Brutally Honest

The Obama Commandments

Brought to us by Mr. Vanderleun.

“I don’t believe in miracles, but in your case, I may have to rethink that.”

Via Fr. Longenecker, a story of faith and the miraculous:

Mr. Clyde King, the steady sacristan at my parish here in northern California approached me one day after Mass last year, asking if perhaps I could fill in for him for about ten days. He might be going out of town, though this was not yet assured; he wanted to line someone up, with plenty of notice, just in case. 

He was planning, or rather hoping, to go to Lourdes; he has been battling melanoma since 2009. He had had one surgery to remove a tumor from his left temple, and another one in late 2010 to remove three more tumors just beneath his jaw line.  Aside from that procedure, which excised a portion of his neck along with the cancer, no one would have any reason to suspect he’d had a brush with a life-threatening illness. He looked sturdy and walked strong. His vigor was such that I was surprised to learn he was over sixty-five. And for the moment, all the melanoma had been removed. 

Still, he put in an application to join an annual pilgrimage sponsored by the Knights of Malta, who take malades – pilgrims who are sick enough to qualify but well enough to travel. Not every applicant, of course, can be accommodated, and he was put on the waiting list. He responded with equanimity, saying simply that Mary will decide who ends up going.

Soon afterwards, the radiologist called and somberly informed him that a routine follow up PET scan revealed the presence of yet another and severe (stage 4 melanoma) tumor – this time in his chest, on the right side of his windpipe. Both surgery and treatment would be required.  

With no knowledge of that dispiriting medical development, the pilgrimage organizers then notified him – approximately a week before the pilgrimage to Lourdes was set to begin – that a space had opened up. It was time to pack.

So off he went – hopefully, yet calmly disposed to accept the eventual outcome. He participated in all the usual activities in Lourdes, including Masses and immersion in the baths. He was fully committed to the spirit of the pilgrimage, but to be frank, wasn’t quite comfortable with the protocol of having to remain in a cart while going from point A to point B, since he was quite capable of walking on his own.  

He submitted to all that the itinerary entailed, however, and used later moments of free time to walk the stations of the cross on the hill above town, or return to the Grotto in the quiet of the evening.  

While he was in Lourdes, his doctor – quite concerned about the results of yet another test taken just before he left – contacted his wife in order to set up a new appointment as soon as possible. He was set to return on a Wednesday. So without her husband’s knowledge, she scheduled an appointment for Thursday. More tests were taken that day.

The results came back the following Monday – and the doctor was utterly nonplussed to discover that all signs of the melanoma had disappeared. His regular oncologist would later tell him:  “I don’t believe in miracles, but in your case, I may have to rethink that.”

There's more and it's awe inspiring and hope-filled.

Our Lady of Lourdes, turn to your Son Jesus on behalf of my wife and ask Him, as I do, to heal her and to embrace her fully with His loving presence, granting her hope, assurance, comfort and peace.

Yes, let’s talk about fairness, Mr. President

By tim, The Godless Heathen

Via Moonbattery comes this awesome piece by Stephen Moore at the WSJ:

President Obama has frequently justified his policies—and judged their outcomes—in terms of equity, justice and fairness. That raises an obvious question: How does our existing system—and his own policy record—stack up according to those criteria?

Is it fair that the richest 10% of Americans shoulder a higher share of their country's income-tax burden than do the richest 10% in every other industrialized nation, including socialist Sweden?

Is it fair that American corporations pay the highest statutory corporate tax rate of all other industrialized nations but Japan, which cuts its rate on April 1?

Is it fair that Americans who build a family business, hire workers, reinvest and save their money—paying a lifetime of federal, state and local taxes often climbing into the millions of dollars—must then pay an additional estate tax of 35% (and as much as 55% when the law changes next year) when they die, rather than passing that money onto their loved ones?

Is it fair that after the first three years of Obamanomics, the poor are poorer, the poverty rate is rising, the middle class is losing income, and some 5.5 million fewer Americans have jobs today than in 2007?

Go read the rest, it's worth it.

