Glenn Greenwald, typically a fierce critic of President Obama’s policies affecting civil liberties, rightly commends the president for his politically risky reminder that the United States is a country committed to religious freedom for everyone–Muslims included. Obama has since clarified his statement by noting that he was not commenting on the prudence of building a mosque and community center near Ground Zero, but his initial point remains. As I’ve written before, those who wish to practice their religion tomorrow would be ill advised to deny or limit the religious freedom of others today, fearing that the other’s religion looks poised to increase its sway within society. It does no good to diminish or remove another person’s freedom of religion fearing that the other will someday diminish or remove our own. We all share the same religious freedom–a freedom meant to protect the minority against the majority.
Religious Freedom vs. Theocratic Dictatorships
August 15, 2010
39 Comments | 
Democracy, Free Speech, Hospitality, Human Rights, Kyle R. Cupp, Media, Middle East, Obama, Religion, Theology, Weirdness | 
Permalink
Posted by Kyle R. Cupp
Quote of the Day – On Catholic Blogs
June 7, 2010“As I talked with brother bishops in preparation for this presentation, there was consistent agreement that one aspect that is most alarming to us about media is when it becomes unchristian and hurtful to individuals.For example, we are particularly concerned about blogs that engage in attacks and hurtful, judgmental language. We are very troubled by blogs and other elements of media that assume the role of Magisterium and judge others in the Church. Such actions shatter the communion of the Church that we hold so precious.”
- Bishop Gabino Zavala, USCCB communications chair.
A lesson there for all of us. (Hat tip: Rocco).
23 Comments | Blogs, Catholic Blogging, Media, Morning's Minion | Permalink
Posted by Morning's Minion
iCatholicism
February 7, 2010
Well, I recently purchased my first Apple product, the iPhone 3G, and I was pretty sure I’d like it. But I really like it. I still can’t stand iTunes. I had avoided downloading and using iTunes for any music purposes before getting the phone — for politico-cultural reasons as well as general annoyance — but now with the phone, using iTunes is a must. I can’t understand how the phone itself can be so elegant and iTunes so clunky.
Anyway, when searching for “apps” to download and try, I tried searching for “Catholic” and didn’t get very much. What I did get was mostly pretty bizarre. I’m not sure why one would want to pray the rosary on the iPhone or why one would need an encyclopedia of the popes in one’s pocket at all times. The best Catholic app I’ve seen — and really, the only one useful to me — is Catholic Calendar from Universalis, a free complete liturgical calendar that lets you access today’s, yesterday’s and tomorrow’s Hours, daily readings, and more. (The paid version allows access to the Hours in their entirety.)
7 Comments | Culture, Internet, Magic, Media, Michael Iafrate, Spirituality, Technology, Toys | Permalink
Posted by Michael J. Iafrate
‘Tis the time to liberate, indeed!
November 26, 2009
This is nonsense only Christians could come up with.
Get this. The American Family Association (you know we’re in trouble right there) has initiated a boycott of the GAP and all of its offshoot companies because of this year’s GAP ad campaign which AFA says does not feature “Christmas” prominently enough among other holidays which are also mentioned. Read the rest of this entry »
8 Comments | Capitalism, Christmas, Culture of Death, Economics, Economy, Fair Trade, Holidays, Jesus Christ, Justice, Media, Michael Iafrate, Spirituality, TV, Weirdness | Permalink
Posted by Michael J. Iafrate
The loudest bishops in the u.s. are a minority
September 1, 2009During the last presidential election it became clear to many of us that despite their overwhelming presence in the media the american bishops making the most noise in their opposition to Barack Obama reflected a minority view within the conference. A necessary tactic, then, for republican Catholics was to amplify their voices even more and even to claim that their numbers were larger than they really were. I exposed one such effort for what it was here.
