This morning as I was eating my breakfast and watching my morning news show I heard a story in which the Washington Post admitted that it had had an unbalanced editorial slant during the election campaign. The number of stories that were negative toward Obama were fewer than half the number of those that were negative toward McCain.
My response (and that of the newscasters and the expert from the Think Tank they interviewed) was they didn't notice this as it was happening? Seriously? The media drove this election, and anointed Obama for the presidency in many ways.
The first amendment has been trounced upon in the name of "truth in media". Now the liberal media wants to go after any opposition with the "fairness doctrine" and eliminate conservative talk radio. Then all we will have is the Liberal left viewpoint.
No media outlet is completely fair and without bias, but some do a much better job of trying to be balanced than the Washington Post, New York Times and Los Angeles Times did this election cycle. I will have to admit that our local Paper, the Herald Times did a pretty good job of showing both sides most of the time, but they could have shown some restraint as to what qualified as news and what was just pandering in an election year.
I don't think there is any way to get a fair and balanced picture of what is going on from any news agency anymore. Maybe we are lucky that we have remote control technology, that way we can switch between the five 24-hour news channels on the dial and try to figure it out for ourselves.
Pax
Showing posts with label election. Show all posts
Showing posts with label election. Show all posts
Sunday, November 09, 2008
Wednesday, November 05, 2008
Today's Mass Readings November 5, 2008
It is an amazing God-incidence that we got these particular readings after last night's election results:
Father Bill's homily was focused on the fact that if we complain about the outcome of a situation then we are saying that we know better than God how things should work out. True Faith is to be able to accept whatever outcome happens without grumbling.
I wonder if I could get a fifteen minute window for grumbling? Then I think I would be okay.
Reading 1
Phil 2:12-18My beloved, obedient as you have always been,not only when I am present but all the more now when I am absent,work out your salvation with fear and trembling.For God is the one who, for his good purpose,works in you both to desire and to work.Do everything without grumbling or questioning,that you may be blameless and innocent,children of God without blemishin the midst of a crooked and perverse generation,among whom you shine like lights in the world,as you hold on to the word of life,so that my boast for the day of Christ may bethat I did not run in vain or labor in vain.But, even if I am poured out as a libation upon the sacrificial service of your faith,I rejoice and share my joy with all of you.In the same way you also should rejoice and share your joy with me.
Responsorial PsalmPs 27:1, 4, 13-14.
R. The Lord is my light and my salvation.
The LORD is my light and my salvation;whom should I fear?
RThe LORD is my life’s refuge;of whom should I be afraid?
R. The Lord is my light and my salvation.
One thing I ask of the LORD;this I seek:
To dwell in the house of the LORDall the days of my life,
That I may gaze on the loveliness of the LORDand contemplate his temple.
R. The Lord is my light and my salvation.
I believe that I shall see the bounty of the LORDin the land of the living.
Wait for the LORD with courage;be stouthearted, and wait for the LORD.
R. The Lord is my light and my salvation.
GospelLk 14:25-33
Great crowds were traveling with Jesus,and he turned and addressed them,“If anyone comes to me without hating his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters,and even his own life,he cannot be my disciple.Whoever does not carry his own cross and come after mecannot be my disciple.Which of you wishing to construct a tower does not first sit down and calculate the cost to see if there is enough for its completion? Otherwise, after laying the foundation and finding himself unable to finish the work the onlookers should laugh at him and say,‘This one began to build but did not have the resources to finish.’ Or what king marching into battle would not first sit down and decide whether with ten thousand troops he can successfully oppose another king advancing upon him with twenty thousand troops? But if not, while he is still far away,he will send a delegation to ask for peace terms. In the same way, everyone of you who does not renounce all his possessions cannot be my disciple.”
Pax
Father Bill's homily was focused on the fact that if we complain about the outcome of a situation then we are saying that we know better than God how things should work out. True Faith is to be able to accept whatever outcome happens without grumbling.
I wonder if I could get a fifteen minute window for grumbling? Then I think I would be okay.
Reading 1
Phil 2:12-18My beloved, obedient as you have always been,not only when I am present but all the more now when I am absent,work out your salvation with fear and trembling.For God is the one who, for his good purpose,works in you both to desire and to work.Do everything without grumbling or questioning,that you may be blameless and innocent,children of God without blemishin the midst of a crooked and perverse generation,among whom you shine like lights in the world,as you hold on to the word of life,so that my boast for the day of Christ may bethat I did not run in vain or labor in vain.But, even if I am poured out as a libation upon the sacrificial service of your faith,I rejoice and share my joy with all of you.In the same way you also should rejoice and share your joy with me.
Responsorial PsalmPs 27:1, 4, 13-14.
R. The Lord is my light and my salvation.
The LORD is my light and my salvation;whom should I fear?
RThe LORD is my life’s refuge;of whom should I be afraid?
R. The Lord is my light and my salvation.
One thing I ask of the LORD;this I seek:
To dwell in the house of the LORDall the days of my life,
That I may gaze on the loveliness of the LORDand contemplate his temple.
R. The Lord is my light and my salvation.
I believe that I shall see the bounty of the LORDin the land of the living.
Wait for the LORD with courage;be stouthearted, and wait for the LORD.
R. The Lord is my light and my salvation.
GospelLk 14:25-33
Great crowds were traveling with Jesus,and he turned and addressed them,“If anyone comes to me without hating his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters,and even his own life,he cannot be my disciple.Whoever does not carry his own cross and come after mecannot be my disciple.Which of you wishing to construct a tower does not first sit down and calculate the cost to see if there is enough for its completion? Otherwise, after laying the foundation and finding himself unable to finish the work the onlookers should laugh at him and say,‘This one began to build but did not have the resources to finish.’ Or what king marching into battle would not first sit down and decide whether with ten thousand troops he can successfully oppose another king advancing upon him with twenty thousand troops? But if not, while he is still far away,he will send a delegation to ask for peace terms. In the same way, everyone of you who does not renounce all his possessions cannot be my disciple.”
Pax
Monday, November 03, 2008
From First Things: An Actor Speaks Out
Actor Tim Kelleher (Independence Day, Operation Dumbo Drop, numerous television appearances) writes an impassioned editorial for First Things on Obama's message of Change!
here is an excerpt:
I wanna, I wanna, I wanna vote Obama. I like Barack and understand the enthusiasm. He seems a personification of the hope we presume is inherent to change. I wish I could get on board. I might even seem as cool as the people around me. Yet, behind the sheer charisma and smooth layers of nuance, compatibility with prophetic gospel imperatives is hard to see. Approval of the death penalty, an announced readiness to act militarily against Pakistan in a move that would make Iraq look like a weekend paint-ball game. These don’t point to consonance with Christian concerns, not in a way that seems truly to distinguish him from his opponents. And, then, there’s his willingness to countenance the fifty million we Americans add to every day and which depletes us on every conceivable level.
read the rest here.
My fear is that too many people have been won over by the slick rhetoric and Obama will get into office, and then the slick talk will fall away and his true intentions will surface and everyone will be left wondering how they were so hoodwinked into believing that anything he said was of substance, or that he had the good of the country at heart. I haven't seen even a hint of that from the beginning of his campaign. He is running for the office, not for the people.
At our house we are still fasting and praying and hoping our votes count for something.
Pax
here is an excerpt:
I wanna, I wanna, I wanna vote Obama. I like Barack and understand the enthusiasm. He seems a personification of the hope we presume is inherent to change. I wish I could get on board. I might even seem as cool as the people around me. Yet, behind the sheer charisma and smooth layers of nuance, compatibility with prophetic gospel imperatives is hard to see. Approval of the death penalty, an announced readiness to act militarily against Pakistan in a move that would make Iraq look like a weekend paint-ball game. These don’t point to consonance with Christian concerns, not in a way that seems truly to distinguish him from his opponents. And, then, there’s his willingness to countenance the fifty million we Americans add to every day and which depletes us on every conceivable level.
read the rest here.
