Punditry

U.S. Sen. John F. Kerry, who was scorched in his 1996 campaign for making only piddling donations to charity, apparently hasn’t gotten any more generous since deciding he wanted to become president.

At a recent charity event for Holy Name Parish School in West Roxbury, Kerry was among a slew of politicians, businesses and others who chipped in items for a “Reach for the Stars” auction.

So what did Kerry offer?

An 8 x 10 autographed photo – of himself.

The winning bid was a grand total of $18, according to sources. That would pay for about one chapter of a textbook.

[Full Story]

I remember the year that Vice President Al Gore wrote off a whopping $150 in donations to charity. It is amazing that people who are so generous with tax payers money are so stingy with their own.

As Little Green Footballs report “People around the world are making the al-Sahaf/Monty Python” reference. My post on Delusional Diplomats wasn’t even close on being the first ones specifically making the Black Knight scene comparison.

Here is a flash movie Super Al Sahaf that does it visually. This contains itchy and scratchy like gore.

With the release of the article from CNN’s chief news executive Eason Jordanis is CNN going to come up with some new mottos like:

We don’t report, we hide

CNN the news network most trusted by brutal dictactors

All the news that fit to pass Iraqi censors

LOS ANGELES – The Los Angeles City Council voted unanimously Wednesday to replace the term “South-Central Los Angeles” with “South Los Angeles” on city documents and signs, a move supporters said would help erase a stigma that has dogged that part of the city.

…”With a name change and a new attitude of the people, maybe when the government decides to bring jobs in, they will bring them to our neighborhood, instead of ignoring us,” said resident Carol Black, who attended the council meeting.
[Full Story]

If changing the name changes the attitude then why don’t they just rename it to “Rich and entrepreneureal” Los Angeles. Any kids with behaviour problems we could rename them to Well Adjusted Happy Person, if they are failing in school just rename them to Einstein (well maybe not Einstein since he was considered a slow learner and dropped out). We could clean out our prisons by renaming the prisoners to “Law abiding citizen.” Rename Death Valley to the Garden of Eden and the land would be instantly reformed and people would move there by the thousands. Well I have to go now and see the judge to have my name legally changed to “Saintly handsome thin billionaire genius with more hits than the Drudge Report.”

It is hard to understand the psychology of the political suicide bombers. What makes them do it? At least political suicide does no damage other then to the person involved. First we had Senator Tom Daschle castigation Bush and talking about failed diplomacy. Then Senator Kerry during the war saying ” we need a regime change” in our own country. And now House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi says:

“I have absolutely no regret about my vote on this war,” she told reporters at her weekly briefing yesterday, saying the same questions still remain: “The cost in human lives. The cost to our budget, probably $100 billion. We could have probably brought down that statue for a lot less….”

Concentrating on the symbolism of the statue seems to me to be typical democratic misunderstanding of equating symbolism with reality. Obviously she can’t believe that if we would only have sent a cruise missile after that statue that it would have been the same results; so why the stupid statement? It also strikes me as disengenious for a Democrat to ask about the monetary cost of anything, you will never find the true sticker price on any program they support. If she doesn’t believe the war to be just then it wouldn’t matter if we conducted it on a shoestring budget or not. Of course when Clinton was President and launched and attack on Iraq she said:

“I believe in negotiated solutions to international conflict. This is, unfortunately, not going to be the case in this situation where Saddam Hussein has been a repeat offender, ignoring the international community’s requirement that he come clean with his weapons program.”

I tend to doubt she had a change of heart now about the necessity for action, more likely because of the change of the person in the Oval Office.

One thing that I have liked about the just war debate that went on in St. Blogs was that it concentrated on the points of just war theory and not about personalities. No idiotic blood for oil statements or other statements of that ilk. There were varied opinions on both sides of the debate, but it was a true debate. Unfortunately in this era of sound bites all that gets reported are quick verbal jabs of little substance. The art of debate and persuasive rhetoric has degenerated and we are all the poorer for it.

I always wondered what the solution to the AIDS crisis was and now Michael
J. Kelly, S.J. of the Catholic Jesuit AIDS
Network has provided the answer.

• to ensure that by 2015 every child can access and complete free and compulsory
  basic education of good quality, and
• the elimination by 2005 of gender disparities in primary and secondary
  education

If only we had a vaccine for gender disparities we could end AIDS tomorrow.
I hadn’t previously pondered if a priest (even a Jesuit) could write thousands
of words on preventing AIDS and not mention morality, but I now see that it
can
be done.
There also was not one biblical verse mentioned but the secular gospels from
the UN were heavily quoted.

…Educators should be equally forceful in affirming the value and wonder
of a relationship, something that is so valuable that it needs safeguards,
whether
these be of no sex, deferred sex, or protected sex.

Yes that foundation of Catholic thought, protected sex; NOT.

..Other HIV risk-reducing factors, such as delayed sexual debut, reducing
the frequency of partner exchange, avoidance of casual sex or the management
of
such encounters to protect against HIV transmission.

Another basic Catholic principle management of casual sex encounters, I guess
that means putting them on your day planner. The new gospel by his account
"Thou show not commit fornication – frequently".

..There is a growing consensus among Catholic moral theologians that the Church’s
teaching finds room for this life-saving, "prophylactic" use of condoms.
In this situation, the condom is used to protect against lethal infection.
It is not being used to prevent conception. The protection of life takes priority
and justifies the use of a condom.

Yes a growing consensus among dissident theologians.

I wrote to the Catholic Site that recommend this site in their email newsletter
as a "FEATURED CATHOLIC WEBSITE." The reply I received back was:

I understand there is great anguish there about the need to blindly follow
Church teaching in the face of acute pain and suffering. The SABC has turned
a blind eye to the use of condoms, and Rome has not reacted to this. I have
not been there, but I would guess that you would need to see for yourself to
understand that in this rare situation, the preservation of human dignity,
and indeed life, demands such measures.

Also be aware that we do not make an assurance that everything contained in
sites we review is in accordance with Church teaching. But thank you for alerting
us to the concern.

"blindly follow Church teaching in the face of acute pain
and suffering" This was not the reply I expected back. More situational ethics
where the circumstances change morality. I guess I just never got around to
reading the fine print under the Ten Commandments. This sound hauntingly familiar
to the arguments used by people to allow divorce and remarriage, that there
is just too much pain and suffering caused by not allowing it. I never signed
up for this newsletter but seemed to have been volunteered for it, but now
I have unsubscribed.

Islamabad, Pakistan: An audio tape purportedly from
al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden warned Muslims everywhere they are under threat
from the United States,
and called for suicide attacks against US and British interests to "avenge
the innocent children" of Iraq.

The 27-minute tape quoted extensively from the Muslim
holy book, the Koran, and said jihad, or holy war, was the "only solution
to all the problems."
[Full Story]

In related news, from the latest issue of "Arab Tape Fabricators" is
an
article by Bin Laden’s own fabricator.

"In recent days the release of video tapes by the Iraqi
government to prove that Saddam Hussein is still alive have been a total amateur
endeavor
and gives a black eye to other dead arab tape fabricators. Just showing stock
footage of Saddam and his sons in an undisclosed location with no audio feed
is just totally lacking in artistic merit. We as responsible tape fabricators
work hard at our art so that at the end the viewer becomes unsure as to whether
the person
is
dead or alive. My work with al Qaida has always sown doubt in the western world
as to the fate of Bin Laden. I meticulously work to provide audio tapes just
distorted enough to make voice authentication impossible but still good enough
to play over and over again as a news item. Scripting the videos is an art
form in itself as our writers write drafts and do multiple revisions to include
just the right amount and balance of "jihad" and "death to americans" statements.
The daily releases of Saddam Hussien videos hurt our efforts and cast doubt
on the validity of our own tapes. Their propaganda attempts have also been
woefully lacking in professionalism. Rumors that Hussien is in the Russian
Embassy, or
in Syria, or somewhere else abound showing no coordination in their rumor attempts.
We diligently worked at being consistent in inserting rumors about Bin Laden
being in Pakistan or around the border, we didn’t have him showing up in multiple
countries at the same time."

"I sincerely doubt that their fabricator is credentialed
and probably fabricated his own fabrication degree. Anyone who is truly interested
in pursuing a highly rewarding career as a tape fabricator I would strongly
suggest that they attend the finest schools first, such as Michael Moore’s
School of
Propaganda."

A transatlantic row threatened to erupt over the future of Iraq last night when France demanded that the United Nations take over from Britain and America once the fighting ends.

With ferocious battles taking place between American and Iraqi forces in the heart of Baghdad, Tony Blair and President George W Bush announced plans to give the UN a “vital role”, rather than overall responsibility, for creating a new Iraq.
[Full Story]

We should go ahead and toss France a bone by letting them rebuild Iraq’s military and teach them their tactics. Two birds with one stone; France shuts up and Iraq is never a military threat again.

Buildings in the al-Mansour neighborhood of Baghdad lie in ruins Monday afternoon, April 7, 2003 after a U.S. warplane dropped four bunker-busting bombs on the site where Iraqi President Saddam Hussein (news – web sites) was believed to be meeting with his sons. (AP Photo/Jerome Delay)

If this site marks the demise of Saddam Hussien will it become known as "Ground
Nero?"

Pete Vere at Envoy Encore posted about
a recent talk he gave:

My own talk discussed the difference between marriage as a contract and marriage
as a covenant, then spoke of the canonical effects of contraception on marriage,
before going into a comparison between contraception and the Rosary. My conclusion?
Prior to drafting this talk, I had never really thought of it in this light,
but it became obvious to me that contraception is the very anti-thesis to the
Rosary. This shook up a few people in the crowd, including a Catholic radio
journalist who interviewed me on this part of my talk afterward. So overall,
a great time!

Since he did not elaborate exactly the connections I came up with my own.

The Contraceptive Mysteries

Best prayed on worry beads. First you say the – I won’t be ‘Your Father’ followed by three hail and be merrys. Then concentrate and think selfish thoughts while pondering the following:

The Denunciation
My will be done.

The Hesitation
We will have children after our careers are settled down.

The Negativity
Children will disrupt our active lifestyle and we don’t have enough
to send them all to Ivy League schools.

The Present Tension
In everyday life we must avoid every sword that could pierce us to the soul.

The finding of just us in the Temporal
We do not want to be about the Father’s business.