My Right to Not Be Offended

is more important than your right to free speech. That is, if I belong to a protected group. Welcome to LIberal Fascism.

Celebrating the Universal Declaration of Human Rights:

On December 10, 1948-63 years ago today-the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was adopted; 48 nations voted in favor, 8 abstained, and none dissented. The Declaration proclaimed a simple idea: that all human beings are born equal and free in dignity and rights. The Declaration also made it clear that rights are not conferred by governments. They are the birthright of every human being regardless of where they were born, what the color of their skin is, or what religion they practice. These rights include the right to freedom of expression and opinion, as enshrined in Article 19 of the Declaration.

Read the whole thing.

(Via First Things: On the Square.)

Philosophy is Hard

Especially when you have a cold. Nonetheless Professor Beckwith cites four pdf documents of some of his arguments against a Rawlsian view of democracy and law. They are worth reading and pondering, though I did burn out by the last one:

President Obama: Ex-Liberal:

President Barack Obama has abandoned liberalism. What I mean by liberalism is not the political philosophy that we typically associate with left-of-center politicians and candidates. The president, of course, remains unabashedly in that camp. What I am referring to is a particular posture concerning moral questions, which the preside.

Read the whole thing.

(Via New Advent World Watch.)

The Sky is Falling!

While I wrestle with the vexing issue of whether and how much the base climate change data has been manipulated there is still the uneasy feeling of salesmanship. When I took a Business Communication course many years ago, one technique they mentioned was "backing the hearse up to the door".

This is a sales technique that uses naked fear to sell some good or service to the prospective customer. Examples of it are on TV all the time. If they're not using sex to sell something, it's about our fears. And the sense that there is an overplayed emotionality to the sales pitch for CACC(GW) reminds me uncomfortably of this technique.

Mark Shea brings in some nice insights from GKC while expatiating on this theme:

PANIC!!!!!:

The pattern that emerges over the decade is that the preferred governing style of our Ruling Classes is to scare the daylights out of people with some sort of world-imperilling threat and then use the panic to stampede us toward this or that consolidation of massive power.

Read the whole thing.

(Via Catholic and Enjoying It!.)

Two Steps Forward, One Step Back

was supposed to Mao's strategy. Is this more of the same from the new orthodoxy?

BREAKING: Conn. Bill Proposing to Restructure Catholic Church Pulled, Hearing Postponed:

By Kathleen Gilbert
HARTFORD, Connecticut, March 10, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Following widespread outrage from the Catholic community, a Connecticut bill seeking unprecedented regulation of the Catholic Church has been temporarily pulled and its public hearing postponed while legislators...

Read the whole thing.

(Via LifeSiteNews.com Headlines.)

If His Most Plausible Claim

to be competent to be President was his running of his campaign for that office, how is that working out so far? Given the snafu's so far, one might begin to think that actual executive experience at a fairly high level might be a pre-requisite for future candidates. Certainly nothing less than being, say, governor of a small state, anyway; Alaska,for example.

Obama Botches Meeting with British PM:

Our new President ran for office on a promise to use the power of diplomacy much more effectively than George Bush; indeed, he seems to believe diplomacy alone can solve almost any problem, from the Taliban to Iran’s nuclear program.

Read the whole thing.

(Via Little Green Footballs.)

Something to Worry About

So it isn't just me that perceives a slow slide into servitude:

How Democracies Become Tyrannies:

The American Thinker asks, "Can a free people willingly choose servitude?"

The prophet Chesterton replies that it is usually a free people who choose tyranny, something we see from the Roman Republic to Weimar. Against Wells' notion that primitive man was a tyrant who ruled by force and fear and that democracy is a late development in our onward and upward march of Progress, he writes in The Everlasting Man:

Read the whole thing.

(Via Catholic and Enjoying It!.)

Everybody Supports Choice

on Abortion is the mantra we pro-lifers have encountered often enough over the last three and a half decades. But the reality is that most people don't oppose the current legal situation on abortion because they don't actually know what it is. The slow build-up of opposition to Roe v. Wade south of the border exactly parallels the slow dawning on the electorate that Roe v. Wade legalizes all abortions, the legal smokescreen about semesters notwithstanding. The same ignorance is still holding up here though:

So if Canada is without an abortion law....doesn't that mean that all abortions are permitted?:

Stand Your Ground:

Apart from the "court has spoken" mantra, Ms. Arthur is clearly running out of arguments. She refers to the recent poll findings that 92% of the respondents are simply unaware...

Read the whole thing.

(Via BIG BLUE WAVE.)

InsideCatholic.com - The Future of the Catholic Voter? An InsideCatholic Symposium

More intelligent ideas to absorb before reaching any definite conclusions:

InsideCatholic.com - The Future of the Catholic Voter? An InsideCatholic Symposium:

With Election 2008 in the history books, we asked a diverse group of faithful Catholics to respond to the following question:
 

Read the whole thing.

(Via Catholic and Enjoying It!.)

Is Religion Necessarily Irrational?