My fear is that too many people have been won over by the slick rhetoric and Obama will get into office, and then the slick talk will fall away and his true intentions will surface and everyone will be left wondering how they were so hoodwinked into believing that anything he said was of substance, or that he had the good of the country at heart. I haven't seen even a hint of that from the beginning of his campaign. He is running for the office, not for the people.
At our house we are still fasting and praying and hoping our votes count for something.
Pax
Monday, October 27, 2008
Understanding Redistribution of Weath
Karen Hall has a really good (and funny) post on the Obama plan for redistribution of wealth.
Read it here.
If that isn't what they mean, then I'll be jiggered, because every time they explain it that is how I understand it.
Pax
Read it here.
If that isn't what they mean, then I'll be jiggered, because every time they explain it that is how I understand it.
Pax
Thursday, October 23, 2008
Another Voice
Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.
Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.
Wow.
Pax
Faithful Citizenship
Cardinal Justin Rigali wrote a great article in the Catholic Standard and Times.
here are a few quotes:
One aspect of the dignity of the human person is the ability to reason and to know. Another aspect of human dignity is the affirmation of the rights of the individual’s conscience. However, if we fail to acknowledge any natural or revealed norms to guide and properly form our consciences, each of us could wind up justifying almost anything.
The human conscience is always at the service of truth and virtue, but it must be properly formed in order to function properly. We believe that because we are made in God’s image we have within our very nature a fundamental understanding of right and wrong. To us as human persons, this “law of the heart,” as it is sometimes called, requires a responsibility beyond laws enacted by governments.
and later on in the article
The transcending issue of our day is the intentional destruction of innocent human life, as in abortion. We wish with all our hearts that no candidate and no party were advocating this heinous act against the human person. However, since it is a transcending issue, and even supported in its most extreme and horrific forms, we must proclaim time and time again that no intrinsic evil can ever be supported in any way, most especially when it concerns the gravest of all intrinsic evils: the taking of an innocent life.
We bishops of Pennsylvania quoted from the late Pope John Paul II’s Post Synodal Exhortation on the Vocation and Mission of the Lay Faithful and I quote him again here: “The inviolability of the person which is a reflection of the absolute inviolability of God, finds its primary and fundamental expression in the inviolability of human life. Above all, the common outcry, which is justly made on behalf of human rights — for example, the right to health, to home, to work, to family, to culture — is false and illusory if the right to life, the most basic and fundamental right and the condition for all other personal rights, is not defended with maximum determination” (Christifideles Laici, 38).
At this moment in our country’s history, defense of innocent human life is a moral responsibility for all of us. The same God who thundered from Mount Sinai: “Thou shalt not kill,” thunders still. When life in the womb is destroyed, God thunders: “This is a child!” When by the most barbaric means, unworthy of any civilized people, the brain of a child is sucked out of his or her head by a vacuum, God thunders: “This is a child!” When a baby is left to die of exposure on a shelf because of a failed abortion, and this is considered a “right” by any leader, God, the Source of all law and authority, thunders: “This is a child!” When we are faced with every modern means of education and communication, in addition to the law placed in our hearts at creation, no one, and most especially, no Catholic, can ever say: “I did not know.”
The human dignity that we proclaim works two ways: it affords us a great privilege but it also demands a responsibility. The feeble defense “I did not know” cannot be used by any responsible person in our time when confronted with the reality of abortion. We do know. We know because we can reason and think and see. Along with this position, which is confirmed by modern science, comes a command: “Thou shalt not kill.” It is not a question of politics but a question of the gravest of intrinsic evils; and just as the reality of what it is cannot be explained away, neither can our responsibility.
