Posts Tagged ‘religion’

The cult of Obama: out censoring the censor

Posted: February 20, 2009 by datechguy in opinion/news
Tags: , , ,

Dan Greenberg uses that term to describe President Obama:

In his day, Ronald Reagan was called “the teflon President” by his detractors, because they felt that criticisms never stuck to him, but somehow always slid off into oblivion. Well, we are now witnessing the birth of a new concept, that of “the SuperTeflon President”, whose very existence repels all criticisms before they even come near him, and vaporizes them out of popular consciousness. It is a remarkable phenomenon.

It’s not super teflon its something worse:

Item via Baseball Crank: Reporters complaining about any critique of the president:

Mike Lupica had a column this morning weeping bitter tears over his shock and hurt that people are criticizing Barack Obama. Amazing, when you think about it, that the President of the United States should receive criticism. It’s such a novel concept.

This was probably the funniest line in the piece:

Once, 100 days was the mythical grace period for a new President. This one doesn’t get five minutes. In the process, he finds out that Washington is even lousier and meaner with partisanship than he knew before he got there.

You would almost think, from reading this, that Obama really did just get there. Not that he’d been a United States Senator the last four years

Item via Big Hollywood : Comics unable to joke about him:

Alex Rodriguez (Letterman, Leno, Kimmel), the recession (Letterman, Leno, Ferguson) and the octuplets (Letterman, Leno, Kimmel) are the most popular topics right now. Meanwhile, the shows still struggle to find a handle from which to grab the new administration.

Leno hit one fairly squarely: He said that Congress commemorated George Washington throwing a silver dollar across the Potomac by tossing $700 billion down a rat hole. Conan and Kimmel only told one political joke. Granted Conan is closing down “Late Night with Conan O’Brien” (his last show is this Friday), and much of the show was devoted to running old clips, tearing up the set, and saying goodbye to the masturbating bear. Jimmy Kimmel said that Obama thanked Republicans for their support on the stimulus package by sending a jar of peanuts to each of them — and this is how many of the Late Nights seem to be approaching the administration right now, by making jokes about Republicans trying to ruin it all.

Item: via Gateway Pundit: A person with an anti-obama gets special treatment in OKC:

…don’t criticize Dear Leader or you may get arrested.

An Oklahoma man was pulled over for taping an anti-Obama sign on his vehicle.
Later, the secret service searched the man’s home because of his blasphemous sign against His High Holiness.

Item via Instapundit: Criticism of the president disappears from stories:

So I linked to a story on high school students skeptical about Obama’s stimulus speech. Now the story has the same headline, but the quotes are missing, replaced by a bunch of feelgood talk about how excited everyone was to have Obama in town. But you can find the original story here. And here’s the Google Cache. Some difference, huh? I emailed the reporter, Hayley Ringle, to ask what happened. (Bumped).

UPDATE: The Google Cache now shows the new story. No response to my email yet. I saved screenshots, though, and of course there’s the Drudge capture.

Item via Michelle Malkin: Protests in Seattle, Denver and Mesa against the president drawing hundreds and thousands of people but no media:

My syndicated column reports on the growing, grass-roots movement against porkulus/spending binges/the entitlement culture from Seattle to Denver to Mesa, Arizona and beyond. Why aren’t you hearing about it in the MSM? Because it doesn’t fit the victim mentality/government savior narrative. We don’t exist, remember?

Well, more of you non-existent rebels will be gathering in Overland Park, Kansas tomorrow, Saturday, at Rep. Dennis Moore’s office (D-KS) at 10 am.

What is most scary is the mentality behind this. It reminds me of a line from one of C. S. Forester’s Hornblower books Flying Colours

Hornblower bowed, but as the Colonel remained unbending he stiffened to attention. He could recognize that type of man at once—the servant of a tyrant, and in close personal association with him, modeling his conduct not on the tyrant’s but on what he fancied should be the correct behaviour of a tyrant, far out-Heroding Herod

I can’t really see the difference between this cult of personality, the Legionaries of Christ one or the Fr. Kennedy in Australia.

How long can this be kept up? Well how long did the media pretend that the John Edwards story didn’t exist?

Fr. Z is a font of new info today (indirect proof)

Posted: February 20, 2009 by datechguy in catholic
Tags: ,

Two stories that I was going to split into two posts but since Fr. Z is the source of em both lets make them one and give him the credit.

Item: Argentina expels Williamson:

Argentina has ordered an ultra-traditionalist British bishop who denies the Holocaust to leave the country or face expulsion.

The interior ministry said Richard Williamson had been given 10 days to leave Argentina.

Fr. Z notes they manage to get some facts wrong.

My take: This is an indirect proof of the existence of God. Who but the holy spirit could cause Argentina to expel someone with Nazi like opinions? And remember this was only possible because the Pope acted as he did.

Item: Australian priest sacked:

In a decision that is likely to reverberate throughout the Catholic community, the Archbishop of Brisbane yesterday fired Father Peter Kennedy for unorthodox practices.

Fr. Z’s take, preached pure heresy, Bye!

