Christian Jihad

Christians are being burned out of their homes and churches in Egypt, and Christians here in America rightly condemn the murderous Muslim bigotry





We’re so much better here in America. Pure Christians do not do violence against deviant heretics like Mormons and Catholics, but they do strive mightily to keep them on the margins.  And be warned, my Israel-loving friends, wherever anti-Mormonism has a home, anti-Semitism lurks just below the surface.

The “Values Voters,” Tony Perkins and religious bigots like Perry-supporter Pastor Robert Jeffress have every right to espouse their narrow views and host their exclusionary forums.  I just wish GOP candidates would drop the knee-jerk urge to pander to them.  When you take your nomination contest to a circus tent, don’t be surprised when the clowns come out.

Rick Perry’s Very Own Reverend Wright

At a gathering of Christian conservative voters in Washington on Friday, evangelical megachurch pastor Robert Jeffress, chosen to introduce Texas Gov. Rick Perry, attacked Romney by telling reporters the Mormon Church is “a cult” and “Mormonism is not Christianity.” (WaPo – Religious Bigotry)

Of course, Perry distanced himself from the remarks, ducking the larger issue of how he could be so politically stupid as to allow an anti-Mormon bigot to introduce him.

I was hoping that with winking dogmatist Mike Huckabee bowing out this go around, the 2012 campaign would be blessedly free of Holy Christian Jihad, but then I really don’t understand politics.

Folks, this bs has no place in presidential politics.  It converts no one to the firebreather's side, and it just turns off secular people who otherwise might make common cause with republicans if not for the unhinged religious nutlogs using their 20 seconds of fame to flame their religious rivals.

Such unseemly displays and unresolvable theological debates have no place in political discourse. I don’t care how you worship. I do care about your morals, your actions, and how your faith (or lack thereof) manifests itself in the public arena and in your view of public policy.

Morality is a proper political subject, but when it descends into denominational chauvinism, the GOP needs to grow a pair and give the sectarian jihadis the bum's rush.

http://content.usatoday.com/communities/Religion/post/2011/10/mormon-romney-perry-cult-christian-/1

Cult of Personality

Maxine Waters saying something stupid

Every court needs a jester, and Maxine Waters, whom I suspect is not intentionally trying to be funny, has kept us laughing for decades…

"We don't put pressure on the president," Waters told the audience at Wayne County Community College. "Let me tell you why. We don't put pressure on the president because ya'll love the president. You love the president. You're very proud to have a black man--first time in the history of the United States of America. If we go after the president too hard, you're going after us." (Unleash Us – James Taranto)

So people love him just because he’s black. He may be a complete failure and an incompetent boob, but he’s a black man, so we gotta love him, can’t criticize him, regardless of skyrocketing minority unemployment and the economic chaos he’s caused.

It’s not a black thing…

Talked to any Palin fans lately? Any criticism, no matter how thoughtful or respectful will be met with a screaming flurry of teeth and claws. 

Europe is also in the thrall of America’s First Black President, although the Olde Continent has yet to elect a leader outside the exclusive pasty-white club. The Guardian’s Martin Kettle worries His O-ness may not get reelected, thanks to our raucous overabundance of rednecks, yahoos and otherwise unenlightened, unsophisticated un-Europeans (barf alert!):

That changed in 2008. With one mighty bound, the nation of mad people became a nation of visionaries, electing not a buffoon but an incredibly cool, incredibly smart, incredibly articulate leader who was so progressive and sensitive that, guess what, he might almost have been one of us. Except that, inconveniently, he wasn't. But that didn't matter. We gave him the Nobel peace prize when he'd only been in office for five minutes and drooled whenever he looked in our direction.

Now, with 15 months to go before the next US presidential election, a spectre is haunting Europe. The spectre is the possibility Barack Obama might not be re-elected. (Guardian – US Voters are not Mad)

Ideas are Bigger than People

I view candidates as conveyors of ideas, tools to get things done. If my politician heroically dies in the act of righting some wrong, I will mourn his political loss, but cheer the gain for the country. If he takes a wrong turn, as President Bush did, I’ll criticize him.