It seems that now we are beginning to see some more visible, public responses to the scandalous behavior that we — we Catholics, and sadly the rest of the world who could not help but watch and be astonished at american Catholic “discourse” — witnessed during that election cycle. Santa Fe Archbishop Archbishop Michael J. Sheehan has publicly criticized the “combative tactics” of these right-leaning bishops, assuring that the majority of u.s. bishops disagreed with them.
David Gibson now reports on the sudden and shady resignation of Scranton bishop Joseph “The USCCB doesn’t speak for me” Martino, claiming that “there are strong indications that Martino was pushed before he jumped.”
Whatever the ins and outs of the internal church maneuvering, the upshot is that a leading voice in the anti-Obama wing of the church hierarchy has been silenced while both Obama and Biden continue to take center stage.
Although the efforts seem to me a little late coming, it is refreshing to see signs that, despite republican efforts to increase the volume of these marginal and extreme views, someone — maybe a number of someones — is finally reaching over to turn the amplifier down saying “Enough already.”
36 Comments | America, Bishops, Election, Media, Michael Iafrate, Obama, Politics, USCCB, Voting | Permalink
Posted by Michael J. Iafrate
Coup in Honduras: silence
July 2, 2009After an explosion of interest in the Catholic blogosphere surrounding the election controversy and subsequent protests in Iran, there has been no peep whatsoever regarding the obvious coup that has taken place in Honduras in which School of the Americas graduates removed president Manuel Zelaya from power.
This silence likely mirrors the relative silence in the u.s. corporate media in general. Latin America simply has not mattered very much to most North Americans, including North American Catholics.
What it certainly shows, though, is that the predominantly right wing Catholic blogosphere, ostensibly interested in independent reporting and commentary on matters from a faith perspective, is simply no different from the rest of america. Interest in “freedom” and “democracy” only goes so far. Cries for democracy are reported and affirmed only when the results would correspond to the Catholic right’s political positions. When the democratically elected leader is a somewhat left-leaning figure, democracy matters little.
For those who are interested in keeping up on the events in Honduras, I recommend the following sites:
UPDATE: Send a message to Obama and Clinton here.
35 Comments | America, Democracy, Human Rights, Justice, Latin America, Media, Michael Iafrate, News, Politcal Apathy, Politics, School of the Americas, The State, Voting | Permalink
Posted by Michael J. Iafrate
FOX continues to attack Black america
February 11, 2009
Read more here. H/T The Christian Radical Catholic Worker blog.
105 Comments | Human Person, Media, Michael Iafrate, Racism, Uncategorized | Permalink
Posted by Michael J. Iafrate
The Camera Lies
November 24, 2008According to a widely followed dictum enunciated by the Russian playwright Anton Chekhov, “[i]f in the first act you have hung a pistol on the wall, then in the following one it should be fired.” As a principle of drama this is, of course, quite sensible. But it leads to the odd effect that, unless you have had personal experience with firearms, chances are you have never seen a gun without soon seeing it used to shoot someone. And even taking into account the fictional nature of most of these “shootings,” it is not surprising that a person who knew about guns only through film and television might have an exaggerated sense of the dangerousness of firearms, or of their association with murder and violence.
Many people are rightly wary of negative depictions of members of various minority groups, on the grounds that they may serve to re-enforce stereotypes about those groups, particularly among those whose main experience of those groups is from film and television. In each case the basic principle is the same. When you lack much personal experience of a group, object, or environment, and encounter fictional depictions of it, you are liable to accept those depictions as accurate, even if they are not a true reflection of reality. Read the rest of this entry »
19 Comments | Blackadder, Film, Gun Control, Media | Permalink
Posted by Blackadder
CNN says “no” to Obama
October 29, 2008This caught my attention: CNN has refused to air Sen. Barak Obama’s campaign “commercial,” which is set to air on major media outlets including NBC and FOX Television. So if you are trying to escape Obama’s victory speech tonight and you still want the news, you know one place you can turn.
10 Comments | Election, Media, News, Policraticus, Politics | Permalink
Posted by Policraticus
Sounds familiar?
