Power Hungry and Out of Balance

Ace of Spades calls it a good piece:

Charles Krauthammer can’t write fast enough to keep up with all the crap he can’t believe is happening. “We are now so deep into government intervention that constitutional objections are summarily swept aside.” Seizing every opportunity to seize, seize, seize power for the government from the people, Geithner “seeks yet broader powers.”

Obama’s goal, writes Krauthammer,

“is to rewrite the American social compact, to recast the relationship between government and citizen. He wants government to narrow the nation’s income and anxiety gaps. Soak the rich for reasons of revenue and justice. Nationalize health care and federalize education to grant all citizens of all classes the freedom from anxiety about health care and college that the rich enjoy. And fund this vast new social safety net through the cash cow of a disguised carbon tax.

Our President seems naive about the goodness and fairness of Big Government.  Our founders  were not so naive about the weakness of men and statesmen, hence checks and balances.  The present disproportionate numbers in the Congress of Republicans to Democrats cripples that system.  We are off kilter and in trouble.

While Capitalism needs corrective checks and balances, with a heavy dose of scrutiny, to cure it’s ills, Big Government isn’t the one to take over for the patient. Share holders are more invested and intuitive than this generation of gobbling government bureaucrats.  We can’t trust our lawmakers to steer clear of side line profit-making or taking as the scandalous last years have shown. (You know the names.)

President Obama’s medicine is to level field by cutting the growth producers in this nation off at the knees.  Good luck Mr. President a crippled America will not fill your coffers for the Big Dole.

Count the Blessings? of Abortion: 50,000,000

When you think you’ve heard it all, Amy Welborn tells you that the unanimously elected a new dean, Dr. Katherine Ragsdale of the Episcopal Divinity School in Cambridge is preaching Abortion is a Blessing!

As quoted by Chris Johnson of Midwest Conservative Journal:

And when a woman becomes pregnant within a loving, supportive, respectful relationship; has every option open to her; decides she does not wish to bear a child; and has access to a safe, affordable abortion – there is not a tragedy in sight — only blessing. The ability to enjoy God’s good gift of sexuality without compromising one’s education, life’s work, or ability to put to use God’s gifts and call is simply blessing.

These are the two things I want you, please, to remember – abortion is a blessing

and our work is not done. Let me hear you say it: abortion is a blessing and our work is not done. Abortion is a blessing and our work is not done. Abortion is a blessing and our work is not done.

I want to thank all of you who protect this blessing – who do this work every day: the health care providers, doctors, nurses, technicians, receptionists, who put your lives on the line to care for others (you are heroes — in my eyes, you are saints); the escorts and the activists; the lobbyists and the clinic defenders; all of you. You’re engaged in holy work.

Can there be anything sadder ? Convenience over conscience, money over morals, sex over sacredness, what are those Doctors of Divinity thinking.  Dr. Katherine Ragsdale is their unanimous choice.  I can better understand why questions of the true Presence of Christ in the Eucharist are at issue when these people cannot recognize the true presence of a child in the womb.

Pursuing Holiness has this: [UPDATE: Ms. Ragsdale deleted the sermon, but on the intarweb things have a zombie-like way of coming back to get you. Cached copy is here. And for posterity, here’s a PDF of the cached page with Our Work Is Not Done.  Why do you think she deleted it?

The Question That Won’t Go Away

Where was Obama born?

Barack Hussein Obama was elected President of the United States of America, but was he legally eligible.  In other words, is Obama really our President or are we in a period of Interregnum?  By requirement of the United States Constitution, Article 2, Section 1, no one can be sworn into office as president of the United States without being a natural born citizen.

Why has Congress and the Electoral College been so sloppy with procedure.  Is obtaining the complete birth certificate of the man in the White House somehow Classified or a Top Secret issue? The question is a serious one.

Hawaii at the time of Obama’s birth allowed births that took place in foreign countries to be registered in Hawaii.  There is no reference to a hospital associated with Obama’s birth.  African relatives claim that they were present at the Coast Provincial Hospital in Mombasa, Kenya for his arrival? No answers here;  only questions as to the sealing of his birth certificate records by Govenor Linda Lingle of Hawaii.  Her stated reason; fear of Identity theft.  Give me a break!

Obama’s autobiography states that his mother was a minor and his father a citizen of Kenya. The actual hospital records on a long-form birth certificate can establish Constitutional legitimacy and certainty that Obama Hussein Obama is indeed our President. Is it too much for a citizen to ask?

Looking Heavenward

While some are in a tail-spin looking to for economic hope somewhere, others are looking to the stars.  No not horoscopes; the real thing, those twinkling bits of heaven. “Space enthusiasts consider themselves lobbyists for mankind, and they argue that even science fiction has practical applications.”