Truth, Lies and Afghanistan

By Locutisprime

This colonel's military career is over after this, but what he has to say is riveting. Speaking truth to command is not a survivable enterprise in the US military. By all means, follow the link and read the entire piece, as it really brings into focus what many Americans have known for at least the last five years as it concerns the war in Afghanistan.

How military leaders have let us down

By LT. COL. DANIEL L. DAVIS

I spent last year in Afghanistan, visiting and talking with U.S. troops and their Afghan partners. My duties with the Army’s Rapid Equipping Force took me into every significant area where our soldiers engage the enemy. Over the course of 12 months, I covered more than 9,000 miles and talked, traveled and patrolled with troops in Kandahar, Kunar, Ghazni, Khost, Paktika, Kunduz, Balkh, Nangarhar and other provinces.

What I saw bore no resemblance to rosy official statements by U.S. military leaders about conditions on the ground.

Entering this deployment, I was sincerely hoping to learn that the claims were true: that conditions in Afghanistan were improving, that the local government and military were progressing toward self-sufficiency. I did not need to witness dramatic improvements to be reassured, but merely hoped to see evidence of positive trends, to see companies or battalions produce even minimal but sustainable progress.

Instead, I witnessed the absence of success on virtually every level.

My arrival in country in late 2010 marked the start of my fourth combat deployment, and my second in Afghanistan. A Regular Army officer in the Armor Branch, I served in Operation Desert Storm, in Afghanistan in 2005-06 and in Iraq in 2008-09. In the middle of my career, I spent eight years in the U.S. Army Reserve and held a number of civilian jobs — among them, legislative correspondent for defense and foreign affairs for Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas.

As a representative for the Rapid Equipping Force, I set out to talk to our troops about their needs and their circumstances. Along the way, I conducted mounted and dismounted combat patrols, spending time with conventional and Special Forces troops. I interviewed or had conversations with more than 250 soldiers in the field, from the lowest-ranking 19-year-old private to division commanders and staff members at every echelon. I spoke at length with Afghan security officials, Afghan civilians and a few village elders.

I saw the incredible difficulties any military force would have to pacify even a single area of any of those provinces; I heard many stories of how insurgents controlled virtually every piece of land beyond eyeshot of a U.S. or International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) base.

I saw little to no evidence the local governments were able to provide for the basic needs of the people. Some of the Afghan civilians I talked with said the people didn’t want to be connected to a predatory or incapable local government.

From time to time, I observed Afghan Security forces collude with the insurgency.

From Bad to Abysmal

Much of what I saw during my deployment, let alone read or wrote in official reports, I can’t talk about; the information remains classified. But I can say that such reports — mine and others’ — serve to illuminate the gulf between conditions on the ground and official statements of progress.

And I can relate a few representative experiences, of the kind that I observed all over the country.

In January 2011, I made my first trip into the mountains of Kunar province near the Pakistan border to visit the troops of 1st Squadron, 32nd Cavalry. On a patrol to the northernmost U.S. position in eastern Afghanistan, we arrived at an Afghan National Police (ANP) station that had reported being attacked by the Taliban 2½ hours earlier.

Through the interpreter, I asked the police captain where the attack had originated, and he pointed to the side of a nearby mountain.

“What are your normal procedures in situations like these?” I asked. “Do you form up a squad and go after them? Do you periodically send out harassing patrols? What do you do?”

As the interpreter conveyed my questions, the captain’s head wheeled around, looking first at the interpreter and turning to me with an incredulous expression. Then he laughed.

“No! We don’t go after them,” he said. “That would be dangerous!”

A reminder as we ponder the Giants win over the Pats in the Super Bowl

The Redskins beat the Giants twice during the regular season.

Carry on.

Crossposted at Wizbang.

"What are the vegetarian and vegan store business owners to do?"

The Obama administration is now assaulting those whose conscience abhors all things beef:

Shock! Utter shock!!! The Obama Administration has mandated that all food stores in the United States selling refrigerated goods, MUST sell beef!

There is an exemption for vegetarians who only employ, and sell their goods to, vegetarians; and, for vegans who only employ, and sell their goods to, vegans. 

What are the vegetarian and vegan store business owners to do?

How long will it take for these businesses to go bankrupt if the owners refuse to violate their conscience by carrying beef in their stores? How many people from the area, meat eaters included, frequent and buy some of the excellent products sold at vegetarian/vegan owned shops? Are people forced to shop and work at these places, or is it a choice? 

If the food shop owner happens to be a Jain, then this mandate would not only be expecting him to violate his conscience, but also would be an assault on his religious liberty.

Get it? Get it? 

OK, so it's a satire - an example of what you might find in a place like, The Onion.   Well, that has some similarities to what the Obama Administration wants to do to Catholic institutions with the HHS mandate (see combox discussion on this point). But, it doesn't just force Catholics and other people of faith with similar convictions to violate their conscience, it's a violation of religious liberty.

What about the Catholic business owners and other people of faith who don't want to violate their conscience over the HHS mandate?   People are not forced to purchase products or services, or to work for any particular business. Why should those business owners be forced to offer something that is contrary to their religious beliefs? 

Just think of the people - those who are currently defending this mandate, or who are taking a back seat to the assault on liberty of Catholics.  Want to bet that they would fight with vigor if this was about vegetarian and vegan store owners being forced to sell beef! 

That was clever.  

Did you believe it initially?  It's understandable with this administration but hopefully, Diane M. Korzeniewsk's piece will get wide-spread attention after making what I think is an apt, though somewhat flawed, analogy (see Diane's combox).

The bottom line is that if the government can infringe upon Catholic conscience, as it is indeed doing with the HHS mandate, it can infringe upon whatever it chooses to infringe upon and that is a deathknell to liberty as we've known it.

We seriously need to wake up.

H/T to The Anchoress who adds:

I’d been wondering how to come up with a secular example that might help people understand the reality of a government’s assault on the conscience. Diane’s spoof did it brilliantly!

But I wonder if the Catholics can depend on the support of civil libertarians, civil rights activists, constitutional scholars and the, ahem, more honest members of the mainstream press to address this action the Obama administration is taking against the churches — and make no mistake, this is not only about the Catholics. As illustrated with the recently-decided Hosanna-Tabor Evangelical Lutheran Church and School vs EEOC, this administration is attempting to not only chase the churches out of the public square, but to insert itself into their internal concerns and negate those teachings with which it disagrees.

You wouldn’t force a Jewish Deli to stock lobster in reserve for its gentile employees. A reasonable gentile or non-observant Jewish employee would understand who she works for and would not expect it. It would not impact her freedom to buy her own lobster.

You wouldn’t force a Muslim Madrassah to pay for an employee’s pulled-pork sandwich; a reasonable non-Muslim employee would not even think to ask it.

It’s not a difficult concept, really; you don’t have to be that smart to get it.

Read the rest of Diane’s piece and the combox discussion. She’s updated to include a growing list of bishop’s statements!

Read the rest indeed... and more importantly, pass it on.

Freedom is at stake.

Wake the hell up and see it.

Crossposted at Wizbang.

"We're the most aggressively inarticulate generation to come along, you know, in a long time ago"

This is so cool... you know what I'm saying? For real... yo.

Via Tom Elia.

"America is so racist!"; "Everything is racist!"

That and other Stuff Liberals Say, brought to us by Tom Elia at The New Editor:

I especially like the "I'm really very moderate" line. 

"If I can be brutally honest, I didn’t think this video would get much over a couple thousand views maybe..."

A few days ago I asked whether one could love coffee while hating the coffee bean, my response to the brouhaha over Jeff Bethke's viral video titled "Why I hate religion but love Jesus".  

