The Ryan Plan and Catholic Social Teaching

Mark Noonan98 Comments

Our liberals have been running with a meme which goes “Ryan’s budget plan is anti-Catholic” – the basis of the liberal argument is that a letter was written under the letter head of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops which condemned the Ryan plan when it was first presented.  Without getting in to the intra-Catholic weeds on this, the mere existence of such a letter does not either indicate Catholic doctrine nor how the Bishops, if pressed on the matter, would rule.  Lots of liberals reside on the staff of the USCCB and they do take their opportunities to help liberal Democrats.

The letter, itself, held that the alleged cuts to social spending in the Ryan plan violated Catholic teaching as it relates to helping the poor.  Of course, Catholic teaching is that the poor have an absolute moral claim upon the wealthy for sufficient housing, clothing, food and health care – there can be and is no argument about that.  If you’ve got the means, you are morally obligated to help out the less fortunate.  On the other hand, how you are to help out is not set out with precision – because it can’t be.  Circumstances are so varied among both the haves and the have-nots that no one person can figure out exactly what one person should do for another in all circumstances.  The bottom line is that there can be a great deal of different opinion on the best means to the end – and Ryan’s bishop, Robert C. Morlino, has written an article clarifying the Catholic view – first laying out what is required:

…It is the role of bishops and priests to teach principles of our faith, such that those who seek elected offices, if they are Catholics, are to form their consciences according to these principles about particular policy issues.

However, the formation of conscience regarding particular policy issues is different depending on how fundamental to the ecology of human nature or the Catholic faith a particular issue is. Some of the most fundamental issues for the formation of a Catholic conscience are as follows: sacredness of human life from conception to natural death, marriage, religious freedom and freedom of conscience, and a right to private property.

Violations of the above involve intrinsic evil — that is, an evil which cannot be justified by any circumstances whatsoever. These evils are examples of direct pollution of the ecology of human nature and can be discerned as such by human reason alone. Thus, all people of good will who wish to follow human reason should deplore any and all violations in the above areas, without exception. The violations would be: abortion, euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide, same-sex marriage, government-coerced secularism, and socialism…

So, we can say, “politician A is in favor of elective abortion and as that is an intrinsic evil, I must not vote for politician A”.  But outside of the area of intrinsic evil, there is a lot more flexibility – and it becomes a matter of prudential judgement on the part of Catholics (and, indeed, everybody) to decide as best they can.

Continue reading →

Conservative Thought

Cluster198 Comments

Recently on the other thread one of our resident liberals tried to define one of our regular conservative posters as typifying conservative thought. Ironically this liberal has never been able to define conservatism despite many calls from conservatives for him to do just that, so allow me to define what conservatism is to me on just four issues. Of course this is just me, I do not speak for any other conservative poster here but I would like to hear from the other conservatives on their thoughts, as well as the liberals. so here goes:

Government – I would like to see a more limited and a more constitutional federal government, with as many programs as possible pushed down to the state level, this would include Medicare, Medicaid, education,  etc.  In fact I would be open to discussing the possibility of having nearly every entitlement program administered at the state level. I would also like to means test social security and Medicare. Means testing would mean less benefits for the rich, allowing more aid for the poor, and if that aid were administered at the state level, it would be more efficient and effective. I would then like to evaluate every federal program and determine first the need, then the size and scope. In my opinion, we could eliminate many programs altogether and then trim every other department by a minimum of 10% without sacrificing a thing.

Economy – I am firm believer in competition. Competition improves people, product and service every time and brings prices down. Government stifles competition so naturally I would like to see as little government involvement as possible in the private sector. Obviously some industries need more regulation than others, but the best and most effective regulation government can exact, is the justice department. As long as the government ensures that everyone plays by the rules, the private markets will work just fine.

Abortion – life begins at conception, period. Therefore abortion is manslaughter, however, I do agree that this detestable practice should be made available in the event of rape, incest, or provable physical harm to the mother. Aside from that, I wish our society would stop glorifying this practice as a “choice” and start stigmatizing it, and educating both men and women on the numerous ways to prevent it. It is not a choice.

