Brutally Honest

Hollywood leftists mourn Chavez death

Oliver Stone and Sean Penn are seriously grieving:

"I mourn a great hero," said Oliver Stone of the Venezuelan president who died on Tuesday after a long bout with cancer.

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"Today the people of the United States lost a friend it never knew it had. And poor people around the world lost a champion," says Penn in a statement to The Hollywood Reporter. "I lost a friend I was blessed to have. My thoughts are with the family of President Chavez and the people of Venezuela."

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''I mourn a great hero to the majority of his people and those who struggle throughout the world for a place," says Stone in a statement to THR. "Hated by the entrenched classes, Hugo Chavez will live forever in history."

"My friend, rest finally in a peace long earned," he adds.

Poor people around the world lost a champion.  And, apparently, a very rich champion:

Criminal Justice International Associates (CJIA), a risk assessment and global analysis firm in Miami, estimated in a recent report that the Chávez Frías family in Venezuela has “amassed a fortune” similar to that of the Castro brothers in Cuba.

According to Jerry Brewer, president of CJIA, “the personal fortune of the Castro brothers has been estimated at a combined value of around $2 billion.”

“The Chávez Frías family in Venezuela has amassed a fortune of a similar scale since the arrival of Chávez to the presidency in 1999,” said Brewer in an analysis published in their website.

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“We believe that organized bolivarian criminal groups within the Chávez administration have subtracted around $100 billion out of the nearly $1 trillion in oil income made by PDVSA since 1999.”

This is 40

It's been 40 years.

This is 40:

Planned Parenthood personnel have aborted over 5,300,000 children since 1970. That’s equal to the entire population of Colorado. In 2009, 97.6 percent of Planned Parenthood’s “services" for pregnant women involved killing their children, and only 2.4 percent involved prenatal care or adoption referral.

This is 40:

An estimated 55 million abortions have been legally performed in the United States since that time.

This is 40:

Roe has never been accepted by the American people as a whole as a valid constitutional decision. It is widely regarded, even among liberal academics, as poorly reasoned—at best. Many scholars and others (including more than a few who are not pro-life in their moral and political convictions) regard it as a glaring (and even embarrassing) example of the judicial usurpation of authority left by the Constitution in the hands of the people and their elected representatives. EvenRoe’s diehard supporters tend to defend it on the grounds that it is an “established precedent,” not on the grounds that it is correct as a matter of constitutional interpretation.

This is 40:

Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta summarized the legacy of Roe when she said 'America needs no words from me to see how your decision in Roe vs. Wade has deformed a great nation. The so-called right to abortion has pitted mothers against their children and women against men. It has sown violence and discord at the heart of the most intimate human relationships. It has aggravated the derogation of the father’s role in an increasingly fatherless society. It has portrayed the greatest of gifts – a child – as a competitor, an intrusion and an inconvenience.' "

This is 40:

If we would open our hearts to the the sorrow with which God aches we too would ache for the millions of babies, and children, and young people, and whole families which He willed to entrust to our care, but who are not here because of what we have willed.   We must weep over our own blind self-deception in believing that any decision regarding life is private affair.  We are all implicated in one another's decisions irrespective of whether we are male or female, friends or enemies, atheists or believers.  The decision not to welcome or protect life is always a social reality, the most inhumane form of social poverty that can inflict any family or community -- and God's heart can only weep over us for having fallen into such misery. 

By prayer and fasting there is still the opportunity that we might be pierced to the heart.  It is still possible for us to know compunction over the fact that instead of protecting motherhood and supporting those whose desperate situations drove them to despair, we viewed their plight as an inconvenience that needed to be dispatched as efficiently as possible.   Sorrow can still drive us to the hope of prayer and by this hope to a new beginning.

If heaven is dismayed that we who have been blessed far beyond anything we ever deserved chose to be callous towards those who most needed our help, our encouragement, our love -- we still may yet be astonished by the mercy of God in which even the evil of our personal decisions finds its limit.  In prayer, the tears of faith access the power of God who in unimaginable mercy is waiting to heal the alienation and coldness of heart our own actions have brought on ourselves.   In such holy conversation with the One who knows the deepest truth of our hearts, baptized in holy tears of repentance and gratitude, the grace of a change of heart yearns to unfold and new possibilities that we cannot imagine await us.

Lord have mercy.

Amen.

Man's best, and most loyal, friend

Meet Ciccio, a devoted German Shepherd in Italy:

Ciccio, a 12-year-old German shepherd, waits in vain in front of the altar of the Santa Maria Assunta church in the village of San Donaci in the southern region of Puglia.

