Archive for September, 2008

Bell, Book and Candle

Posted in 2008 Election, Ethics & Morality, Religion on September 19th, 2008

Sen. Joe Biden has a problem with the Catholic Church – his stance on abortion which is in direct defiance of teachings and precepts of the religion the Delaware Senator purports to belong to.

Several Bishops and Arch-Bishops have already issued declarations denying Biden the Eucharist within their diocese and arch-diocese. This is but one step away from excommunication.

Pope Benedict XVI, then Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, wrote in 2004:

Regarding the grave sin of abortion or euthanasia, when a person’s formal cooperation becomes manifest (understood, in the case of a Catholic politician, as his consistently campaigning and voting for permissive abortion and euthanasia laws), his pastor should meet with him, instructing him about the Church’s teaching, informing him that he is not to present himself for holy Communion until he brings to an end the objective situation of sin, and warning him that he will otherwise be denied the Eucharist.

So one must wonder how long it will be before the Catholic Church takes the next step in remonstrating the wayward Senator and formally excommunicates him. Since all 55 US Catholic Bishops and Arch-Bishops have denounced the Democratic vice Presidential candidate I do not believe this step is very far away.

Indeed, Pope Benedict XVI has previously in 2007 unequivocally stated that pro-choice politicians not only should be denied communion, but face outright excommunication from the Church for supporting the killing of a human child.

Yes, that they are excommunicated isn’t something arbitrary. It’s envisioned in the law of the Church that the killing of a human child is incompatible with being in communion with the body of Christ.

— Pope Benedict XVI

According to Wikipedia, in the Middle Ages, formal acts of public excommunication were accompanied by a ceremony wherein a bell was tolled as for the dead, the Book of the Gospels was closed, and a candle snuffed out – hence the idiom “to condemn with bell, book and candle.”

It is not normal for such public ceremonies to be held today. Only in cases where a person’s excommunicable offense is very public and likely to confuse people – such as Biden’s case – is a person’s excommunicated status even announced, and that usually by a simple statement from a church official.

This may present quite a problem for the Obama-Biden campaign. Biden is being trashed across every state of the Union by Catholic newspapers, TV and radio stations, and blogs – and the likelihood of his excommunication will only make that worse.

There are 47 million Catholic voters in the United States. One quarter of all registered voters are Catholics. At every presidential election in the past 30 years the Catholic vote has gone to the winning candidate, except for Al Gore in 2000.

How many of these Catholic voters will vote for a man on the verge of being excommunicated?

Will the tolling of a bell be the death knell of Obama’s campaign? Will the book that is closed be the book on the Democrat’s chance at the White House? Will that candle that is snuffed out be the hope of the pro-choice Liberals?

Misdefining Racism

Posted in Ethics & Morality, Politics, Society on September 18th, 2008

Language shapes or gives shape to human thought. Therefore changes to culture’s language either represent a change in the what or how the culture thinks or are an attempt to induce changes in how the culture thinks.

This becomes quite clear when one looks at how people – mostly in America and other parts of Western Culture – have changed the definition of the “racism” in order to further their own agenda. In the past racism was defined in a denotative manner that contained no dependencies on secondary functions, constructs, or systems.

The Merriam-Webster Dictionary definition:

Racism
Function: noun
Date: 1933

Definition(s):

  1. a belief that race is the primary determinant of human traits and capacities and that racial differences produce an inherent superiority of a particular race
  2. racial prejudice or discrimination

This was and is the proper definition of racism. It accurately denotes and defines the phenomenon of racism.

Sadly, various Sociologists decided to craft a new definition of racism, one more suited to the agenda of societal change. Their new (mis)definition is:

Racism
Function: noun
Date: 1970

Definition(s):

  1. Prejudice plus power

This (mis)definition of racism has its roots in the writings of Dr. Delmo Della Dora, who first devised this corruption of the meaning and nature of racism. It is a purely agenda-driven definition of racism. It’s purpose is to make racism a purely White problem and to free minorities from any and all responsibility for their own bigotry. In other words, this is a claim that no member of a minority group can be racist due the prevailing demographic disparities prevent them from having significant power.

This serves no purpose except as an attempt to lock Whites and minorities into fixed roles of oppressor and victim, with the latter either trying extracting concessions from the former or in rebellion against the former.

Only White people can be racist. This the battle cry of a generation of anti-racist activists, theorists, and minority leaders who have twisted the English language to further their agenda. It is a slogan that hopefully will go down in history as one of the most poorly conceived counterproductive arguments ever made by man.