My take: Gee denying the virgin birth, blessing Gay Marriage, he would fit right in at the Episcopal See in New Hampshire. I’ve said it many times, if people don’t want to be Catholics that’s their business, there are many Protestant Churches out there that you can become a part of. What I object to is their insistence that the church change to suit them. To wit from the article:

He said his liturgies were still valid. “We celebrate in a way that is relevant to Australian Catholics, rather than toeing the line in Rome.”

In other words we do what we want and its valid because we say so.

Father Kennedy will not go quietly. He plans to say Mass at 9am on Sunday and expects 1000 people to turn up. But he has backed away from threats that he would form a breakaway church. “I don’t wish to do that. We argue but we are very much within the Catholic tradition.”

…except that we don’t follow it.

I see this as the flip side of the Legionaries of Christ business. We again have a cult of personality substituting itself for the teaching of Christ, except this time it comes from the left. The legionaries can recover by admitting their errors while sticking to the doctrines and practices of the church. These guys have the worst of both worlds, the personality cult and rejection of the church.

This will ensure that Fr. Kennedy if he stays defiant will be feted and celebrated and make out fine with a large group of followers. He can be on the gravy train for the rest of his life.

After that he and they are on their own.

Tablet vs Blogger Priest

Posted: February 20, 2009 by datechguy in catholic
Tags:

You know I wish it was a surprise when a “catholic” newspaper goes after a Catholic priest for, well behaving Catholic. Unfortunately it is not.

Damian Thompson warned us it was coming:

Fr Tim Finigan, author of the Hermeneutic of Continuity blog, is one of the finest parish priests in the country: a scholar, evangelist and pastor who is as happy spreading the Gospel over a pint in the pub as he is from the pulpit. But now there are rumours that the Tablet is planning a hatchet job on him, for the grave crime of… saying the Latin Mass. Fr Tim, PP of Our Lady of the Rosary, Blackfen, Kent, says three new rite Masses on a Sunday and one in the Extraordinary Form.

The article is here and it’s a great example of liberal journalism. The only thing missing is blaming George W. Bush but it is England. Thompson calls it inept. Fr Tim Fisks it on his blog. Fr. Z does the same on his.

The only weakness I see in any of the posts is there is no link to the base article. Of course since it is being fisked the article in full appears but a linkback should be there.

I like the quote from the current pope, I’ve never heard it before:

I remember years ago in the corridor of the Palazzo del Sant’Uffizio, I asked Cardinal Ratzinger how he took the constant unfair criticism. I had read that day a terrible article about him in an Italian daily.

He said, “If I don’t read an article like that every week or so, I have to examine my conscience.”

That sums it up.

New Pelosi Pope News

Posted: February 19, 2009 by datechguy in catholic
Tags: ,

Via the Curt Jester apparently there is more to the Pelosi/Pope meeting that we knew about. Apparently there was also a secret meeting with her Archbishop first:

Michael Voris of Real CathlicTV reports today in his daily Vortex column that this meeting between Pelosi and Archbishop Niederauer took place quietly and clandestinely on Sunday, February 8th in a private residence in San Francisco. Realcatholictv.com confirmed this fact with both the Archdiocese of San Francisco and Pelosi’s office in DC.

Pelsoi’s spokesman Brendan Daly said Pelosi described the meeting as quote .. “cordial and pleasant .. a fair exchange and good.”

When pressed by realcatholictv.com producer and host Michael Voris , if “good” meant that she had changed her position on abortion and finally gotten in line with Catholic teaching, Daly replied, “You won’t see that happening. She is not changing her position on abortion.”

Pelosi’s office won’t comment on the meeting:

Pelosi aides wouldn’t comment on the content of what they described as a private meeting between a practicing Catholic and her archbishop.

Fr John Mallow sees Deceit Deceit Deceit:

1) I believe that the Speaker decided it was in her best interest to meet with the Archbishop before her trip to Rome, but not to have the meeting known before the trip to Rome. I believe Pelosi’s meeting the Pope was conditional on her meeting with the Archbishop. I believe that someone from the Vatican told them (especially her, but through him): meet now or forget about meeting with the Holy Father.

2) I believe the meeting was covered up because that was a condition made by the Speaker, (easily acceded to by the Archbishop, because he saw it as a private pastoral meeting). For Pelosi, what is the political upside of having her meeting with the Archbishop known? None—it’s all downside. If it were publicly known, then the questions among faithful Catholics immediately arise: Well, do you now accept settled Church teaching? Do you plan on remaining a Catholic? If not, why do you want to meet with the Holy Father? She’d lose Catholic votes, without picking up any corresponding votes on the other side, because they know she’s not really Catholic anyway—if she were they would not be voting for her. What’s the upside? She gets to meet the Pope.

3) I believe the timing of the leaked information (from both the Archdiocese and Pelosi’s office) to “Real Catholic TV” is deliberate—it came too late to affect Pelosi’s meeting with the Pope (with the hoped-for but not-to-materialize papal photo-op), but allowed her spokesman and the Archdiocese to claim they’ve done their duties as Catholics to prepare her for meeting with the Holy Father.

Related post on it here, bottom line:

The Archbishop has met with her and has explained Church’s teaching- – and Speaker Pelosi has said .. good meeting .. thank you. I still support abortion.

The bottom line is will Archbishop Niederauer now refuse her Holy Communion?

Your move Archbishop — a lot of people are watching.

This is a prayer request just waiting to happen.

Older Entries
Newer Entries