October 20, 2008I’m getting flashbacks:
“The media are perverse factories of lies. What they sell is poison.”
“El Nacional and El Universal are pathetic, the television stations—with a few exceptions—are pathetic…. They call cowards those who do not bow their head to the fundamentalist and dictatorial ideas and the infamous campaign by the media owners.”
13 Comments | Katerina Ivanovna, Marxism, McCain, Media | Permalink
Posted by Katerina Ivanovna
Chomsky on the ’08 presidential election
October 20, 2008Click here for a video interview with Noam Chomsky on the presidential election. While he has argued for years that the political system of the united states has one party — the Business Party — which has two factions, to hold the view that there are no differences at all between these two factions is to ignore the ways in which the the differing policies do in fact have an effect on people’s lives. Like his friend and fellow anarchist Howard Zinn, Chomsky suggests voting for Barack Obama, but without illusions, as he is clearly the lesser of two evils. Chomsky’s reflections on why universal health care has become “politically possible” are particularly insightful.
Comments Off | America, Anarchism, Capitalism, Culture of Death, Democracy, Dissent, Economics, Election, Health Care, Human Rights, McCain, Media, Michael Iafrate, Obama, Politics, The State, Voting | Permalink
Posted by Michael J. Iafrate
Justice Jeremiah Wright?
October 1, 2008A shady independent group is running a new ad against Obama, based on Supreme Court judges. First This topic is certainly a a fair one, well within the boundaries of legitimate debate. Except that this ad really says nothing about judicial philosophy. Roe v. Wade does not even warrant a mention, which makes me wonder about the real agenda of these people. There is no talk of Obama’s position on abortion, or the likelihood that he would nominate strongly pro-Roe justices.
16 Comments | Abortion, Election, McCain, Media, Morning's Minion, Obama, Politics | Permalink
Posted by Morning's Minion
Vox Nova, Catholic Anarchy mentioned by NCR
September 27, 2008The National Catholic Reporter recently ran an article by Patrick Gallagher on Catholic blogs, mentioning Vox Nova and Michael Iafrate’s Catholic Anarchy alongside some fine sites, such as Mirror of Justice, Whispers in the Loggia, and Catholic Sensibility. On Vox Nova, Gallagher writes:
Many blogs that include more leftish points of view are group efforts that bring multiple perspectives, ranging from the traditional to the radical. The bloggers at “Vox Nova” defend church teachings on reproductive issues even as they criticize the relationship between the church and the nation-state, particularly as played out in American patriotism and militarism.
Supporting the Catholic teachings on issues such as abortion while casting a critical gaze at the Enlightenment ethos that gave rise to the modern nation-state and capitalism are, of course, fixed points at Vox Nova. “Traditional” to “radical” is about right–we learned it straight from Pope Benedict XVI.
On Michael’s Catholic Anarchy, Gallagher notes:
Farther along the spectrum are fewer blogs that support Vatican II reforms, prioritize social over moral teachings and, typically, take a more liberal political perspective. Michael Iafrate’s “Catholic Anarchy” blog is, he says, “an outlet for expressing my thoughts on religion, politics and culture from a ‘radical’ Catholic perspective” where he can keep church pronouncements on the Iraq war “in front of our faces.”
Thanks to Patrick Gallagher and to NCR for the mention and for the article, which is a very fair analysis and prognosis of Catholic blogging.
13 Comments | Blogs, Media, Policraticus, Vox Nova | Permalink
Posted by Policraticus
Does she actually know what she’s talking about?
September 25, 2008Just when you thought the presidency had hit an intellectual low-point. Here are excerpts from the second part of Gov. Sarah Palin’s interview with Katie Couric, courtesy of CNN (did anyone know that Russia and Canada are actually in Alaska?):
(CNN) — Sarah Palin defended the claim that Alaska’s proximity with Russia helps bolster her foreign policy resume in an interview released Thursday.
