Brutally Honest

"I think the most clear and concise way to sum this tragedy up..."

"... is that divisive racial rhetoric only pits brother against brother by fostering hatred that negates what Christ taught us about love. How better for the devil to stir up hatred than creating division amongst men; be it the 1% versus the 99%, black versus white, Republicans versus Democrats, or homosexual versus heterosexual. So while we fight against wrong, we still have to be very very clear what it is we are fighting against and into whose hands we are being played."

That's from The Crescat.

There's more.

Read it.

MSNBC's Touré - a study in complete buffoonery, bigotry and brainlessness

This MSNBC reporter (who frankly, up until now, I'd never heard of) best exemplifies the bigotry, the ignorance, the presumption, the hatred for justice based on truth running so rampant in this country today.

Check this out and help me understand where I'm wrong on this... It's pure race-baiting, race-pimping, presumption filled hatred being manifested merely because Piers Morgan had the audacity to air an interview with George Zimmerman's brother.

I honestly don't think I've seen this level of complete bovine fecal matter in my life... it's behavior that ought to be called out for its complete idiocy every time it's aired:

Crossposted at Wizbang.

"the Catholic intellectual tradition is so rich, strong and full"

The more I learn about the Catholic faith, the more I'm finding how true that assertion is:

Throughout his pontificate, Pope Benedict has argued that faith and reason are both necessary for the human person to understand reality and live properly. In his famous Regensburg address and elsewhere, he has stressed the need for Faith to purify Reason, and for Reason to purify Faith. He has also stressed the perennial relevance of Pope John Paul II’s encyclical Fides et Ratio (Faith and Reason).

This reciprocal relationship between faith and reason is a constant theme in Catholic intellectual history, and it explains why the Catholic intellectual tradition is so rich, strong and full, perhaps unlike anything else in the world. From the first, the proclamation of the Gospel was united closely with the human insights of Greek philosophy, and while there have been tensions in the tradition—such as Tertullian’s famous question, “What has Athens to do with Jerusalem?”—in general the idea of the reciprocity of faith and reason has been strengthened from the Patristic Age on.

...

For Augustine, as for Benedict, as for all clear-minded Catholics, the human person faces tremendous obstacles in the effort to arrive at truth—that is, the mind’s conformity with reality—because of the weakness of his fallen nature. First pride and then concupiscence make it almost impossible for a person to follow where truth leads, causing each person to get lost in what he wants to be real, rather than what is actually real. Unable to know himself clearly because of his pride and his passions, the person necessarily fails in his quest to understand reality.

But if by faith a person comes to accept the role of God and grace in his life, he gains two enormous advantages. First, his pride and passions—his slavery to sin and the consequent darkening of his intellectual powers—are mitigated and gradually healed and overcome by grace. Second, Revelation provides certain points of absolute truth which can serve as a corrective to the inevitable mistakes that even the best thinkers make in the application of their reason to the elucidation of the reality they experience and observe. It is not that a philosopher decides that such-and-so must be true because He knows it to be true by Faith, but the light of Faith will often enable a philosopher to see reality more clearly and so more perfectly assess the strengths and weaknesses of various arguments.

I think that so many of our problems today are problems fed by our inability to adequately "assess the strengths and weaknesses of vatious arguments".  I firmly believe that my re-embrace of the faith of my youth has illumined more brightly my understanding of what is right and wrong and is feeding the passion I have to carry this light to and for others.

God grant us wisdom in these relative times to know more fully what Truth truly is.

"We need to remember"

Deacon Greg has posted his Palm Sunday homily:

When I was a kid, this was always a busy week. There was planning for the big meal next Sunday. Would it be ham or lamb? Some years, I’d have a new suit – usually a couple sizes too big, so I could grow into it. My mother would be cleaning the house for company. There were eggs to dye and chocolate to look forward to.

For a lot of us, it can still be a time for planning.

But before we get too caught up in next Sunday, we need this Sunday. We need to remember.

Remember that the crowd that cheered Jesus also condemned him.

Remember that the voices praising him also called for his death.

Remember that those who loved him and promised loyalty also abandoned him, denied him, and betrayed him.

And if you want to know who did that, just look at the palm branches in our hands.

We are guilty.

While we may not want to admit it, Christ’s Passion goes on today. Our betrayal of him continues, in ways large and small.

How often do we praise God on Sunday…and damn Him on Monday?