Nearly 15 million views later, all that attention is apparently having an effect on Mr. Bethke:

God has been working with me in the last 6 months on loving Jesus AND loving his church. For the first few years of walking with Jesus (started in ’08) I had a warped/poor paradigm of the church and it didn’t build up, unify, or glorify His wife (the Bride). If I can be brutally honest I didn’t think this video would get much over a couple thousand views maybe, and because of that, my points/theology wasn’t as air-tight as I would’ve liked. If I redid the video tomorrow, I’d keep the overall message, but would articulate, elaborate, and expand on the parts where my words and delivery were chosen poorly… My prayer is my generation would represent Christ faithfully and not swing to the other spectrum… thankful for your words and more importantly thankful for your tone and fatherly like grace on me as my elder. Humbled. Blessed. Thankful for painful growth. Blessings.

Grace and Peace,

Jeff

Here's hoping this young man's love for Christ and his humble spirit has us all looking inward a little more... and upward a lot more.

Can you love coffee but hate the coffee bean? (UPDATED)

Can you love toothpaste but hate the toothpaste tube?  How about loving your HDTV but hating 1080p?   Or loving light while hating electricity?

Those are the questions that come to mind as I attempt to understand the mindset put forth by a young man named Jefferson Bethke who actually says a lot of good things in what follows but who also says more than his share of things that fall well short of the mark.

Mr. Bethke's video has garnered over 11 million views since being posted less than a week ago and it's the talk of the religious blogosphere.  I was surprised to hear Father Mike mention it during the homily this morning.

I first saw it when my young nephew Zach posted it on his Facebook wall, a posting that garnered quite a number of Likes.  I myself like good portions of it.  But other parts are simply... well... shallowly expressed.  I felt the need to convey something to that effect to Zach, a rising high school baseball star who has an excellent shot at playing college ball, and so I left the following reply on his wall:

Love this Zach... seriously good stuff... I liken the poet to [a] pitcher I know... he throws lots of strikes, his heart is in the game and he knows a thing or two about pitching... if there's one beef I have with it, is this one idea that he hates religion but loves Christ... it's a little like the pitcher I know who loves to pitch but hates the strike zone... doesn't compute from over my way... without that strike zone, the pitcher can't pitch, without that strike zone, the pitcher can't engage the game he loves so much from his heart... the strike zone makes the pitcher... and religion is what brought us Christ... and if I can take this a bit further (and haven't lost you yet), where would this pitcher be without good coaching? Where would this pitcher be if someone hadn't taught him the game? The coaches and the rules that make up the game of baseball... they're essential... without coaching, without a set of rules, there is no game and that pitcher again can't engage the love of his heart... our apostolic faith, taught us over the ages first by Christ's disciples and then the apostles they appointed, are essential to our understanding of who Christ is... so baseball absent a strike zone, coaches and the rules that make up the game is what? It's whatever someone decides to make it... and how much fun would that game be? Religion, and particularly and especially our Catholic faith, brought us Christ... and without religion, Christ would be whatever someone decided Christ ought to be... Yea, I love what your poet has to say... the dude threw some wicked and much needed strikes... but hating religion means he's stuck in triple A ball... the only way he's going to make it the show, is to embrace religion and in my less than humble view, that's embrace our Catholic faith... love you man... and I'm confident that you're well on your way to the show. 

Zach did Like that in response but we've not had a chance to talk about it further... and frankly, probably won't.  We don't typically have these kinds of conversations.

But conversations are being had by others as a result of Jefferson's video and I see that as a very good thing.  

Father Mike was quick to trumpet that though there were good things to see, there were bad things that needed countering and he took the time to mention the counter of wisdom put together by a young man who attends our Church.  Ryan's a freshman at college, a young man I've seen but not met, and his video response follows.  It may not be as stylish as Mr. Bethke's offering, it may not have the production value, but I'm of the belief that it more than makes up for those shortcomings with substance:

Job well done.

Ryan lists in his notes at YouTube two links I assume were inspiring to him as he put this together.  One is to Marc Barnes piece at Bad Catholic, seriously insightful and filled with wisdom, and the other to a video posted at MakeAFriar.Com.

Others posting on this who are in my blogroll include:

St. Blogustine

Frank Weathers

Brandon Vogt at Thin Veil

The Anchoress

UPDATE: Anya in the comments liked this one... and I do too: