Ideological simplicity.

A recent news item engaged in some virtue signalling by suggesting that elderly people be offered free rides in electric taxis. Such a laudable idea was lacking in only one thing ??? how would it work? Could an elderly person having a heart attack ring such a taxi to get to hospital at 2 AM or use it to get to Mass at 8 AM? Would the electric taxis come regularly, or for any reason?

Ideas of such monumental, ideological simplicity do not really allow for questions, nor for any definition of virtue. Not only that, the contemporary engagement in virtue signalling could not be further from the notion of virtue as a western society has understood it for centuries. Many know that St. Thomas Aquinas defines virtue as ???a good habit bearing on an activity,??? about which Father John Hardon, SJ, once explained as: ???the concept of virtue, then, is the element of habit, which stands in a special relation to the soul, whether in the natural order or elevated to the divine life by grace.???1

It’s a personal thing.

Baby on board:

Human being, in 3D and in colour

The law recently passed in Alabama meant to restrict the legal right to abort ??? a law clearly meant for a test in the Supreme Court ??? has leftists of all shapes in a state of hysteria.

It is a bit, albeit on a smaller scale, like watching the movie of Trump election again: countless Libtards inordinately whining and screaming as a reaction to their impotence to stop the tide of common sense.

I have bad news for the poor, deranged feminists of both sexes: their evil struggle is doomed in the long term.

The advancements of technology make it more and more difficult to deny the personhood of a baby in the womb. The very vocabulary says it: I did not use the expression ???a future baby in the womb???. The baby is here, as a baby, when he is in the womb.

???Baby on board???.

But they seem to be understanding that already — actually have understood it for some time — with their infanticide promotion.

She said that she would do it, and indeed she did.

However:

Not everyone appreciated the remarks.

Ald. Anthony Beale, 9th, an erstwhile ally who has had a falling out with her over his attempts to block her choice of Ald. Scott Waguespack to be Finance chairman, said Lightfoot’s executive order “means absolutely nothing.”

“It’s not worth the paper it’s written on,” Beale said.

Aldermanic prerogative is a custom that isn’t codified in city statute, he noted.

“There’s no such rule as aldermanic prerogative, there’s no such law,” Beale said.

Nothing there there, he said, forebodingly.

Common sense like this is refreshing indeed.

How has your virtue signalling gone this week? Have you praised recycling, veganism or rolled your eyes at the mention of Donald Trump? In my area, free bicycles were left on the street for all who wanted to use them so as to reduce carbon emissions and save the earth. It was a clear sign of virtue to use them and reduce the number of cars on the roads. The only trouble was, the streets were soon littered with broken and vandalized bicycles, some being found at the base of cliffs. How could such a virtuous concept be received so ungratefully, so unvirtuously?

You gotta wonder.

more more more here

This is bishops correcting bishops. But that hasn’t gone so well, right?

Cardinal Cupich issued a statement explaining that the new law will allow the U.S. bishops to move forward with procedures to hold bishops accountable for failing to handle abuse cases properly.

See what I mean? It’s as if they had not been allowed previously, which legally in church law is apparently true. But they went along with the problem for many years without a peep.

Anyhow, this is bishops calling other bishops out. The policing bishops with be metropolitans, such as Cupich for Illinois, by the way.

And keep in mind, this new plan is what Cupich announced at the Baltimore meeting in November, when a more ambitious conference plan which would have given at least investigative authority to lay people was squelched at the last minute by a Vatican committee. (See also here.)

He sells the new approach now as heralding a new day, which is far from obvious.

One of the really bad guys of that administration.

How it’s done and what’s being done in academe these days.

The college classroom is a major front in the growing culture war between right and left. Those on the right view much of what is taught in the humanities or social sciences as indoctrination. Those on the left—who dominate the academy—see little to complain about. They favor a definition of academic freedom that is so broad that it blurs the lines between scholarship and advocacy. After all, who is to say what is political activism and what is education?

But the division between indoctrination and education is actually quite stark. Education presents an objective inquiry into a topic. It deliberately presents opposing perspectives, where they exist, and allows students to derive their own beliefs from the light of facts and logic. It does not demand that every issue have a single, definitive solution.

Indoctrination, on the other hand, seeks to convert the audience to a specific ideology, which cannot be contested. This is frequently accomplished through distortion of facts and the avoidance of alternate perceptions.

It’s like a big mind-bending exercise, throughout the country.

For instance:

An academic program at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, the minor in Social and Economic Justice, illustrates the difference between education and indoctrination. While the program description claims that it is “designed for students who want to better understand how to think about issues of justice,” it is possible for a student to avoid any contact with meaningful intellectual discourse on justice. On the other hand, by a judicious selection of specific courses, it is equally possible for a student to come away with a deep and valuable intellectual experience.

Yes.

U. of N. Carolina flim-flam.

When you hear the term “social justice,” be prepared to empty your wallet, particularly if it is paired with the word “economic.” “An academic program at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, the minor in Social and Economic Justice, illustrates the difference between education and indoctrination,” Jay Schalin of the John William Pope Center for Higher Education Policy alleges.

Southern b.s.

And misunderstands and misunderstands and misunderstands.

Remarks made at the Vatican press conference revealed more serious misunderstandings about the market economy which, if put into practice, would do real harm to those who are already poor and vulnerable.

Poor people do better in a free market. Command economies not so.

Trump has shifted a bit on immigration, but not enough for Wall St. Journal.