How often do we shrug Him off when things become too difficult or the rules too hard or the demands of the Christian life too taxing?
How often do we treat love as just a sentiment for greeting cards, and not a command for living?

How often do we see suffering in the faces of those in need, and simply turn away?

Christ continues to bleed and weep and cry out, “Why have you abandoned me?” He cries out today to us. Whatever you do to the least of these, he said, you do to me.

What do we do?

We encounter him on the subway, step over him on the sidewalk, and go out of our way to avoid him when we feel like he might make demands on our time.

At the office, we make jokes at his expense, or spread gossip about him at the water cooler. We suck up to people who are more popular, or attractive, or influential at work – and barely give the unimportant person answers the phone the time of day.

Whether we realize it or not, we see Jesus every day, read about him in the papers, hear about him in the news. He is everywhere there is someone who is small, or neglected, or disrespected, or discarded.

He is with the unwanted and unloved, the bullied and abused.

“Why have you abandoned me?”

Do we hear him?

We find ways to justify our choices. But it can’t be denied. Whenever we choose death over life, sin over the gospel, popularity over integrity, indifference or disdain over love – in short, whenever we have turned away from Christ – we who claim to believe in him have, instead, betrayed him.

We have said, “Give us Barabbas.”

We have said, in effect, “Crucify him.”

And we have done it with palms in our hands and the echoes of “Hosanna” in the air.

We need this Sunday to remember that.

And we need these palms as a reminder – and a challenge.

Go and finish with the good Deacon and understand that challenge.

Last night the missus and I went to our youth group's live rendition of the Stations of the Cross.  It was surprisingly well done and very moving.  The kids (older teens) did a heckuva job putting this together and Father Mike along with a number of others contributed musically.  It was simply outstanding and I confess to becoming emotional in spots.

If you've never been to something like this, you should make it a point to go.

Here's a 30 minute rendition using snippets from Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ.  Well worth your time as we enter into Passion/Holy week:

So a lunatic, a mountain lion and a bear are in the forest…

By tim, The Godless Heathen

You just can’t make this stuff up, seriously. Just go read it, excerpting any of it wouldn’t do this unbelievable story justice.

Via Drudge.

"The level of dislike for the president has ratcheted up sharply"

Peggy Noonan is calling Obama a not so smooth operator:

Something's happening to President Obama's relationship with those who are inclined not to like his policies. They are now inclined not to like him. His supporters would say, "Nothing new there," but actually I think there is. I'm referring to the broad, stable, nonradical, non-birther right. Among them the level of dislike for the president has ratcheted up sharply the past few months.

It's not due to the election, and it's not because the Republican candidates are so compelling and making such brilliant cases against him. That, actually, isn't happening.

What is happening is that the president is coming across more and more as a trimmer, as an operator who's not operating in good faith. This is hardening positions and leading to increased political bitterness. And it's his fault, too. As an increase in polarization is a bad thing, it's a big fault.

he shift started on Jan. 20, with the mandate that agencies of the Catholic Church would have to provide services the church finds morally repugnant. The public reaction? "You're kidding me. That's not just bad judgment and a lack of civic tact, it's not even constitutional!" Faced with the blowback, the president offered a so-called accommodation that even its supporters recognized as devious. Not ill-advised, devious. Then his operatives flooded the airwaves with dishonest—not wrongheaded, dishonest—charges that those who defend the church's religious liberties are trying to take away your contraceptives.

What a sour taste this all left. How shocking it was, including for those in the church who'd been in touch with the administration and were murmuring about having been misled.

It's hopeful and promising to see that people are finally seeing this guy for what he is.

Radical.

Devious.

Self-centered.

Get here November so that we can rid ourselves of him once and for all.

Crossposted at Wizbang.

Zimmerman's brother speaks out on Piers Morgan

Robert Zimmerman defends his brother with eloquence:

Crossposted at Wizbang.

"It's my understanding that Trayvon Martin got on top of him and just started beating him"

The father of George Zimmerman has decided, against the advice of many, to speak out in defense of his son:

For the first time since that fateful night on February 26, the father of a neighborhood watch volunteer who shot and killed an unarmed teenager sat down for a television interview.

Robert Zimmerman, father of George Zimmerman, said he decided it was time to speak out for his son, against the advice of others.   He shared with us what George said happened on the night that 17-year-old Trayvon Martin died.

