Current Events: March 2009 Archives

People much smarter than me have word it better than I ever could.

In is letter regarding Barak Obama at Notre Dame (posted on American Papist), Charles F. Lennon Jr. Executive Director, Notre Dame Alumni Association writes:

Rather, the University has invited the President to campus for what he’s done for racial equality, and for his stands on poverty, health care, immigration, education, infectious disease, and seeking peace. These are causes dear to the heart of Notre Dame, and he has elevated these causes and made them his own.

Sigh. As stated on Jill Stanek:

African-Americans comprise 12% of the US population but disproportionately 32% of all abortions, according to Guttmacher. PP's founder, Margaret Sanger, was an anti-black eugenicist. Most abortion mills are located where the majority of blacks live, in metropolitan areas (87.5% - see Cenus Figure 2). According to Guttmacher, 95% of all mills are located in metropolitan areas.

Oddly, pro-life black Catholics don't seem to agree with Mr. Lennon. On Twitter, Alan Keyes tweets:

Obama's moral stature comes from exploiting race, yet his pro-abortion stance repudiates the black American heritage.

Yesterday, Matt C. Abbott of RenewAmerica has a letter from Fr. John J. Raphael, SSJ:

'I have spent eighteen years working with blacks and whites, Protestants and Catholics, to bring more African Americans into the pro-life movement. During the last two months the Obama administration has already begun to aggressively roll back the gains made in defense of life over the course of the last fifteen years.

'I have written two articles which attempt to show how the historical significance of the first African American president is emptied of its meaning if this same president refuses to embrace the rights of the unborn. I share them with you if you are interested in considering the devastating impact of these pro-abortion policies on the African American community in light of this historic election:

http://www.nbccongress.org/features/bridge-01.asp

http://clarionherald.org/pdfs/2009/02_07_09/page15.pdf.

'As an African American and a priest, as a principal of a Catholic high school and a member of the Admissions Advisory Board of the university, I cannot adequately express in words how deeply this action offends those who are committed to carrying out the task of Catholic education and witnessing to the Gospel of Life in the context of a Catholic school. Even if the university chooses to cooperate with certain policies of the president that are not contrary to the teaching of the faith, the conferral of this type of public honor is wholly gratuitous and incongruous with the mission of any Catholic institution...

more...

If we really want to address the race issue, let's address it in it's fullness. If not, then you are just using the fact that Obama's blackness as an excuse to pat yourself on the back for appearing so hip-which is pretty racist.

HT:Jill Stanek

...Commenting on society’s attitude towards Catholic beliefs, Archbishop Chaput said, “we have to make ourselves stupid to believe some of the things American Catholics are now expected to accept.”....

He's obviously never met Kolan McConiughey, a mentally disabled man considered one of the nation's top Special Olympics bowlers, with five perfect games to his credit. He'd like to go to the White House and show the president a thing or two about how to roll strikes.

"He bowled a 129. I bowl a 300. I could beat that score easily," McConiughey said Friday.

His challenge to Obama followed the president's offhand remark on Jay Leno's "Tonight Show" Thursday comparing his famously inept bowling to "the Special Olympics or something." Recognizing his blunder, Obama apologized to the chairman of the Special Olympics before the show aired.

White House press secretary Robert Gibbs on Friday said the president believes that the Special Olympics are "a triumph of the human spirit." Gibbs added that Obama understands that the athletes "deserve a lot better than the thoughtless joke that he made last night."
During an interview with The Associated Press, the 35-year-old McConiughey quickly rolled several strikes with his left-handed hook in a short demonstration of his prowess at Colonial Lanes in Ann Arbor.

In addition to five perfect games since 2005, McConiughey has also had an 800 series and carries a 212 average. He laughed as he joked about the popular president's apparently poor game.

more...

Update:Jill Stanek has some commentary:

You wouldn't believe how well some of these truly special people can bowl, including my own! Obama is an ass, truly.

to last night's knee slapper, Sarah Palin's thoughts about the Special Olympics.

From the NY Times:

Mr. Ponzi, 65, is a retired businessman living in Watervliet, N.Y., near Albany. He has the same name as, but is not related to, the con man, who died in 1949. When he was younger, Mr. Ponzi said by phone, people often asked if he was connected to the swindler. “Then it went into a lull,” he said. “Until this idiot.”