Read the article linked to below for a cogent, well-argued answer:

You should read it too...:

Tony Esolen at Touchstone links to The Christendom Review, in the process heaping extravagantly well-earned praise on Lydia McGrew's article therein, "The Irrational Faith of the Naked Public Square" -

Read the whole thing.

(Via Apologia.)

Read for the Day

Here's a referral to a good summary of the issues surrounding "gay marriage":

What's wrong with 'gay marriage'?: Michael Novak, "Defining Marriage Down" (The Catholic Thing, October 21, 2008):

A question posed by Bill O’Reilly has been nagging at me for a couple of weeks: “What is wrong with gay marriage?” None of his on-air guests had given him reasons...."

Read the rest of Novak's fine analysis (linked above).

[Hat tip to E.E.]

(Via Musings of a Pertinacious Papist.)

Technorati Tags:
Ethics, Politics, Marriage,
Democracy

Liberal fascism?

Everything you need to know and were too ignorant afraid to ask:

Liberal fascism: What it is and why you should care: Recently, I read a book by an American political analyst Jonah Goldberg, Liberal Fascism, which helped me understand a political landscape that I have watched with growing concern: increasingly authoritarian government and increasingly supine citizens.

Culturally, it reached the point recently where the term denialist began to characterize anyone who departs from a consensus - as if departing from a consensus were not part of the engine of progress in the Western world.

Goldberg calls the new mood "liberal fascism."



Read the rest...

(Via Post-Darwinist.)

Too Late For Us

(in Canada) but still useful. Amy Welborn begins a discussion of the intersection of Catholicism and politics. Note, in the comments Steven Greydanus mentions his on-going analysis also:

Is Catholic politico-talk too idealistic? « Charlotte was Both: Here’s my first question for you guys to discuss. Let me try to unpack the probably poorly-articulated question.

I don’t mean, “Is it too unrealistically oriented toward a greater good that can never be achieved?”  No. I mean - is Catholic politico-talk, particularly in the present moment, as most of us are engaging in it, taking place essentially on the level of vague assertions, associations and concepts? And - are we avoiding and ignoring the way that government and political processes actually work?

Read the rest...

(Via Charlotte was Both.)

What He Said

I wasn't nearly as artistic. I just drew a line through all the boxes and wrote "No Pro-Live Candidate" in a white space as recommended by Campaign Life Coalition. Pacheco does it much better:

A disenfranchised conservative: "

I opened up my ballot and put a large ‘X’ through all of the names.

Then I turned it over and made my own ballot:

 

It’s the first time that I have spoiled my ballot.  Frankly, I didn’t like to do it much.

But the Conservative Party, Stephen Harper, John Baird and the remainder of the political establishment didn’t leave me much choice.

So I voted for the unborn victim who is voiceless.

Millions of unborn babies have been slaughtered since abortion has been legalized in this country.  We won’t forget them and we won’t forget those who traded in their flesh to further their own selfish political interests.

Today, these politicians can ignore the unborn for a short time.  At their judgement and for all eternity, they will never be able to forget it. Ever.

"

(Via SoCon Or Bust.)

I AM A FREE CANADIAN

In the misty time of pre-consciousness, just before you wake up, I was explaining to someone this morning why it's important to vote. It boiled down to being a duty to exercise our free will to build up our humanity, rather than abandoning ourselves to the forces of history--which is just other people exercising their free will.

Apropos of that, let us join the blogburst for freedom:

BIG BLUE WAVE: I AM A FREE CANADIAN: In the spirit of Kathy Shaidle's call for a blogburst on freedom, I would like to say that I am a free Canadian because I am prepared to fight for my rights. I will not submit to any power that opposes my conscience when it comes to saying and doing what I think is right and necessary. Any power that tries to stop me is a tyranny, and I will not suffer to be oppressed.

'I am a Canadian,
a free Canadian,
free to speak without fear,
free to worship God in my own way,
free to stand for what I think right,
free to oppose what I believe wrong,
free to choose those who shall govern my country.
This heritage of freedom I pledge to uphold
for myself and for all mankind.'

Read the rest...

(Via Big Blue Wave.)

Voting Options

I've been wondering how to spoil my ballot to protest the lack of choice. Here's some helpful advice from Campaign Life Coalition:

Voting Options:
On Election Day you may choose to do one of the following :

• NO Stay at home and not vote


• NO Vote for the party your family has always supported, regardless of the party platform and/or the values of the candidate in question.


• NO Vote for the Party which was in power when you immigrated to Canada

: OR

• YES Vote for the pro-life incumbent regardless of which party he/she represents.


• YES Vote for a CHP candidate


• YES Vote for the pro-life candidate, even if he doesn't stand much of a chance


• YES Vote for a pro-life independent, if there are no such options in a major party


• YES Vote to defeat the pro-abortion incumbent by supporting the candidate who stands the best chance of unseating him


• YES Write in ball point pen 'no pro-life candidate'. It is counted as a spoiled vote, but the inside scrutineers will see the message and such messages are frequently discussed at party headquarters.


• YES Refuse the ballot- if this is allowed in your province (at one time, you could state your reason for

(Via LifeSiteNews.)