The Republican VP nominee, asked by CBS’s Katie Couric what she meant by that statement said: “That Alaska has a very narrow maritime border between a foreign country, Russia, and on our other side, the land — boundary that we have with — Canada.
“…our next door neighbors are foreign countries. They’re in the state that I am the executive of,” said Palin.
The Alaska governor, asked if she had ever engaged in negotiations with Russia, said the country had swapped trade missions with her state. “It’s very important when you consider even national security issues with Russia as Putin rears his head and comes into the air space of the United States of America, where do they go? It’s Alaska. It’s just right over the border,” she said.
“It is from Alaska that we send those out to make sure that an eye is being kept on this very powerful nation, Russia, because they are right there. They are right next to our state.”
39 Comments | Election, Media, Policraticus, Politics | Permalink
Posted by Policraticus
The sexist treatment of Palin needs to stop
September 24, 2008Like Carly Fiorina, CNN’s Cambell Brown thinks that Sarah Palin is the victim of some serious sexism. But who is being sexist? Brown doesn’t think it’s Saturday Night Live.
16 Comments | Election, Media, Policraticus, Politics | Permalink
Posted by Policraticus
McCain absconds from the idea of overturning Roe
September 18, 2008You may have caught Sen. John McCain and his wife Cindy on The View last Friday. One of the questions raised by co-host Elizabeth Hasselbeck was whether McCain intends to work toward overturning Roe. Once more in typical fashion, McCain avoided answering directly: He did not indicate that he would work to overturn Roe. Distilling his answer a bit, I hear McCain stating that he Read the rest of this entry »
40 Comments | Abortion, Election, Media, Policraticus, Politics, Pro-Life | Permalink
Posted by Policraticus
Grading Palin’s Speech (scattered thoughts)
September 4, 2008Gov. Sarah Palin is, to use the words of Chris Matthews, a torpedo aimed straight at the Obama campaign. I think that, overall, she achieved more last night than I, Democrats, and even members of the GOP thought she would. I thought Rudy Giuliani and Mike Huckabee were also quite good.
Here’s how I grade Palin’s speech: Read the rest of this entry »
69 Comments | Election, Media, Policraticus, Politics | Permalink
Posted by Policraticus
Around 11:45pm CST, CNN announces that Biden is Obama’s choice
August 22, 2008CNN seems to be the first to break the news: Sen. Barack Obama has selected Sen. Joe Biden to be his running mate.
150 Comments | Election, Media, News, Policraticus, Politics | Permalink
Posted by Policraticus
Barack Obama for President
August 19, 2008Fully cognizant that an endorsement from an anonymous blogger on a minor Catholic blog seems vaguely ridiculous, nevertheless I have decided to publicly endorse Barack Obama for president of the United States. I believe him to be the better of the two candidates in terms of Catholic social teaching. I had not intended to write such a post, but recent events changed my mind.
282 Comments | Abortion, Climate Change, Economics, Economy, Election, Foreign Affairs, Health Care, Iraq War, Just War, McCain, Media, Morning's Minion, Obama, Peace, Politics, Torture, Unions, Voting, War and Peace, war | Permalink
Posted by Morning's Minion
Comparing McCain and Obama
August 17, 2008What is your greatest moral failure and the greatest moral failure of America?
McCain: The failure of my first marriage and the lack of devotion to causes beyond our self-interests.
What is your position on abortion?
McCain: Human rights apply at the moment of conception, and I will be a pro-life president.
Most interesting moment: Obama ducks the question of when human rights begin whereas McCain answers without hesitation. Question is, does either really affirm in practice what he asserts in theory?
43 Comments | Abortion, Election, Media, Morality, Policraticus, Politics | Permalink
Posted by Policraticus
Paging Bill Donohue
August 14, 2008Where is the Catholic League when you need it? I’ve talked a lot about how political discourse on the right has degenerated into infantile know-nothing personal attacks, with even John McCain now walking the path cleared by the likes of Rush Limbaugh and Ann Coulter. But one of the worst practitioners of this dark art is surely Jerome Corsi, who wrote the attack book on John Kerry four years ago, spreading the lies that eventually destroyed his campaign, and who now has appeared on cue with a new book on Barack Obama that again focuses on personal attacks.
