extreme Catholic

(To Bill Bennett) Why your defense of Obama'a salary cap is wrong

Obama is wrong to do this. He is acting on a socialist class-warfare impulse. This is the nose of the camel under the tent, this is the slippery slope.

From this point forward, you would change our argument to no longer be "we oppose this on principle" but "we quibble now on the details of this new salary cap"

If they can set salaries for some employees in the private sector that have some touch-points with the federal government, what is to stop them from imposing salary controls on any private sector employee -- we're all entangled in some way with the federal government.

Bill, what's needed now is not compromise with the imposition of stealth socialism with salary controls, with entitlement expansion, and government crowding out the private sector. What the country needs is a full and articulate defense of free market capitalism.

We have experienced a failure of crony capitalism with the bailouts of Freddie and Fannie, and government coercion to lend against traditional lending practices that have worked for centuries. The only alternative is not the creeping socialism of the Democratic Party but Reagan conservatism.

Added in my blog:

I will cheer Obama when he does the thing that is best for America. I want that agenda to succeed.

But when conservatives applaud class-warfare "screw the rich" policies, I am a skeptic.

Labels: obama, politics

posted by Patrick Sweeney at 8:23 AM Permalink

Catholic League: CATHOLIC DEMOCRATS CHIDE POPE

On January 29, nearly 50 Catholic Democratic congressmen sent a letter to Pope Benedict XVI stating their concerns over Bishop Richard Williamson’s comments questioning the historical record on the Holocaust. The bishop belongs to the St. Pius X Society; he is one of four bishops who recently had his excommunication lifted by the pope. The congressmen implored the pope to denounce the bishop’s views.
Catholic League president Bill Donohue spoke to this issue today:
“The congressmen’s letter to the pope smacks of posturing and hypocrisy, and is factually wrong. They begin by saying ‘we are writing to express our deep concerns with your decision to reinstate Bishop Richard Williamson to communion with the Catholic Church….’ The fact is that the pope did not reinstate the bishop to communion with the Church—he merely lifted the excommunication of the four bishops in this group. In order for the bishops to be fully reinstated, they would have to express their fidelity to the teachings of the Church, as well as the norms of Vatican II. In other words, the letter is based on a false predicate.
“Facts aside, this kind of posturing is a disgrace: for American congressmen to lecture the pope about an event in which he was personally victimized, and about which he has long condemned, is nothing short of arrogant.
“The hypocrisy is mind-boggling. They beg the pope to ‘publicly state your unequivocal position on this matter so that it is clear where the Church stands….’ How ironic that most of these very same Catholics fail to speak with clarity about what the Church teaches on abortion. Of the 47 signatories, the majority have a 100 percent NARAL score (meaning they vote with the radical pro-abortion group on every issue). The leader of this group, Rep. Rosa DeLauro, never agrees with the Catholic Church on abortion—her NARAL score is 100 percent.
“One more thing: they addressed the pope not as a head of state but as a ‘spiritual leader.’ Didn’t they ever hear of respecting separation of church and state?”

Also: Washington Post (Saturday 1/31)

And complete text of letter and list of signers on Rep. DeLauro's congressional web Site

Excellent response by the Catholic League. It is mind boggling hypocrisy for these CINO's to demand of the Pope an unequivocal position. The letter makes a pathetic presumption that by lifting the excommunication on Williamson, he gives credibility to Holocaust deniers. That's twisted logic from a Jack Chic comic.

It would be interesting for the signatories to have a retreat with a delegate of the Pope to reflect upon what is the "unequivocal" teaching of Christ's Church.

My own Congressman Joseph Crowley signed the letter.

Labels: catholic, church-state, politics, pope

posted by Patrick Sweeney at 9:30 PM Permalink

Videogames: Mixed Messages

Seeking Alpha:(Nintendo) Targeting Online Gaming for Middle Aged Players

An interesting article tracking that some of the first console videogame players (like 8-bit NES from 1985) are now entering middle age. When I was visiting MIT at age 15 in 1969 I saw the Spacewar! game.

Marketing types are smart about realizing that if you look at any age group -- people with different cultural experiences and tastes move through it each decade.

Some games are just going to mysteriously appeal to over 30's. Scores of marketers are trying to figure out how to match WII's broad age appeal.

Reuters: Lots of TV and Web harms kids' health

Spending a lot of time watching TV, playing video games and surfing the Web makes children more prone to a range of health problems including obesity and smoking, U.S. researchers said on Tuesday.
U.S. National Institutes of Health, Yale University and the California Pacific Medical Center experts analyzed 173 studies done since 1980 in one of the most comprehensive assessments to date on how exposure to media sources impacts the physical health of children and adolescents.

Labels: culture

posted by Patrick Sweeney at 6:22 PM Permalink

Former Senator Tom Daschle

If Daschle's concealment of income doesn't cross the line -- the boundary beyond which you lose your "man of high integrity label" -- what could for a Democrat?

Labels: politics

posted by Patrick Sweeney at 9:56 AM Permalink

I'm thinking a sending Kimberly a copy of the "Gospel of Life"

Felician is an independent co-educational Catholic/Franciscan College founded and sponsored by the Felician Sisters. The College offers programs in four Academic Divisions.

Felician College charges tuition which Kimberly Bannat has chosen to pay for it.

NY Post: HEY, THINGS ARE TOUGH ALL OVA; BROKE GALS SELL EGGS; Talk about golden eggs.
Droves of cash-strapped women are emptying their ovaries to fill their bank accounts.
Kimberly Bannat, a college student from New Jersey, was desperate for funds when she read a plea for young women's eggs to help infertile couples.
The 21-year-old nursing major at Felician College in Lodi went to an Upper East Side clinic in September and ended up making a cool $8,000. She had to go through two interviews, three rounds of medical tests and submit a photo - showing her blond hair and blue eyes - which prospective egg buyers could peruse.

The Catholic Church believes that such donation of eggs is immoral because it separates the generation of human life from a natural sex act. The United States Catholic Conference has a summary of the teaching.

Many countries prohibit this as being unethical -- a financial exploitation of the women involved. It's not really a "donation" but the sale of one's body parts. More on this in an article in FIRST THINGS

Labels: catholic, pro-life

posted by Patrick Sweeney at 7:29 PM Permalink