Gay Marriage – I fully support civil unions with all the legal rights therein, and not only for same sex couples, but for many other unions as well. I believe marriage should be reserved for the time honored tradition of the one man and one woman union. This is a union that is universal, and pre dates nearly all other institutions including many governments, so it should be left alone. Besides, marriage is not a right.

So this is just where I stand on these four issues. I invite everyone to comment on my positions, and include their own on not just these topics but others as well. Have fun.

The Ryan Rally and Romney’s Taxes

Cluster203 Comments

It’s been a week, but I am sure the Democrats feel like it has been quite a bit longer, as Paul Ryan has completely changed the course of the campaign and possibly the election by coalescing the conservatives. Ryan is a solid conservative, and is not afraid to take on the once unspeakable entitlement reform issue which has Democrats in a panic because not only is he openly talking about reform, he is winning the conversation. In fact Obama has had to distort and lie about Romney and Ryan’s plan while at the same time trying to deflect the issue back to Romney’s taxes.

Let’s take a quick look at each individual issue and how the Democrats are trying to spin it. The fact is, the Medicare reform that Romney and Ryan are calling for DOES NOT impact anyone over 55 years of age. One more time for the liberals out there – the Romney/Ryan plan does not affect anyone over the age of 55 – got that? For those under 55, the reform plan offers a CHOICE. Liberals always pride themselves on being pro choice, so here’s a big moment for them. People under 55 will have the choice to remain on the current medicare program, or receive a voucher to use those funds in helping them buy other private insurance. That’s it – it’s pretty simple, and nothing like the big scary reform Obama and the Democrats are trying to paint it as, so keep that in mind the next time you see that smarmy David Axlerod on TV lying through his teeth.

Now on to Romney’s taxes. Mitt and Ann Romney have released the legally required tax returns and financial disclosures which have proven to be above board and in compliance with every tax obligation. There is no reason why they should be required to release any more, and further calls for them to do so, are tantamount to a witch hunt. If the Democrats and Obama were concerned that the Romney’s evaded taxes, or failed to submit in any given year, well then that can be found out quite easily by one phone call to Douglas Shulman, Commissioner of the IRS, who reports to Timothy Geitnner, who is ironically an admitted tax evader. If any irregularities are found in Romney’s tax returns, and no action is taken, well then we have much larger issues to concern ourselves with, but as it stands now, Romney does not have any “secret” tax returns as recently described by the aforementioned smarmy Axelrod. Do the liberals understand that? Have I dumbed this down enough for them? We will see.

The Lessons of Failure

Cluster34 Comments

In moments of solitude, which are few these days, I often contemplate the state of our union and where we find ourselves not just politically, but socially and morally as well. And one over arching concept keeps coming to mind, and that is, we as a society, particularly our younger generation, have forgotten how to fail. Failure is a very important part of a successful life. It builds character, it strengthens resolve, it teaches caution, and most importantly it builds self reliance. Throughout history, failure has been instrumental in not only shaping the lives of great people, but in shaping the direction of this great country. General Washington lost many a battle in the early days of the revolution before honing his strategic skills and ultimately winning the war. It would have been very easy for Washington to simply give up, after all it was bone chilling cold in many of those of important battles and many men died, yet Washington learned from his mistakes and his failures and pressed forward. But maybe above them all was President Lincoln, whose resolve was only steeled by his failure. In fact I have the following list of Lincoln’s failures posted in my office:

  • 1831 – Lost his job
  • 1832 – Defeated in run for Illinois State Legislature
  • 1833 – Failed in business
  • 1834 – Elected to Illinois State Legislature (success)
  • 1835 – Sweetheart died
  • 1836 – Had nervous breakdown
  • 1838 – Defeated in run for Illinois House Speaker
  • 1843 – Defeated in run for nomination for U.S. Congress
  • 1846 – Elected to Congress (success)
  • 1848 – Lost re-nomination
  • 1849 – Rejected for land officer position
  • 1854 – Defeated in run for U.S. Senate
  • 1856 – Defeated in run for nomination for Vice President
  • 1858 – Again defeated in run for U.S. Senate
  • 1860 – Elected President (success)

