On Julia

I heard a lot about this fictional Julia business and so I checked out the Obama reelection website to see what it's all about. Then I came across this, from The Hill:

House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) said Friday that the Obama campaign's new website — which uses a fictionalized woman named Julia to illustrate how the president's policies help female voters — is "creepy" and "demeaning."

“It suggests that this woman can’t go anywhere in life without Barack Obama’s government-centered society. It’s kind of demeaning to her,” Ryan said during a constituent meeting in Wisconsin, the National Review reports. “She must have him and his big government to depend on to go anywhere in life. It doesn’t say much about his faith in Julia.”

Dubbed "The Life of Julia," the website follows a hypothetical character from age 3 to 67 and provides examples of when she might benefit from policies backed by the president — while suggesting that presumptive Republican candidate Mitt Romney would support policies that might have the opposite effect.

Julia is probably also a law student at Georgetown University who needs Obamacare for free contraceptives. Of course, Ryan is right. The whole thing is creepy. You see exactly how liberals view the individual, as faceless, helpless beneficiaries of an all-powerful government. Check it out here and see for yourself.

Mapping Out the Fight Over Marriage

Here's a thorough overview of where the fifty states stand on marriage, from Stateline:

Thirty-three times since 1998, states have voted on gay marriage ballot measures. Thirty-two of those times, opponents of gay marriage have won. But with polls showing support for gay marriage building in recent years, that near-perfect record of voter opposition will be seriously tested this year.

The image is best seen by clicking on the Stateline link.

Brewer's Ban

"By signing this measure into law I stand with the majority of Americans who oppose the use of taxpayer funds for abortion." ~Gov. Jan Brewer

From the AP:

(AP) PHOENIX - Gov. Jan Brewer on Friday signed into law a bill to cut off Planned Parenthood's access to taxpayer money funneled through the state for non-abortion services.

Arizona already bars use of public money for abortions except to save the life of the mother. But anti-abortion legislators and other supporters of the bill say the broader prohibition is needed to ensure no public money indirectly supports abortion services.

Governor Jan Brewer is another one of the stellar Republican governors in the United States. She's absolutely fearless in confronting Obama on policy and her status only rises with moves like this one.

Paul Ryan on Catholic Social Teaching

Here's an excerpt from a great interview with Paul Ryan that appears in the National Catholic Register:

Which Catholic thinkers and documents have influenced you?

The magisterium, the Compendium [of the Social Doctrine of the Church], the encyclicals — you know, the social magisterium is basically the encyclicals and papal letters. People try to paste different epistemological views on me, but if you are going to try to tell me what my philosophy is or what my motivating philosopher is, it would be Thomas Aquinas.

I just finished one of George Weigel’s books that I really liked, but instead of saying a particular theologian or writer, I’d say the magisterium itself, the Compendium, my own prayers. And I believe that the founding principles, the Founders, the American idea, created a society that is well within the political expression of Catholic social teaching.

Walker's Vindication

An excerpt from a nice piece highlighting the successes of Scott Walker's policies, from The Wall Street Journal:

Since Mr. Walker's reforms went into effect, the doom and gloom scenarios have failed to materialize. Property taxes in the state were down 0.4% in 2011, the first decline since 1998. According to Chief Executive magazine, Wisconsin moved up four more places this year to number 20 in an annual CEO survey of the best states to do business, after jumping 17 spots last year.

The Governor's office has estimated that altogether the reforms have saved Badger State taxpayers more than $1 billion, including $65 million in changes in health-care plans, and some $543 million in local savings documented by media reports. According to the Wisconsin-based MacIver Institute, Mayor Barrett's city of Milwaukee saved $19 million on health-care costs as a direct result of Mr. Walker's reforms. Awkward turtle.

History Lesson

From Catholic World Report:

Before I came to Los Angeles, I was the archbishop of San Antonio, as many of you know. My cathedral see was San Fernando Cathedral, which was established in 1731. If you know your dates, you’ll know that George Washington was not even born and already Catholics were worshipping there. We also know that priests traveling with Ponce de León near southeast Florida in 1521 offered the first Mass celebrated in the present boundaries of the United States. That’s almost exactly a century before William Bradford and the Mayflower arrived at Plymouth Rock.…

That means that as Americans, we are children both of the Protestant Reformation that prevailed in places like England and also of the Catholic renewal, or the Counter-Reformation, centered in Spain and Rome. It is true historically that the Protestant spirit came to inform America’s political, economic, and cultural institutions, while Catholics for many years faced discrimination in different forms. But today the broad Christian consensus that once underwrote the institutions and assumptions of American life has collapsed. And in the face of widespread religious indifferentism and elite disdain for religion, I believe it is more necessary than ever that we recover the spiritual legacy of our country’s Catholic “founders.” ~ Archbishop José Gomez

Old but sharp

Invite a wise man to a feast and he'll spoil the company, either with morose silence or troublesome disputes. Take him out to dance, and you'll swear a 'cow would have done better.' -Folly on the 'wise man,' taken from Erasmus' In Praise of Folly

The Simple Life

Make of this what you will. Unemployment is not a good thing, but perhaps there's something to be said about the return to a traditional bucolic life. I think Virgil and Washington would agree. From the Telegraph:

As Italy’s unemployment rate topped 10pc this week, it emerged that young people are flocking to become shepherds.

Traditionally the preserve of older men, the profession has recently attracted 3,000 young Italians, according to agricultural body Coldiretti.

They are choosing a simple life in the great outdoors because their aspirations to become doctors, lawyers or engineers have been thwarted by Italy’s negligible economic growth, which has been compounded by grinding austerity measures.

