Profoundly Irrational

I don't look in on Catholic Analysis anywhere near so often as I should. Case in point: I did not read this article until it had been up for 20 days.

The Ruling Class in America

This very long article describes the real political divide in America as well as anything I've read in quite a while. I urge you to check it out.

And I decided to post the link and suggest you read it before I got anywhere on this post on Mark Shea's blog, where I first found it.

Abortion's immorality

Abortion, for this discussion, shall mean the direct and intentional killing of a human organism prior to birth. It is permissible only under the same circumstances as any other direct and intentional killing of a human being, namely, when the one killed is a direct threat to the life or liberty of one or more other human beings.

I submit that the life cycle of any sexually reproducing organism begins at the zygote stage. Further, it is absurd to conflate a zygote with an oocyte, e.g. by calling it a "fertilized egg." Gametes do not undergo mitosis. They do not develop. They either join, male and female, to create a new and unique organism, or they die.

A zygote is a new and unique organism. The only thing that separates it from an adult is sufficient time and a suitable environment. Claiming that any subsequent stage of development separates those human organisms with human rights from those without would be assigning those rights on the basis of arbitrary criteria. As there is no excuse for denying a zygote human rights, there is no excuse for killing one.

The Appeal of Twilight

salute to Mark Shea.

If you want to understand where the appeal of the Twilight "saga" comes from, go read this page. The writer is spot on, albeit a bit coarse in his language.

And he's funny.

See also my post on vampires.

For the Children!

It's really easy for me to discount anyone who claims that they are working "for the children!" It's a favored battle cry for people that all too often appear more interested in disassembling families, and deconstructing family structures, than of people who actually love children.

And yet, that is EXACTLY for whom Defense of Marriage Advocates are working. Read the article.

For that matter, so are those opposing Artificial Reproductive Therapy.

You aren't going to find anyone that loves children more than the Catholic Church.

On CE Today

First, The Origins of the Red State/Blue State Divide, which actually explores three paradigms of family over the course of history, and what has historically led to the adoption of each. It's really good stuff, go read it. The implications regarding how government intervention in society winds up affecting overall societal morality, are important for liberty.

Second, an article discussing The Blueprint: Obama’s Plan to Subvert the Constitution and Build an Imperial Presidency. Read the article, read the book.

I have something great to reveal!

Go here.

Salute to the Catholic Cavemen.

Immigration Reform

Well, I've managed to create a bit of a stir over at The Lair of the Catholic Cavemen, in the immigration debate.

Here's the first post, where I asked of Simplex Vir, "What would you have us do?"

And here is his reply. My response has been submitted to their combox, where it belongs. If you plan to chime in, do so respectfully, and bear in mind that comments submitted belong to the blog's administrator, to do with as he pleases.

Gargantuan Privacy Breach

Watch this video. You will find out how common it is for nearly all types of confidential information to be released without a thought or care by those who are supposed to keep them secure.

edit: that video's gone. Here are some others:

More Blogrollin'

I was checking out this video about a Corpus Christi festival having to do with baby-jumping (embedded by Mark Shea here; salute to the Western Confucian). After it was over, a list of related videos came up. The one which piqued my interest was the Photoshop Effect. It ably demonstrates just how far the images we see of celebrities (especially women) are removed from reality. I've written about this before.

It is an aspect of the Culture of Death, which obsesses over sex divorced from new life, empty and stagnant. The goal of sex is not self-giving, but self-gratification, and the means is to meet some arbitrary, unhealthy, and exaggerated physique commonly called "sexy".

More and more evidence that mental health and self respect are greatly enhanced by ignoring the main stream media.

Pill Round-up

Today, I found The Pill's Dirty Little Secret -- namely, that it is an elective risk for premenopausal breast cancer.

It cites a column posted on CNN by Raquel Welch, first brought to my attention by the Western Confucian. The column, It's Sex o'clock in America openly laments the irresponsibility, grave immorality, and bad behavior that the Pill enables and encourages.

Cui Bono?

Who, besides providers and irresponsible fathers, benefits from the status quo on abortion? A study of that question is the subject of this article.

Cosmetics and pharmaceutical manufacturers use the flesh of aborted children as commodities. Everything I've ever said about embryonic stem cells (especially this) applies in this situation. There's a reason I've compared people like this to vampires. As PrairieHawk says in the comments of the article, it's cannibalism.