Read the entire article here.
Pax
h/t to Paul Stokell via Facebook
here are a few quotes:
One aspect of the dignity of the human person is the ability to reason and to know. Another aspect of human dignity is the affirmation of the rights of the individual’s conscience. However, if we fail to acknowledge any natural or revealed norms to guide and properly form our consciences, each of us could wind up justifying almost anything.
The human conscience is always at the service of truth and virtue, but it must be properly formed in order to function properly. We believe that because we are made in God’s image we have within our very nature a fundamental understanding of right and wrong. To us as human persons, this “law of the heart,” as it is sometimes called, requires a responsibility beyond laws enacted by governments.
and later on in the article
The transcending issue of our day is the intentional destruction of innocent human life, as in abortion. We wish with all our hearts that no candidate and no party were advocating this heinous act against the human person. However, since it is a transcending issue, and even supported in its most extreme and horrific forms, we must proclaim time and time again that no intrinsic evil can ever be supported in any way, most especially when it concerns the gravest of all intrinsic evils: the taking of an innocent life.
We bishops of Pennsylvania quoted from the late Pope John Paul II’s Post Synodal Exhortation on the Vocation and Mission of the Lay Faithful and I quote him again here: “The inviolability of the person which is a reflection of the absolute inviolability of God, finds its primary and fundamental expression in the inviolability of human life. Above all, the common outcry, which is justly made on behalf of human rights — for example, the right to health, to home, to work, to family, to culture — is false and illusory if the right to life, the most basic and fundamental right and the condition for all other personal rights, is not defended with maximum determination” (Christifideles Laici, 38).
At this moment in our country’s history, defense of innocent human life is a moral responsibility for all of us. The same God who thundered from Mount Sinai: “Thou shalt not kill,” thunders still. When life in the womb is destroyed, God thunders: “This is a child!” When by the most barbaric means, unworthy of any civilized people, the brain of a child is sucked out of his or her head by a vacuum, God thunders: “This is a child!” When a baby is left to die of exposure on a shelf because of a failed abortion, and this is considered a “right” by any leader, God, the Source of all law and authority, thunders: “This is a child!” When we are faced with every modern means of education and communication, in addition to the law placed in our hearts at creation, no one, and most especially, no Catholic, can ever say: “I did not know.”
The human dignity that we proclaim works two ways: it affords us a great privilege but it also demands a responsibility. The feeble defense “I did not know” cannot be used by any responsible person in our time when confronted with the reality of abortion. We do know. We know because we can reason and think and see. Along with this position, which is confirmed by modern science, comes a command: “Thou shalt not kill.” It is not a question of politics but a question of the gravest of intrinsic evils; and just as the reality of what it is cannot be explained away, neither can our responsibility.
Read the entire article here.
Pax
h/t to Paul Stokell via Facebook
Wednesday, October 22, 2008
Catholics and Obama
Here is an article by George Weigel in Newsweek that gives a pretty reasoned argument as to why "most" Catholics are finding it very difficult to vote for Senator Obama, and why those who are so ardently supporting him should seriously think again.
I am quoting a bit of it here to make the point:
"To suggest—as some Catholics do—that Senator [Barack] Obama is this year's 'real' pro-life candidate requires a peculiar kind of self-hypnosis, or moral confusion, or worse. To portray the 2008 Democratic Party presidential ticket as the preferred 'pro-life' option is to subvert what the word 'pro-life' means."
Why? Because the public record amply demonstrates that Senator Obama is not the abortion moderate of our professors' imagination, but a genuine abortion radical. In the third presidential debate, Obama described Roev. Wade, the 1973 Supreme Court decision that obliterated the abortion law of all fifty states, as "rightly decided"—a judgment with which Professors Cafardi, Kaveny, and Kmiec have all disagreed in the past. Moreover, Senator Obama's defense of Roe extends far beyond anyone's "elegant theorizing." Support for Roe was Obama's stated reason for opposing Illinois bills aimed at providing legal protection for children who survived an abortion.
You may read the rest on your own. We aren't single issue candidates by any means, but this one issue is a very serious one and we can't in good conscience vote for someone who is so ardently on the side of those who would sacrifice the life of the most defenseless.
Pax
I am quoting a bit of it here to make the point:
"To suggest—as some Catholics do—that Senator [Barack] Obama is this year's 'real' pro-life candidate requires a peculiar kind of self-hypnosis, or moral confusion, or worse. To portray the 2008 Democratic Party presidential ticket as the preferred 'pro-life' option is to subvert what the word 'pro-life' means."
Why? Because the public record amply demonstrates that Senator Obama is not the abortion moderate of our professors' imagination, but a genuine abortion radical. In the third presidential debate, Obama described Roev. Wade, the 1973 Supreme Court decision that obliterated the abortion law of all fifty states, as "rightly decided"—a judgment with which Professors Cafardi, Kaveny, and Kmiec have all disagreed in the past. Moreover, Senator Obama's defense of Roe extends far beyond anyone's "elegant theorizing." Support for Roe was Obama's stated reason for opposing Illinois bills aimed at providing legal protection for children who survived an abortion.
You may read the rest on your own. We aren't single issue candidates by any means, but this one issue is a very serious one and we can't in good conscience vote for someone who is so ardently on the side of those who would sacrifice the life of the most defenseless.
Pax
Tuesday, October 14, 2008
I'm Offering It Up . . .
In a BIG way for the election.
Along with continuing to campaign for my causes, and talking to everyone who will listen, I have decided that in order to show my committment to the outcome of this election I am giving up chocolate until after election day. Mrangelmeg has given up ice cream.
The angelbaby is a bit concerned. I had to promise her that it wouldn't be a bad thing, my giving up chocolate. Those of you who know me well, know that this is a serious sacrifice for me.
Pax
Along with continuing to campaign for my causes, and talking to everyone who will listen, I have decided that in order to show my committment to the outcome of this election I am giving up chocolate until after election day. Mrangelmeg has given up ice cream.
The angelbaby is a bit concerned. I had to promise her that it wouldn't be a bad thing, my giving up chocolate. Those of you who know me well, know that this is a serious sacrifice for me.
Pax
Friday, October 10, 2008
Wednesday, October 08, 2008
Wisdom from Karen Hall's Mom
U.S. should immediately pull out of Chicago!
Body count: In the last six months 292 killed (murdered) in Chicago; 221 killed in Iraq.
Senators Barack Obama & Dick Durbin, Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr., Gov. Rod Blogojevich, House leader Mike Madigan, Atty. Gen. Lisa Madigan (daughter of Mike), Mayor Richard M. Daley (son of Mayor Richard J. Daley) -- the leadership in Illinois. All Democrats.
Presiding over the combat zone in Chicago.
Of course, they're all blaming each other. (They can't blame Republicans, they're aren't any!!!!)
State pension fund = $44 billion in debt, worst in the country.
Cook County sales tax = 10.25%, highest in country.
Chicago school system = one of the worst in country.
This is the political culture that Obama comes from in Illinois. And he's gonna 'fix' Washington politics?
Thanks Karen's Mom for giving us a new perspective on reality.
a some have hats tip to Karen's mom
Body count: In the last six months 292 killed (murdered) in Chicago; 221 killed in Iraq.
Senators Barack Obama & Dick Durbin, Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr., Gov. Rod Blogojevich, House leader Mike Madigan, Atty. Gen. Lisa Madigan (daughter of Mike), Mayor Richard M. Daley (son of Mayor Richard J. Daley) -- the leadership in Illinois. All Democrats.
Presiding over the combat zone in Chicago.
Of course, they're all blaming each other. (They can't blame Republicans, they're aren't any!!!!)
State pension fund = $44 billion in debt, worst in the country.