How many of us can honestly say we would have kept going? Yet President Lincoln is to this day regarded as one of, if not the greatest President this country has ever elected. Americans need to learn how to fail again, but our politicians win elections by promising to not let anyone fail. Corporations receive bail outs, farmers receive subsidies, and the poor receive an ever growing list of entitlements to the point that failure is becoming a lost concept. We all need to learn that failure is not the end of the world, in fact, it is often times a new beginning. There are many great historical quotes on failure, one of course is “Failure is not falling down, it is not getting back up”, but two of my favorites have always been:

– “Good people are good because they’ve come to wisdom through failure”  – William Saroyan.

– “Many of life’s failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up”  – Thomas A Edison

I posted this under the category of “Conservative Values” because in my opinion, the concept of failure is lost on most liberals. They are aghast when conservatives suggest that failure is the best option when speaking of auto companies, financial industries, and those individuals who over reach financially. It’s not that we want them to be down and out, it’s that we know what promise failure can bring.

Spaceballs Can Teach Us A Lot About The Current State of the RNC

Leo Pusateri86 Comments

Well…What DO we got?

To answer in short– a hell of a lot.

The problem is that there are a bunch of spineless wimps running the RNC. They don’t understand that the DNC is willing to do ANYTHING, lie, cheat, steal to get their people elected. All we have to do is hit them with the TRUTH– but when you’re a democrat, the TRUTH is ugly and hurts like a sonofabitch– in fact, any truth telling is considered an all-out assault against them–like a cross against a vampire. The RNC, though, always wants to play “nice.” They don’t want to go into the gutter– but at the same time, they don’t realize that they don’t have to go in the gutter– they just need to tell the TRUTH. Until they realize that, we’re in for a long, upward battle. Like During WWII, which was ended with the dropping of two atomic bombs, the simple telling of the TRUTH are the atomic bombs the Republicans have in their arsenal that for some reason known but to God they are unwilling to use!

For Heaven’s sake, they won’t even allow two conservative superstars, Sarah Palin and Colonel Allen West- to speak at the convention!

With the dismal outcomes of Obama’s empty promises he made in 2008, his administration’s direct connection to the murder of Brian Terry, his squandering of our taxpayer dollars for no other reason than to benefit his Union and “green job” campaign benefactors, his stonewalling on energy, his total irreverence for the First Amendment and freedom of Religion and of conscience; his de facto increase in the size of the Dependency Class in America; his administration’s extended use of drone technology to target American citizens; his administration’s selective administration of the law (i.e., their refusal to prosecute the Black Panther voter intimidation case); not to mention his wholesale complicity with the destruction of the unborn; we not only have a Cuisinart- we have the most powerful weapon known to man on our side–the TRUTH– and it’s high time the RNC uses it.

What Media Bias? Part 192

Mark Noonan49 Comments

Though this might be “What Attacks on Mormonism?, Part 1”, depending on how you look at it – from Warner Todd Huston over at Breitbart:

As the race for the White House heats up, Reuters suddenly realized that the massive Mormon Church has a lot of money in its bank accounts. The news service went on to needle the Church, saying if it were a business “wealthy adherents like Mitt Romney would count as its dominant revenue stream.”

Reuters took the if-it-were-a-business theme even farther in its opening paragraphs.

“It would also likely attract corporate gadflies protesting a lack of transparency. They would call for less spending on real estate and more on charitable causes to improve membership growth — the Mormons’ return on investment.”

Of course, a religion is not a “business” proposition. A religion does not operate like a company does, it has far different goals. But assessing a religion wasn’t Reuters’ goal here. Making Mormons out to be “rich” elitists that act suspiciously and are pushing a snobbish presidential candidate on the nation was Reuters’ goal…

This from the same MSM which essentially went all “Reverend Wright, who?” in 2008.  I don’t recall any stories about how Wright’s organization was financed – and that leaves aside anything more than a glance at the fact that Obama attended a racist, anti-American church for 20 years.

