Irony Alert
Hattip to The Catholic Key Blog. Comments of President Obama at the Holocaust Memorial in Washington.
“It is the grimmest of ironies that one of the most savage, barbaric acts of evil in history began in one of the most modernized societies of its time, where so many markers of human progress became tools of human depravity: science that can heal used to kill; education that can enlighten used to rationalize away basic moral impulses; the bureaucracy that sustains modern life used as the machinery of mass death — a ruthless, chillingly efficient system where many were responsible for the killing, but few got actual blood on their hands.”
Obama: Armenian 'Atrocities', Not Genocide
April 24, 1915 A.D. is the date fixed for the beginning of the Armenian Genocide where over 1.5 million Armenian Christians were slaughtered by the Turkish Muslims through deportation, starvation, slave labor, and concentration camps.
Today President Obama referred to the Armenian Genocide as “one of the great atrocities of the 20th century.” Thus breaking his campaign promise of calling it a genocide in deference to Turkey’s delicate sensibilities to their Armenian question.
This display of masterful verbal calisthenics has not been seen since Bill Clinton’s impeachment hearings of ’99. President Obama skillfully used over a 100 words to explain these ‘atrocities’ instead of utilizing the more efficient use of ‘genocide’, which is one (1) word exactly (comments mine).
“(O)ne of the great atrocities of the 20th century. I have consistently stated my own view of what occurred in 1915, and my view of that history has not changed (a falsehood). My interest remains the achievement of a full, frank and just acknowledgment of the facts. The best way to advance that goal right now is for the Armenian and Turkish people to address the facts of the past as a part of their efforts to move forward. (The Armenians who were massacred in the final days of the Ottoman Empire) must live on in our memories. Reckoning with the past holds out the powerful promise of reconciliation. I strongly support efforts by the Turkish and Armenian people to work through this painful history in a way that is honest, open, and constructive.”
For the article click here.
To learn more about the Armenian Genocide click here.
Update I: The following are excellent articles relating to today about the Armenian Genocide.
Armenians Remember 1915 Killings
Colbert On Obama's Tortured Reasoning
The Pandora’s box that President Obama has opened with the release of the torture memo’s has caused quite a stir in the Catholic blogosphere. Nonetheless the stealth Catholic, comedian Stephen Colbert, has geniusely made a humorous rendition of the logic floating around Washington on the torture controversy. Biretta tip to Mark Shea.
[vodpod id=Groupvideo.2419680&w=425&h=350&fv=autoPlay%3Dfalse]
Catholic Democrats of Ohio vs. the Catholic Bishops
Rich Leonardi (Ten Reasons) posts some particularly damning evidence as to where the Catholic Democrats of Ohio’s loyalties reside on the matter of Notre Dame’s honoring Barack Obama with a law degree:
In the event you are unsure which word in the group name “Catholic Democrats” is more important, this release should provide some clarity
No Guarantees
I was struck by this Megan McArdle post, of which I will go ahead a quote a large chunk:
Guess what, honey? You’re not entitled. You can do everything right, and the universe doesn’t owe you anything. Neither do your fellow taxpayers. If there is any way to save the banking system without paying you $2 million a year, I will do it, not because I hate you and want to rob you, but because I don’t want to pay more than I have to. You may have come across this concept in business school. At Chicago, we called it “a market”.
The real problem with investment bankers goes deeper, and is the problem of the entire upper middle class: we have come to believe that complying with the rules produces excellent results as by some natural law. In school, if you do your work, teacher gives you an A. It comes to seem like a sort of a natural law: if you have a good education and work hard, the universe is supposed to reward you. After school, the upper middle class gravitates towards careers with very well defined advancement hierarchies: medicine, law, finance, consulting, where this subtle belief is constantly reinforced. Continue reading
April Is Abortion Recovery Awareness Month
Hattip to Opinionated Catholic. Abortion Recovery International, a group dedicated to helping women heal from the trauma of abortion has proclaimed April as Abortion Recovery Awareness Month. Bobby Jindal, Governor of Louisiana, has issued a proclamation, as has Governor Rick Perry of Texas. Bravo to the Governors! Hey Jenkins, if Notre Dame really needs to honor a politician, you need look no farther than Catholic convert Bobby Jindal!
