance, although it leaves out some of those details.  The PBS Series Eyes on the Prize filled out this knowledge and of course working on the staff of Marion Barry added flavor.  Walter Fauntroy and Marion had set up office space at 14th and U, NW above the People's Drugstore in preparation for King's imminent arrival to work on the Poor People's March AND desegregating DC.  There are those who think that this is the reason he was killed and that it had nothing to do with James Earl Ray.  I will remain agnostic on that point, but I can appreciate where it is coming from, especially as some of the work Dr. King would have undertaken in DC is still not finished.  Indeed, if you look at some of the towns within a few hundred miles of the Gulf coast, there is quite a bit of unfinished business, and that is before we get to winning hearts and minds.  As long as being black and male carries the implication that one is armed and dangerous, there is still work to be done in the world of law enforcement.  I am not sure how King can rest in peace with such atrocities continuing so many years later, but I can assure you we will be marching come August. Our victory lap five years ago was a bit too early.

Tuesday, April 3, 2018

Links for 4/3/18

https://www.ncronline.org/news/opinion/distinctly-catholic/links-4318
There is nothing like a live musical, even on TV. Superstar did not go too far. It would be a bit different if written now.  We are ready for Mrs. Superstar.

Francis is the world's parish priest. If only everyone gave homilies like his.

Voters like issues, but they also like biographies.  If only issues were important, the Green Party would hold the Speakership.

Whether you soft pedal the social issues depends on how competitive the congressional district is. I see no reason to ever not support gay marriage. It's common law, not a legislative issue. Not overturning Roe is like that too.  It will never happen. You can say that and not endorse abortion. Those that won't are scary.

Disaster aid is an entitlement, giving enough to one does not prevent the other from getting more. Puerto Rico needs to have the infrastructure to absorb the money.  That their disaster pros were in an air conditioned convention center rather than in the field right away speaks volumes.

Taking Koch money is easy for many Catholic schools because it comes with a dose of pro-life activisim.  I can see where Wellesley would not go along with that.

Kudlow is perfect for Trump, it is Trump who we need to get rid of.  No decent main-stream economist would ever pass is Fox & Friends test.

Exaunt Ms. Audran.


Monday, April 2, 2018

Fourth CNN 'Pope' episode examines Reformation, with uneven results

https://www.ncronline.org/news/opinion/distinctly-catholic/fourth-cnn-pope-episode-examines-reformation-uneven-results
MGB:_MacCulloch has a great explanation in his books for the theory behind indulgences, which was consolidated by Pope Clement VI in the bull Unigenitus. Had Garry Wills been invited to participate, he would have attributed Indulgences to the transactional view of the Passion taught by St. Anselm, as opposed to St. Augustine and Plato’s view of an unmoveable God.

Of note is also Luther’s belief that the Pope is the anti-Christ, which some Protestant sects still hold onto and which is a central theme to the tune Now Thank We All Our God, which is occassionally sung, with great irony, at Mass by unaware music directors.

St. Augustine’s role in the theology behind Twelve Step recovery programs should also be noted.

After Trent, the logical jump would have been to Pius IX and Pius X and their Crusade against all things Modernist, then ending there or Jumping to Vatican II, whose noisiest dissident was a polish priest named Karol.