That would be Bernard Madoff.

Poor guy

Much talk in the Catholic blogosphere about the announcement of an apostolic visitation to religious communities, and of one snippy Sister's response. For some crazy reason, I can't help thinking that Sister Snippy's community hasn't welcomed any novices in a while.

Then there are all the other stories about Sisters of a Certain Age who abandoned their habits and their community life. Some of them left teaching or nursing behind; they felt called to Be Prophetic, which meant talking about how Prophetic they were, and maybe beating on railroad tracks with ball-peen hammers. Others might have stayed and are now school principals or hospital administrators, but their sisters are either also in administration or are retired. None of their sisters are still in the classroom or at the bedside. Some of these Sisters of a Certain Age have been reflecting on how Their Mission is Complete or Our Order is Moving Into a New Phase, which to the cynical might sound like happy-talk for We Have Had No Vocations Since The Ford Administration and We Need To Sell Our Land to Pay For Our Retirement.

Yet, strangely, there are still sick people that need nursing care, and children that need schoolteachers. There are still poor people. And, for whatever reason, the orders of Sisters that used to serve them have withered away.

President Obama, in one of those huge soggy blobs of legislation, killed a scholarship program that enabled some Washington D.C. students to attend private schools. So now those students are forced back into the D.C. public systems (motto: "Not good enough for Chelsea, Malia, and Sasha... but good enough for you!") Even if their parents could afford Catholic schools, where would they go? The Archdiocese had to close seven schools recently for lack of funds.

What would our country look like if the teaching and nursing orders hadn't collapsed? What if children in poor school districts had a choice, because the sisters were there to offer an alternative that families of modest means could afford? What if hospitals were well staffed with nurses who treated every patient as he were Christ Himself, sisters who were supported in their difficult work by their community life and their lives of prayer?
Imagine the good work that nursing orders could do by opening small, walk-in clinics -- especially ones open after hours, for hourly workers who can't afford to take time off work. Would our health care system be in such a mess?

I'm sure the sisters who ditched their habits and decided that they'd rather Be Prophetic than get their hands dirty are as convinced as ever that they are doing the right thing. But I can't help thinking that a better way to be prophetic would have been to keep doing the "woman's work" scorned by society -- teaching the children and caring for the weak and ill.

25 DVDs for Gordon Brown

I have to stop reading the news because there is little I read that makes me happy or makes me feel hopeful. Of course, there is always hope, but my initial reaction when I read what our new president and congress are doing is usually "what the f**k?" So let's take yesterday's health summit. Pro-life groups were shut out. Via Jill Stanek:

I stumbled this from Greg Popcak today:

My feeling? I'm sick to death of these bleeding heart social conservatives who want a good education for poor kids. Why should we pay for the education of children who really just should have been aborted in the first place? Let's be real here. The Left is only pro-choice until the child is born, and then f*** 'em. I mean, get with the times people! Educating impoverished children is just sooooo '08. Its time to get with teh new social ethic. Crime, poverty, education, health care, inadequate housing and a host of other problem can all be solved if we just abort 'em all and let God (if she exists) sort them out. Right?

But let’s skip all that and talk about tonight. So Jason proposed to Melissa and she said Yes, leaving Molly to wonder “why not me! why not me!” But tonight (or whenever this was taped), Jason decides on national television, that he needs to end things with Melissa so he can try to get it on with Molly, whom he dumped all those months ago. You’re engaged (ha) and you couldn’t do this in privacy? You had to humiliate the girl on national TV?

And if that wasn’t enough (and clearly it wasn’t), this asshat then goes and tells Molly that it’s been her all along. He actually goes as far as to ask her out for coffee or a drink. And get this - she says YES. They get all googly eyes and smoochy with each other. Did he not just dump his “fiance” 15 minutes before? As someone on Twitter commented tonight, this sends a great message to psycho ex-girlfriends everywhere - just keep on loving him because maybe one day he’ll dump her and come back to you. Ha ha!! Seriously?! Seriously?! [emphasis added]

GMMR "What Happened on The Bachelor Season Finale

And the typical message-commitments mean little.