Davide Bortoluzzi, 25, has a degree in surveying from a technical institute but, unable to find a job, now keeps a watchful eye on a flock of 400 sheep in the Dolomites of northern Italy. ...

Coldiretti said the unexpected influx of shepherds under the age of 35 was helping to rejuvenate a sector of Italian agriculture that had become the preserve of older farmers.

Martyr in Love

Blessed Bartolome Blanco Marquez

A touching story from 2007 that was reported by Catholic News Agency:

Madrid, Spain, Oct 29, 2007 / 10:38 am (CNA).- Bartolome Blanco Marquez is one of the youngest of the group of 498 martyrs beatified by Pope Benedict XVI this past Sunday at the Vatican. A committed Catholic, the 22 year-old layman wrote a moving letter to his girlfriend Maruja just hours before his death.

“Your memory will go with me to the tomb, and as long as my heart is beating, it will beat with love for you,” he told Maruja. “God has desired to exalt these earthly affections, ennobling them when we love each other in Him.”

Surreal

From Reuters:

LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) - "Modern Family" might not be the most obvious choice to be showered with accolades by a religious organization, but the ABC comedy was honored by the Catholics in Media Associates over the weekend anyway.

"Modern Family" - the show known for the gay marriage of Cameron Tucker and Mitchell Pritchett and, more recently, the foul-mouth tirade of child character Lily - received the Television Award at the 2012 CIMA Awards, held at the Beverly Hills Hotel on Sunday.

Disgusting.

Libraries

The Escorial monastery

Philip II's library at the Escorial

Check out this impressive rundown of some of Europe's most stunning libraries. I was happy to see that the Escorial library made the list. The architecture of these buildings is simply amazing.

Next on the List

Books to read, that is. Pick it up: Beauty Will Save the World
Recovering the Human in an Ideological Age, by Gregory Wolfe
From ISI:

We live in a politicized time. Culture wars and increasingly partisan conflicts have reduced public discourse to shouting matches between ideologues. But rather than merely bemoaning the vulgarity and sloganeering of this era, says acclaimed author and editor Gregory Wolfe, we should seek to enrich the language of civil discourse. And the best way to do that, Wolfe believes, is to draw nourishment from the deepest sources of culture: art and religious faith. ...

Beauty Will Save the World offers a revealing introduction to the artists and thinkers who are the Christian humanists of the modern era, from well-known figures like Evelyn Waugh and Wendell Berry to lesser-known authors like Shusaku Endo, Andrew Lytle, and Geoffrey Hill. A section on visual artists Mary McCleary, Fred Folsom, and Makoto Fujimura (accompanied by reproductions of their works) demonstrates that there are artists who can reimagine the Western tradition in strikingly contemporary terms. Finally, Wolfe pays tribute to the conservative thinkers who served as his mentors: Russell Kirk, Gerhart Niemeyer, Marion Montgomery, and Malcolm Muggeridge— all of whom rejected rigid ideology and embraced culture and tradition.

When I read a review of this book, it immediately struck a chord. The alarming paucity of cultural appreciation, as well as the gradual elimination of the authentically beautiful within vast swaths of Catholic life, most especially at the parish level in America, is a topic of paramount concern to me. It's not just the lackluster homilies and the bizarre blurring of the line between priest and laity during Mass that cause great alarm (and distraction) for many Catholics. It's also the preponderance of kitsch, with saccharine, silly songs, and the across-the-board disappearance of reverence, mystery and solemnity, that make much of modern liturgical life so unbearable.

The bar has been lowered, not just in the arena of what we are expected to know in terms of catechesis and the basics of the faith, but also in what we allow ourselves to be formed by in the cultural sense as Catholics, what we see, read and hear. To recognize this, or to single it out as a problem to be addressed, is often cast as a sign of snobbery and elitism, which kind of proves the point that we have lost touch with our identity and culture. The arts and our cultural patrimony were never originally intended to remain in the rarefied category of specialized interests of the upper class and ivory tower academics. The beautiful art that exists in all of Rome's churches, for example, was largely aimed at helping to catechize the poor and those who were illiterate, etc., as well as helping to elevate everyone's eyes and souls upward towards heaven.

Places

The Telegraph featured a list of some of the world's most impressive and beautiful architectural achievements. Some of my favorites made the list: Hagia Sophia, Saint Mark's Square, the Pantheon and the Taj Mahal.

The Sacrament of Peace

Here's an excellent article by the late Father John A. Hardon S.J. on the importance of the Sacrament of Penance. It's a classic example of Father Hardon's ability to be succinct and thorough when explaining an aspect of the faith.

Liberal Rage at...Obama

For once, Arianna Huffington is right. From Politico:

Huffington Post editor-in-chief Arianna Huffington said Monday that making a campaign ad about the killing of Osama bin Laden, as President Barack Obama has done, “is one of the most despicable things you can do.”

“I think it’s one thing to celebrate the fact that they did such a great job. It’s one thing to have an NBC special from the Situation Room,” the media mogul said on “CBS This Morning.” “All that, to me, is perfectly legitimate. But to turn it into a campaign ad is one of the most despicable things you can do.”

Speaker Boehner Talks Politics

Spanish Catholicism

It's cold and raining in Milwaukee, so I thought I'd share a couple of inspirational photos I came across of the raredos at the basilica of El Escorial in Spain. Thank you, Philip II.

Paul Ryan's Georgetown Speech

Read the transcript of Paul Ryan's excellent speech at Georgetown here.

A Study in Contrasts

Romney the Leader vs. Obama the Joker

Implications

A baby in the womb was shot, and survived. She has a unique appreciation for life. You can see where this is going...