DaveTown

Let us all, for Lent, do our usual analyzing of politics and current events, but (and this is the hard part) without ascribing motives to individuals.

For example, if the President, or Rush Limbaugh, or Simon Cowell (insert your favorite villain here) says something, try your hardest not to assume his intentions are evil and that he is trying single-handedly to bring down Western Civilization. Instead, use the energy you save by not hating him to thoughtfully analyze the substance of what he has said, and to come up with a reasonable alternative.

Let me know how it works.

Modern philosophy can be described as the Reformation carried on by other means.

– Ralph McInerny (RIP)

This proposal, from John Médaille on the blog “Distributist Review” seems fair:

“Each congressman will be required to wear those NASCAR suits which prominently display the names of the corporate sponsors. So the typical congressthing might have Big Pharma on his chest and Exxon on his ass, with the big banks running up and down his arms. Each politician would be required to begin and end each speech with the statement ‘This message brought to you by …’ and list the names of his three top contributors. And each bill will be required to bear the logos of its corporate sponsors. This won’t make politics any more democratic, but it will make it a lot more fun. And a lot more honest. We can dispense with the fictions of ‘liberal’ and ‘conservative’ and go directly to the real issues: ‘I favor the big banks’ or ‘I favor the manufacturers,’ and such like.”

He who wishes to be perfectly obeyed, should give but few orders.

– St. Phillip Neri

The only thing worse than a religious fanatic is a religious fanatic who doesn’t think he’s religious.

– Fr. Dwight Longenecker

From the blog Glib and Superficial comes the theory that each denomination has its own Santa, as well as the following characteristics of said Santas:

• Catholic Santa brings toys to all the little girls and boys who wrote letters to Mrs. Claus, because her appeals to Santa are particularly efficacious.

• You never know to whom Anglican Santa will bring toys, because he suffers from multiple personality disorder. But Anglican Santa always wears the coolest Santa suit.

• Pentecostal Santa delivers a great abundance of truly inspired toys. Sadly, they make no sense to anyone else.

• Presbyterian Santa delivers presents based on his own inscrutable election, and not on account of any merit; but niceness is evidence that the person is one of the Elect, so we do expect to see presents going to the nice — but only because they’re elect, not because they’re nice.

• Fundamentalist Santa stays home on Christmas, because toys are of the Devil. Besides, he knows that all children are totally naughty and deserve only coal.

• Society of Friends Santa sits passively in his sleigh on Christmas Eve, waiting quietly for the Holy Spirit to inspire him to deliver toys.

• Baptist Santa delivers only commemorative plates on which are depicted actual toys, because good little Baptist girls and boys don’t believe in the real presents of Santa.

• Episcopal Santa is a lesbian trapped inside a man’s body. He delivers no toys at all, but leaves pledge cards for the Save the Whales Foundation.

• Conservative Lutheran Santa warns the children not to accept toys from other Santas because he is the one true Santa.

• Liberal Lutheran Santa issues a statement apologizing for his past complicity in the injustices of private toy distribution, and urges government control of toy production and distribution.

• Muslim Santa? Well, just don’t let him park his sleigh too close to your house.

Without education, we are in a horrible and deadly danger of taking educated people seriously.

– G.K. Chesterton

The very people who are so insistent that any health care bill be “pro-choice” are also the people who want to imprison those who choose not to carry health insurance.

As if to prove my point about the high concentration of stupidity in Congress, here is a story about a bill concerning a government takeover of college football.

Are these really the people we want to entrust with legislation concerning health care and global warming?

The highest concentration of stupidity in this country, apart from Congress, can be found in the comments section of the website of any major metropolitan newspaper.

Emotional: the most overused word in all of sports commentary.

Thomas Hobbes said: “The life of man, solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short”.

Hey, good thing about the short part, huh?

I think the Mayans merely ran out of paper.

Believe that you have something to give the world which cannot otherwise be given.

– G.K. Chesterton

White House Stiffens Against Illegal Immigrants

So, the Republicans get to shaft illegal immigrants, and the Democrats get to impose a “let me see your papers” scheme that will make all of us less free.

So, the Democrats get to shaft illegal immigrants, and the Republicans get to impose a “let me see your papers” scheme that will make all of us less free.

Funny how that sentence works both ways.

Everybody
Loves to see
Justice done
On somebody else

– Bruce Cockburn

Nancy Pelosi thinks people who oppose ObamaCare are Un-American. Sure some of those folks are repellent and rude, but is it Un-American to be mad at your government? Really?

Harry Reid thinks people who are against Obamacare are Evil-Mongers. Is it evil to disagree with with your government? Really?

The cops in California refer to someone who goes around hanging up political posters as a “suspect”. Is it really a crime to show your dissent with pictures and words? Really?

Meet the new boss – same as the old boss.

Here’s what I see happening: Opponents are quoting specific pages and lines, giving concrete examples of parts of the bill they object to. The President is trying to stifle debate and the Speaker of the House engaging in ad hominem arguments and slander. The bill is over 1,000 pages, and its proponents just want us to accept it without debate. That in itself tells me the bill must be defeated.

Wheter, and to what degree, nationalized medicine is a good idea doesn’t even enter into it at this point. Just the fact that a complicated bill is being crammed down our throats is enough. The same goes for the Climate Change legislation. A bill that complicated which is rushed into law is inherently an unwise law.