Daily Archives: February 20, 2009

Ouch! Krauthammer Lowers the Boom

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Charles Krauthammer pulls no punches.

President Obama bobs and weaves all over the ring, but  punches keep coming. Putin’s in rare form.  If only Krauthammer were in the ring with Putin.  But no,  it’s  Putin and Obama.

The Russian is landing his punches left and right straight to the mid-section.  Obama is taking it on the ropes. Weak response as Putin slams:

Putin puts the gloves to Kyrgyzstan and shuts down a US air base.

Putin forms a “rapid reaction force” to keep the muscle on muslim areas north of Afghanistan.

Putin flaunts plans to establish a naval base in recently conquered Abkhazia.

Putin, Putin, Putin!

Obama is dazed..  He doesn’t seem to know he’s in the ring.  He’s smiling, waving. Campaigning!?

I can’t watch!

Krauthammer calls it “Supine Diplomacy.”

Spreading the Word

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“Anthology: Chants and Polyphony from St. Michael’s Abbey”

CNN’s Textbook Refusal

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CatholicVote.org had plans to air their pro-life video on CNN .  The video that was refused airing during the Super Bowl has met a similar fate at the hands of CNN execs. Briane Burke writes that CNN has refused the pro-life video that they’d planned to air after President Obama’s first State of the Union Address.   “Their (CNN’s) excuse”, an executive of a prominent commercial ad agency, said “is a textbook answer for a network that does not want to run your ad.”

Burke states, ““CNN and others simply don’t like the obvious conclusion of our ad – there was no ‘choice’ for abortion back in 1961. Thankfully, we had laws then safeguarding unborn children – laws that protected the life of a future president who tragically is unwilling to fight for those same protections today.”

Hope springs eternal! Life’s that important.  “All is not lost.”  Burke says, “CNN’s refusal will only create more attention for our ad, which has been widely discussed even among abortion groups like NARAL and nationally-syndicated columnist Ellen Goodman. The ad remains a viral hit on the Internet with over 1.6 million views on YouTube.”

What said? Who Said? Not Said!

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What fun!

Little Green Footballs and Jeff Bercovici  in Portfolio.com reports:

The Huffington Post retraction:

“We regret the error and apologize to Mr. Gibson. John Gibson never compared Eric Holder to a monkey with a bright blue scrotum.” .

In their apology and retraction, they  say that a video it posted had been doctored; source unknown. The hoax had Trace Gallagher’s voice saying “bright blue scrotum” where  “nation of cowards”, a remark by Holder, belonged.

Great journalism, Guys!

LENT for the Soul

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Message From Pope Benedict XVI for LENT 2009

“He fasted forty days and forty nights, and afterward he was hungry” (Mt 4,1-2)

“The practice of fasting is very present in the first Christian community. The Church Fathers, too, speak of the force of fasting to bridle sin, especially the lusts of the “old Adam,” and open in the heart of the believer a path to God. Moreover, fasting is a practice that is encountered frequently and recommended by the saints of every age. Saint Peter Chrysologus writes: “Fasting is the soul of prayer, mercy is the lifeblood of fasting. So if you pray, fast; if you fast, show mercy; if you want your petition to be heard, hear the petition of others. If you do not close your ear to others, you open God’s ear to yourself.”

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Dear brothers and sisters, it is good to see how the ultimate goal of fasting is to help each one of us, as the Servant of God Pope John Paul II wrote, to make the complete gift of self to God (Encyclical Veritatis splendor.)  May every family and Christian community use well this time of Lent, therefore, in order to cast aside all that distracts the spirit and grow in whatever nourishes the soul, moving it to love of God and neighbor. I am thinking especially of a greater commitment to prayer, lectio divina, recourse to the Sacrament of Reconciliation and active participation in the Eucharist, especially the Holy Sunday Mass. With this interior disposition, let us enter the penitential spirit of Lent. May the Blessed Virgin Mary, Causa nostrae laetitiae (Cause of our joy,) accompany and support us in the effort to free our heart from slavery to sin, making it evermore a “living tabernacle of God.”

Reality Check

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unemployment-history-1928-20095

NOTA BENE: The unemployment rate after the 1929 Market Crash did not turn down significantly until the United States entered World War II.

The much acclaimed New Deal of FDR is presently being heralded as having saved the economy, and bringing down the high unemployment rates of the Depression.  As you can see, That presumption is unfounded in the fact and numbers of actual history.

Beware the hype!   The New Administration saying that such New Deal spending will bring down unemployment rates in our present economy will not make it so.

We hear that our unemployment figures are “the worst since the Depression.”  Look at the real picture over time to get a perspective based on the actual numbers.   Notice, we are nowhere near the unemployment rate of the depression years, and notably below the high of the eighties.  The problems of our economy are being compounded by irresponsible media and Presidential spin.

Source for unemployment rates here.

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