Where's the birth certificate

Free and Strong America

Showing posts with label freedom. Show all posts
Showing posts with label freedom. Show all posts

Wednesday, January 25, 2012

Obama alienating the Catholic Left







Liberal Catholics reliably voted for a complete unknown in 2008 and were hoping for the best. It seems that now some are coming to the realization that they've been had and that the person that they put in office isn't quite so hopey-changey as they desired and instead is ramming mandatory birth control/sterilization coverage by employers down their collective throats. Conscientoius objector? Not allowed in the New World Order of Obama...






"The liberal Cardinal Roger Mahony, archbishop emeritus of Los Angeles, blogged that he "cannot imagine a more direct and frontal attack on freedom of conscience"—and he urged people to fight it. Another liberal favorite, Bishop Robert Lynch of St. Petersburg, Fla., has raised the specter of "civil disobedience" and vowed that he will drop coverage for diocesan workers rather than comply. They are joined in their expressions of discontent by the leaders of Catholic Relief Services and Catholic Charities, which alone employs 70,000 people.

In the run-up to the ruling, the president of Notre Dame, the Rev. John Jenkins, suggested a modest compromise by which the president could have avoided most of this strife. That would have been by allowing the traditional exemption for religious organizations. That's the same understanding two of the president's own appointees to the Supreme Court just reaffirmed in a 9-0 ruling that recognized a faith-based school's First Amendment right to choose its own ministers without government interference, regardless of antidiscrimination law.

A few years ago Father Jenkins took enormous grief when he invited President Obama to speak at a Notre Dame commencement; now Father Jenkins finds himself publicly disapproving of an "unnecessary government intervention" that puts many organizations such as his in an "untenable position."

Here's just part of what he means by "untenable": Were Notre Dame to drop coverage for its 5,229 employees, the HHS penalty alone would amount to $10 million each year.

The irony, of course, is that the ruling is being imposed by a Catholic Health and Human Services secretary, Kathleen Sebelius, working in an administration with a Catholic vice president, Joe Biden. A few years back the voluble Mr. Biden famously threatened to "shove my rosary beads" down the throat of those who dared suggest that his party's positions on social issues put it at odds with people of faith. Does he now mean to include Mr. Winters, Cardinal Mahony and Father Jenkins?"




Barry is doing a wonderful job of alienating a core group that supported him in 2008. One thing that liberals never seem to like to admit or are completely oblivious to is the authoritarian streak inherent in alot of liberal policies and ideas. Their ideas aren't popular to begin with and the only way they can implement them is through judicial rulings and presidential orders rather than any sort of debate and subsequent voting by congress.

Sunday, January 16, 2011

Baby Doc back in Haiti


Hot off the presses. Cellphones are crackling from Miami to Montreal over today's unexpected news....



"PARIS -- Haitian former president Jean-Claude Duvalier (above), ousted from power by a popular revolt in the 1980s, unexpectedly returned to Haiti Sunday, a diplomatic source in Paris said, Agence France-Presse is reporting.

"He is on board an Air France flight'' going to Port-au-Prince, the diplomat who requested anonymity told AFP.

The plane was schedule to land in the Haitian capital around 5:30 p.m., EST, the newspaper said.

The 59-year-old ex-dictator, known as "Baby Doc", has been living in exile in France for nearly 25 years.

Duvalier's unexpected return comes while Haiti is marking the first anniversary of the devastating earthquake that killed an estimated 300,000 people, and as the Caribbean island nation is mired in a political impasse following disputed elections. Link to full article.


Preliminary reports are, in fact, joyous coming from the ex-pat Haitian community. Seriously. I almost dread going to the Haitian barbershop that I have been going to every week for the last 10 years due to the amount of politically charged rhetoric that will be eminating from the Haitian community in that neighborhood. Everybody has an opinion and they most certainly tell me what it is.



The fundamental question raised here is, at what price, stability? Many Haitians living abroad now refer to the days of the repressive Duvalier regime (of both Papa and Baby Doc) with a certain sense of nostalgia and although they freely admit that while there wasn't freedom of political expression then, 'at least there was electricity'.



I once read where columnist Andres Oppenheimer referred to Haiti as 'the West's only failed nation state' and I think he was right. I recall that when I was there 3 years ago that the UN seemed to be making a noble effort there but in the end, it will have to be the Haitian people who need to step up and make things happen. But a paralysis of the central government which has been plagued by non-stop bickering and in-fighting leaves central authority there practically non-existant.



So I ask again, at what price stability? Is a much reduced crime rate and access to electricity worth you keeping your mouth shut concerning political matters ? What are your thoughts?