Category: Politics

Miguel Estrada, a Catholic of Honduran ancestry, withdrew his name from consideration to the Federal bench yesterday. Nobody thought that Estrada was unqualified. He graduated magna cum laude from Harvard Law and his resume is impeccable. But he’s not liberal, so he’s now one more Romanist scalp the Democrats can nail to their Senate office walls.
This summer, Democrats have defended themselves against charges that they are anti-Catholic, since they are stalling many of Bush’s nominees and a lot of them are Catholic. They’re right in that they are not merely anti-Catholic: they are prejudiced against any Christian who holds to the ancient faith. Specifically, they’re afraid that nominating traditional believers might threaten the One Big Thing they have written into the foundation of their part. Recall the gauntlet they put John Ashcroft through when he was nominated, and how he remains their whipping boy because he PRAYS IN HIS OFFICE before his workday begins!
The Dems haven’t presented any evidence that these snake-handling nominees will disregard the law; the simple fact that someone has “deeply held [Christian] beliefs” is enough. You may reply that the Republicans did the same thing to President W.J. Clinton. You would be wrong. They did indeed stall many of his nominees, and even blackballed a few (both tactics have a long, venerable history in the Senate). However, the GOP could have rejected Clinton’s judicial nominees on solid grounds, because in 1992 Clinton promised to only nominate judges who would uphold Roe vs. Wade. Regardless of the merits of the case in front of them, they would rule in favor of the abortion license, widely construed. Imagine if a judge said before confirmation that he would uphold all death penalty sentences, regardless of the facts.
Senate Republicans, remarkably, discovered their collective spines and are firing back. Jeff Sessions of Alabama, himself the victim of these smarmy tactics, has been pressing the nomination of Alabama Attorney General Pryor, another Catholic. Pryor made the mistake of opposing the One Big Thing in print, even in cases of rape or incest. In a Judiciary Committee hearing, Sessions said:

“Well, let me tell you, the doctrine that abortion is not justified for rape and incest is Catholic doctrine. It is a position of the pope and it’s a position of the Catholic Church in unity. So are we saying that if you believe in that principle, you can’t be a federal judge? Is that what we’re saying? And are we not saying, then, good Catholics need not apply?”

Democrats on the committee, which has a depressing number of rabidly pro-abortion Catholics, went nuts. When one of them said that Sessions, a Protestant, had no right to tell them what Catholics do and don’t believe, he shot back, “Some Catholics don’t believe in Catholic doctrine.”
Right on, brother Sessions! (Read the account of the exchange here.)
This shows — if you needed more evidence — that Evangelicals are the best friends of faithful Catholics in the culture today. I’d rather be governed by Southern Baptists than secular liberals. As long as they don’t prohibit me from going to Mass, spreading my faith, or buying wine, I would be happy to let them take over.
Republicans should put Miguel Estrada’s face in campaign ads next year. The Democrats pretend that they’re the party of inclusion and acceptance, but they’re the ones rejecting people on the basis of religion and ethnicity. Throw it back in their faces.

Canadians are raised to believe that our universal and socialized healthcare system is superior to the healthcare system in America. In fact, this is a topic of frequent debate in our family because my parents still believe it. Even Canadian conservatives have long accepted this claim as fact. In my latest Enter Stage Right column, I compare our family’s experience with the healthcare systems in both countries.

Here’s an excerpt: “Yet Canadians forget that our universal health system is not free; it comes from the high taxes our government collects. In contrast, I pay no Florida state income tax under Governor Jeb Bush. And what about President George W. Bush, the Governor’s brother, who recently lowered my federal tax rate? Dare I mention that before President Bush’s tax cuts, I still paid a lot less in taxes each year than what my best friend and former accountant from back home tells me I would have paid as a Canadian resident under Jean Chretien’s regime?