Good stuff.

I have just gone and read Bishop Slattery of Tulsa's homily at Solemn High Mass at the National Shrine. I recommend it to you.

I have been mightily discouraged by the passage of the health care bill. Bishop Slattery's words have encouraged me. I do not know precisely how events will unfold. I expect to suffer, and I will seek to have my suffering help sanctify this world. That is my part to play in bringing about Christ's final victory. God help me.

How To Have An Austrian School Economy

Salute to the Western Confucian. Full article at A Conservative Blog for Peace. Actual text by Bishop Williamson of the SSPX.

Excerpted are the seven commandments of Austrian School Economics:

1. Thou Must Earn.
2. Thou shalt not spend more than thou earnest.
3. No state may make too many rules.
4. No state may tax too much.
5. No state may spend its way out of a recession.
6. No state may print its way out of a recession.
7. No state may employ its way out of a recession.

Seem like very solid rules to me. I wish we had a government that would follow them.

Best of 2009

I've been looking over my writing here in 2009, and sort of wondering, "How will I ever find enough stuff I think is good enough to go into a post like Best of 2008 and Best of 2007?

So I was doing something largely unrelated, namely, browsing Conversion Diary, and what to my wondering eyes should appear, but this post. The goal? To pick One Thing from last year.

Well, here it is: Supply, Demand and Price. It started out as a gigantic wall of text, but (Deo Gratias!) I split it up into six more easily digested hunks. It's in my list of Oft-Cited Quotes (see the sidebar, near the bottom).

Per the usual request, here is a link back to the Mr. Linky List.

The Cold Heart of Obamacare

Salute to A Shepherd's Voice. Read the full column, by Nat Hentoff, at the Cato Institute.

Mr. Hentoff has an excellent stinger line: "We do not elect the president and Congress to decide how short our lives will be. That decision is way above their pay grades."

More Blogrollin'

Fr. D would make me look bad, if I figured there was any standard to which I thought I should hold myself. You really should go read his post on tragic circumstances. It's far better than anything I expect to write, except by the grace of God.

Blogrollin'

On the off chance that there are any readers who prefer my blog to Fr. Dwight Longenecker's, what is wrong with you?

I never come up with truly fabulous things like this.

World of Lies

I hear enough of Rush Limbaugh to know he has adopted "the World of Lies" as a new catchphrase. That certainly seems to apply to Planned Parenthood; witness this article.

From the comments, and though I regard RICO as bad law, I agree with this:

I realize that, under the current administration, this is highly improbable but I do believe a case could be made to charge PP, and all their officers, under the RICO statutes. They constitute a continuing criminal enterprise (hiding knowledge of, and facts pertaining to, crimes), they fraudulently receive government funds under various titles, and they conceal their activities by operating under multiple entities, perceived as independent though controlled by a single, overarching, entity which controls the direction and methods used within the organization. Going after the individual offices for their trangressions, regardless of how serious, is akin to prosecuting street level drug dealers, whilst the kingpins operate with impunity. -- Reilly

Government Intervention and High Prices

I found this article, by Dr. Mark W. Hendrickson at Grove City College. He discusses the history of meddling with prices, and how it raises costs. It's worth a read. But in the first comment, along comes this, from Joe DeVet:

[T]here’s a moral dimension to messing with markets which is often overlooked in Catholic discourse about “social justice.” We Catholics proclaim a “preferential option for the poor”, but as the discussion goes on, many other competing “social-justice” goals tend to get in the way. We see a problem like the loss of the family farm, and we figure we’ll subsidize plowing crops under and killing piglets for the sake of the farm. We see a minority who don’t have health insurance, and are tempted to think remaking the whole health system will help those few.

At the end of the day, we may have helped SOME poor in the short term, but have harmed all the poor in the longer term. Prices are higher and goods and services more limited as a result of the interventions. The rich (includes you and me) are inconvenienced; the poor actually suffer. They don’t just “feel” poorer, as the author states, but ARE poorer.

So much for the “preferential option.” Bearing this in mind, we need to recognize that it is not only a bad idea to intervene in markets the way the current administration is trying to do, it is actually sinful.