It’s Wednesday, February 1st, 2012….but before we begin, this just in:
Romney Rebounds With Win in Florida
Not a win; a good, old-fashioned ass-whupping. And you know what? Given Newt’s descent to the level of trailer trash, i.e., the claim Mitt tried to take kosher food out of Holocaust survivors mouths, which is absolutely beneath contempt, we’re rather glad.
From here on out, staying in is all about Newt’s ego. And that alone should disqualify him from consideration.
Now, here’s The Gouge!
First, as Michael Gerson, courtesy of Randy Jugs, details in the WaPo….
Obama plays his Catholic allies for fools*
*Only those who were willing to be taken in!
In politics, the timing is often the message. On Jan. 20 — three days before the annual March for Life— the Obama administration announced its final decisionthat Catholic universities, hospitals and charities will be compelled to pay for health insurance that covers sterilization, contraceptives and abortifacients.
Preparing for the march, Catholic students gathered for Mass at Verizon Center. The faithful held vigil at the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception. Knights of Columbus and bishops arrived to trudge in the cold along the Mall. All came to Washington in time for their mocking.
Catholic leaders are still trying to process the implications of this ambush. (Those too naive to have realized the nature of The Great Prevaricator in the first place!) The president had every opportunity to back down from confrontation. In the recent Hosanna-Tabor ruling, a unanimous Supreme Court reaffirmed a broad religious autonomy right rooted in the Constitution. Obama could have taken the decision as justification for retreat.
And it would have been a minor retreat. The administration was on the verge of mandating nearly universal contraceptive coverage through Obamacare without public notice. There would have been no controversy at all if President Obama had simply exempted religious institutions and ministries. But the administration insisted that the University of Notre Dame and St. Mary’s Hospital be forced to pay for the privilege of violating their convictions.
Obama chose to substantially burden a religious belief, by the most intrusive means, for a less-than-compelling state purpose — a marginal increase in access to contraceptives that are easily available elsewhere. The religious exemption granted by Obamacare is narrower than anywhere else in federal law — essentially covering the delivery of homilies and the distribution of sacraments. Serving the poor and healing the sick are regarded as secular pursuits — a determination that would have surprised Christianity’s founder.
Both radicalism and maliciousness are at work in Obama’s decision — an edict delivered with a sneer. It is the most transparently anti-Catholic maneuver by the federal government since the Blaine Amendment was proposed in 1875 — a measure designed to diminish public tolerance of Romanism, then regarded as foreign, authoritarian and illiberal. Modern liberalism has progressed to the point of adopting the attitudes and methods of 19th-century Republican nativists.
The implications of Obama’s choice will take years to sort through. The immediate impact can be measured on three men:
Consider Catholicism’s most prominent academic leader, the Rev. John Jenkins, president of Notre Dame. Jenkins took a serious risk in sponsoring Obama’s 2009 honorary degree and commencement address— which promised a “sensible” approach to the conscience clause. Jenkins now complains, “This is not the kind of ‘sensible’ approach the president had in mind when he spoke here.” (Au contraire, mon frere!) Obama has made Jenkins — and other progressive Catholic allies — look easily duped. A(Which they were; and frankly, given their incredible naivete, deserved to be!)
Consider Catholicism’s highest-ranking elected official, Vice President Biden. Biden had encouraged engagement with the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops on conscience rights. Now he will be remembered as the Catholic cover for the violation of Catholic conscience. (Look up “Judas” in Webster’s; you’ll find….
Bart Stupak: Living with the deaths of uncounted infants on his conscience
….Bart Stupak’s picture.)
The implications of Obama’s power grab go further than contraception and will provoke opposition beyond Catholicism. Christian colleges and universities of various denominations will resist providing insurance coverage for abortifacients. And the astounding ambition of this federal precedent will soon be apparent to every religious institution. Obama is claiming the executive authority to determine which missions of believers are religious and which are not — and then to aggressively regulate institutions the government declares to be secular. It is a view of religious liberty so narrow and privatized that it barely covers the space between a believer’s ears.
