Krugman quotes Kudlow:
I have long believed that stock markets are the best barometer of the health, wealth and security of a nation. And today’s stock market message is an unmistakable vote of confidence for the president.
Author: Robert Barrimond
We’ll Tell You If You’re Black Or Not – National – The Atlantic
His response is a caricature of the worst stereotypes of white liberalism. Note the invocation of a “Marxist View Of Race.” Note the sense that blackness is strictly the work of “Southern Whites.” Note the arrogance of assuming that “blackness” is defined by 17th century racists, and that the people being defined have no agency. In one fell column, Judis anoints himself High Arbiter of Blackness, and then dismisses Obama’s complicated and arduous process as the president simply doing “what was expected of him.”
The only appropriate response to this sentiment is to regrettably resort to the language of my folks and ask the following–Who the fuck is John Judis?
via We’ll Tell You If You’re Black Or Not – National – The Atlantic.
But seriously, who the f— is he?
Glenn Beck’s Faulty Logic
When we think about redistribution of wealth, it is important to remember that the redistribution in this country is from the young to the old. It reflects our societal values and obligations.
Personally, I am happy to have a president who seeks advice from people of faith. Our religious traditions help to lay the moral foundation upon which our laws ought to rest. A logic of love that Jesus lived and taught is the day star that ought to guide our personal, societal, economic, and political decision-making.
via Glenn Beck’s Faulty Logic – Valerie Elverton Dixon – God’s Politics Blog.
Amen.
Credibility gap: Pope needs to answer questions | National Catholic Reporter
We urge this not primarily as journalists seeking a story, but as Catholics who appreciate that extraordinary circumstances require an extraordinary response. Nothing less than a full, personal and public accounting will begin to address the crisis that is engulfing the worldwide church. It is that serious.
via Credibility gap: Pope needs to answer questions | National Catholic Reporter.
This is why I am still a Catholic. Our Church is more than the Magesterium and hierarchy.
BBC News – Pope accused of failing to act on sex abuse case
A canonical trial authorised by Cardinal Ratzinger’s deputy was halted after Fr. Murphy wrote to the future pope asking that proceedings be stopped, despite objections from a second archbishop.
The accused priest said in the letter that he was ill and wanted to live out the remainder of his time in the “dignity of my priesthood”.
Victims say Fr Murphy – who died in 1998 – assaulted boys while hearing their confessions, in his office, his car, at his mother’s house and in their dormitory beds.
He was quietly moved to the Diocese of Superior in northern Wisconsin in 1974, where he spent his last 24 years working freely with children in parishes and schools, according to one lawsuit.
via BBC News – Pope accused of failing to act on sex abuse case.
What bothers me is the Vatican’s response to this. Instead of quiet dignity, we find defiance: it’s about the pope and not about the children who were abused under his watch. Directly or not, you are responsible Pope Benedict. Take responsibility. Accusing the media and critics of “petty gossip” about really serious matters only serves to paint you as petty and seeking to deflect attention from those sins you may have committed. Focus on what matters. Further, you are the Vicar of Christ; so much for blessing those who curse you.
Putting Away My Sword
Today’s homily centered on the Passion of Christ and how we read it today during Mass. The passion in Luke’s Gospel was read like a play with different parts read by different people. The folks in the pews read parts where groups of people speak, e.g. the crowds or the High Priests. So Father focused his homily on the parts for us folks in the pews and highlighted how they were all parts that spoke ill of the speakers themselves. “Crucify him!” etc. One section really spoke to me and my sins, Anger and Pride in particular.
Luk 22:49 When those who were around him saw what was coming, they asked, “Lord, should we strike with the sword?”
I really love to draw my sword. It happens when I lord over someone in a debate. It happens when I turn righteous anger into scornful rebuke and feel pride in my self-righteousness. Thank God for the sacrament of Reconciliation and the grace from God of friends who challenge me with love.