"It's my understanding that Trayvon Martin got on top of him and just started beating him," the 64-year-old Robert Zimmerman said.

He said he felt his son has been portrayed in the wrong way.  He also said he and his family have received death threats and asked that we not show his face on camera.

Because there has been a lot of break-ins in the area, Robert said George thought it suspicious that someone would not be walking on the street or the sidewalk on a rainy night -- that Martin would be walking between the town homes.  He said after making those observations, his son decided to call the police. 

"He called the non-emergency number first, and they asked him where he was, because he was at the rear of the town houses and there was no street sign," said Robert.

Even though a dispatcher told George Zimmerman not to follow Martin, his father said his son continued his pursuit to locate an address to give to police.

"He lost sight of the individual, he continued to walk down the same sidewalk to the next street, so he could get an address for the police," he said.

"He went to the next street, realized where he was and was walking to his vehicle. It's my understanding, at that point, Trayvon Martin walked up to him and asked him, 'Do you have a [expletive] problem?' George said, 'No, I don't have a problem,' and started to reach for his cell phone...  at that point, he (Martin) was punching him in the nose, his nose was broken and he was knocked to the concrete."

Robert said Trayvon, "continued to beat George, and at some point, George pulled his pistol and did what he did."

The interview follows in the accompanying Fox 35 video... it's compelling stuff:

The American Dream... has shrunk

For some. Welcome to the future?

Let's seriously hope not:

With grand designs on minimizing their housing footprint, Christopher Smith and Merete Mueller have spent the last 10 months building the tiny home of their dreams.

"It's 19 feet long wall to wall,” Smith said. “The interior square-footage is about 125 square feet.”

 The interior layout consists of a sitting area, kitchen and bathroom. A vaulted ceiling makes room for a sleeping loft that can accommodate a queen-size mattress.

...

Their design incorporates several sustainable elements, including: reclaimed windows, beetle-kill lumber, solar power and a composting toilet.

"It’s just a five-gallon bucket that you put peat moss and sawdust in,” Smith said. “You'd be surprised how well it works and how much it doesn't smell.”

Yes, I think I'd be greatly surprised.

The piece goes on to detail that the tiny house movement is growing.

Might be a good time to go into the five-gallon bucket manufacturing sector.

Or not.

"The chair will ask the sergeant-at-arms to enforce the rules on decorum"

Nothing like Democrat members of Congress doing their level best to fan the fires of racial division in this country based solely on conjecture, presupposition and agenda driven opinion:

Rep. Bobby Rush, D-Ill., lost his right to speak on the House floor after he violated rules by putting on a hoodie and sunglasses in honor of Trayvon Martin, the Florida teen shot last month.

"May God bless Trayvon Martin's soul, his family and -- [inaudible]" Rush said as he was removed from the House floor this morning for wearing a hoodie.

Rush was wearing a grey hoodie under his suit jacket. He took off his jacket, pulled the hood over his head and put on sunglasses while saying "racial profiling has to stop, Mr. Speaker. Just because someone wears a hoodie does not make them a hoodlum," he said.

"The member will suspend," said a visibly frustrated Rep. Gregg Harper, R-Miss., the speaker pro tempore presiding over the morning session. "The member is no longer recognized. The chair will ask the sergeant-at-arms to enforce the rules on decorum."

Rush shouted Bible passages over the sound of the gavel as the speaker interrupted him, but he was eventually pulled from the House floor. "The chair will ask the sergeant-at-arms to enforce the rules on decorum," Harper said.

Rush was not alone in his race-baiting antics:

Rep. Frederica Wilson (D-Florida): This is Treyvon Martin. Trayvon Martin's murderer is still at large. It's been one month, thirty days, with no arrest. I want America to see this sweet young boy who was hunted down like a dog, shot in the street, and his killer is still at large. 

Not one person has been arrested in Treyvon's murder. I want to make sure that America knows that in Sanford, Florida, there was a young boy murdered. He is buried in Miami, Florida, and not one person has been arrested even though we all know who the murderer is. This was a standard case of racial profiling. No more! No more! We will stand for justice for Treyvon Martin.

This is now a full blown circus and these irresponsible people who ought to know better are doing that which will likely lead to more mayhem and even murder.

Pathetic.

In the mean-time, our Divider-In-Chief is mute.

Why?

Because this fires up his base and if we know anything about this President, it's that it's all about his being re-elected.