Tom Roeser died this morning. Obits coming in tomorrow’s papers.
Month: May 2011
Why “faggot”? Why oh why oh why oh (sob!) — oh nuts!
In an effluence of faux naivete, Sun-Timesman Rick Morrissey asks why NBA players call people faggots.
. . . why is faggot the word [Bulls man Joakim] Noah chose in his enraged state? Why is it the word Lakers star Kobe Bryant chose when screaming at a referee last month? Why does that seem to be the insult of choice so often?
And immediately, gosh darn it, answers his question as if to phrase it differently:
On the playground courts, its the ultimate insult, the nuclear bomb. At its kindest, it means youre a wuss.
The United Center is a playground, isn’t it? So the worst thing you can say to a man on a playground is the worst at the United Center. What’s so complicated about that?
He continues:
Ive never quite understood why someones sexuality matters to anybody else, but here we are in 2011 talking about one players ugly reaction to a fan.
And talking and talking and talking. Feigning ignorance if necessary. Wuss-like, you might say.
The archbishop, the scholars, and two Catholic legislators
A New York lawyer, Paul Francis Linn, pens a meaty response to anti-Boehner&Paul Ryan scholars who say B&R violate RC principles with their economizing. He writes in comment to The Hill’s piece on Archbp Dolan of NYC’s commending B. on showing due respect for RC principles.
Dolan, pres. of U.S. bishops’ conference, had written B. and R. before the scholars chastised them for their economizing; so he was not responding to the scholars. But he was providing cover for GOP economizers.
Here’s Linn on RC social teaching:
Archbishop Dolan understands and proclaims Catholic social teaching far better than the academics who wrote the open letter to Speaker Boehner.
. . . all Christians have an obligation to the poor. And few . . . do as much to serve the poor as faith commands. But have the Catholic academics who wrote the open letter to Speaker Boehner actually concluded that ones obligation . . . toward the poor is somehow satisfied by taking money from one person (through taxation or otherwise) and giving it to an anonymous poor person (or more likely by giving it to a bureaucrat in a program whose actual track record is to perpetuate poverty and the poverty industry)?
It is soft thinking . . . to confuse the obligation each has toward the poor . . . with the necessity or even the appropriateness of a particular legislative proposal to provide relief for the poor or solutions to poverty. In contrast to issues where there is a clear moral absolute, like the Church’s unwaivering [sic] prohibition on abortion, reasonable people can of course differ on whether the poor are better helped by policies that promote the right of economic initiative (to use Pope John Paul IIs words) than by bureaucratic and statist relief programs.
But in terms of the Catholic worldview, Archbishop Dolan knows, as surely the Catholic academics who wrote to the Speaker should know, that . . . Pope John Paul II strongly criticized the deficiencies of the social assistance state, the excesses of which he concluded lead to a loss of human energies and an inordinate increase of public agencies which are dominated more by bureaucratic ways of thinking than by concern for serving their clients and which are accompanied by an enormous increase in spending. (Centisimus Annus, n. 35)
Despite the possibly good intentions of those with views like the open-letter-writing academics, the reality is that in this country, the development of the social assistance state and the parallel imposition of ever more restrictions on the right of economic initiative have actually coincided and, many would submit, have caused a tremendous increase in the poor, in poverty, and in the loss of human dignity.
Unlike Archbishop Dolan and Speaker Boehner, the academics confuse their politics with their religion.
Well said. Beware canonizing of legislation, beware stifling initiative, beware making matters worse. And save your indignation sometimes for worthier causes, ye academics who object to economizing measures.
Wall Street funny guy
Where to start on something from James Taranto as Wry Observer with eye for headlines? Try this:
An Optimist Would Say Two-Thirds Still Consider It Fun
“Third of Berlin University Students Consider Sex Work”–headline, Reuters, May 18
I often try for a zinger myself, but here I desist.
Radio host Smiley at St. Sabina
From the Faith Community of Saint Sabina, an emailed reminder:
Tavis Smiley will be at the church Saturday, 5/21 to discuss his new book, Fail Up. Mr. Smiley will be here from 12 pm to 2 pm. in McMahon Hall.
It was on Smiley’s show that Fr. Pfleger made the public statement that if he could not preach at St. Sabina, he would do so at Protestant churches.
I want to try to stay in the Catholic Church. If they say You either take this principalship of (Leo High) or pastorship there or leave, then Ill have to look outside the church. I believe my calling is to be a pastor. I believe my calling is to be a voice for justice. I believe my calling is to preach the Gospel. In or out of the church, Im going to continue to do that.
That did it for Cardinal George, who suspended him.
Nonetheless, he’s still pastor, to judge by the flyer.
What a friend he has in Tavis.
Mr. Hopey Changey indeed . . .
Does this man have Sen. Harmon’s number?
In a May 12 letter to Oak Leaves, Oak Parker Daniel Hefner finds Ill. Sen. Don Harmon (D) in a classic dodge, switching absolute percentage to relative:
Sen. Don Harmon’s recent explanation for the necessity of the state income tax increase . . . was laughable.
The good senator pontificates, What are we asking of taxpayers? A temporary increase of the individual income tax rate of 2 percentage points.
[But] (a)lthough the base tax rate increased from 3 percent to 5 percent, the overall increase to taxpayers is 66 percent! The state’s corporate income tax also had a temporary increase from 7.3 percent to 9.5 percent a 30 percent increase! The senator forgot to bring this information to his letter.
Hefner also uncovers an unfortunate reality hidden in plain sight from most of us, referring to fellow Oak Parker Harmon as “a career politician.” So are they all, to be sure, with exceptions so rare I can’t think of one right now.
In any case, it’s good to be reminded that almost all elected officials are careerists — and be duly suspicious of them, especially when they call a 2% actual tax increase a mere 2% relative one, without saying that’s what they are doing. Fie, Sen. Harmon!
Harry Truman vs. military
Ran across this while looking for something else. Give-’em-hell Harry looks not so hot in this comment by a Korean War airman:
Unlike World War II there was not a great deal of enthusiasm or support for the Korean war. It was often referred to as Harry Trumans war and with good reason. After WW II Harry Truman miscalculated our military needs and decimated the strength of our military. He then made the mistake of informing the world that we would not come to the aid of any country west of Japan, that included South Korea. With this assurance that the United States would not intervene North Korea made its move. Then after the war was underway he refused to fight to win.
The airman is Herbert A Rideout, summing up his recollections while stationed at Kimpo Air Force Base as a radio man for the 45th Tactical Reconnaissance Squadron, which did photo reconnaissance in P-51s, or Mustangs. The first to arrive at a target, to prepare for the attack, and last to leave, to record results, the Mustangs flew low to get their pix. It was very dangerous work.
Turned on his heel
The sister of the pilot whose plane crashed into the Pentagon 9/11 asked Obama about AG Holder’s ongoing prosecution of the men who interrogated Khalid Sheik Muhammad, who may have led us to bin Ladin.
“As a former attorney I know you can’t tell the Attorney General what to do, he said, ‘No, I can’t.’ But I said ‘we — that shouldn’t stop you from giving your opinion. We wouldn’t be here today if they hadn’t done their jobs. Can’t you at least give them your opinion.’ And he said ‘no I won’t,’ and he turned around and walked away.”
Prick.
Mayordaley II dissected
John Kass outdid himself here. No one else could have written this.
Assuming Richard M. was the man Kass says he was at the start, it’s a matter of power corrupting. Tough stuff.