Obama’s decision also reflects a certain view of liberalism. Classical liberalism was concerned with the freedom to hold and practice beliefs at odds with a public consensus. Modern liberalism uses the power of the state to impose liberal values on institutions it regards as backward. It is the difference between pluralism and anti-clericalism.
The administration’s ultimate motivation is uncertain. Has it adopted a radical secularism out of conviction, or is it cynically appealing to radical secularists? In either case, the war on religion is now formally declared.
Two thoughts: first, Team Tick-Tock isn’t waging war on “religion”….just Judaism and Christianity. Second, and just as importantly, this is truly a “we either all hang together or we’ll surely hang separately” moment. This isn’t a Catholic problem, it’s a Constitutional crisis of the greatest importance, equal in fact to the health insurance mandate. It strikes to the heart of our First Amendment protections, and threatens our very rights and liberties.
Think about it; coupled with an unlimited commerce clause, if our compliant courts were to let this stand, what couldn’t the federal government do?!?
We strongly urge each of you not only to write your Congressman and Senators, but ask your pastor/priest/minister/rabbi what your particular denomination is doing to parry this dagger thrust at the bosom of religious freedom in America.
Which brings to mind this photo forwarded by our old friend and classmate Paul Croisetiere:
Just substitute “Catholic” for “Taxpayer”!
Turning to the “THAT Was Then, THIS Is Now” segment, James Taranto reports on an increasingly serious problem among members of the Left:
Short-Term Memory Loss
- “Let’s never forget: Millions of Americans who work hard and play by the rules every day deserve a government and a financial system that do the same. It’s time to apply the same rules from top to bottom. No bailouts, no handouts, and no copouts.“—President Obama, State of the Union Address, January 24, 2012
- “On the day I took office, . . . the American auto industry was on the verge of collapse. And some politicians were willing to let it just die. We said no. We believe in the workers of this state.“–Obama, remarks to students in Ann Arbor, Mich., January 27, 2012
And in two related items, courtesy of George Lawlor, it’s the “We’re Liberals….We Said It….and That Should Be Good Enough!” segment. First, as the heat on the Obama Administration rises even faster and furiouser, the New York Times reports Congressional Dims resort to obfuscation and outright misrepresentation:
Report by House Democrats Absolves Administration in Gun Trafficking Case
Democrats on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee on Tuesday are expected to publish a report on the disputed gun trafficking investigation called Operation Fast and Furious, concluding that agents in Arizona — not Obama administration officials — were responsible for the tactics used in the inquiry and for providing misleading information relayed to Congress.
In an 89-page report, titled “Fatally Flawed: Five Years of Gun-walking in Arizona,” the Democratic staff portrays Fast and Furious as the fourth investigation, dating back to 2006, in which Arizona-based agents of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco Firearms and Explosivesemployed the tactic “gun-walking” — failing to interdict illegally purchased guns in an attempt to build a bigger case.
“This report debunks many unsubstantiated conspiracy theories,” Representative Elijah E. Cummings, Democrat of Maryland, wrote in a cover letter. “Contrary to repeated claims by some, the committee has obtained no evidence that Operation Fast and Furious was a politically motivated operation conceived and directed by high-level Obama administration political appointees at the Department of Justice.”
Still, because the report was written by Democrats, the political impact of its conclusion exonerating high-level officials of wrongdoing may be limited….
Gee….ya THINK?!? Nothing to see here folks….move along! I’m Elijah Cummings, a prevaricating poltroon, and I approved this report! When even the New York Times can’t stomach a Dimocratic deception, you just KNOW heads are gonna roll. The only question is how many….and how high!
Then there’s this from the WaPo:
CBO says federal employees rake in much more pay
Comparison with private sector likely to heat up debate over ending freeze
Buoyed by generous benefit packages, federal workers earn significantly better compensation than similarly educated workers in the private sector, according to a report released Monday from Congress’ chief scorekeeper that threatens to reignite at the national level last year’s state battles over public-employee rights.
