Palin/McCain Conservatism
Well ladies, gents: I have been watching this discussion (McCain/Palin) for the last week... and I have to say that it has helped me make up my mind. After 35 years of waiting... I have decided to wait no more for the Republican party.
Basically what we are saying here is that we have a choice between a guy who intends to destroy the family (Obama) and if elected he will do so. On the other hand, we have a guy who has redefined conservatism and continually moved the goalposts to the left each time (McCain). One guy will destroy the family explicitly... and the other will destroy it implicitly (and cause it to be called "conservatism" in the process). I really can not decide WHICH is worse!
Yes, Ron Paul is known by Alex Jones, Obama had is reverend Wright, and Sara Palin has her wacky Church!
I am going to do the right thing for the right reason because it's the right thing to do! I'm going to find out how the three members of my family can WRITE IN on election day for Ron Paul.
http://www.campaignforliberty.com/mission/
I held my nose and voted for Bush the second time... and almost got a Harriet Meyers for heavens sake. President Bush derided us "fringe conservatives" when we opposed the Dubai security deal! BOTH sides of the aisle REFUSE to seriously discuss the needed enforcement of our current immigration laws. I might as well elect the USCC since their Marxist ideals square very nicely with the present Republican definition of conservatism. (Sarcasm intended).
Socialism is just as pernicious a destroyer of families as abortion is... and the Republicans don't really oppose either of these evils. But they have continually worked to influence the discussion and change the definition of basic conservative principles... and they have done so to the detriment of sacred marriage and family.
I may be risking an Obama win… but I can not in good conscience vote for McCain. While Sara Palin was enchanting to watch for the first 10 minutes of the discussion, watching The 2 part Sara Palin Church video from last weekend also helped turn me off to McCain:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QG1vPYbRB7k
A McCain regime will also expand interventionism to a level which will trigger things that will bring untold destruction upon the family. In a day and age where China has been doing joint military excercises with Russia… we are on EXTREMELY shaky ground. What we need to do for our own national security is stop the phony financial smoke & mirrors and get our own house in order. The enemy will be at our door soon… but he won’t be wearing a turbin and speaking Arab!
Obama is certainly not an option… but I can not sit by and let the meaning of constitutional subsidiarity and conservatism be redefined on a morning when the third of our largest financial institutions has failed due to republicans embracing socialist doctrines. What socialist doctrines am I referring to:
Read THIS as a salient example:
http://www.hud.gov/news/speeches/presremarks.cfm
The following Ron Paul quote sums it up for me:
“This destructive bipartisan consensus has suffocated American political life for many years. Anyone who tries to ask fundamental questions instead of cosmetic ones is ridiculed or ignored.”
While I think it is not a sin to vote for McCain… I do believe it is more prudent and important for people to do the right thing and allow the chips to fall where they may. Better to be an “old maid” then to get in bed with someone who does not believe in the indissolubility of the rights of the family.
Just as contraception is the third rail of ecclesial politics… so the subject of embracing socialist ideology is the third rail of American politics. And socialist policies feed the contraceptive mentality… which feed the abortive culture of death. A quick read of Marx will show the connection between modern day ‘Republicanism’ and the destruction of the family. To risk yet another Tolken parallel: Bush was our fallback to Helms Deep. But ALAS there is no way out and we will STARVE if we stay there! We HAVE to FIGHT now as if God’s rights mattered.
The first question many “good conservative Catholics” ask me when I mention Church teaching on marital fecundity and right order in the home is “how can you live that out with the high taxation and incredible cost of Catholic education… unless you use NFP as a means of contraception?”
What this tells me is that even good Catholics no longer believe in conservative values because they no longer KNOW what conservative values are. There is a connection between conservatism, individual liberty when lived as if Christ were King, the family, fecundity and economics. So we’re going to reconcile all of that by letting Sara Palin live in the US Naval Observatory until the neocon’s decide SHE should be put in the Oval office.
JUST SAY NO dear friends. Let’s stop drinking the Cool Aid!
Viva Cristo Rey !
Monday, September 15, 2008
Thursday, September 4, 2008
PALIN NOMINATION
Friends: I posted this as a comment on a friend's blog... but I'm reposting it here for what it's worth.
Sara Palin’s acceptance speech was fabulous! She truly WOW’ed them.
BUT…
Not to dampen anyone’s enthusiasm over Palin… but I observe that the working mom has slowly become the icon of the “so called ‘Conservative woman’”.