6 Comments | Culture, Media, Morning's Minion, Politics | Permalink
Posted by Morning's Minion
Boys Are Better (and Worse) at Math Than Girls
July 30, 2008Girls and boys have roughly the same average scores on state math tests, but boys more often excelled or failed, researchers reported.
The fresh research adds to the debate about gender difference in aptitude for mathematics, including efforts to explain the relative scarcity of women among professors of science, math and engineering.
In the 1970s and 1980s, studies regularly found that high- school boys tended to outperform girls. But a number of recent studies have found little difference.
The latest study, in this week’s journal Science, examined scores from seven million students who took statewide mathematics tests from grades two through 11 in 10 states between 2005 and 2007.
The researchers, from the University of Wisconsin and the University of California, Berkeley, didn’t find a significant overall difference between girls’ and boys’ scores. But the study also found that boys’ scores were more variable than those of girls. More boys scored extremely well — or extremely poorly — than girls, who were more likely to earn scores closer to the average for all students.
More. Many newspapers have been strangely selective in reporting this study. Upon reflection, though, perhaps this is not so strange.
6 Comments | Blackadder, Children, Education, Equality, Media, Statistics, Women | Permalink
Posted by Blackadder
Tony Snow dead at 53
July 12, 2008
Got the sad news today that CNN commentator and former White House Press Secretary Tony Snow lost his battle with colon cancer early this morning while at Georgetown University Hospital. He will be missed by his surviving wife and three children. Always a smart, candid, and (in my opinion) balanced commentator, Snow certainly enhanced political conversation in a time when many on-air pesonalities tend to drag it down.
18 Comments | Media, News, Policraticus, Politics | Permalink
Posted by Policraticus
“Authentic polygamist prairie dresses” for sale
July 2, 2008
As someone who attempts to be a conscious consumer and avoids supporting clothing corporations that violate labor rights in their manufacturing facilities in the developing world, I am quite displeased–to say the least–with how the media has made fun of women from the FLDS community in the past couple of days. It turns out that the women from the FLDS community are making and selling clothes for children. You can find them at their website FLDSdress.com. They do have beautiful clothes and after all they are made in the USA!
Criticism coming from an MSNBC News correspondent was rather condescending: “Just in time for back-to-school shopping: authentic polygamist prairie dresses.” Another read: “Now you, too, can dress like a polygamist!” NPR followed with a short and similar “smart” remark yesterday during Morning Edition, which was rather disappointing. During the raid in which CPS authorities took 400+ children from the polygamist ranch, I wondered what was the obsession Nancy Grace and the media in general had with this case. I think it had to do much more than with a concern for how unfairly these children were being taken away from their parents. I think it had a lot to do with how these women and children lived and clothed differently than most of us.
38 Comments | Family, Katerina Ivanovna, Labor, Media, Morality, Women, Work | Permalink
Posted by Katerina Ivanovna
McCain Wants to Start WWIII, Re-Institute Draft
June 26, 2008Okay, so not really. But given the way some of McCain’s prior statements have been twisted, I can almost imagine the DNC running an attack ad based on that premise:
Only World War III would prompt Republican presidential candidate John McCain to bring back the military draft, McCain said on Tuesday.
Many Americans are fearful the U.S. government will be forced to reinstitute the draft given the prolonged Iraq and Afghanistan wars.
Asked about that possibility by a potential voter in Florida during a telephone “town hall meeting,” McCain said: “I don’t know what would make a draft happen unless we were in an all-out World War III.”
24 Comments | Blackadder, Election, McCain, Media, War and Peace | Permalink
Posted by Blackadder
NCEA’s tribute to Tim Russert
June 18, 2008The National Catholic Education Association (NCEA) has a beautiful tribute to the late Tim Russert on account of his strong support and unyielding promotion of Catholic education in the United States. NCEA has also put up a picture page that contains some candid shots of Russert in action.
