Liberals think people are S-T-U-P-I-D

I cannot believe what I'm reading on FoxNews.

We are debating another attack on women's health care fueled purely by politics," Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., said. "Taking the lead from their party's surging presidential candidate Rick Santorum, this amendment seeks to change debate in D.C. from growing the economy and growing jobs to fighting culture wars."

Frank Lautenberg of New Jersey put it more bluntly: "The GOP option gives women one option -- barefoot and pregnant."

So. Whether or not Obama has subverted the Constitution is now mere culture wars. The real issue is forcing women to be barefoot and pregnant.


What idiots are in Washington. They really think we're stupid. That if they ridicule us enough, we'll shut our mouths. This is what it is really about: Getting us to SHUT UP. They cannot STAND that anyone could possibly oppose THEM. 


It is elitist. It shows callous disregard for the Constitution. And of course, it's just plain bankrupt from a bioethical standpoint. 


I am really upset that such sniping, such immaturity can find its way into the highest levels of our government. But it is there.


Please. Do not cower in the face of ridicule. Stand up to it. Respond thus: Well, Obama wants us all to be broke and starving and unable to drive or use the TV. Don't we have a constitutional right to eat? To have money? To drive to work? To power our stuff? Well then, the government should be giving us FOOD and CASH and GAS and ELECTRICITY for free! To everyone, not just the poor! If women have a right to free abortifacient products and procedures, then all the more does everyone have a right to these necessities. People can live without birth control. They can't live without food and gas and power. If there's a right to birth control, ALL THE MORE is there a right to these things. So, cough if up you liberals!!! Let's get away from these culture wars!

Obama is Tyrannical, Delusional, and Unethical

People just don't seem to be getting it. A lot of Catholics and anyone who loves the Constitution are really ticked at the Obama Dictate and for good reasons that many (myself included) have mentioned.

But what they don't get is that what just happened is HORRIBLE. We are now far worse off than we were before the Dictate came out on Friday.  I'm am absolutely NOT saying we should have backed down on Thursday to avoid this worse situation. NO. On the contrary, I believe that now is the time to RALLY!! NOW is the time to redouble our efforts!! We have momentum--let's not lose it!!

Here's why things are worse now, though:

a) By pure dictatorial mandate has illegalized all health insurance that does not cover birth control and related products and services.

b) He believes the debate is now over, and that the HHS policies will move forward without impediment.

c) a and b mean that Obama is first of all a tyrant. A tyrant. T.Y.R.A.N.T. You say, it's impossible, he's a democratically elected president, we have a constitution, it's impossible that any tyrant hold the office of president. I say, you're as delusional as Obama is. OPEN YOUR EYES. What has just happened is a tyrannical mandate that makes it impossible for people to act on their consciences by taking away their freedom to choose otherwise, in a commercial exchange that ought to be free and full of supply-side options that satisfy demand-side diversity. This tyrannical mandate not only infringes upon the First and Fourteenth Amendments of the Constitution, it unfairly and unnecessarily intrudes upon simple free enterprise.

d) The fact that he thinks it's all over now means he's delusional. It is not over. Well, maybe the bishops will become complacent, maybe the House of Representatives will be placated enough to back down. Maybe it will all become quiet. But, unfortunately it is not over.

America, we live under a dictatorship. A delusional man who thinks he's king and the rest of us are stupid, but we can think of ourselves as smart if we agree with his policies.

Please. Those of you with any kind of influence, and any kind of fire in your belly over this: DO NOT GIVE UP NOW. REDOUBLE YOUR EFFORTS!!

Sr. Carol Keehan Should Resign. The Bishops Should Demand CHA Drop the C.

Sr. Carol Keehan should resign.

She has proven herself incapable of leading any organization with the word Catholic in it. She has also demonstrated a complete lack of ethical reasoning in supporting the Obama Dictate that came out on Friday, February 10.

This supposed Bride of Christ has repeatedly scandalized the Catholic Church and the Catholic Health Association with her public support of President Obama's intrusive and unconstitutional health plan. In particular, she has reduced the CHA to a mere publicity tool for Obama through her public support of the Dictate and letting the CHA be used by the Obama propaganda machine.