Don’t get me wrong… I’m happy that McCain picked someone pro life (though I think I might still “write in” for Ron Paul). I think that the “wascally wepubwican ” neocons are slowly moving the goal posts to the left each and every news cycle, however.
I guess it’s just in my nature to be pining for “roll-back” and not mere “containment”. It seems to me that over the years, due to the ever dangling ‘pro-life’ carrot… many orthodox Catholics have slowly morphed into what we now call ‘conservative Catholics’. In this sense, ‘conservatism’ has replaced ‘orthodoxy’.
The Palin choice baptizes the working mom concept which necessitates (in most cases) offering your kids conscience up on the altar of public education… that monastery of pedagogic naturalism and breeding ground of freemasonic ideals.
Naturally I'm delighted to see such an eloquent and tough stance against the 'throw away' society which has come to look at children with disabilities as simply a burden to be disposed of. And I suppose that the only way to fight off the moronic idol worship of BHO is to fight fire with fire… in this case using a radical (and I mean that in a good sense) female to fight radical feminism/Marxism. The strategy might actually work too.
While this may seem like news to be elated over… I don’t really think it’s necessarily all great news.
I think that ‘conservative Catholics’ need to begin studying just what it IS that they wish to CONSERVE? The abortion issue is an EFFECT of something… not the root cause of something. The root cause is how we look at man and woman and marriage and family through the light of all eternity. We will not win this battle of culture wars until we are willing to rebuild the culture… and we are not going to do that with the working mom. Why? Because the bedrock of any culture is the family… and the heart of every family is a woman. If the heart is divided then the bedrock is weakened.
There are some strong and courageous Catholic women who I know who must work due to economic reasons. For we have built a culture on Long Island where in many cases, a single income is not enough. What we need to be working toward is promoting ideals which make it easier for mom to stay home when the children are young. Some of these working mom’s that I know could be a mighty force for change in the local Church if they did not have to hold down a job too.
We men must work to somehow re build a civilization which permits mom to be a full time mom.
Sara Palin’s nomination will certainly help McCain win the election. It will not help us win the so called ‘culture wars’… which begin in the home.
Sara Palin’s acceptance speech was fabulous! She truly WOW’ed them.
BUT…
Not to dampen anyone’s enthusiasm over Palin… but I observe that the working mom has slowly become the icon of the “so called ‘Conservative woman’”.
Don’t get me wrong… I’m happy that McCain picked someone pro life (though I think I might still “write in” for Ron Paul). I think that the “wascally wepubwican ” neocons are slowly moving the goal posts to the left each and every news cycle, however.
I guess it’s just in my nature to be pining for “roll-back” and not mere “containment”. It seems to me that over the years, due to the ever dangling ‘pro-life’ carrot… many orthodox Catholics have slowly morphed into what we now call ‘conservative Catholics’. In this sense, ‘conservatism’ has replaced ‘orthodoxy’.
The Palin choice baptizes the working mom concept which necessitates (in most cases) offering your kids conscience up on the altar of public education… that monastery of pedagogic naturalism and breeding ground of freemasonic ideals.
Naturally I'm delighted to see such an eloquent and tough stance against the 'throw away' society which has come to look at children with disabilities as simply a burden to be disposed of. And I suppose that the only way to fight off the moronic idol worship of BHO is to fight fire with fire… in this case using a radical (and I mean that in a good sense) female to fight radical feminism/Marxism. The strategy might actually work too.
While this may seem like news to be elated over… I don’t really think it’s necessarily all great news.
I think that ‘conservative Catholics’ need to begin studying just what it IS that they wish to CONSERVE? The abortion issue is an EFFECT of something… not the root cause of something. The root cause is how we look at man and woman and marriage and family through the light of all eternity. We will not win this battle of culture wars until we are willing to rebuild the culture… and we are not going to do that with the working mom. Why? Because the bedrock of any culture is the family… and the heart of every family is a woman. If the heart is divided then the bedrock is weakened.
There are some strong and courageous Catholic women who I know who must work due to economic reasons. For we have built a culture on Long Island where in many cases, a single income is not enough. What we need to be working toward is promoting ideals which make it easier for mom to stay home when the children are young. Some of these working mom’s that I know could be a mighty force for change in the local Church if they did not have to hold down a job too.
We men must work to somehow re build a civilization which permits mom to be a full time mom.
Sara Palin’s nomination will certainly help McCain win the election. It will not help us win the so called ‘culture wars’… which begin in the home.