A Bit Of Truth

Posted in 2008 Election, Politics on September 17th, 2008

Here’s a little bit of truth concerning Sen. McCain, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and the current economic crisis that Obama, his followers and their MSM shills don’t want to publish.

Here is the truth straight from the US Congressional Record:

Mr. President, this week Fannie Mae’s regulator reported that the company’s quarterly reports of profit growth over the past few years were “illusions deliberately and systematically created” by the company’s senior management, which resulted in a $10.6 billion accounting scandal.

The Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight’s report goes on to say that Fannie Mae employees deliberately and intentionally manipulated financial reports to hit earnings targets in order to trigger bonuses for senior executives. In the case of Franklin Raines, Fannie Mae’s former chief executive officer, OFHEO’s report shows that over half of Mr. Raines’ compensation for the 6 years through 2003 was directly tied to meeting earnings targets. The report of financial misconduct at Fannie Mae echoes the deeply troubling $5 billion profit restatement at Freddie Mac.

The OFHEO report also states that Fannie Mae used its political power to lobby Congress in an effort to interfere with the regulator’s examination of the company’s accounting problems. This report comes some weeks after Freddie Mac paid a record $3.8 million fine in a settlement with the Federal Election Commission and restated lobbying disclosure reports from 2004 to 2005. These are entities that have demonstrated over and over again that they are deeply in need of reform.

For years I have been concerned about the regulatory structure that governs Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac–known as Government-sponsored entities or GSEs–and the sheer magnitude of these companies and the role they play in the housing market. OFHEO’s report this week does nothing to ease these concerns. In fact, the report does quite the contrary. OFHEO’s report solidifies my view that the GSEs need to be reformed without delay.

I join as a cosponsor of the Federal Housing Enterprise Regulatory Reform Act of 2005, S. 190, to underscore my support for quick passage of GSE regulatory reform legislation. If Congress does not act, American taxpayers will continue to be exposed to the enormous risk that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac pose to the housing market, the overall financial system, and the economy as a whole.

I urge my colleagues to support swift action on this GSE reform legislation.

— Sen. John McCain
The Floor of the US Senate, May 25, 2006

That is correct; in 2005 Sen. McCain co-sponsored – along with four other Republican senators – legislation that might well have prevented the housing debacle and its resultant economic upheaval. Sadly, the Democrats led by Barney Frank and Chris Dodd quashed the bill before it could even be brought to vote.

Never Forget

Posted in Ethics & Morality, Society on September 11th, 2008

Never Forget, Never Forgive

May the Gods bless America with Vision to find those who have wronged us and murdered among us, with the strength of Arm to chastise them and bring them before the Gods for judgment, and the Will to use our Vision and our the strength of our Arm wreak our retribution upon our enemies and bring them low and into dust.

On Palin and Gender

Posted in 2008 Election on September 5th, 2008

Alaska’s Governor Sarah, Palin has been chosen by Senator John McCain to be his Vice Presidential nominee and running mate in the 2008 US presidential elections. The vast majority of people – certainly almost all of the Left – believe that Gov. Palin was chosen solely because of her gender. The general assumption among the Democrats is that her nomination was nothing beyond a poorly executed pandering to the die-hard Hillary Clinton supporters who feel so abused and maligned by the Democratic Party and the Obama campaign.

I truly wonder if this was the case. This does not mean that I believe the the GOP is beyond such tactics. It merely means that I do not hold them in such contempt that I believe they would execute any campaign strategy that poorly.

It’s absolutely no secret that McCain wanted Sen. Joe Lieberman as his VP. Lieberman was an politically unacceptable choice though. An ex-Democrat now Independent who ran with Al Gore in the 2000 election wasn’t going to be acceptable to the GOP or their conservative base. McCain had to choose another running mate. That’s where it gets interesting.

Palin based on her political views – especially her hatred of government corruption – was always a fine choice for McCain’s VP.  Much of her – albeit limited – political history shows that she was a good match for the “maverick” McCain. Alas, she was a woman and the GOP could not be expected to accept a female VP candidate. Then along came Hillary and the resulting rather bitter schism within the Democrats. Suddenly a female VP candidate was politically viable.

So the question becomes did McCain choose Palin as his running mate because she was a woman or did he choose her for political positions and cultural views despite or irrespective of her being a woman thanks to Clinton making it palatable to the GOP?

The Left will tell you the reason was the former, but I believe it was the latter.  Palin bring far to much to McCain’s campaign from within the Right and so little from the Left that it’s ridiculous to think that the McCain and the GOP would have chosen her in order to pander to Hillary’s supporters.