In “The Wild One,” Marlin Brando plays Johnny, a leather-jacketed vagabond sporting a black-brim hat perched on his head at a rakish angle, below which lurk piercing dark eyes and a sneer of contempt in answer to the question, “What are you rebelling against?” Brando states simply, “Whaddaya got?” An answer like this was provided […]
When it comes to political crookedness and graft, Louisiana is infamous. The New York Times just profiled Edwin Edwards, whose reputation earned him the nickname “Fast Eddie.” The former governor of the Pelican State recently released after a 10-year prison sentence for racketeering naturally wants back in the political ring. A resident displayed the love […]
A DC-area legal activist has filed a federal human rights complaint against the Catholic University of America (CUA) for acting “probably with malice” against Muslim students for having Catholic imagery in all of its rooms that would hinder Muslim prayer – though the school says it has never heard a complaint from the students themselves. […]
For at least one group of Middle-Easterners, the Arab Spring is turning out to be a decidedly wintery affair. And if confirmation was ever needed, just consider the escalation of naked violence against Christians throughout the region. The recent instance of Egyptian army vehicles crushing and killing Coptic Christians protesting against a church burning was […]
It was early in the morning in Venice, California. A multi-agency raid by police in full SWAT gear, automatic weapons drawn and tear gas at the ready, made some serious arrests. Contraband was destroyed and cash confiscated. A drug raid? A terrorist sleeper cell? More “illegal” gold and silver currency a-la Von Nothaus? No, the […]
Recently I encountered the inane phrase “redistribution of wealth.” We all know that it refers to the evil plan of the left-wingers. But wait! Are we unaware that the redistribution of wealth has already occurred, and continues today? Don’t we know that the wealth in the United States is distributed more unevenly than ever before […]
Confidently commenting on the execution of Libya’s long-time dictator, Barack Obama stated that “the death of Mu’ammar al-Qaddafi showed that our role in protecting the Libyan people, and helping them break free from a tyrant, was the right thing to do.” About his own decision to pull all U.S. troops from Iraq in two months’ […]
The Occupy Wall Street movement has yet to define itself, and remains in a state of flux and complexity. Commentators attempting to stereotype OWS, and reduce it to a simple formula, might consider Albert Einstein’s maxim that “politics is more complicated than physics.” Our local chapter of OWS is called Occupy Seattle. Let me offer […]
The European Court of Justice (ECJ, the EU’s supreme judiciary instance) [last Wednesday] issued a judgment (C=34/10, Brüstle vs. Greenpeace) clarifying that (1) no patents can be issued for inventions involving “the use for human embryos for industrial or commercial purposes” as this would be “contrary to order public or morality”, and (2) that this prohibition also […]
After nearly a decade of deployments, surges, and setbacks, after thousands of lives lost and over one trillion in taxpayers dollars spent, President Obama has announced that – in keeping with the timetable originally established by President Bush – all U.S. troops will withdraw from Iraq by the end of the year. At a time […]
The important piece of news out of Rome today is that the Vatican has allegedly called for a “central world bank” in reponse to the continuing speculation and instability in the world financial system. I say “allegedly” because the text in which this call appears is not by Pope Benedict, but by a Vatican office, […]
The Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace issued a document today titled, “Toward Reforming the International Financial and Monetary Systems in the Context of Global Public Authority.” Commenting on it is Catholic League president Bill Donohue: There has been much hyperventilation from some quarters over the release of this document. All of it is unwarranted. […]
I recently came across a perennially timely quote by William Penn — the colonial American proponent of democracy and religious freedom who founded Pennsylvania: “A people who will not be ruled by God are destined to be ruled by tyrants.” Even though Penn was a Quaker who was harshly critical of other faiths, in particular those […]
There is a lot of talk on the streets and in the media about a thing called “corporate greed.” This greed is supposed to reside in entities called corporations that are somehow exploiting people to make a profit by valuing profit over people. The only problem with this construction is that a corporation is a […]
They say that money is the mother’s milk of politics, and now that the field of Republican presidential hopefuls has solidified, the media has locked onto fundraising numbers as the primary means of measuring the viability of the candidates. Not surprisingly, establishment favorite Mitt Romney is far and away the best funded candidate. Rick […]
The state of American politics is such that the question of whether or not their own grandchildren should be torn limb from limb and thrown in the garbage has become a routine subject of speculation for presidential candidates. The state of American presidential candidates is such that they can dispassionately entertain the dismemberment of their own smallest progeny. They are the men of whom C. S. Lewis wrote, the men without chests.
“What the Catholic Church in the United States really needs to stiffen its backbone is a good persecution.” How often, I wonder, have I heard somebody say something like that? How often have I said something like it myself? Be careful what you ask for—you may get it. The persecution of religion in America has […]
A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic – on the level with a man who says he is a poached egg – or he would be the devil of hell. You must take your […]
Call it an occupational hazard, but I can’t look at the Occupy Wall Street protesters without thinking, “Who parented these people?” As a culture columnist, I’ve commented on the social and political ramifications of the “movement” – now known as “OWS” – whose fairyland agenda can be summarized by one of their placards: “Everything for […]
The ink was barely dry on the asterisk in Jimmy Hoffa Jr.’s rant about taking out those “sons-of-b*tches”—referring to Tea Party members—when the vice president made his own contribution at a Labor Day rally. “This is a fight for the existence of organized labor,” the veep shouted. “You are the only ones who can stop […]
Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) has a lengthy track record of jaw-dropping political statements. Among them, the lifelong Roman Catholic has been a huge disappointment to her Church on matters of unborn human life, which I’ve personally written about on many occasions. But it isn’t just Pelosi’s actions on the sanctity and dignity of human life. […]
A memorable moment in the Occupy Wall Street movement this month took place in Atlanta, when Congressman John Lewis (D, GA) showed up and expressed a desire to address the assembly. Rep. Lewis has a busy schedule, and when asked to wait his turn he walked out. Elitist types on both ends of the political […]
Catholics make up about a quarter of the American electorate and have backed the popular-vote winner in every presidential election since 1972. That track record continued through 2008: While weekly churchgoing Catholics slightly favored Sen. John McCain, Catholics as a whole backed President Barack Obama by a margin of 54 to 45 percent. Given the […]
Two historic countries, moving in opposite — and unexpected — directions. “Sweden” isn’t the first word that normally crosses our minds when we hear the expression “free market.” But if President Obama, Paul Krugman, Warren Buffett, and other progressives want to find ways out of America’s seemingly-intractable economic crisis, they might consider looking to the […]
