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My Suggestion to St. Mary’s Fire the Board, Fire the President

Posted: December 22, 2023 by datechguy in catholic, catholic devotions
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It is a good thing that St. Mary’s Catholic College for Women in Indiana has reversed their decision to admit men who identify as women to their college after huge pressure from alumni and their Bishop who noted that both Pope Benedict XVI:

No doubt Saint Mary’s College desires to promote love, inclusion, and acceptance within the community. But it does not do so authentically when it separates love from truth. In his encyclical Caritas in Veritate (Charity in Truth), Pope Benedict XVI wrote: “Only in truth does charity shine forth, only in truth can charity be authentically lived. Truth is the light that gives meaning and value to charity… Without truth, charity degenerates into sentimentality. Love becomes an empty shell, to be filled in an arbitrary way. In a culture without truth, this is the fatal risk facing love. It falls prey to contingent subjective emotions and opinions, the word ‘love’ is abused and distorted, to the point where it comes to mean the opposite” (#3).

And Pope Francis

Pope Francis also teaches about the intimate connection between truth and love in his first encyclical, Lumen Fidei (The Light of Faith). He writes: “Love requires truth. Only to the extent that love is grounded in truth can it endure over time, can it transcend the passing moment and be sufficiently solid to sustain a shared journey. If love is not tied to truth, it falls prey to fickle emotions and cannot stand the test of time. True love, on the other hand, unifies all the elements of our person and becomes a new light pointing the way to a great and fulfilled life” (#27).

note that you can’t separate “love” and “Truth”.

Despite this reversal I recommend asking for the resignation of both the President of the college and the current board of trusties and if they don’t resign, their dismissal.

Why, well despite the Bishops charitable description of their initial decision’s motives let’s look at the initial announcement of their now reversed policy.

Conboy said in the email that the Board “fully supports” the new policy.

“This confidence from our Board underscores their commitment that as an employer, Saint Mary’s must stand firm in its position as an inclusive community leader, and that as educators, we should continue to create an environment where all women belong and thrive,” Conboy wrote.

By definition the president of a Catholic college and such a college’s board should be both defenders of the faith and examples of how the faith should be practiced and imparted to young people who are to be educated at their school.

Yet not only did the president of said college celebrate this change but noted that the board “fully supported” it. No sign of dissenters, no sign of objections, no members of the board threatening to resign or making a public declaration that this is contrary to the faith. None of those things moved them.

But the backlash sure did:

As this last month unfolded, we lost people’s trust and unintentionally created division where we had hoped for unity. For this, we are deeply sorry.

Forgive me for saying this but I submit and suggest this is a lie, I think the truth is more like what this member of the Alumni said about the reversal:

“When this admissions decision became public hundreds of alumni banded together to stand for the Church and her teachings,” said Clare Ath, who graduated from the college in 2018. “While I would hope the reversal is because administrators realized we must teach the truth with love, my guess is the reversal is because alumni banded together, pulled their donations, notified their diocese and media, and said we will not let Our Lady’s college be corrupted by secular gender ideology.”

Put simply they’re not sorry they did it, they’re sorry that they received pushback and faced the loss of donation and support.

This suggests that if some time in the future a less vigilant Bishop is in place they will try something like this again. My thought is “why take a chance?” There are no shortage of faithful Catholics who actually believe what the Church teaches who are qualified for both the board and the presidency.

So I humbly suggest for the good of the future of the college that the president and the board resign en masse to make room for people who will be dedicated to keeping this particular Catholic college Catholic.

Closing thought: This post gave me Anna Maria College Visit flashbacks. I suspect his decision to not go there is a contributing factor for him remaining a devout #catholic into his 30’s.

When it’s all Over I’d Put Israeli Arabs in Charge of Gaza

Posted: December 21, 2023 by datechguy in Israel vs Hamas, middle east
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Last week I pondered the problem of who to put in charge of Gaza once Hamas is exterminated. 

Given the Gazans participation in the attacks of Oct 7th and their previous support of Hamas obviously Israel can’t allow Hamas to be replaced by Islamic Jihad or whatever new permutation of the “Let’s kill the Jews” lobby rises up. Democracy is a fine thing but it’s not a suicide pact.