“Much of the world is focused on the travails of the global economy. We’re bombarded by news of layoffs and foreclosures.” There is hope hovering above our heads. Those with their heads in the stars are “making an extra effort to look beyond our little planet.  They argue that this age of uncertainty is actually a good time to dream mankind’s biggest dreams. And they’re being encouraged by space-exploration proponents who are finding new ways to involve amateur astronomers.

Last month, the International Space Station, while docked with the shuttle Discovery, was visible to the naked eye. My wife found out the exact minute they would fly over our home in Michigan, and we brought our kids out to the driveway to watch. Sure enough, at the appointed time, a clear bright light arced across the sky 220 miles above us. We were all just wowed. It was an awe-inspiring respite from the challenges down here on Earth.

“We have forgotten the thrill of landing a person on another celestial body. Could there be anything more important than reminding ourselves of just how great we can be?”

Liberal View / Moral Monster

Pope Benedict XVI must be doing something right because the press is crucifying him again.  Monsignor Raun writes, “On his way to Africa, the Pope was asked what the Church thought of AIDS and condoms.  Our Holy Father answered that the real answer was sexual morality, not pieces of plastic.  The press dubbed him ‘a moral monster’.”

The liberalized world and press avoid the Truth, especially on issues of life.  They prefer to propagandize, for the furtherance of liberal, secular, “progressive” agenda’s, which leave God out of such deliberations.  As if an investigation without Truth could be substantive.

“I suspect every abortion, every “compassionate” bit of euthanasia has the evil one stamping his foot in triumphant glee.” says the Anchoress.  In speaking of God’s influence and grace in the world, she submits that such grace is “subdued in  the world” when those “enthusiastic about subduing new life – of judging how much life there should be, and of what quality” play God.

Monsignor Raun makes a few points of his own:

1. Ten to twenty percent of the time, condoms don’t
work. For argument’s sake, let’s say they don’t
work 1 percent of the time. Would anyone say it
was moral to do something that there was a one-ina-
hundred chance of giving someone a deadly illness?
Would any sane person take such a chance
with their own life? (If there was a one-in-a hundred
chance that holy water could give you
AIDS, would any of you put your fingers in the
fount, or allow your children to do so?)
2. And the sad fact is that some people think they are
“invulnerable” if they wear a condom, and so they
are all the more promiscuous – all the more spreading
the possibilities of infecting others with the disease.
Condoms are the answer to AIDS for those people who
are only willing to do what it takes to stop this horrible
disease as long as sexual freedom is preserved – which
for liberal society has become the ultimate good in life.
If you don’t want to get sexually-transmitted AIDS, be
faithful to your spouse or live a chaste single life. This
and this alone, is guaranteed to be 100% effective. It is
also the moral teaching of Christ and His Church –
which is the Holy Father’s duty to teach. To teach anything
else is cruel, and to gamble with peoples lives.

And, from Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, we have this:

To achieve the maximum protective effect, condoms must be used both consistently and correctly. Inconsistent use can lead to STD acquisition because transmission can occur with a single act of intercourse with an infected partner. Similarly, if condoms are not used correctly, the protective effect may be diminished even when they are used consistently. The most reliable ways to avoid transmission of sexually transmitted diseases (STDs), including human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), are to abstain from sexual activity or to be in a long-term mutually monogamous relationship with an uninfected partner. However, many infected persons may be unaware of their infections because STDs are often asymptomatic or unrecognized.

The above report sounds like Russian Roulette to me.  Chastity is still the best policy, even according to disease control scientific and statistical reports.


No Intelligence – No Leaks


Pursuing Holiness sees no intelligence = no leaks as the bright side.

The down side of President Obama’s questionable choice of  Leon Panetta, says J.G.Thayer:

But never in his storied career has he done anything that would even hint at an aptitude for intelligence.

Some of Panetta’s experiences and skills would certainly serve him well at the CIA. He would be good at making sure the Agency stays within its budget and uses its funding most efficiently. He would keep the Agency from getting too close to breaking laws. And his lengthy experiences in government would help him maintain good relations with other agencies and government bodies.

But those are all peripheral to the primary task of the CIA: to collect information, analyze it, and manage it to best uphold our national security.

We’ve seen, far too often, what happens when the CIA fails. The price is often paid in blood — American blood. “Failures of Intelligence” are often cited as the prime factors in the success of the 9/11 attacks. Such failures also lie at the heart of the the Saddam-WMD mistake. And now Barack Obama — for whatever reason — wants to put in charge of the CIA a man with literally zero experience in intelligence, espionage, and covert operations.

We need a Jack Ryan.