More Reasons Why I’m not Conservative
In the 20th century, it was conservative intellectual William Buckley who defended white supremacy in the South. I hear people talking about how National Review–a magazine that speculated that the Birmingham bombing was the work of a “crazed Negro”– has, of late, betrayed its holy intellectual roots and I wonder what planet they’ve been living on. People mournfully claim that conservatism has “died,” and I wonder if they’ve forgotten what “conservatism” had to say to black people in apartheid South Africa. Meanwhile, conservative intellectuals are attacking gay marriages because it might reinforce “black social failure.” These are the intellectuals.
There is a fundamental problem here, one that can’t be elided by pointing out the differences between “true” conservatism and Republicans. A bias toward time-tested, societal institutions almost necessarily means a bias toward institutional evil. Likewise, a skepticism of change almost necessarily means a skepticism of those who seek to expand democracy beyond property-owning white men. Taken in sum you have an ideology, whatever its laudable merits, that will almost always, necessarily, look charitably upon those with power, or those who control the institutions, and skeptically upon those without power, or those who seek to change those institutions.
As a black person, I find that really hard to take.
via Conservatism And Power – National – The Atlantic.
Exactly. Even though conservative has it’s purposes in democracy, I prefer loving justice than institutions, than what is.
Putting the Discipline in Discipleship
This Sunday my pastor gave a great homily on the Scripture readings entitled “Where’s the Fruit?” in homage to the classic “Where’s the Beef” commercial. It struck me how Jesus could be militant about being un-militant. We begin with the parable of the Tree that Did Not Bear Fruit:
And [Jesus] told them this parable:
“There once was a person who had a fig tree planted in his orchard,
and when he came in search of fruit on it but found none,
he said to the gardener,
‘For three years now I have come in search of fruit on this fig tree
but have found none.
So cut it down.
Why should it exhaust the soil?’
He said to him in reply,
‘Sir, leave it for this year also,
and I shall cultivate the ground around it and fertilize it;
it may bear fruit in the future.
If not you can cut it down.’”
Ouch! The penalty is steep for not bearing fruit. It seemed like another toned down hellfire and brimstone kind of message, until Father brought up some apropos Scripture in St. Paul’s Letter to the Galatians Chapter 5:
In contrast, the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law.
So we, as Christians, should bear this fruit: we should be loving, joyous, peaceful, patient, kind, generous, faithful, gentle, and self-controlled. Otherwise, we get cut down. Wow. That’s a stark image. It seems to paint God as harsh and judging, and indeed Jesus was definitely in the “Repent! The judgment of God is at hand” mode. But think on this. I’ve always found God to be in the rules, “the laws,” of our universe, i.e. 2 + 2 = 4 or F = ma or opposite charges attract. So what would be the destiny of a people who are hateful, joyless, war-like, impatient, unkind, miserly, deceitful, violent, and unruly?
Villaraigosa shocked at celebration of O.J. Simpson, RuPaul, Dennis Rodman at L.A. Black History Month event | L.A. NOW | Los Angeles Times
Los Angeles Unified School District spokeswoman Gayle Pollard-Terry said Supt. Ramon C. Cortines learned about the incident Tuesday and had the teachers, who are white, pulled from their classrooms for the duration of an investigation. The suspension is without pay for the first three days.
We’re not post-racial yet.
Spiritual Re-up
This week my father and I went on retreat to rest and refresh our souls this weekend. It was my second time and I invited my father to come along this time. Our retreat group’s focus is on building spiritual lives of men, esp. fathers and sons. My father and I thoroughly enjoyed our experience together of taking time to stop, look, and listen. To give you a good sense of what we try to stop, look, and listen to see the “Imperatives of Jesus” from the Handbook of Spiritual Exercises. They are good questions to consider.
This week my father and I went on retreat to rest and refresh our souls this weekend. It was my second time and I invited my father to come along this time. Our retreat group’s focus is on building spiritual lives of men, esp. fathers and sons. My father and I thoroughly enjoyed our experience together of taking time to stop, look, and listen. To give you a good sense of what we try to stop, look, and listen to, see the “Imperatives of Jesus” from the Handbook of Spiritual Exercises. They are good questions to consider. Continue reading “Spiritual Re-up”