One might want to think that there would be only one trip in to the gutter for our Democrats and their lapdog MSM in 2012 – forget it; they’ll troll in every gutter there is.  They will attack Romney because he’s rich.  They’ll attack him because he’s white.  They’ll attack him because he’s Mormon.  They’ll attack him as a war monger and they’ll attack him because he had college and missionary deferments during the Vietnam War.  They will lie.  They will launch whispering campaigns claiming all sorts of horrors about Romney’s past.  They will attack his wife.  They will attack his children.  They will attack his friends.  They will try to intimidate people in the right blogosphere who are favorable to Romney.  This will be the dirtiest political campaign in human history and the MSM will be right there in the trenches with the DNC, doing what they can to help Obama.

So, just get ready for it – it will get nauseating but the payoff will be the crestfallen looks on MSM faces on November 6th.

 

 

Democrats Just Can’t Be Honest

Cluster128 Comments

Today on MSNBC with Soledad O’Brien, Debbie Wasserman Schultz walked back her line yesterday that she didn’t really know the political affiliation of Bill Burton’s Super PAC that put out that revolting ad claiming that Romney was responsible for the death of a woman. This despite the fact that Bill Burton is a former Obama spokesperson, and that DWS is the chair of the DNC, so you would think that the two have met. Today she did admit that she did know the super PAC was a democratic action committee, but that the ad was true, and this response went unchallenged by MSNBC, which from now on will be permanently referred to as the Obama reelection network. And this bit of dishonesty is just the tip of the iceberg from a party that has long ago stopped being honest with the American public and is becoming more isolated and extreme by the day. For another example of democrats unwillingness to embrace the truth, I submit to you Ryan’s reform plans on taxes and Medicare.

Lets first look at Medicare – Ryan’s plan does not at all affect anyone under the age of 55, yet just today on the Obama reelection network, the shills at MSNBC were citing the 65+demographics of the swing states and stating that Ryan’s plan to “end Medicare” as we know it, will hurt the GOP’s chances in those states. Do you suppose that they even know the plan? Considering that Jonathan Capehart was one of the pundits, and he recently admitted an ignorance of the constitution, my guess is no. But in reality, I am sure they are aware of that fact, and simply choose to lie about it to scare seniors, which is a time honored democratic tradition. Ryan’s plan also calls for means testing, a component of which is designed to give less benefits to the “rich”, or those who need it less, and more benefits to those who need it the most, and component of which is sensible and merciful, and a component of which goes unmentioned by democrats. Furthermore, the plan allows those under 55 the option to remain with the traditional plan, or to receive a voucher allowing them to use that in purchasing other health care insurance, which we all know is a “choice”, and considering that democrats pride themselves on being the party of pro choice, you would think that they would embrace this idea. But evidently the only choice democrats embrace is allowing a woman the right to kill her own baby. And they don’t consider that extreme.

Next is Ryan’s tax plan which also gives people a choice to either use the new reformed code or the existing one. In short, the new reform plan is designed to broaden the base and simplify the code. Obviously this doesn’t set well with democrats because eliminating loop holes and deductions means that the government won’t be able to pick winners and losers anymore which is also a time honored democratic tradition. The plan also calls for increasing middle class exemptions up to $39,000 for a family of four, and eliminates all double taxation on investments; ie dividends, capital gains, etc, which will allow a more free flow of money throughout the markets, creating jobs and rising incomes. The democrats however choose to simply focus on the lower rates for the rich and don’t dare tell the whole truth, because if they did, they risk actually educating their audience and in turn risk losing votes. So avoiding the truth is the only option democrats have this election cycle.

It’s Ryan – continued

Cluster100 Comments

Lots of comments on the previous thread so let’s pick it up from here. The liberals certainly have their panties in a twist over Ryan, so it was obviously a great pick.

Have at it folks, and please be civil

UPDATE, by Mark Noonan:  Hello everyone!  I’m back!  Just want to put my two cents in.  When I first heard the news I immediately thought “good pick”, but now that I’ve seen how things have played out over the last 24 hours I have to go with “inspired pick”.  The clear uptick in GOP enthusiasm combined with the meltdown on the left shows that Romney hit the target.