Further given the indifference at best or complicity at worst of the various UN and other International NGO as Hamas prepared for their grand slaughter leaves them out.

And forget Egypt, the last thing they want is the Gaza population. Getting them off their hands was the one bright side to their losses to Israel.

And it goes without saying that the Palestinian authority shouldn’t be let anywhere near Gaza, remember the reason why the Gazans voted in Hamas is they knew the PA were a bunch of corrupt bastards (they had to find out that Hamas was the same but only more murderous).

So if Israel doesn’t want the spectacle of about 2 million Arabs being governed by Jews there is a only one solution.

I would make a special sub committee of the Israeli Knesset consisting only of Arab members and put them in charge, under the supervision of am Arab member of Israel’s supreme court.

This would thread the needle. The Arab Israeli’s have an incentive prevent terror attacks as their own families and people are not immune from such attacks while the people of Gaza whose hate for Jews has been the origin of all these troubles can avoid being directly governed by them.

If it works out then Gaza could actually thrive and prosper, furthermore this is basically the only way to I can think of to DeNazify the strip. Two or three generations of Arab Israeli rule just might be enough to wean Gazans from their insane hatred of Jews while giving them a chance to actually have a better life.

And if it fails, if the Israeli Arabs are either unable to govern or if it’s impossible to convince the people of Gaza that trying to kill Jews is a bad thing, then whatever happens next, it’s on them.

Gee I Wonder What Binding Common Social Norm Might Have Been Abandoned over the Last 40 Years in Canada:

Posted: December 20, 2023 by datechguy in Uncategorized

Via Hotair I saw a tweet that perfectly illustrates the dangers of a “post Christian” culture.

Odd how Canada has seemingly abandoned “decency” at the same time they abandoned “Christianity” isn’t it?

Canadians and Americans for that matter have to decide if they are going to be a free nation or slaves in their own land.

Furthermore they have a very limited time to decide it because in two generations they are going to be outnumbered by people who didn’t embrace abortion and birth control and thus will be making the rules.

Gee it’s as if the Church’s decision to follow God’s rules on abortion & birth control just might have an imbedded a social good for humanity with it as do all of the rules handed down for generations before the rise of the secular left.

Unexpectedly of course.

Five Under The Fedora Thoughts: Lack of Incentives, But not Everywhere, Dodging Idiocracy, One big grift and Mr. Hoge

Posted: December 18, 2023 by datechguy in blogs, culture, education, under the fedora
Tags: ,

One of the reasons why both antisemitism and the violence of the left continue unabated is the complete lack on incentive to stop doing these things.

As long as laws are not enforced, except against those who fight against such things , they will continue.

In a famous scene in the John Wayne movie True Grit this is illustrated

Society has had enough of the “let him be” and I fear that unless things change quickly citizens themselves will decide to apply the alternate as the norm.

The distinct difference between this stuff happening in areas controlled by the left and places controlled by the right is striking, but not as striking as the number of leftist willing to tolerate all this crap for the sake of fitting in with the right people.

It’s always amazed me how so many people willingly choose hell over heaven but my amazement to that pales before the number willing to choose hell on earth.

I hear Elon Musk is getting ready to start his own university.

This is a smart idea, given what being taught at colleges these day and the attempt to view even math and science through the lens of DEI rather than objective fact it would seem there would be a market for a school that actually you know teaches real skills.

Idiocracy was not a how to guide, but our colleges are lurching toward it.

The degree that all things have become one big grift is really something and the speed that this had taken place has been really something too.

But like most things that are unsustainable they tend to collapse, first slowly then very very quickly.

Don’t Worry, as Cardinal George told you there will be someone to pick up the pieces and start again.

Finally a quick word on the death of Mr. Hoge.

He lived a long useful life and because of this and his abiding honesty bad people tried to make trouble for him.

They not only failed but he mocked them ruthlessly on a regular basis for the rest of his life to make sure they knew he failed, this is what happens when you have someone who has brains in places where most people don’t have places and faith to go along with it.

His tweets were a joy, his post were deep, particular those involving space but having him as a friend was the real treasure.

He gave me the black fedora I have as a gift. Every time I put in on for the rest of my life I will remember him. That’s a better gift that the hat itself.

Everyone dies, my suggestion is to try and live as good as he did.

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