Will The Real Utopians Please Stand Up?
To follow up my last post on the Papal defense of Distributist ideas, I think it is also time we cleared up this notion of ‘what can work’ and what actually does work.
Distributism, if it is practically defined as a set of social or political initiatives that encourage greater ownership of property, and specifically, worker ownership of the means of production, does exist and does work.
Here are some regional facts to consider:
Canada
“In Canada, there are distinct trends in worker co-operatives in Québec and the rest of the country. From 1993 to 2003, there was 87% growth in Québec and 25% growth in the rest of Canada.”
The United States
” In 2004, there were 300 worker co-operatives and 11,500 ESOPs covering over 8.5 million participants and controlling about $500 billion in assets.”
Spain
“Spain is home to the world’s oldest and most famous worker co-operative, the Mondragon Corporacion Cooperativa (MCC), established in 1956. In 2004, this group located in the Basque County, had sales of 10.4 Billion euros, 10.0 Billion euros of administered assets, with a workforce of 71,500.”
Torture, Effectiveness, & Consequentialism
I have been meaning to post on the torture memos since last week, but have not had time. For now, I’ll point you to a post of Blackadder’s, which highlights the unconvincing arguments currently being floated to justify the Bush Administration’s use of torture:
The latest meme running through these sites is that while it may be honorable to be opposed to torture on principle, we ought to be reasonable and just admit that torture works. Here, for example, is Jonah Goldberg:
I have no objection to the moral argument against torture — if you honestly believe something amounts to torture. But the “it doesn’t work” line remains a cop out, no matter how confidently you bluster otherwise.
Unreasonable Compensation
With people focused on the economic downturn, many have found it a good time to give a little extra thought to whether other people are making more than they ought to. The president has spoken out several times against “excessive compensation” of executives, and a number of people have floated the idea of adjusting the top marginal income tax rate to effectively cap total compensation at ten million dollars a year. MZ tackled the question somewhat humorously here.
Beyond question, $10 million is a lot of money. Most of us will never see anything like that much money, and so it seems entirely reasonable to demand: Why should anyone be paid so much? What’s so special about CEOs and actors and baseball players that they deserve tens of millions of dollars? Aren’t they running off with the money that we should be getting instead?
I certainly wouldn’t claim that executives are not often paid more than they are worth. A board of directors is still a group of people with emotional commitments (including wanting to assure themselves that they made the right pick in choosing the current CEO) and they will certainly not always do what is in their own best interest. Though we may be comforted that in a free economy the incentives are in place to automatically punish them for not doing so.
Bishop D'Arcy Responds
In a prior post, I noted the defense of Jenkins, President of Notre Dame, that Notre Dame honoring our pro-abort President on May 17, 2009 wasn’t a problem because Obama wasn’t a Catholic and that the policy of the USCCB against Catholic institutions honoring pro-abort politicians only applied to Catholic pro-abort politicians. No, that wasn’t a joke by me. That was his actual defense. Bishop D’Arcy, the Bishop of the Diocese of Fort Wayne-South Bend which includes Notre Dame in its geographic area, had previously indicated that he did not approve of the invitation and that as a result he would not attend the commencement on May17.
The Bishop has now responded to the defense of Jenkins that the honoring of Obama was not in violation of the policy of the USCCB.
Stop Calling Me a Commie!
I can’t seem to go to any Catholic website or forum and talk about Distributism without at least one person accusing me of being a communist.
So, I post this not only for myself, but for anyone reading who is also sympathetic to the idea of spreading, by voluntary means, greater workers’ ownership of the means of production throughout society. Keep these in mind if you ever find yourself backed into a corner.
Rerum Novarum, 46 & 47. Excerpt:
“We have seen that this great labor question cannot be solved save by assuming as a principle that private ownership must be held sacred and inviolable. The law, therefore, should favor ownership, and its policy should be to induce as many as possible of the people to become owners.”
Quadragesimo Anno, 65. Excerpt:
“Workers and other employees thus become sharers in ownership or management or participate in some fashion in the profits received.”
Mater et Magistra, 75-77. Excerpt:
“[I]t is especially desirable today that workers gradually come to share in the ownership of their company, by ways and in the manner that seem most suitable.”