Its going to be a great campaign and we are going to win.  And, liberals, when you’re sitting there crying in y0ur beer as Biden gives a concession speech (Obama not having the guts to do it just as Kerry sent Edwards out to face the electoral music in 2004), just think it over:  you signed on to this nauseating, un-American thing which will forever be known as the “2012 Obama re-election campaign”.  You went down in to the lowest gutter in American history and you came up a complete loser.  Maybe it will finally be time for you to reconsider your views…

It’s Ryan!

Cluster115 Comments

Mitt Romney has  solidified the conservative credentials of the ticket, and has positioned the conservative movement for the future with the pick of Paul Ryan! And I couldn’t be more pleased. As a seven term congressional representative and Chair of the House Budget Committee, Ryan has proven that he can appeal to the electorate, and win in a very blue state. He also has a unique ability to expose the lunacy of liberal policy, and articulate it in a very common sense manner. Democrats need to be very worried, and this may also prompt Obama to dump Biden, because let’s face it, Ryan is smarter, younger and has more common sense than either one of them on every issue. This is a great pick Mitt, well done.

Open Thread: BAraCKWARDS! Hope and Change A Miserable Failure!

tiredoflibbs42 Comments

Why? You ask that ‘Hope and Change’ is a miserable failure?

Well, for one thing, if he had a successful record on which to run we would not see the LIES and the PANDERING of certain groups from the left.

The Obama propaganda team tries to distance itself from the now-infamous Romney cancer ad.  But there’s one problem …

Re-igniting the war on women, at a campaign stop this week, Dear Ruler accused Republicans of wanting to take the nation“back to policies more suited to the 1950s than the 21st century.”

We have not one, not two, but three members of the ObamaMedia who say that Mitt Romney’s ad on Obama gutting welfare reform is raaaaaaaacist.

His green energy programs, most of which went bankrupt…

The Solyndra scandal widens … Obama’s staff arranged for him to be personally briefed last summer on the loan program to help clean-energy companies like Solyndra.

NEGATIVE net job creation even after the stimulus (over $1 trillion in new spending), in which we were promised unemployment would not rise above 8%.  We have been over that for FORTY STRAIGHT MONTHS.  His team predicted that we would be around 5.6%.

Compared with each president since 1945, Obama ranks dead last in job creation, losing 316,000 jobs.

On Monday, August 13, the national debt will reach $16 trillion.  Obama, the same ruler who in 2009 promised to CUT THE DEFICIT IN HALF by the end of his first term, is responsible for more than $5 trillion of that debt.

Out of control spending with the stimulus and other WASTEFUL programs, Solyndra, nationalizing the auto industry, cash for clunkers, omnibus spending bills, etc. etc.

How the Department of Homeland Security wasted millions of tax dollars on a chemical facilities security program.

“We must pass healthcare to see what is in it.” – we were sold a FRAUD when it came to healthcare.  Premiums are going up at a more alarming rate that BEFORE and actually seeing a doctor will take longer and care will be rationed to control costs.

Nearly two-thirds of employers expect to see a cost hike in their health plans when ObamaCare goes into effect in 2014.

A new CBO report says that under ObamaCare, 30 million non-elderly Americans will remain without health insurance in 2022.

And from the GOVERNMENT IS OUT OF CONTROL FILE:

The Oregon man convicted of collecting rainwater and snow runoff on his own property surrendered to authorities this week to begin serving his 30-day jail sentence.

The looters, moochers and drones will insist on four more years of this train wreck of an administration.

Pathetic.

Keep it civil people….

Update: whatever happened to:

“I will not sign a plan that adds one dime to our deficits — either now or in the future.” 
(Remarks by President Obama to a Joint Session of Congress, September 9, 2009)
This afternoon Budget Committee Ranking Member Ryan walked through why the bill put forward by Democrats FAILS the President’s deficit test.
Vice-Presidential candidate Paul Ryan took apart obamacare in six minutes.