Also of note is the USCCB Communications Committee’s praise of Russert.
19 Comments | Education, Media, Policraticus | Permalink
Posted by Policraticus
Internet Providers Block Child Pornography
June 11, 2008Verizon, Sprint, and Time Warner Cable have agreed to block access to child pornography nationwide. NPR has the story.
Comments Off | Media, News, Policraticus | Permalink
Posted by Policraticus
Where’s FOXNews on this one?!?
June 10, 2008Insinuating that the Obama’s may be trading secret terrorist fist jabs, FOXNews is cutting edge on driving the herds. Perhaps less ridiculous, but certainly no less surprising, will FOXNews latest revelation: McCain is a prohibitionist!
3 Comments | Election, Humor, Media, Policraticus | Permalink
Posted by Policraticus
Vox Nova at the Movies: Sex and the City
May 30, 2008I am not going to do a review on this movie for the simple reason that I despised the series and, therefore, will not be wasting my money on the actual movie. As a woman, I am actually offended by the theme of the series, which is continued by the movie itself based on what I have heard on the radio. What bothers me the most about the theme of the series is how women are portrayed, its emphasis on the shortcomings of marriage and committal relationships, and its promotion of false femininity.
28 Comments | Domestic Church, Feminism, Katerina Ivanovna, Life, Marriage, Media, Morality, Sex, Sexuality, Women | Permalink
Posted by Katerina Ivanovna
Negative Ads
May 15, 2008I’ve long suspected that a significant chunk of the support for things like campaign finance reform derives simply from annoyance with negative political ads. To a certain extent I think this annoyance is overblown. Negative ads tend to be fairly substantive, whereas their “positive” counter-parts are often nearly content-free (“I care about the environment; that’s why I’m standing in front of this river”). But even I have to admit that they can often be grating (whether the proper response is to scrap the First Amendment rather than, say, pressing the mute button, is another issue).
What I find curious, though, is the fact that while negative advertisements play a role in just about every close political campaign, they are almost totally absent from commercial advertising. Occasionally a company will mention a competitor in its ads in a less than favorable way (see here), but even this tends to be rare and relatively mild compared to standard political ads. The grainy black and white ads with the distorted photos and ominous sounding announcers, so common in politics, are just unheard of. What explains the difference? Here are some possibilities: Read the rest of this entry »
2 Comments | Blackadder, Election, Media, Politics | Permalink
Posted by Blackadder
The Devil Came on Horseback
March 11, 2008Note: Alexham or Feddie, wrote about this movie back in July 2007.
I watched it last night, finally. The 2007 Sundance Award winning movie is about former Marine Capt Brian Steidle’s work with the African Union’s cease fire monitoring in 2004 of the crisis in Sudan. His job was to go to Sudan with a camera, pen and paper and document any violations of the cease fire. He didn’t have a clue where Sudan was when he went and he didn’t know about Darfur, but he is there when the atrocities begin and for 6 months he documents babies being burned alive, children being shackled and then burned alive, women being systematically raped (and infected with HIV), and the overall genocide being committed there. As an observer, he spoke with the Jangiweed which translates to “The Devil on Horseback,” who are very clear with him about who is behind the killings (the Sudanese Arabic Government) and the goal of the killings–Genocide. Read the rest of this entry »
1 Comment | Culture of Death, Darfur, Media, Radical Catholic Mom | Permalink
Posted by radicalcatholicmom
Torture and the Media
March 6, 2008Scott Horton asks an important question: why is the media so squeamish about using the word torture to describe actions by the United States government, but not to similar actions carried out by others? Why the double standard? Horton:
1 Comment | Media, Morning's Minion, Torture | Permalink
Posted by Morning's Minion
The Catholic Blues!