Overall, federal workers earn 16 percent more in total compensation — including wages and benefits — than comparable private-sector employees, according to the Congressional Budget Office. Only private-sector workers with the highest levels of education, such as doctors and lawyers, earn more than their public counterparts.
The finding is incendiary at a time when Republicans in Congressare fighting for a freeze on federal worker salaries and the Obama Administrationis balking, arguing that after two years of freezes, it’s time to ramp up pay.
The CBOsaid federal workers do better in wages at the low education end, are about equal in the middle, and fall behind the private sector at the top end.
But the key difference is in benefits, where federal workers average more than $20 per hour in compensation — 48 percent higher than the $13.60 in prorated hourly benefits in the private sector. Added together, CBO said, that means significantly higher pay for government employees.
“For workers at all education levels, the cost of total compensation averaged about $52 per hour worked for federal employees, compared with about $45 per hour worked for employees in the private sector with certain similar observable characteristics,” CBOanalysts said in their report.
Unions that represent federal workers said the CBO’s comparison was pointless….
Move along folks….nothing to see here. I’m a partisan public-employee union parasite….trust me!
And for today’s Environmental Moment, we turn to David Drucker’s forward from the Science and Environmental Policy Project:
Alternative Sources of Electricity
Someone experienced in analyzing potential investments in innovative industries may be surprised by the lack of hard data on the performance of solar and wind in generating electricity. Certainly, it is understandable that solar and wind companies may wish to keep certain trade secrets from the public, such as manufacturing design and techniques. But if the results are as solid as the promoters claim, than one would expect the promoters would give the hard data on performance. Yet these are being withheld on the claims that such data is proprietary – confidential.
Slowly, information is leaking from nations that have spent heavily on wind and solar, such as Germany. This information should give pause to those touting solar and wind, including politicians. England is pulling back from wind, Germany has announced drastic cut-backs on its subsidies to solar, and Spain has announced the elimination of subsidies for renewable power. These actions are not the result of success. The erratic nature of these sources is well established. Further, electricity is rather unique among energy types – it cannot be stored on an affordable, commercial scale.
The leaders of countries that have spent heavily on solar and wind assumed that the erratic nature of these sources, and that the lack of storage, can be compensated by installing the facilities over a broad geographical area. They were wrong. A winter high pressure system can cover a broad area of Europe, rendering wind turbines useless when solar panels can generate little electricity, and none at night. Reports are indicating that at least 80% conventional back-up is needed. [One exception may be Denmark which relies on pumped hydro storage from Norway and Sweden, selling excess wind generated electricity to pump up reservoirs when possible and buying the hydroelectricity when needed. The pricing should be quite interesting.]
A further complication is that fast back-up from conventional sources, such as coal or natural gas, is very demanding on the equipment, inefficient, and polluting – the pollution control devices do not work properly when heat output varies. According to reports, no coal plants have been de-commissioned in northern Europe rendering the claim of lower carbon dioxide emissions questionable.
Those proclaiming the virtues of wind and solar should be compelled to reveal actual output data from these sources, the required back-up, and data on the actual reduction of carbon dioxide and other emissions when alternative sources are used.
Don’t hold your breath; this’ll happen about the same time….
….and B. Hussein releases his college transcripts and Michelle’s Princeton prose!
Which brings us to the Lighter Side….
Finally, in the “Liberals Need Love Too!” segment:
Skunks flood California city looking for love
Just two weeks before Valentine’s Day, hundreds of skunks have flooded Sacramento, Calif., in search of the perfect mate, bringing with them a pungent smell and creating a nuisance for many homeowners, Fox40.com reports. “They are everywhere,” animal trapper Stephen Andert told the station.
Andert, the owner of Creature Catchers, said a few hundred more skunks than normal have invaded the city looking to mate. The annual migration will culminate in May when the skunks’ offspring are born.
And here we thought the Dimocratic convention wasn’t until August….in Charlotte!
Magoo
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