“Now add the fact my wife is a stay at home mother and the U.S. tax code permits joint tax returns for married couple. In contrast, as many Canadian social conservatives so aptly point out, the Canadian tax code penalizes married couples. And the premiums I pay for family health coverage in the United States are deducted from my taxable income. Thus when my wife and I add up what we pay each year in taxes, health insurance premiums and deductibles for medical services, we would pay more in taxes if we still lived in the Dominion of Socialized Healthcare.”

It pales in comparison to the one million Jews they obligingly shipped to Nazi prison camps and gas chambers. And it only equates to a few hours’ casualties at Ypres or the Somme. But still, one would think that the French would protest against 10,000 people dying from Europe’s hot summer.
I couldn’t believe it either, but the French regime has admitted that thousands of people died from the excessive heat in the last few months. Not to worry, though: they were mostly old pensioners, and therefore useless. That would explain the lack of coverage in the American press.
Still, one would think it might attract a little attention. I mean, these are white Western Europeans we’re talking about — it’s not like we’re talking about thousands of dead Slavs or Africans.
From news accounts, you can see the concerns of the French people, or at least the portion of the French people that make their voices heard:
1-5. Opposition to American “hegemony.”
6. Stifling genetically modified foods.
7. The truffle shortage.
8. Increasing the number of years government employees must work to get their pensions, from 37 to 40. (This caused riots.)
9. Too many American movies in French theaters.
10. Declining baguette sales (that’s not a joke — the government ran ads encouraging its citizens to buy more bread.)
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.
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43. Ensuring that old people don’t die from unseasonable heat.
This is socialist France, cradle-to-grave-nanny-state-protection France. They aren’t supposed to have Third-World death tolls in civilized, tolerant Europe. That’s the continent to which we always compare backward, violent America, and France is Europeanness incarnate.
Western European Man ceased to believe in God, so he shifted his faith to the State. The State’s idea of egalité is that everyone is an equal chattel of the State. Useless poor women are given the chance to abort their future useless children; useless old people are tacitly encouraged to die and spare the State any further expense.
Socialism is not a cure for the culture of death. Socialism is an engine of the culture of death.

The media love “moderate” Republicans. All you have to do is favor abortion under just about any circumstance, and you get to be a moderate. You could be in favor of nuking gay black homosexuals, but if you’re pro-abortion, you’re a moderate. Arlen Specter, Bill Weld, and Christie Todd Whitman are prominent members of this species. They get showered with acclamations about their intelligence, prudence, and superiority over your normal, gun-toting, snake-handling GOP politician. Quite often, the “moderate” Republican favors gun control; he will make frowny faces about high government spending and high taxes, but will usually support both in the end.
Then when election time comes, the “moderate” Republican finds that his buddies in the press, along with previously friendly Democrats, have turned against him. Arnold Schwarzenegger is the latest to find out that just because you favor abortion, gun control, and scads of money for “the children,” you’re not immune from being lumped in with the snake handlers.
According to this article, lots of Hollywood people are lining up against him in his bid to become governor of California. You can guess most of the names mentioned: Tom Hanks, Woody Harrelson, Martin Sheen, Carrie Fisher, Debbie Reynolds (still alive, apparently), Cybill Shepherd, Barbra Streisand (natch), Steven Spielberg, Warren Beatty, Susan Sarandon, and Al Franken. (Good golly! Not Franken!)
Note to liberal Republicans: you should certainly follow your conscience and act on your beliefs. However, if you’re thinking of adjusting your positions to make yourself popular, you might as well be conservative. Having that (R) next to your name makes you a target. The media and the Left will see it, their Pavlovian response will kick in, and they’ll automatically hate you anyway.

It’s simple – guess which quote was not said by Arnold Schwarzenegger and you will get your name in Catholic Lights. Use the comments box below.
A) “Like I told Warren, if he mentions Prop 13 one more time, he has to do 500 situps.”
B) “I have inhaled, exhaled everything.”
C) “I am trained to get along with Democrats.”
D) “I will not change. Because if you are successful and you change, you are an idiot.”
E) “California doesn’t need a tax hike. It needs Gray Davis out of office and teaching politics at a community college.”
F) “We have to make sure everyone in California has a great job. A fantastic job!”