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From Under The Rubble
December 27, 2013
Cardinals, Ducks, and Quacks
by Christopher Manion
fitzgerald griffin foundation
FRONT ROYAL, VA — It's that time of year again, and the Secular City is raising Hell.
But Hell doesn't exist, remember?
Well, it does when it comes in handy.
Now the Thought Police want to throw the New Testament into the Saint Stephen's Day bonfire of outmoded inanities.
Last summer, the party bosses in Secular City branded "Who am I to judge" as the Leitmotif of Pope Francis's papacy. They deftly ignore the pope's companion condemnation of the "Gay Lobby," and for good reason: the Gay Lobby runs the Secular City mob with ward heelers that would make Mayor Daley (the pre-Woodstock version) ooze with envy.
Catholic bishops, meanwhile, are coy.
Take Washington, where Donald Cardinal Wuerl presides over the archdiocese that is home to America's most powerful contingent of the Gay Lobby.
Cardinal Wuerl does not welcome opportunities to discuss the Church's teaching on homosexuality, although, with Pope Francis, he undoubtedly agrees that "the Catechism has it right." [viz. CCC, No. 2357-2359]
Well, that means that Washington's elites have it wrong – and that puts the Cardinal in a tough spot. He's got to deal with them every day.
Which means that, when the Church remains silent, the "Gay Lobby" owns the field.
Phil Robertson
of Duck DynastySo, when the Duck Dynasty's Phil Robertson was canned from his own show on the A&E Network, the Rubble heard no bishop rise in his defense, even though Phil had simply explained biblical truths in layman's language.
The silence from the chanceries left the authoritative interpretation of the Scriptures to the high priests of the Gay Lobby's Abomination Advocacy Department (GLAAD), who denounced "Phil's lies" because they "fly in the face of what true Christians believe."
Well, which "true Christians" did speak out?
Two were featured on the media to defend Robertson: Bobby Jindal, the Catholic governor of Louisiana, and former Alaska governor Sarah Palin, a cradle-Catholic who is now a Bible Christian.
Both Palin and Jindal defended Robertson's statements on the grounds of free speech, mocking the Left's pretentious claim to "diversity" while it acts like the Thought Police.
All too true. But neither of them addressed the moral content of the Duck Commander's comments, even though he had merely paraphrased Paul's Epistles (Romans 1:24-27; 1Corinthians 6:9-10; and 1Tim 1:10, for starters).
Did the bishops miss the boat? After all, the firing of a Bible Christian for defending his Biblical beliefs – fundamental truths which are fully consistent with Catholic teaching – offered them a rare opportunity to respond to the Pope's call for the "New Evangelization."
Catholic bishops could have used this "teaching moment" to reach millions of Americans with the truth about the moral teachings of the faith. These truths might be unpopular with media outfits like A&E, but – given the public reaction – they're evidently popular with the people in the pews.
The best the Catholic News Agency could do was find a "Lesbian feminist" who observed (correctly) that "suspending [the] Duck Dynasty star is 'fascist.'"
Perhaps our bishops interpret "Who am I to judge?" to mean, "Who am I to teach?"
The bishops are preparing for the worldwide Synod on the Family, to be held in Rome in 2014.
Maybe they should invite Phil.
The best the Catholic News Agency could do was find a "Lesbian feminist" who observed (correctly) that "suspending [the] Duck Dynasty star is 'fascist.'"
Afghanistan, a Shrug, and a Whimper
"How much are we spending annually in Afghanistan? How much is the cost to the American taxpayer," asked California Congressman Dana Rohrabacher during a recent House Foreign Affairs hearing on U.S. policy in the country.
The Obama Administration's experts from State, AID, and Defense just looked at each other.
Shrugs.
Nobody knew.
"How many killed and wounded have we suffered in the last 12 months," he asked our government's Afghanistan experts.
Again, none of the three had an answer.
And who cares?Perhaps the parents of the six U.S. servicemen who were killed the week before Christmas might care.
Well, "What difference, at this point, does it make?"
The answer is zero. As far as Obama is concerned, Afghanistan has taken a dive down the Memory Hole.
Meanwhile, Hillary Clinton has already promised Karzai four billion a year in U.S. taxpayer payoffs through 2017, and the U.S. anticipates a "presence" there through 2024.
But Karzai is pounding the table. He wants more.
Perhaps our bishops interpret "Who am I to judge?" to mean, "Who am I to teach?"
According to Transparency International, Karzai's Afghanistan is one of only seven countries that are more corrupt than the "new" Iraq, where Over 100 tons of freshly-minted $100 bills, tens of billions of U.S. taxpayer dollars, shipped directly from the New York Federal Reserve to Iraq, simply disappeared during the Bush years.
Clearly, Karzai, Afghanistan's Corrupto Supremo, wants his cut too. After all, he remembers what happened to the last stooge appointed by a foreign imperial power.
That would be Najibullah, who rose to power as the favorite of Soviet Head Apparatchik Yuri Andropov in the 1980s. Najibullah was tortured, emasculated, dragged through the streets, and hanged from a traffic light in Kabul after the Soviets left.
OK, now we know what happens to corruptos in Afghanistan.
Now, what are we supposed to do with our blithering corruptos here at home?
Your Taxpayer Dollars At Work — For Not Working
If I gave you ten thousand dollars, would you be willing to spend one night in prison?
Pretty good pay, isn't it? After all, that's over $400 an hour!
Well, that's what Harriette Walters got, tax free.
Harriette worked for the government of the District of Columbia. Over the course of twenty years, she embezzled some fifty million dollars.
Which she spent.
Her 17.5 year prison sentence means she's working off those decades of the high life at about $400 an hour, 24 hours a day.
And she doesn't even have to work!
Well, Harriette's got nothing on John Beale, who was for years the single most highly-paid employee of the Environmental Protection Agency.
Problem is, he never had to show up.
(Wouldn't it be great if none of them showed up?)
See, Mr. Beale — like Michelle Obama, a Princeton grad — conned his clueless "superiors" into believing (I am not making this up) that he was a CIA secret agent.
He never did any work, anywhere.
For ten years.
Mr. Beale will spend 32 months in jail. Poor fellow. His therapist says that "his theft and deception were animated by a highly self-destructive and dysfunctional need to engage in excessively reckless, risky behavior."
Hey, doesn't that describe everybody in Washington?
Scandals like this are so routine in our nation's capital that they are hardly news.
Here's a thought: let's compare Beltway Justice to justice outside the Beltway.
Here in the Shenandoah Valley, one Scott Wessels, age 25, pleaded guilty last week to robbing a bank up the road a piece from our place.
Mr. Wessells pretended to have a bomb. The teller gave him $10,000.
He was arrested two hours later.
It took twenty years for the government to catch Ms. Walters.
It took ten years for the government to catch Mr. Beale.
But Mr. Wessells didn't work for the government.
He didn't go to Princeton.
He didn't have a therapist.
The police recovered all but $92.00 of the money he stole.
He was sentenced to nine years in prison.
That's three cents a day.
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From Under the Rubble is copyright © 2013 by Christopher Manion. All rights reserved.
Christopher Manion is Director of the Campaign for Humanae Vitae™, a project of the Bellarmine Forum. He served as a staff director on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee for many years. He has taught in the departments of politics, religion, and international relations at Boston University, the Catholic University of America, and Christendom College. This column is sponsored by the Bellarmine Forum.
See a complete biographical sketch.
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