Saturday, August 23, 2008
SAVE OUR LADY OF LOURDES
A recent blog has appeared which chronicles the sudden and unwarranted changes at a parish in Massapequa Park, Long Island, NY. This is the parish of the newly assigned Msgr. James Lisante. The changes were permitted by Msgr. Lisante and carried out by some priests in the parish that evidently do not care about the sense of the faithful in that parish.
A close look at this blog is worthy of your time. For, not only does the blog delineate the criteria for true evangelical beauty, it provides examples and contrasts between the "hermeneutics of rupture" and "the hermeneutics of continuity" which our Holy Father has referred to as cardinal prefect and also in his 2005 Christmas Address. I would draw your attention to the 35th paragraph and following in the Christmas Address.
Please check this blog out. It is called Save Our Lady of Lourdes Massapequa Park.
One parting note: A recent blog commenter (I can not remember who), once stated that the folks that fight the most about the meaning of the Council (they refer to VC-II), are usually either liberals or sedevacantists who have usually never actually read the council documents. I find this assertion to be terribly true. Those who think they know it all and need not study scripture or the Church teachings often will quote both with high emotion, double speak and do so with an ideological "Exacto-Knife". This goes for layman, priest, pastor, bishop... and yes... even sometimes a cardinal. I would like to do a post at some other time later in order to inform the layman about what one can do to remedy these things in his/her own parish. For the remedy is simple but requires a little work, some serious prayer... and a little sacrifice. More on that later.
I will publish comments on this post only if they are civilized, kind, intelligent, and provide a verifiable point of view. Sweeping assertions which are not rooted in present day reality or the teachings of the popes or sensus fidei will not be considered. So save your breath if you intend to rant.
A close look at this blog is worthy of your time. For, not only does the blog delineate the criteria for true evangelical beauty, it provides examples and contrasts between the "hermeneutics of rupture" and "the hermeneutics of continuity" which our Holy Father has referred to as cardinal prefect and also in his 2005 Christmas Address. I would draw your attention to the 35th paragraph and following in the Christmas Address.
Please check this blog out. It is called Save Our Lady of Lourdes Massapequa Park.
One parting note: A recent blog commenter (I can not remember who), once stated that the folks that fight the most about the meaning of the Council (they refer to VC-II), are usually either liberals or sedevacantists who have usually never actually read the council documents. I find this assertion to be terribly true. Those who think they know it all and need not study scripture or the Church teachings often will quote both with high emotion, double speak and do so with an ideological "Exacto-Knife". This goes for layman, priest, pastor, bishop... and yes... even sometimes a cardinal. I would like to do a post at some other time later in order to inform the layman about what one can do to remedy these things in his/her own parish. For the remedy is simple but requires a little work, some serious prayer... and a little sacrifice. More on that later.
I will publish comments on this post only if they are civilized, kind, intelligent, and provide a verifiable point of view. Sweeping assertions which are not rooted in present day reality or the teachings of the popes or sensus fidei will not be considered. So save your breath if you intend to rant.
Friday, August 1, 2008
The Next FI Encampment in CT
Just a short post to let folks know that the next Knights of Lepanto Encampment at the Friars Immaculate in CT will be ON COLUMBUS DAY WEEKEND. Dads... this is FRIDAY evening, Saturday...and it breaks up and ends after Sunday morning Mass (usually TLM).
Ave Maria!
Ave Maria!
Saturday, January 12, 2008
BATTLE SCARS
I was listening to EWTN on the short wave radio as I was falling asleep last night and I heard Bishop Bruskewitz quote something from an unknown source about ‘battle scars’.
He said “when we die, one of the things our Lord will look for in us are the signs of battle scars. If he does not find any… he will ask us ‘was there nothing worth fighting for?’”.
I’m hoping to become as perfect as I can be here… but I realize that I will probably have to do some time in Purgatory. But in any case, I am already aware of what few scars I have.
Nevertheless, this comment (though only allegorical) made me stop and think of the old saying 'If I were arrested today and held in prison on suspicion of being a Christian... would there be enough evidence to convict me'?
He said “when we die, one of the things our Lord will look for in us are the signs of battle scars. If he does not find any… he will ask us ‘was there nothing worth fighting for?’”.
I’m hoping to become as perfect as I can be here… but I realize that I will probably have to do some time in Purgatory. But in any case, I am already aware of what few scars I have.
Nevertheless, this comment (though only allegorical) made me stop and think of the old saying 'If I were arrested today and held in prison on suspicion of being a Christian... would there be enough evidence to convict me'?