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Thursday, January 17, 2013

The American Maverick: ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER NETANYAHU TO SPEAK AT CPAC

The American Maverick: ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER NETANYAHU TO SPEAK AT CPAC: The American Conservative Union (ACU) announced another great list of speakers for the 2013 Conservative Political Action Conference.  Of...


Obama White House is Missing in Action in Mali

Obama White House is Missing in Action in Mali


Under the Fedora: Saints and sinners




On Morning Joe Monday I was treated to yet another day of people praising members of the GOP who are willing to attack the party and being told how far to the right Republicans have gone.
Somehow they never note how far left democrats now are.  Katrina vandenHeuvel would never have been considered a mainline guest on a show just a decade ago, now she is on regularly.  You never saw people citing the Nation or Mother Jones, now they are treated as mainstream left.
And what ever happened to the DLC that Joe cited when he brought up Bill Clinton?  Gone with the wind.
You would think by now I’d be used to this, I hope to God I never am.

Speaking of our 42nd president Bill Clinton has been picked as Father of the Year.  Less than 15 years ago that would have been a one liner in a SNL sketch, now it’s reality.  I wonder, has there ever been a father of the year whose reputation is such that no mother would trust her daughter with him?
As the 10th doctor once said:“The World is very strange.”

If, like me, you are a Doctor Who fan you will want to keep an eye on BBC America.  For the 50th anniversary of the show they will broadcast a special on each of the 11 doctors followed by an episode of Doctor Who from that era.  They will be starting with William Hartnell, the 1st Doctor (or as he was called then: The Doctor).  I think today he is often forgotten but if he doesn’t pull it off, the Doctor with no background, no real history and the total lack of special effects there is no show today.

Last week’s DaTechGuy on DaRadioreally caught a lot of people off guard.
Our first guest was Dr. Paul Byrne, he talked about the difference between so called “brain death” and “true death” stating that we are literally cutting brain injured people open alive for their organs for profit.
The reaction from people to his show has been shock.  They have never been told the other side of this story and that it’s coming from somebody who is one of the pioneers of neonatal care and a former head of the Catholic Medical association makes it even harder to take.
In our second hour we had Mike Hummell a member of the Hostess Bakers union who rejected the contract offer that led to the closing of Hostess.  He presented a case for rejecting the union contract that seemed pretty reasonable to me.
What really surprised him though was his treatment, he wrote to me afterwards that he expected to be “ambush” interview and had his defenses up for a sneak attack that never came.
I think it’s pretty sad that we’ve reach a point where people expect to be insulted or mistreated in a discussion. 
Our treatment of him won some praise at the Daily Kos site.  I’ve got to say I certainly never thought I’d be typing that, then again I suspect Mike didn’t expect to be saying it either.
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A group of British Bishops talking about Gay Marriage said bluntly that it is going to lead to a new era of Catholic persecution on the island as the Catholic Church.   If anyone in England doubts this, see how many children the Catholic Church places for adoption in Massachusetts these days.
People forget that England has a long history of anti-Catholicism dating back to the church’s unwillingness to allow Henry VIII to discard wives at will.  In some ways Catholics are still 2nd class citizens in the UK.  It is no coincidence that Tony Blair didn’t convert until he was out of office.  The Catholic Church’s ,
The age of easy Christianity for the west is about to end.  We are going to be pushed by the secular left, the anti-Catholic right and radical Islam.  Keeping the faith is going to come with costs.  Outside of the western world it the costs can be fatal.  It’s going to be really bad for my sons.
People say it’s not fair, but then I remember this biblical passage:
“If the world hates you, realize that it hated me first. If you belonged to the world, the world would love its own; but because you do not belong to the world, and I have chosen you out of the world, the world hates you. Remember the word I spoke to you, ‘No slave is greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they kept my word, they will also keep yours. And they will do all these things to you on account of my name, because they do not know the one who sent me. If I had not come and spoken to them, they would have no sin; but as it is they have no excuse for their sin. Whoever hates me also hates my Father. John 15:18-23
And I remember that no matter how unfair it might be, if you are a Christian in general or a Catholic in particular, you would know it’s part of the job description.
It’s still on Guns all the time on MSNBC and Morning Joe.   It’s a great distraction from the economy.  On Wednesday they were really upset at this NRA ad

I understand why they are so pissed:

The Democrats won an election by pushing the class warfare line, the 1% line, the idea that Mitt Romney was an elite that didn't care about you and your families.  It was a sell that worked with low information voters.

Now you have the same message being played by the NRA to the same voters.  It's the class warfare argument, the 1%, the argument that the President and the rich Washington elites don't care about your families as long as their own kids are safe.

The left hates this argument; they just used it and know it works.
The most interesting argument I’ve heard on the subject comes from Ann Althouse:
It occurred to me, after the Sandy Hook murders, that blaming guns is a secular substitute for blaming the devil. People find it too challenging to figure out why a human being would do this terrible thing and they latch on to the idea that the gun made it happen.
The post starts with the question:  Don’t I have the right to die?  I think that’s one of the most stupid question ever, you have a destiny to die, it’s just a question of when.

A big fuss was made about Jodie Foster’s “coming out speech” for myself the thing that struck me was that she is my age and has been working in the business since she was 43.  I have a vivid memory of her in the last season of Daniel Boone as the a ragamuffin girl taken in by Jimmy Dean’s Josh Character.  If the series had lasted another year she might have become a regular on the show.  She was pretty good even back then.
Hollywood is a nasty environment and a lot of people particularly as the standards of “acceptable” behavior moved closer to the behavior that many in the entertainment industry indulged with relish outside of the eyes of the public paid the price for living in it.
That Jodie Foster has managed to be anything resembling sane with a lifetime of such an environment is an achievement greater than any accolade that the film industry can give her for her work.
That people decide to give additional credence to people from this environment never ceases to amaze me
Finally Football.  I’m a baseball guy but the footballs playoffs have been very exciting.  The Seattle Atlanta game was incredible, although the pats make it look easy it was still a great game and Baltimore vs Denver was classic, (Baltimore scares me more than any other team) but the greatest Irony is in Denver. 
Last year Tim Tebow led Denver to their division title and a playoff win before losing in the 2nd round.  One year and 11 million dollars later Payton Manning got Denver a 1st round bye, but didn’t get the Broncos any farther than Tebow did.  Meanwhile the Jets who absolutely refused to start Tebow even as Sanchez tanked and the 3rd string QB when down managed to go 6-10.
I’m a pats fan so Payton Manning and the Jets are both rivals so I naturally don’t mind them going down but I’d be a liar if I said that the treatment of Tebow by the Jets and Denver didn’t make both of those results sweeter.
I’ll put it on my confession list for this month…