Laborem Exercens, 14. Excerpt:
“We can speak of socializing only when the subject character of society is ensured, that is to say, when on the basis of his work each person is fully entitled to consider himself a part-owner of the great workbench at which he is working with every one else.”
If this is communism, then the Church is the original communist international, and the Bolsheviks were just wasiting their time. Or, maybe, the people who call these ideas ‘communist’ don’t know what they’re talking about. It’s probably that.
Res & Explicatio for A.D. 4-22-2009
Salvete AC readers!
Here are today’s Top Picks in the Catholic world:
1. The HOT rumor of the day is that “Father John Jenkins, the president of Notre Dame, is in Washington today (Tuesday) for an unannounced meeting at the White House.”
Is he personally visiting with President Obama to offer his sincere apologies for rescinding the invitation to speak at the commencement? Rescind the honorary law degree? Ask for a job after he gets fired?
Your guess is as good as mine.
Phil Lawler of Catholic World News received a report from a reliable source of Fr. Jenkin’s unannounced visit to the White House and they cannot confirm this report yet.
In other news, this past Monday Fr. Jenkins expressed his profound pride in honoring the most pro-abortion president in U.S. history.
2. Have you seen Fr. Dwight Longenecker’s updated and revised blog? It is awesome!
3. Even though the 2012 U.S. presidential elections are three years away we can dream and speculate who we would like to run for office between either a Democratic or Republican candidate (or even a legitimate third party candidate). One name that has become quite intriguing to me is the former U.S. Representative from Georgia, Newt Gingrich. His mea culpa of his previous marriages, his incredible intellect, speaking skills, and his recent conversion to our beautiful Catholic faith makes him my favorite for now.
Debt Sun
Hattip to Instapundit. The Heritage Foundation supplied the above graphic which compares Obama budget “cuts” of $100,000,000.00 to the appropriations bill for fiscal 2009 of $410,000,000,000.00, the Bankrupt the Nation Act of 2009, sometimes erronously called the “stimulus” bill, which has a price tag of $787,000,000,000.00 and the estimated bill for fiscal year 2010 of $3,600,000,000,000.00. How ludicrous is all this? Ludicrous enough that the Obama supportive Associated Press makes fun of it. Ludicrous enough that even Paul Krugman is chuckling.
In Defense Of Pope Benedict
I have been quite troubled by the endless stream of abuse that has been directed at Pope Benedict XVI over the course of the last year. Now it may be reaching new lows. A friend of mine sent me this link to a German news site that tells of a mock “trial” in a “virtual courtroom” to be held for Benedict over his alleged role in the deaths of millions from AIDS, as well as his alleged support for anti-Semitism. Unfortunately my friend did not include a link to the translation, which he only copied into the text of the email. Here are the highlights:
“In the second hearing, the top Dutch lawyer Gerard Spong was less fortunate. Three indictments were levied against his “client” Benedict XVI. In addition to his responsibility for the spread of AIDS, the Pope also “legitimises anti-Semitism” – because he did not immediately distance himself from the Holocaust-denier and Lefebvrist Bishop Richard Williamson distances – and finally was also charged with discrimination against women and homosexuals. The indictment was supported with pictures of the Pope in front of a swastika, as well as pictures of concentration camp prisoners and dying Africans.”
Make America Safe Street By Street – Here's How
Here is something I wrote over at Facebook’s “Dads Protecting Daughters”- Joe and I traded some comments there, and I thought I would open it up to the American Catholic society! Here goes:
A Safer World For All Children
We have touched upon some of the cultural issues relating to the protection and nurturing of our daughters (and sons- really this Facebook cause “Dads Protecting Daughters” directly relates to boys and girls). Now I want to bring up something on the literal street level- this is a political and economic area of concern. I am a huge “root causes” guy- the Catholic social teachings and Hierarchical commentaries are constantly saying in effect- “be courageous, look at the root causes of violence, of terrorism, of war”. I take this very, very seriously.