She has demonstrated an inability to reason clearly and in accord with the eternal principles of charity of the Catholic Church. She fails to see that the Obama Dictate merely provides a plausible-sounding excuse that lets--no--REQUIRES that Catholic organizations violate their consciences while claiming that they have not done so. This smoke-and-mirrors edict MANDATES complicity in unethical medical products and procedures while making it sound like one is not complicit at all. It is a rationalization that she either sees and agrees with, or that she has not seen. Either way, she has inadequate ethical reasoning skills for the job she holds, and therefore does not belong in that job, or any job in any organization claiming to represent Catholic health care principles.

The Catholic Health Association is fast becoming one of the most tarnished and least Catholic organizations on earth. They really must drop the Catholic part of the name.

If they do not do it voluntarily, the bishops should require them to stop using the word Catholic. CHA has US offices in Washington, DC, and St. Louis, MO. Those places have archbishops. Those archbishops should DO SOMETHING. PLEASE. For the sake of the rest of the Catholics in the US and throughout the world. DO SOMETHING. PLEASE.

Email Keehan to let her know: ckeehan@chausa.org

I did.

More on the ethics of the Obama Dictate

In my last post I pointed out that the “accommodation” issued by President Obama was really a relativistic, rationalistic out. I would like to say a little more about that.

First of all, from a practical standpoint, the “accommodation” really is an attack by Obama and not a retreat at all. It is in fact far worse of a situation than we had before. He has, by dictate, illegalized health insurance plans that do not cover birth control for free. Anything you might say to disagree with me is pure semantics. At CatholicVote, someone called it a bookkeeping change. Secondhand Smoke used the image of a wool cap being pulled over someone’s eyes. Someone else called it smoke and mirrors. The fact is, religious organizations have to offer their employees health plans that cover birth control. Now, however, it is no longer by choice, but by Government Mandate. The Grand Champion of Choice has removed the dynamic of choice from the process. 

It seems that “free to choose” only applies to choosing the Obama Way. Otherwise, he will illegalize our options, leaving only the one he wants us to have.

So let’s look at how he served it up to us S-T-U-P-I-D Catholics.

He said that religious organizations do not have to choose and pay for a health plan that covers objectionable products and services. Instead, the health insurance companies will simply cover those products and services anyway. So, no religious organization has to make a choice that compromises its conscience. It’s all between the health insurer and the employee. 

This is a swindle. We’re supposed to buy this malarkey, and be happy about it, saying, “We’re not paying for birth control coverage!” Are we paying for health insurance? Will that plan cover birth control for those who want it? Is the cost the same as a plan that does not cover it? Then it is only a smoke and mirrors that lets us deny we’re not paying for it. A rationalization.

God sees through rationalizations. He sees the heart. And the heart of this “accommodation” is tyranny.

Now, let’s look closer at these “free” products and services. Obama says it’s a wash in terms of cost: The insurance companies will be glad to provide free birth control because it saves them money over what it would cost them if people didn’t use it. It’s cheaper for them to cover it for free than not cover it. 

Love that reasoning. It’s also way cheaper for insurance companies to cover drugs for high blood pressure than it is to pay for a stroke or heart failure. To pay for drugs for high cholesterol than for a triple bypass. In fact, it is pretty much cheaper for every disease treated by medication to pay for the medication and the doctor’s visits than to pay for the bad consequence of an untreated disease. Therefore, ALL medications and doctor visits for EVERY illness should be 100% FREE. That way, insurance companies will SAVE MONEY!

Uh-huh. Well, it just seems to me that if insurance companies will be covering a particular set of products and services at no cost to the employee, then they will consider that in the premium they charge the employer. And since plans that cover birth control are no different than those that don’t (since anyone who wants birth control will be able to get it for free either way), the cost for both kinds of plans will be the same.

Only an idiot will think otherwise. Sorry to use strong language, but anyone who believes Obama on this is a complete fool.  

This accommodation is also DISCRIMINATORY. It gives preferential treatment to basically young, healthy people who make a particular lifestyle choice. It makes sick people who need their medications and doctor visits to stay alive pay co-pays and coinsurance and deductibles. 