He heads to the church as soon as the bells begin to ring each afternoon, just as he did for years when his owner was alive.

The woman, who was known in local dialect as "Maria tu lu campu" - "Maria of the fields" – died suddenly in November.

Ciccio attended the funeral, following his mistress's coffin as it was carried into the church.

The dog's devotion has so impressed villagers that they have adopted him as their own, giving him food and water and letting him sleep in a covered area outside the church.

The local priest, Donato Panna, allows him to sit in front of the altar during Masses, baptisms and other services.

He is now hoping to find a new home for the faithful hound.

Dogs are divine, let there be no doubt.

United we stand, divided we fall

Seems clear we're falling:

It is becoming a growing form of protest over the outcome of the Presidential Election; people flying the American Flag upside down. But now those protests are sparking a protest of their own.

On rooftops or front porches, our flag is displayed as a symbol of our national pride.

Larry Guerrieri fought beneath the flag in Vietnam, but outside his Dorseyville home Thursday it was flying upside down.

“That’s a sign of distress; this country is in distress right now,” said Guerrieri.

Guerrieri makes no effort to hide his feelings about President Barack Obama.

“This Benghazi incident, he left them four people there to die,” says Guerrieri. “That’s the way I feel about it.”

So, his flag flies protest.

Flag Plaza is where the National Flag Foundation is housed.

“The flag is flown upside down in times of distress,” said Clark Rogers, the acting director of the National Flag Foundation.

Rogers says to fly it in protest risks angering veterans.

“No question about that, veterans are very tender about that flag,” he says. “They fought for that flag; their buddies sacrificed for the flag.”

But Guerrieri and Bill Rodgers, who put his upside down flag back in his yard Thursday in Bellevue, feel strongly that the country is in trouble and the President is only making it worse.

“It will stay there for four years,” says Guerrieri.

“A couple of days, probably till we get to the weekend,” added Rodgers.

I think it'd be great for a reputable historian or two to dig into whether or not we've ever been this divided.

What do you folks think?

Should Andrew Sullivan be put on suicide watch?

I'm thinking so:

The Pew poll is devastating, just devastating. Before the debate, Obama had a 51 - 43 lead; now, Romney has a 49 - 45 lead. That's a simply unprecedented reversal for a candidate in October. Before Obama had leads on every policy issue and personal characteristic; now Romney leads in almost all of them. Obama's performance gave Romney a 12 point swing! I repeat: a 12 point swing.

Romney's favorables are above Obama's now. Yes, you read that right. Romney's favorables are higher than Obama's right now. That gender gap that was Obama's firewall? Over in one night:

Currently, women are evenly divided (47% Obama, 47% Romney). Last month, Obama led Romney by 18 points (56% to 38%) among women likely voters.

Seriously: has that kind of swing ever happened this late in a campaign? Has any candidate lost 18 points among women voters in one night ever? And we are told that when Obama left the stage that night, he was feeling good. That's terrifying. On every single issue, Obama has instantly plummeted into near-oblivion. He still has some personal advantages over Romney - even though they are all much diminished. Obama still has an edge on Medicare, scores much higher on relating to ordinary people, is ahead on foreign policy, and on being moderate, consistent and honest (only 14 percent of swing voters believe Romney is honest). 

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A sitting president does not recover from being obliterated on substance, style and likability in the first debate and get much of a chance to come back. He has, at a critical moment, deeply depressed his base and his supporters and independents are flocking to Romney in droves.

Sharp objects should be removed from the man's proximity.

And I'm trying really hard not to enjoy his post.

Really hard.

But failing.

Bill Maher: "Obama looks like he DOES need a teleprompter"

If this isn't an indication that Obama got his butt kicked, I don't know what is:

i can't believe i'm saying this, but Obama looks like he DOES need a teleprompter

— Bill Maher (@billmaher) October 4, 2012

"I don't know what he was doing out there"

Chris Matthews is lamenting Obama's piss poor performance last night:

He's lost his tingle... and I love the closing line... "What was Romney doing? He was winning!"

Let's remember, let's reflect (UPDATED)

In honor of the day and in memory of those lost, this will be the only post today, a brief one linking to others much brighter than I and who have things to say worth reading.  I'll add to the list should I come across something I think fitting.

They include:

Deacon Greg Kandra, For 9/11: "We pray, very simply, in remembrance...".

Mark Shea, The Only Hope on 9/11.