With Obama, it’s the opposite. He survives and thrives, trudging along the path of failure, fanboys and fangirls cheering all the way.  His twisted ideas are choking our economy, our society and our bedrock American values of hard work, entrepreneurship and personal liberty. Still, the goose-stepping Obama-Lama-Ding-Dongs cheer him on and the press gives his out-of-touch Cape Cod family vacation the Hollywood treatment.

Our stubborn love of W damn near killed us. The left’s Worshipful Cult of His Barackness, with its hatred of free speech and studious ignorance of the facts, could end up finishing us off.

Herman Cain for President

OK, I'm not officially endorsing Mr. Cain.  It's too early and the primaries haven't even started yet.  I just needed a good headline.  I do consider him a serious candidate and he is the one that I will measure others against.


Reaganite Republican, in the throes of supporting Donald Trump, chided me for mentioning Herman Cain.  I responded that Politics as Team Sports is what got us into this mess.  Hero worshipers hoot and catcall when their hero is up and somebody else's is down.  We're in serious trouble, and we need a serious president.

Herman Cain is a serious man, but I wanted to investigate further.  Anytime someone comes out of the blue and sounds really good, you just know there's something cringe-worthy or worse in their background.  It's all going great and then the candidate casually mentions how the government is spying on you through your toaster, or something kooky like that.  So I've done some investigating, and I have yet to find anything damning. I also watch the YouTube videos. It's easy for people to start pandering to their crowd and end up doing or saying something irresponsible. Herman Cain has not indulged in any of that.

I'm not a big YouTube pusher, but I invite you to watch this, or any Herman Cain video and judge for yourself. He says the right things, not because someone coached him, but because he has life experiences that are relevant to the office of president.

It's about a half-hour long, so you may want to let it load up and just skip through it. 

Facts about Herman Cain:
- Still married to his first wife, the love of his life
- Bachelors degree in mathematics
- 6 years as a mathematician for the Department of the Navy
- Masters degree in Computer Science
- Executive, Coca-cola
- Executive, and eventually a Vice President of Pillsbury
- Took a "step down" to run a failing Burger King region, turning it into a top performer
- CEO, Godfathers Pizza
- Chairman, National Restaurant Association
- Board member and later chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City

This is a man who understands America and our founding principles.  He knows how business works, how money works and he has a deep understanding of economic issues.  His only blind spot is foreign policy, but his background suggests he knows how to hire the right people and make good decisions.

Two factors give me pause:  He supported TARP, and he was a FED governor.  He's said he supported TARP at the beginning, but they abused it, and his FED role actually means he probably has a better understanding than the average bear of money and finance. I want to know more about where he stands on auditing the FED and if that organization's role should be dialed back or even eliminated.

Nobody's perfect.  On balance, Herman Cain is in my top tier.   

Herman Cain's Website
Herman Cain Defends Bank Bailouts
Herman Cain Supported Tarp

Religious Wars in America

John Boehner, a Catholic, spoke at the Catholic University commencement yesterday.  Of course, the left had to cook up some controversy.

The American left is so predictable. Whatever ignominy is visited upon one of their heroes, they will be sure to do the same to someone on the right, justified or not.  The right tried to delegitimize Bill Clinton, so the left delegitimized Bush.  The right talked about “cleaning up the mess” left by Clinton, so Obama parrots the line to hooting crowds of hopium smokers.

The latest tit-for-tat is an attack on John Boehner by Catholic university professors.  It is a return volley against those who protested Notre Dame conferring an honorary degree on pro-abortion Barack Obama.

The false equivalency cooked up by these snooty statists is to attack Boehner for voting against an ever burgeoning welfare state. The academic left has always been in open contempt of conservatism, but the latest strategy is to cloak their attacks in religious terms.  Unfortunately for these aggressors, Christ left no instructions to governments.