It’s unconstitutional, I tell you. It subverts the First Amendment and the Fourteenth. It is tyrannical.  It is dictatorial. And it is wholly unethical of the president to take such action. It is indefensible.

I have lived to see crooks in the Whitehouse. Liars. Incompetents. Men who have dragged our nation into the muck.

But Mr. Obama is the most unethical man to have held that office. EVER. He might not be committing adultery with interns like JFK and Clinton, big deal. He is, however, just plain DEVIOUS. And that is way worse.

Obama thinks Catholics are S-T-U-P-I-D

UPDATE below.

Several years back, when my older son was only about 4 or 5, he was homeschooling and did something silly as kids will. One of his older sisters began to correct him and my wife told her to stop, saying, "He's c-u-t-e." And my son said, "I know what that spells. Stupid."

So our president has decided to change the contraception and abortion mandate from forcing religious organizations to offer health insurance that covers it, to...

forcing religious organizations to offer health insurance that covers it.

Technically, he switches the burden from the religious organizations to the health insurance companies. So, now health insurance companies are not allowed to offer any plans to anyone that do not include coverage of objectionable lifestyle drugs and services. So, he's not forcing religious organizations to choose to offer such coverage, he's merely making it impossible for them to offer anything else.

In other words, he's forcing religious organizations that offer their employees health insurance to offer plans that include objectionable drugs and services. You think that insurance companies will offer religious organizations a lower premium because of the limitations in coverage they want to offer their employees? You think insurance companies will offer coverage of these products and services for free? NO. The coverage the religious organizations offer their employees, they coverage they will be forced to pay for through premiums if they offer health insurance at all, will be the same kind of coverage that Planned Parenthood offers their employees. And the same price.

He calls this an accommodation. He says it's not a compromise.

He thinks were STUPID.

I call it an elitist, totalitarian, bald-faced disregard for the US Constitution. And so should you, no matter who you are.

And I do agree that it is not a compromise. It is a heavy-handed imposition of his beloved rule without any back-tracking at all.

It is a relativistic, rationalistic way for religious organizations to comply while claiming not to be acting against their conscience. "We can't help what the insurance company does. We asked them not to. It's their choice, not ours. We don't want to offer a plan that covers contraception and abortifacients. But the insurance company has to." Blah, blah, blah.

But I am glad he did it. Hopefully, the controversy will only continue and cause him to lose the Catholic vote in November. And the vote of everyone who believes that the President of the United State is supposed to UPHOLD the Constitution and SERVE the people, and not DICTATE commercial exchanges and IMPOSE a politically motivated morality on people of religion.

Any Catholics who hide behind this "accommodation" are exactly what Obama thinks you are. He doesn't think you're cute, by the way.

UPDATE: The folks at CatholicVote say that the Catholic Health Association has revealed itself to be exactly what Obama thinks it is. I am trying to verify it but as of about 1:20 my time, the CHA home page is unavailable. Hopefully because thousands of Catholics are swamping its servers with a piece of their mind. At least, that's what I was trying to do.

Now Komen Has Caved to Political Pressure

The worst kind of martyrdom one can suffer, some say, is ridicule. You have to live with ridicule and a tarnished reputation. At least if they throw you to the lions, the lions kill you. It's painful, but it's over.

The Susan G. Komen for the Cure Foundation recently decided to cut funding of Planned Parenthood. Because Planned Parenthood is under investigation by federal authorities. I wish it were for other reasons, like Planned Parenthood being a facilitator of child prostitution and pedophilia and the like. Or because there is still a possible connection between Planned Parenthood's bread and butter--abortion and contraception--and the incidence of breast cancer, a connection that is admittedly not clearly worked out either way. 

Planned Parenthood responded with heavy ridicule and called upon its activists to stop funding Komen.

Komen caved.

Komen has caved to ridicule and the possibility of losing money.

Komen caved to Mammon, and the bloody child sacrifice of the last 39 years.

Komen is not worthy of pro-life money. Given their historic support of Planned Parenthood, even if it's for breast cancer screening, they possibly never were worthy.

Now, see how crafty the Planned Parenthood people (and whatever forces lurk behind them) are. They can rail on Komen and criticize them and call on people to stop donating and get away with it. But what if pro-lifers now get vocal and threaten to cut Komen off from donations and funding? Well, pro-lifers would then be painted as being hypocrites, for imposing a horrible death by breast cancer on millions of women.

Pro-lifers take note: There are other organizations that help women with breast cancer. Komen is the largest. But it didn't used to be. There is no need for them to remain so big if someone else could do just as well. If we put our money elsewhere, some other organization will be the largest. Komen and Planned Parenthood are not the only ways women get help for breast cancer and not the only way you can help women with breast cancer.

So if you give money to help find a cure for breast cancer, that is great, do not give a cent less.

But give it to someone else who won't give it to Planned Parenthood. Give it to someone with courage to stand for their convictions in the face of ridicule. Give it to someone more concerned about doing what is right than what is lucrative.

Benedict XVI, Marriage, Bioethics, and My Dissertation

I was tempted to title this post, Great Minds Think Alike, but a small mind could think alike with a great one once in a while.

At any rate, I am happy to hear Pope Benedict XVI’s words on the connection between life issues and marriage and the family. That is precisely my dissertation topic. Of course, in researching and writing a dissertation, I go into a little more detail that the pope did in his address to members of the diplomatic corps.

The pope connected people’s disposition with respect to God to their ability to make sound decisions and act rightly. Reflecting on the divine light that comes at Christmas, he said, “Truly the world is gloomy wherever it is not brightened by God’s light! Truly the world is dark wherever men and women no longer acknowledge their bond with the Creator and thereby endanger their relation to other creatures and to creation itself. The present moment is sadly marked by a profound disquiet and the various crises – economic, political and social – are a dramatic expression of this.”

He goes on to say, “The crisis can and must be an incentive to reflect on human existence and on the importance of its ethical dimension.” Later, he talks about how family life is essential for the education of children in respect for human life and the human person, and that family life has its foundation in marriage (that is, between a man and a woman).

I couldn’t agree more. My dissertation begins with an exposition of how people reveal and form themselves through their choices. Man is fundamentally the image of God, which of course cannot be proven to an atheist. Still, even an atheist should admit that man has powers that are godlike compared to other kinds of critters, and our higher powers are what is most similar to God. If we reveal and form ourselves by our actions, then we should choose actions that reveal and form us ever more perfectly as images of God.  We must also have regard for other people because they also are images of God.

Marriage kicks this whole process up a notch in a Trinitarian way. The bond of love between two persons becomes life-generating. While some couples may not be able to generate physical life, they can be life-generating in other ways. When a couple actively chooses against being life-generating, or for seizing life as if it were a material possession, they reveal and form their dispositions with respect to God.

Meanwhile, secular society is militating against life and marriage in numerous ways. The field of bioethics is becoming a free-for-all, a mere exercise in creating a plausible rationale to justify what you want to do to placate naysayers who stand in your way. In redefining “marriage” and “life” arbitrarily—no, not arbitrarily, rather intentionally and to achieve a certain desired outcome—society has taken it upon itself to determine also what “good” means. It’s getting ugly out there. Ridicule and intolerance are rampant.

On the other hand, there is a new generation coming along, well educated Catholics often from large families who are fearless in engaging the world at large. I know. My oldest is one of them. (Although with 5 kids, we’re a small large family.) She’s getting straight A’s at Thomas Aquinas College. We are very proud of her! We’re also very proud of our next one, who will be going to TAC this fall. She has a lot to live up to, with her older sister doing as well as she is. But she can do it, too! I like to think they’re no smarter than their old man (but I’m probably wrong about that) but I know this: They are WAY better educated than I was. Or than I am now, even with a handful of graduate degrees in theology under my belt. The difference is the foundation. And that my daughters owe to their mom.

My kids are not alone. In my former work for a new Catholic liberal arts college, I was very impressed with how well catechized, how virtuous, how just plain grown up these kids are. Compared to me at their age at least. I tell people that such a college was what just what I really needed, but the last thing that I wanted. Don’t be afraid to make sure your kids get the kind of college education that they NEED, and not just what they want.

Anyway, the future is bright, even if society is working hard to keep it in darkness.