Cook County sales tax = 10.25%, highest in country.
Chicago school system = one of the worst in country.
This is the political culture that Obama comes from in Illinois. And he's gonna 'fix' Washington politics?
Thanks Karen's Mom for giving us a new perspective on reality.
a some have hats tip to Karen's mom
Friday, September 26, 2008
Truth is Stranger . . .
It just goes to show: you just can't make this stuff up:
The San Francisco Examiner has written a stunning endorsement of WHICH candidate for the presidency?
Which means either one of two things happened:
The Hadron Supercolider did open a black hole and the universe is coming to and end
OR
Saner head have prevailed even in the Bluest of the blue states.
Pax
The San Francisco Examiner has written a stunning endorsement of WHICH candidate for the presidency?
Which means either one of two things happened:
The Hadron Supercolider did open a black hole and the universe is coming to and end
OR
Saner head have prevailed even in the Bluest of the blue states.
Pax
Thursday, September 18, 2008
Why We Vote The Way We Do:
We are much more than single issue voters. We have studied the policies and the records of the candidates and are thinking about what kind of future we want for our children and with much thought and prayer we have come to some conclusions about who should be our next president:
This is from Mom's for McCain:
**We want a future for our children that is full of goodness and hope.
**We want a tomorrow full of opportunity for them.
**We want a country that stresses both individualism and community--a place where people reach out in kindness to help, but also encourage one another in self-sufficiency.
**We want safety, security and a country with a CULTURE OF LIFE.
**We want freedom to worship our God without ridicule.
**We want minimal government intrusion and the LIBERTY to PURSUE HAPPINESS.
**We want to keep what we work so hard to earn.
**We want to be partners in rebuilding the America our forefathers envisioned.
We want JOHN MCCAIN for PRESIDENT.
This is from Mom's for McCain:
**We want a future for our children that is full of goodness and hope.
**We want a tomorrow full of opportunity for them.
**We want a country that stresses both individualism and community--a place where people reach out in kindness to help, but also encourage one another in self-sufficiency.
**We want safety, security and a country with a CULTURE OF LIFE.
**We want freedom to worship our God without ridicule.
**We want minimal government intrusion and the LIBERTY to PURSUE HAPPINESS.
**We want to keep what we work so hard to earn.
**We want to be partners in rebuilding the America our forefathers envisioned.
We want JOHN MCCAIN for PRESIDENT.
Tuesday, January 29, 2008
Now There is a Bumper Sticker that will Scare Hillary
Check Out this Post
I agree wholeheartedly. If they come out with this bumper sticker I would put one on my car. I don't even care that mrangelmeg drives my car when we take the whole gang to Church on Sundays. He is comfortable enough with his manhood to drive a car that proclaimed that sentiment.
Pax
I agree wholeheartedly. If they come out with this bumper sticker I would put one on my car. I don't even care that mrangelmeg drives my car when we take the whole gang to Church on Sundays. He is comfortable enough with his manhood to drive a car that proclaimed that sentiment.
Pax
Wednesday, March 14, 2007
Someone Needs a Remedial Math Lesson
According to an Associated Press Article in this morning's paper Hillary Clinton says that the "vast Right Wing Conspiracy" is still around. On Tuesday she cited a New Hampshire case against three Republican elections workers who were b tried for phone jamming durring the 2000 election (two pleaded guilty and one was convicted).
I don't know where she is looking, but I can't remember ever seeing a Math book where three of anything was considered a vast amount.
But then I live in the real world.
Pax
I don't know where she is looking, but I can't remember ever seeing a Math book where three of anything was considered a vast amount.
But then I live in the real world.
Pax
Monday, October 30, 2006
Angelmeg's Civics Lesson for This Week
h/t to Suzanne for the link, check out the other Fr. Pavone Comercials on YouTube by clicking on the video above. Every K of C Council in the country should be paying to run these in their local markets between now and election day.
Pax
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