Fr. Z, “How are they down, how have they fallen down – Those great strong towers of ice and steel…”.

Fr. Zelonis, Were I come o'er again it should be this.

UPDATES:

Tim Drake, To Pray, to Act, to Fight: A Hero’s Life.

John Breunig, Father's note changes family's 9/11 account.

Deacon Greg once more, Homily at Fr. Mychal Judge’s funeral: “He is going to be on the other side of death”

Frank Weathers, Blessed Are They Who Mourn….

The Anchoress, 9/11: A Bag of Tomatoes and an Empty Sky.

Fr. Powell, On not forgetting that we have an Enemy.

Kris at Noodling On It, Eleven.

"A titanic civilizational achievement that remains undimmed for me to this day"

That title, coming our way via Mark Shea, is more than an apt description of Neil Armstrong's walk on the moon.

Mark called the man "as significant a figure in the history of human exploration as Columbus, Magellan, or Cook" and I can't think of any sensible person disagreeing with that assessment.

A little more than a year ago, commemorating the 42nd anniversary of that walk on the moon, I wrote about my remembrances:

I was a 9 year old boy, living in Spain with my Spanish grandparents (Dad was stationed in nearby Torrejon Air Base, my birthplace) and I distinctly remember being awakened to join the entire family in watching Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin walk on the moon while Michael Collins orbited above them, awaiting their safe return to the Command module and eventually, hopefully Earth.  It was exhilarating, scary, exciting and something I'll never forget.  Little did I know that a couple of months later, I'd have the opportunity to briefly see allthree of them in person in Madrid as part of their worldwide tour, a junket purposed in highlighting that great achievement.  I actually stood within 20 or 30 feet of men who had been to another world, catching a glimpse of them each through the crowd that had gathered, my Dad making sure that I had the opportunity to lay my eyes on them all.  I was enthralled.  I wanted right then and there to be an Astronaut.  I wanted to be Neil Armstrong.  Hell, I still do.

I mourn the passing of a giant in history.  The world mourns that loss.  And his family has released the following statement:

“We are heartbroken to share the news that Neil Armstrong has passed away following complications resulting from cardiovascular procedures.

“Neil was our loving husband, father, grandfather, brother and friend.

“Neil Armstrong was also a reluctant American hero who always believed he was just doing his job. He served his Nation proudly, as a navy fighter pilot, test pilot, and astronaut. He also found success back home in his native Ohio in business and academia, and became a community leader in Cincinnati.

“He remained an advocate of aviation and exploration throughout his life and never lost his boyhood wonder of these pursuits.

“As much as Neil cherished his privacy, he always appreciated the expressions of good will from people around the world and from all walks of life.

“While we mourn the loss of a very good man, we also celebrate his remarkable life and hope that it serves as an example to young people around the world to work hard to make their dreams come true, to be willing to explore and push the limits, and to selflessly serve a cause greater than themselves.

“For those who may ask what they can do to honor Neil, we have a simple request. Honor his example of service, accomplishment and modesty, and the next time you walk outside on a clear night and see the moon smiling down at you, think of Neil Armstrong and give him a wink.”

The video below I posted as part of that 42nd commemorative post and I post it again today.  It's nearly 30 minutes in length but well worth watching again if only to relive that "titanic civilizational achievement" one more time.

God rest the soul of Neil Armstrong and comfort loved ones left behind.

Chuck Colson, dead at 80

But undoubtedly in my view, alive in Christ:

Charles W. Colson, who as a political saboteur for President Richard M. Nixon masterminded some of the dirty tricks that led to the president’s downfall, then emerged from prison to become an important evangelical leader, saying he had been “born again,” died on Saturday. He was 80.

The cause was complications of a brain hemorrhage, according to Prison Fellowship Ministries, which Mr. Colson founded in Lansdowne, Va. He died at Inova Fairfax Hospital in Falls Church, Va., and lived in Naples, Fla., and Leesburg, Va.

Mr. Colson had brain surgery to remove a clot after becoming ill on March 30 while speaking at a conference, according to Jim Liske, the group’s chief executive.

Mr. Colson was sent to prison after pleading guilty to obstructing justice in the Watergate affair. After having what he called his religious awakening behind bars, he spent much of the rest of his life ministering to prisoners, preaching the Gospels and forging a coalition of Republican politicians, evangelical church leaders and Roman Catholic conservatives that has had a pronounced influence on American politics.

It was a remarkable reversal.

I'm confident that God is giving the man eternal rest.

Just over two months ago, he had these wise words to say to all of us: