On Self-Possession

There are many Catholics who imagine that they can remedy the ills of society by returning to a more primitive lifestyle, where all work is done by hand and there are only simple machines and no companies. Not only do those who fall for these utopian schemes wish to have everyone live in squalor and work themselves to death, but they say that this is what the Church teaches. They forget that sin comes not from social institutions, but from the very heart of man, and no tweaking of a system will make that evil disappear. Ultimately, all of these well-meaning Catholics are, as Wojtyla says, inoculating themselves against self-possession.

-Professor William Luckey

http://www.drwilliamluckey.com/

Archbishop Burke: Democrats Risk Becoming "Party of Death"

I was just piecing together a work-related email to Archbishop Burke when a friend brought this story to my attention. It seems that Burke is still making headlines in America from his new position as Prefect of the Apostolic Signatura, the Vatican's highest court, in Rome.

http://www.catholicnews.com/data/stories/cns/0804933.htm

Bankruptcy Better Than Bailout

Jeffrey Miron, a learned economist from (of all places) Harvard speaks the truth about the current "crisis". It's one of the best pieces I've read on the subject.

The current mess would never have occurred in the absence of ill-conceived federal policies. The federal government chartered Fannie Mae in 1938 and Freddie Mac in 1970; these two mortgage lending institutions are at the center of the crisis. The government implicitly promised these institutions that it would make good on their debts, so Fannie and Freddie took on huge amounts of excessive risk...

The fact that government bears such a huge responsibility for the current mess means any response should eliminate the conditions that created this situation in the first place, not attempt to fix bad government with more government.

http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/09/29/miron.bailout/index.html?iref=mpstoryview

Marx to the Rescue!

In his Communist Manifesto, published in 1848, Karl Marx proposed 10 measures to be implemented after the proletariat takes power, with the aim of centralizing all instruments of production in the hands of the state. Proposal Number Five was to bring about the “centralization of credit in the banks of the state, by means of a national bank with state capital and an exclusive monopoly.”

If he were to rise from the dead today, Marx might be delighted to discover that most economists and financial commentators, including many who claim to favour the free market, agree with him.

-Martin Masse
Read more:
http://network.nationalpost.com/np/blogs/fpcomment/archive/2008/09/29/bailout-marks-karl-marx-s-comeback.aspx

An afterthought: Can anyone imagine Ronald Reagan or Bill Buckley supporting this maladroit and now, thankfully defunct piece of legislation? If a Democratic president had proposed such a bill, NO Republican would have raised a finger to help it through Congress.

"Our Constitution was made for a moral and religious people; it is wholly inadequate for the governance of any other." -John Adams

Would a man like Obama, who as a youth drank heavily from the cup of post-modernist dogma, agree with Mr. Adams? Perhaps he would agree...and it is precisely for that reason that he will, however surreptitiously, set about to dismantle our political and cultural traditions, traditions rooted firmly in Western thought.

This video shows Congressional Republicans back in 2004 warning of the lack of oversight at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. All the while prominent Democrats smugly brush aside all warnings regarding Fannie and Freddie, defending them to the hilt. Astonishingly, the Democrats go further by ripping into the very regulators they are now claiming to be on the side of. Today, Democrats are attempting to rewrite history. People need to know the truth. Watch the video.

Killing the Leviathan

The scandalous financial bailout bill has failed. Socialism has been averted, for now. Bush is absolutely wrong to support this bill, which would have amounted to nothing less than the most expansive intervention by the government in the economy since the Great Depression. Gingrich's analysis of the president, on the video below, is right on the money. Here's to the House Republicans and the cadre of 94 Democrats (who must have been getting an earful last weekend from their constituents in Middle America) who put the brakes on this monstrosity.

Archbishop Dolan Editorial

Archbishop Timothy Dolan's editorial insertion in the debate over pro-abortion Catholic politicians is most welcome. This comes from the Crossroads section of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:

It was not the bishops who started this rhubarb but House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Sen. Joe Biden (D-Del.), who took it upon themselves to explain Catholic teaching on abortion to the nation - and blundered badly.

Now, to be sure, church teaching highly respects the charism of civic responsibility and political leadership as belonging to the laity, not the clergy, a tenet especially strong in the writings of Pope John Paul II and Benedict XVI, and defends as well a properly understood separation of church and state, so clear in Pope Benedict's remarks in France just two weeks ago.

But church tradition is equally clear that bishops are the authentic teachers of the faith. So, when prominent Catholics publicly misrepresent timeless Church doctrine - as Biden and Pelosi regrettably did (to say nothing of erring in biology!) - a bishop has the duty to clarify. Cardinal Justin Rigali and Bishop William E. Lori were thus hardly acting as politicians, "telling people how to vote," but as teachers.

http://www.jsonline.com/story/index.aspx?id=799674

Explaining a Disaster

Newt Gingrich picks apart the monstrosity that is the Wall Street bailout supported by congress and the president.

The Third Party Option

I spoke with a friend today who informed me of a conversation she had with an acquaintance of ours. Politics was the topic of both conversations and the subject of third parties came up. This other friend, a good Catholic, is standing pat with his decision to vote third party in November in favor of the Constitution Party (if memory serves me correctly). Among traditional Catholic circles, third parties often entice a good number with their laudable goals of returning immediately to the America of the founding: smaller federal government, greater deference to states' rights, the abolition of the plethora of federal agencies, etc. That's all fine and good but whatever happened to living in the present? Put simply, those goals are impossible to achieve now. Incremental stages will be the only possible way we can begin a return to first principles. A McCain presidency, followed up by the more conservative Palin, just might present us with the opportunity for the gradual stripping down of the size of the federal government. We know exactly what we'll get with a President Obama: bigger everything, ultra-liberal Supreme Court justices coupled with perhaps irreversible moves to the Socialist position. With Obama on the cusp of a devastating victory, the stakes are too high this election to tinker around with the completely unrealistic objective of electing a third party candidate. Intelligent people, rooted first in principle but guided by pragmatism, should be able to see this. Ideologues, I'm afraid, are just incapable of it. The total votes that a third party candidate may garnish in November will be small enough to be forgotten in a season or two but perhaps just large enough to help maneuver Obama into the White House. But hey, third party groupies can rest on the lonely laurel of having "made their point." The abortion issue alone should be enough to compel good Catholics to make the best choice, given the circumstances. But ideologues, on the right and left, often have trouble in the "given the circumstances" category.

National Review, that rag of "neo-conservative" jingoism so scorned by the far right, put it nicely recently: "We hope liberty lovers who help Obama win enjoy their higher taxes, socialized medicine, and far-Left Supreme Court appointments."

Conservative Gains in Japan

Japan has its first Catholic prime minister in Taro Aso.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26861540/

from John Milton's Paradise Lost

As not of power, at once; nor odds appeared
In might or swift prevention; but the sword
Of Michael from the armoury of God
Was given him tempered so, that neither keen
Nor solid might resist that edge: it met
The sword of Satan with steep force to smite
Descending, and in half cut sheer, nor stayed
But with swift wheel reverse, deep entering sheared
All his right side; then Satan first knew pain,
And writhed him to and fro convolved; so sore
The griding sword with discontinuous wound
Passed through him, but th' ethereal substance closed
Not long divisible, and from the gash
A stream of nectarous humour issuing flowed
Sanguine, such as celestial spirits may bleed,
And all his armour stained ere while so bright.
Forthwith on all sides to his aid was run
By angles many and strong, who interposed
Back to his chariot, where it stood retired
From off the files of war; there they him laid
Gnashing for anguish and despite and shame
To find himself not matchless, and his pride
Humbled by such rebuke, so far beneath
His confidence to equal God in power.

Oil Drilling Q & A

"The Drilling Bill that Bans Drilling" by Jeff Jacoby
http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2008/09/21/the_drilling_bill_that_bans_drilling/

On the Merits of Being Self-Assured

"While Obama appears to have been on a lifelong search for his identity, Palin has never wondered who she was or where she was from...Unlike most successful female politicians, she's not afraid of her femininity. She doesn't need to posture as a man, flaunting pant suits and a tough personality to demonstrate her strength (take note, Hillary)."

In terms of gauging character, these devastating clinchers sum up everything one ought to know about Palin, Obama and Clinton.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1058602/Sarah-Palin-popular-Diana-hearts-American-public.html

The Geopolitics of Pope Benedict XVI

Here's an excerpt from a thoughtful essay by Sandro Magister entitled The Pope of the West:

If John Paul II was the pope of dazzling intuitions, Benedict XVI is the pope of methodical reasoning and action. The former was above all image, the latter is mainly "logos." John Paul II made an impact with these words from his first homily as pope: "Be not afraid, open the doors to Christ." The words already contained a glimpse of the peaceful revolution that he would inspire in Eastern Europe, and not only there. But the first action of Benedict XVI that made a worldwide impact was the long and substantial lecture that he gave at the University of Regensburg on September 12, 2006. He literally shook the world, for both the right reasons on the wrong ones. That lecture explained the new pope's view of the Church and of the West and his plans for them, including relations with Islam.

http://chiesa.espresso.repubblica.it/articolo/206793?eng=y

Catholics for Catholicism

Here's an interesting piece from The Telegraph that speculates how Obama's selection of the "Catholic" Joe Biden might actually cost him Catholic votes. The article notes how a growing cadre of US Bishops are displaying renewed virility in slamming the band of Catholics for a Free Choice politicos like Biden, Pelosi, et al. Some of the comments are funny: "Go back to the Middle Ages, again, you Catholics..." Ah, the British!

