extreme Catholic 

	The inflatable rat is ever present as the visible sign that there are scab workers. The last time I saw them, it was a protest in front of a former union supermarket that had closed and re-opened as a non-union supermarket. The reason it had closed was because paying union wages made it non-competitive.
Who would Jesus deport?

An immigration policy that discriminates on a strictly racial or national origin basis would be immoral. But who is advocating that?

What immigration policy did the Jesus' own people have? They were very tough. Read Nehemiah 13 which condemned the presence of foreigners and intermarriage.

For that matter, look at the Holy Family, they fled to Egypt, but returned, rather than becoming immigrants to that land.

Who would Jesus deport? I think he'd leave it to the people to decide as a matter of collective prudential judgment.

What's my contribution to the collective prudential judgment? Enforce the law and reduce new illegal immigration. For people currently who entered illegally or overstayed visas, etc., they should return to the country where they are citizens and apply to enter legally.

Labels: immigration

posted by Patrick Sweeney at 10:54 PM   Permalink  

I think Huckabee realized that he didn't have to directly mention Romney's Mormon faith, he simply had to emphasize his own.

I think that Huckabee wanted to peel off evangelical voters and couldn't keep the genie in the bottle. Huckabee calculated that he could play the evangelical card, and the voters would follow. But he's not running for president of an evangelical convention but president of the United States. He thinks the Christian identity tactic is containable.

But the media is playing him -- acting as amplifier for every religious reference that comes up. Having mentioned religion, he can't escape it now in each interview. Even his denials are raw meat for the 24-hour news grinder cycle.

The media love characterizing this as religious war within the Republican party or the conservative movement. Everyone is talking about it.

So callers to talk radio have a new template:

Y'know the religious right is mucking up this campaign again -- making their number one issue who the better Christian is. We need to keep religion out of politics.

Intended or not, I blame Huckabee for giving callers like this plausibility and creating a big distraction, our political opposition is happy to exploit.

Labels: election

posted by Patrick Sweeney at 9:14 PM   Permalink  

My copy of the Constitution doesn't say anything about Iowans getting the influence to pick the president which they currently have.

To the Iowa voters who have declared to pollsters: undecided

What is it going to take to get you to decide? Edwards started his campaign in Iowa in August 2005. That's 7 months after the second Bush inaugural, and that's 28 months ago.

Not only should you have decided by now. You should had petitioned to have held the caucuses months ago, so you could have a Christmas season in peace.

Labels: election

posted by Patrick Sweeney at 9:04 PM   Permalink  

What will be interesting to see is if he has become Catholic on his own terms or on the Church's terms. Of all the available articles I picked this one because it has the pro-life angle:

The Society for the Protection of Unborn Children (SPUC) reacted with surprise to the news.

John Smeaton, SPUC's national director, said: "During his premiership Tony Blair became one of the world's most significant architects of the culture of death, promoting abortion, experimentation on unborn embryos, including cloned embryos, and euthanasia by neglect.

"SPUC is writing to Tony Blair to ask him whether he has repented of the anti-life positions he has so openly advocated throughout his political career."

Tory MP Ann Widdecombe, who converted to Catholicism in 1993, told Sky News it was possible in her opinion to be a practising Catholic and prime minister.

She said: "I think the crucial thing to remember is at the point you are received (into the Catholic church) you have to say individually and out loud 'I believe everything the church teaches to be revealed truth'.

"And that means if you previously had any problems with church teaching, as Tony Blair obviously did over abortion, as he did again over Sunday trading...you would have to say you changed your mind.

"And I think people will want to know that he did go through that process, because otherwise it will seem as if the church did make an exception for somebody just because of who he is."

It will be interesting to hear if and how his public policy position has changed on abortion. Of course, his wife has been widely accused of being in favor of abortion rights, artificial contraception, and same sex unions. I haven't seen any affirmations or denials attributed to her, just the imputation.

The consensus is that Tony Blair's political career is finished at age 54. This merely seals it.

Labels: anglican, convert, pro-life, uk

posted by Patrick Sweeney at 8:42 PM   Permalink