EconTalk
For something over a year now, I’ve been enjoying the EconTalk podcast, something which Blackadder of Vox Nova turned me on to. EconTalk is a weekly, one hour podcast put out by the Library of Economics and Liberty. It’s hosted by Dr. Russ Roberts, a professor of economics at George Mason University and regular National Public Radio commentator on economics, and the format is usually one of Prof. Roberts interviewing an economist about his/her recent book, or about an topic of current interest. And generally it succeeds in pursuing that fascinating middle ground of being accessible to the general listener while not shying away from discussing highly technical/academic topics.
I was inspired to post on them at this point because this week’s podcast was of a different format than usual, consisting of an extended interview of Prof. Roberts by a journalist on the difference between wealth and income, and what it means to say that we have “become much less wealthy” over the course of the recession of the last 6-9 months. Roberts also discusses the inexact nature of economics as a science and how the uncertainties of interpreting data play into policy debates.
Krugman's Foundation
This Newsweek article about Nobel Prize-winning economist and NY Times columnist Paul Krugman contained an interesting biographical detail:
Krugman says he found himself in the science fiction of Isaac Asimov, especially the “Foundation” series—”It was nerds saving civilization, quants who had a theory of society, people writing equations on a blackboard, saying, ‘See, unless you follow this formula, the empire will fail and be followed by a thousand years of barbarism’.”
His Yale was “not George Bush’s Yale,” he says—no boola-boola, no frats or secret societies, rather “drinking coffee in the Economics Department lounge.” Social science, he says, offered the promise of what he dreamed of in science fiction—”the beauty of pushing a button to solve problems. Sometimes there really are simple solutions: you really can have a grand idea.”
Priest of Andersonville
I normally take great pride in being an American, but there are passages in our history which all Americans should be ashamed of. During our Civil War in many prison camps, both North and South, POWs were treated wretchedly with inadequate shelter, clothing and food. The worst by far was Andersonville.
Google's Top 25 Catholic Websites
John Henry and myself are a bit of stats geeks and we’ve been trying to figure out the most accurate way to gauge the number of visits American Catholic has been receiving by our readers. We use WordPress, Sitemeter, and Feedburner to see how we fare and I’ve entertained the possibility of using StatCounter to add to our curious habit. Then John Henry mentioned Google Reader and how it keeps tabs of the number of subscribers each website and blog has. That gave me the idea to add all of my favorite Catholic websites and see which ones have the most subscribers!
Now before you go and see who ranks where keep in mind that Google Reader only keeps track of Google account holders that add websites and/or blogs to their reader. It doesn’t keep track of how many times a site is visited and not all websites such as the Vatican (and yes even a couple of blogs such as Catholic Report) don’t even offer an RSS or Atom feed to subscribe to. If it’s any consolation Google Reader seems to be the most popular reader out there with Bloglines a close second.
Dawn Johnsen
Obama has picked Dawn Johnsen to head the Office of Legal Counsel for the Department of Justice. Dawn Johnsen was the legal director of the National Abortion Rights Action League back in the eighties.
Deal Hudson on Israel and Palestinian Christians, Revisited
In his latest article for InsideCatholic.com, Deal Hudson presents Ten Hard Facts Confronting Benedict XVI in the Holy Land concerning the plight of Palestinian Christians.
One would expect that — when presenting a list of “hard facts”, particularly a topic as provocative as the Israeli-Palestinian conflict — elementary journalistic standards would require the citation of a source.
Furthermore, one might expect the placement of such statistics in context to further enable a moral evaluation.
That Hudson completely neglects to do this is frustrating, to say the least.
Moral Simpletons
I am not, contrary to how it may seem at times, a leftist. I used to consider myself one some time ago, and I suppose on certain issues, such as foreign policy and immigration, I still am.
But the left’s moral logic, especially with regard to sexual issues, never appealed to me, much for the same reason most forms of libertarian economics don’t – it looks, smells, and often is extremely self-centered, and I wish I could say that without offending good-hearted libertarians who aren’t actually selfish at all.
There is a certain obessesion at times with double-standards and hypocrisy. In the debates over contraception and abortion, for example, these are the arguments I would hear over and over:
![](http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_YqM_zH1K7Uw/TOK1hLlt3BI/AAAAAAAAA1o/HCzoksN1-ME/s1600/email+icon+32x32.png")
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