Blogs For Victory

Its not like we’re not noticing it:

Several events in the past few months — and in particular the response of the media and governmental organizations to statements and actions by Pope Benedict — have made clear that the Pope and the Church face an increasingly hostile secularism.

The international attacks on the Pope, by governments and the media alike, most recently on the solution to the AIDS crisis in Africa, show an increasingly secular orthodoxy. This outlook places no value on Christian morality and is willing to ignore facts in its quest for a secular, valueless solution to any social problem.

Pope Benedict’s discussion of this phenomenon in the European context goes back many years. As Europe abandons its Christian roots, it increasingly creates a future where religion has no place in the public square. Some commentators have gone so far as to refer to European “Christianophobia.” After all, polling shows that a third or less of people living in Britain, Germany, Italy and France say that religion plays an important role in their lives.

Speaking to a group of European politicians in 2006, Benedict encouraged them to support the Christian heritage of the continent, and warned of the dangers to democracy of excluding Europe’s Christian tradition from a public role.

While there are strong roots of liberty in the Roman Republic and the Athenian democracy, the fact of the matter is that what we consider “democracy” and “republic” today are outgrowths of Christian thinking. The very idea that an individual has rights which everyone is bound to respect is a Christian ideal – Athenians and Romans restricted rights to a tiny class of citizens, and even in this a lot of the rights accrued to a group rather than to an individual. Over many centuries Christians pondered on such things as the State, the individual, the Church, etc, etc, etc and arrived at the conclusions best expressed in our sublime Declaration of Independence – that all men are created equal, are endowed with rights and that governments exist to secure rights. Here in 2009, secularist bigots presume that they can have this sort of thing without the Christian underpinnings. They are quite wrong.

Over many centuries, and often with great struggle, the desire was an ever better application of Christian principles. Is not the poor man the brother in Christ of the rich man? Then how can the rich man tell his brother he may have no say in government? Is not the black man the brother in Christ of the white man? Then how can the white man enslave his brother? If not the woman the sister in Christ to the man? Then how can the man say that his sister is not equal in rights? On and on it goes – what is good is based on the Christianity at the base of our civilization – and if you take it away, then you may as well try to prop up a building after taking away its foundation.

We’re dealing with fools, and self-destructive fools, into the bargain. They think that they are enlightened because they are ok with rampant pornography. To them, the ability to be blase’ about sexual depravity is proof of intellectual superiority. Standing athwart them and advising them of the error of their ways is Christianity – and there seems to be nothing so annoying to these faux-enlightened fools than those who point out how wrong they are. And so, they attack us – and attack the Church, especially. They do this because they believe they can cure the emptiness in their lives by taking away the example of what living a full life involves.

The really odd thing is that it is we, on our side of the debate, who will save them, in a certain sense. It is Christians who will defend liberty and prevent the complete destruction of the civilization the secularists live off of and don’t understand in the least. Because we respect the individual, we will even respect individuals who are being the worst fools mankind has ever seen – and in return for this grand service, we can expect to be reviled. The latest assault – revolving around Pope Benedict’s correct statements on the efficacy of condoms as an AIDS preventative – are just part of the long-standing and increasingly shrill attack on religion in general and Christianity in particular. They do very much want to destroy us – first by driving us out of the public square, then by driving us underground.

And thus we must battle them – and never let our love for them, our desire for peace and our natural desire to not be slandered prevent us from standing up for our beliefs. We will be called all sorts of horrific names; MSM outfits will portray us as idiots when not violent racists; popular culture will continue to hold us up for ridicule. Its all good – the worse they get, the better we shall get…provided we show the proper courage commanded of us.

Guess so, but its been axed. I guess I gotta watch more TV…

If the puzzle pieces don’t fit together, just break off a piece and make them fit:

What’s a big obstacle to getting a health care overhaul bill out of the Senate? The Congressional Budget Office (CBO), according to Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus.

The Montana Democrat has repeatedly said he’s having trouble getting congressional actuaries to score savings in the health proposals he’s shown them—partly because many are new ideas without economic data to help generate a score, and in other cases because they are ideas that almost everybody believes will eventually lower spending. Apparently, the CBO’s strict scoring rules won’t allow for a savings-friendly interpretation.

“The slight challenge we have is getting numbers and estimates from CBO,” Baucus said. Scoring savings is a necessity for offsetting a health bill’s costs, and Baucus says he is continuing to push the CBO to show savings where it can.

“Otherwise, health care reform is in jeopardy,” he said at a hearing today.

In other words, we have a plan which we know will cost a vast amount of money and we have claims that un-tested actions will reduce costs…and the Democrats pushing the new spending want the un-tried stuff included in the mix not because they have faith in it, but because they don’t want to present another several trillion dollar bill to the American taxpayer…especially after Americans have become increasingly dismayed over the last massive, new spending program (ie, TARP).

I think we can rely upon it that whatever comes out of Congress and the White House will not be the whole truth. They simply will not tell us exactly what is going on because they know full well that full disclosure means massive public opposition. So much for “hope and change” – its now “hide and confuse”.

And show they haven’t the first clue about what it means to be a Christian:

With partially nude photos of her popping up on Web sites questioning her Christian credentials, Miss California USA Carrie Prejean has fired back, claiming the racy pictures are just modeling shots and vowing to continue her battle against same-sex marriage.

“I am a Christian, and I am a model,” Prejean said in a statement released overnight to the media. “Models pose for pictures, including lingerie and swimwear photos. Recently, photos taken of me as a teenager have been released surreptitiously to a tabloid Web site that openly mocks me for my Christian faith. I am not perfect, and I will never claim to be.”

There could very well be some photos out there of me at a younger age which demonstrate me acting in un-Christian ways. What of it? Proof that I’m a sinner? Thanks for the news flash. So, too, with Ms. Prejean – ok, so you leftists “caught” her: oh, my goodness – she did something she maybe shouldn’t have!!! Well, that’s it, then; she’s got no right to speak of her Christian faith and her opposition to gay marriage is completely null and void…make one mistake, and that is it for all time.

At least, that is how it goes with ignorant leftists and their amazingly stupid views of Christians and Christianity. Catch a clue, leftists: we’re not arguing that everyone must be sinless, we’re just saying that sin shouldn’t be done and shouldn’t be encouraged. Geesh – this ain’t rocket science, ya know?

Fire away, leftists – you only harm yourselves, not Ms. Prejean and not any Christian. All you do is cause us to pray for you, as Our Lord commanded…and that, in the end, is far more important than anything else we do, because it might eventually move you to become one of us, and understand how foolish you’ve been, and the bottomless well of love which is waiting for you, if you’ll just ask to have it.

The Obama Administration’s Air Force One Photo Op gaffe, which cost $328,835, is now truly $328,835 gone down the drain as the photos taken during that 9/11-esque stunt won’t be released to the public.

The $328,835 snapshots of an Air Force One backup plane buzzing lower Manhattan last week will not be shown to the public, the White House said yesterday.

“We have no plans to release them,” an aide to President Obama told The Post, refusing to comment further.

The sole purpose of the secret photo-op, which sent thousands of New Yorkers running for cover, was to take new publicity shots of the presidential jet over the city.

“The photos . . . are classified — that’s ridiculous,” Councilman Peter Vallone Jr., said.

The photos have not technically been “classified,” a White House aide said, but they are being kept from public view.

New Yorkers said they could not understand how a president who shares intimate snapshots from the White House could justify keeping these secret.

“So we’re not gonna see the fruits of this cruel joke?” said Frank Antonelli, 39, one of the Wall Street traders spooked by last week’s flyover.

“I’m not surprised. Obama . . . wouldn’t further all the bad publicity by putting out those pictures.”

This White House truly is the most incompetent… hell, some of them can’t even spell.

Another French rightwing extremist:

Now, legal plunder can be committed in an infinite number of ways. Thus we have an infinite number of plans for organizing it: tariffs, protection, benefits, subsidies, encouragements, progressive taxation, public schools, guaranteed jobs, guaranteed profits, minimum wages, a right to relief, a right to the tools of labor, free credit, and so on, and so on. All these plans as a whole—with their common aim of legal plunder—constitute socialism. – Frederic Bastiat

Or be now and forever the party of corruption:

The headquarters of Murtech, in a low-slung, bland building in a Glen Burnie business park, has its blinds drawn tight and few signs of life. On several days of visits, a handful of cars sit in the parking lot, and no trucks arrive at the 10 loading bays at the back of the building.

Yet last year, Murtech received $4 million in Pentagon work, all of it without competition, for a variety of warehousing and engineering services. With its long corridor of sparsely occupied offices and an unmanned reception area, Murtech’s most striking feature is its owner — Robert C. Murtha Jr., 49. He is the nephew of Rep. John P. Murtha, the Pennsylvania Democrat who has significant sway over the Defense Department’s spending as chairman of the House Appropriations defense subcommittee.