There is no moral equivalency between supporting abortion and cutting government spending

The Catholic Church teaches as dogma that abortion and homosexual acts are evil.  It has no similar iron laws concerning how to run a national government. Father Sirico, a Catholic priest, explains is better than I can…

To jump so seamlessly from the Magisterium’s insistence on the fundamental and non-negotiable moral obligation to the poor to the specifics of contingent, prudential, and political legislation is wholly unjustified in Catholic social teaching. (Fr Sirico – NRO)

He goes on to give a detailed Catholic rebuttal to this uninformed criticism.  This is one of my favorite quotes:

And then there is that passage in Pope Benedict’s most recent social encyclical Caritas in Veritate: “The Church does not have technical solutions to offer.”

He also cites the role of Subsidiarity in Catholic social teaching, which these progressive professors must not be aware of:

The social teaching of the Church is based on the human person as the principle, subject and object of every social organization. Subsidiarity is one of the core principles of this teaching. This principle holds that human affairs are best handled at the lowest possible level, closest to the affected persons.  (Catholic Culture – Subsidiarity)

This passage from the Catholic Catechism sounds dangerously libertarian...

Excessive intervention by the state can threaten personal freedom and initiative. (Catholic Catechism)

What escapes these statist professors is the notion that perhaps, just maybe, Speaker Boehner and other like-minded legislators hope to break the government shackles that have enslaved successive generations.  Perhaps small government advocates hope to diminish the clanking, soulless bureaucratic beast and return the usurped power to individuals.  Which is more empowering to the impoverished, a food stamp or a job and a bank account?

These pontificating professors need to go back and do their homework.  Short of that, reading this George Will column will put it all in historical context:  History Lessons for Obama and Other Liberals

Think for Yourself!

A diversity of thought is a good thing, and we have plenty on the right.  Beware those who say it's a bad thing and we should all shut up and get on board.

Fuzzy Slippers always has some excellent analysis over at her blog, Fuzzy Logic.  Her blog must be ironically named, because her logic is eternally crisp and the writing crystal clear.  She rarely states the obvious and instead of taking the easy road of attacking today's big, fat liberal target, she will often delve into conservative issues, exposing fractures, and taking apart nonsense on our own side, and always with a smile.

Is the GOP "Imploding From Within?"
This past Sunday she fisked a blog post lamenting that the Republican Party was "Imploding from Within."  She entitled her ripost, The Leftists' Conservative Civil War Trap, and it hits the bullseye.  I recommend you give it a read.  It led me to go read the original blog post she took apart.

I won't bore you with the details of the original post that spurred Fuzzy Slippers to craft her excellent antidote, but the original blogger offered a long laundry list of evidence showing that the GOP is fracturing.  It was full of "Bill O' Reilly hates Rush Limbaugh, Ron Paul hates RINOs, Lindsay Graham is a RINO, You can't be a fiscal conservative and a social liberal ..." 

Can't we all just get along?  (and think exactly like I do?)

The blogger's bottom line seems to be that we should all think exactly alike and get behind Sarah Palin and other "pure" politicians he happens to like.  I could not disagree more.  Here's a factoid that drives Purity Uber Alles bloggers crazy:  "RINO" Tim Pawlenty got an A and a #3 ranking among governors in fiscal responsibility from the libertarian CATO Institute.

Intellectual Ferment is a Good Thing

Progressives make the mistake of turning every belief of the week into religious dogma, and I don't want to see us going down the same road.

Groupthink is a killer and leads to intellectual sclerosis and ultimately, failure. There is a diversity of thought on the right, with libertarians joining in. It is a free marketplace of ideas and that's a beautiful thing.

Avoid Personality-Based Politics -- Use Objective Criteria

We'll be picking a GOP candidate before we know it, so here is my advice.  Avoid personalities and stick to objective criteria.  I recommend three...

US Constitution - My first criterion in judging a politician is the US Constitution.  How does she interpret and understand it?  Natural rights?  Does she believe in negative rights of Locke and the Founders, or has she bought into the progressive movement's phony notion of positive rights?

Russell Kirk's Ten Conservative Principles - This classical essay should be read by all people who call themselves conservative.  It is a brilliant distillation of what conservatism is.

Key Concepts of Libertarianism - If you are libertarian, this is a good quick measurement to use.

Using such criteria, while treating Bill O'Reilly and other talkers as entertainment, will guide you in a rational analysis of the candidates and their ideas.