There are 47 million Catholic voters in the United States. One quarter of all registered voters are Catholics. At every presidential election in the past 30 years the Catholic vote has gone to the winning candidate, except for Al Gore in 2000. This year 41 per cent of Catholics are independents - up from 30 per cent in 2004. Psephologists claim practising Catholics were the decisive factor in the crucial swing states in 2004: in Ohio 65 per cent of Catholics voted for Bush, in Florida 66 per cent. They were drifting away in disillusionment from the Republicans and split 50-50, until Joe Biden worked his magic. This is electoral suicide by the Democrats.

http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/gerald_warner/blog/2008/09/19/joe_biden_loses_barack_obama_the_catholic_vote

Rove Schools Colmes

Economic Woes: Who's to Blame?

A worthwhile piece from Investor's Business Daily:

The untold story in this whole national crisis is that President Clinton put on steroids the Community Redevelopment Act, a well-intended Carter-era law designed to encourage minority homeownership. And in so doing, he helped create the market for the risky subprime loans that he and Democrats now decry as not only greedy but "predatory."

Yes, the market was fueled by greed and overleveraging in the secondary market for subprimes, vis-a-vis mortgaged-backed securities traded on Wall Street. But the seed was planted in the '90s by Clinton and his social engineers. They were the political catalyst behind this slow-motion financial train wreck...

Obama and Democrats on the Hill think even more regulation and more interference in the market will solve the problem their policies helped cause. For now, unarmed by the historic record, conventional wisdom is buying into their blame-business-first rhetoric and bigger-government solutions.

While government arguably has a role in helping low-income folks buy a home, Clinton went overboard by strong-arming lenders with tougher and tougher regulations, which only led to lenders taking on hundreds of billions in subprime bilge.
Market failure? Hardly. Once again, this crisis has government's fingerprints all over it.

http://ibdeditorial.com/IBDArticles.aspx?id=306370789279709

Words and Deeds

Here are some excerpts from a coruscating piece by Gerard Baker, appearing in the Times Online:

The essential problem coming to light is a profound disconnect between the Barack Obama of the candidate's speeches, and the Barack Obama who has actually been in politics for the past decade or so.

Speechmaker Obama has built his campaign on the promise of reform, the need to change the culture of American political life, to take on the special interests that undermine government's effectiveness and erode trust in the system itself,

Politician Obama rose through a Chicago machine that is notoriously the most corrupt in the country. As David Freddoso writes in a brilliantly cogent and measured book, The Case Against Barack Obama, the angel of deliverance from the old politics functioned like an old-time Democratic pol in Illinois. He refused repeatedly to side with those lonely voices that sought to challenge the old corrupt ways of the ruling party.

Speechmaker Obama talks about an era of bipartisanship, He speaks powerfully about the destructive politics of red and blue states.

Politician Obama has toed his party's line more reliably than almost any other Democrat in US politics. He has a near-perfect record of voting with his side. He has the most solidly left-wing voting history in the Senate. His one act of bipartisanship, a transparency bill co-sponsored with a Republican senator, was backed by everybody on both sides of the aisle. He has never challenged his party's line on any issue of substance.

Speechmaker Obama talks a lot about finding ways to move beyond the bloody battlegrounds of the “culture wars” in America; the urgent need to establish consensus on the emotive issue of abortion.

Politician Obama's support for abortion rights is the most extreme of any Democratic senator. In the Illinois legislature he refused to join Democrats and Republicans in supporting a Bill that would require doctors to provide medical care for babies who survived abortions. No one in the Senate - not the arch feminist Hillary Clinton nor the superliberal Edward Kennedy - opposed this same humane measure.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/gerard_baker/article4735295.ece

Visiting the "Eldest Daughter" of the Church

"It would be a disaster if today's European culture could only conceive freedom as absence of obligation, which would inevitably play into the hands of fanaticism and arbitrariness." -Pope Benedict XVI in France