Robert Murtha said he is not at liberty to discuss in detail what his company does, but for four years it has subsisted on defense contracts, according to records and interviews.

Democrats: Jack Murtha, your anti-war hero of yore, is stealing the taxpayer’s money to enrich himself and his family. There is absolutely not doubt of this – only a purblind idiot can’t see what is going on here. So, you have your choice: be complete idiots, or call for Murtha’s resignation. You ran in 2006 with a promise to end the alleged GOP “culture of corruption”. Matt and I warned you – in Caucus of Corruption – that you’ll get nowhere fighting corruption unless you hold your own side to the same standard you hold the GOP. This is plain as a pikestaff – this doesn’t take any deep thought or intense investigation of a tangled web: Murtha is corrupt as the day is long.

What will you do?

From Rasmussen:

Just 18% of Americans think the United Auto Workers union and the federal government will do a good job running Chrysler and General Motors, according to a new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey.

Forty-seven percent (47%) believe the union and the government will do a bad job, while 35% are not sure.

That 18% must be the number of Americans who also think the people who brought us the DMV are the people to organize our health care, too. Just where did we get the people in this country who actually think something as corrupt as the UAW and as clueless as the US government can run a for-profit enterprise? Think about this – if the poll is correct (and we’ve no particular reason to think its out of the question), then there are literal tens of millions of Americans (ie, enough to sustain a movement which appears to have broad support) who think that the Euro-socialist model is a good one…this in spite of the clear failure of such a system.

The Founders would be shocked at so many of their progeny having the mentality of serfs…

Well, it is dying from Applied Liberalism:

Under Arnold Schwarzenegger, the best governor the states next to California have ever had, people and businesses have been relocating to those states. For four years, more Americans have moved out of California than have moved in.

California’s business costs are more than 20 percent higher than the average state’s. If, since 1990, state spending increases had been held to the inflation rate plus population growth, the state would have a $15 billion surplus instead of a $42 billion budget deficit, which is larger than the full budgets of all but 10 states.

Since 1990, the number of state employees has increased by more than a third. In Schwarzenegger’s less than six years as governor, per capita government spending, adjusted for inflation, has increased nearly 20 percent.

While the government shares a large amount of the blame for California’s woes, we must not let the people of California off the hook. As one small example, 63.5% of the people of California in November of 2008 essentially voted to kill California’s poultry industry, as well as greatly decreasing the pig and cattle industries. This was done via Proposition 2, Standards for Confining Farm Animals – a measure which, among other things, prohibits chickens from being kept as chickens are kept in our egg-producing farms. The chickens – egg-layers destined for the soup pot, in the by and by – must be allowed to stretch their legs…thus vastly increasing the cost of production to the point that such businesses will either die, or move to other States. Prevention of cruelty to animals has been conflated with Chicken Run and so the people of California voted for a nonsense, “animal rights” bill.

On and on it goes – Californians have doomed themselves at the behest of the liberal elite who sucker then, again and again, into backing suicidal ballot initiatives which, curiously enough, never seem to adversely affect the ability of the liberal elite to remain rich and powerful (you know, you can get a ban on smoking in California but you can’t seem to force the rich liberals to provide public access to the public beaches in Malibu). The fact that the liberals in California government are just quicker about destroying the goose which lays California’s golden eggs doesn’t change the fact that Californians have got the government they deserve…and they’ve gotten it good and hard.

It is to be hoped that, finally, the people of California will recover from their liberal stupor and that California conservatives will finally get their act together and provide a credible alternative to more of the same liberalism. Of course, it could be too late – the people with sense in California seem to have been moving out of late (as George Will points out, for the past four years more Americans have moved out of CA than moved in), so there simply might not be enough Californians with the wit to draw the proper conclusions. Meanwhile, it is our conservative job nationally to highlight what liberalism has done to California, and make people understand that it is just what Obama and his Democrats want to do to the rest of the United States – make us into a nation of double-digit unemployment but laws to protect the rights of chickens while the State pays for abortions…

Will we be able to do it? Will we, that is, be able to educate the people faster than Obama can destroy America? Time will provide the answer…

Interesting sketch by Jeffrey Rosen of the good and bad, in a preliminary sense, about Judge Sotomayor, the supposed front-runner for Souter’s Supreme Court seat. Well worth a read.