March 3, 2008I am excited to announce the launching of a new online monthly magazine, The Catholic Blues. Each issue will focus thematically on an official document of the Catholic Church. This month’s issue takes its queue from Pope Benedict XVI’s most recent encyclical, Spe Salvi, focusing on hope.
The editor of The Catholic Blues is already soliciting articles and notes for the April issue, which will center on the theme of mercy as outlined in Pope John Paul II’s encyclical Dives in misericordia.
Comments Off | Media, Policraticus | Permalink
Posted by Policraticus
Coulter for Clinton?
February 12, 2008So Ann Coulter appears to be dead…serious, that is. She insists that she will enthusiastically support Hilary Clinton for president if the general election ends up being Clinton vs. John McCain. To her credit, she says the issues matter. Too bad McCain’s opposition to torture is virtually a deal-breaker.
Well, here’s Coulter claiming that she’ll be voting for the “conservative” in a Clinton/McCain showdow. Notice that life issues are of no consequence for her: Read the rest of this entry »
12 Comments | Election, Media, Policraticus, Politics | Permalink
Posted by Policraticus
Laura Ingraham on Mitt Romney and Mike Huckabee
February 1, 2008It’s a slow day at work today, so I’ve been tuned into The Laura Ingraham Show. She sounds desperate in terms of Mitt Romney’s candidacy, continually pointing out that he’s lived his life in the “best” way (i.e., living conservative values in family and business). She is pleading with her listeners to make a statement and rescue “conservatism” by voting for Romney. She’s even directly addressing Mike Huckabee, asking him to drop out of the race and endorse Romney so that we can have “forward-thinking” conservatism (as opposed to McCain’s backward and unpredictable conservatism).
By the way, did anyone catch the way John McCain hurdled Huckabee in Georgia? Wow.
18 Comments | Election, Media, Policraticus | Permalink
Posted by Policraticus
Beware of “Gotcha” Politics
January 31, 2008Whenever I see some outrageous statement attributed to a politician or other political figure, I tend to be skeptical. It’s not that I think people can’t have outrageous views, or make outrageous statements. But it’s been my experience that nine times out of ten the quote in question has been taken out of context or otherwise distorted, and that when viewed fairly and in context, the quote is almost always not nearly as outrageous as it might seem standing alone, and in many cases is perfectly defensible. Even when it seems as if there is just no way that a given quote could be defensible no matter the context, I tend to balk. After all, I’ve seen quotes in the past where I thought there was no way adding context would make them not outrageous, yet once I saw the context they seemed perfectly fine. I would almost go so far as to say that the worse a given quote appears standing alone, the more likely it is that it will turn out, upon inspection, to be no big deal. Politicians are not idiots, after all (well, some of them are, but they tend to hide it well).
I saw a particularly egregious example of this today. According to ABC news, Bill Clinton said at a recent campaign rally that to fight global warming “we just have to slow down our economy and cut back our greenhouse gas emissions.” Here’s the video.
2 Comments | Blackadder, Election, Global Warming, Media | Permalink
Posted by Blackadder
Comedy by McCain
January 30, 2008From an old SNL show McCain did in 2002.
Comments Off | Election, Humor, Media, Policraticus | Permalink
Posted by Policraticus
Who’s your pundit?
January 18, 2008Okay, let’s be serious here. We all know their voices, faces, books and persuasions. They have enormous followings via all sorts of media–radio, television, literature, speaking tours. They exert an enviable amount of influence on public opinion and elections that politicians and professors just don’t hold. Coulter, Hannity, Ingram, Frankin, O’Reilly…they are the political pundits.
I admit, I like talking heads. I’m curious to know from our readers and contributors: Which political pundits, if any, do you particularly enjoy and respect?
I enjoy Keith Olbermann, Joe Scarborough and Al Franken. Lou Dobbs could be the worst, in my arrogant opinion…maybe Glenn Beck.
How about you? Why?
60 Comments | Media, Policraticus, Politics | Permalink
Posted by Policraticus
Is “First Things” getting a pass in “The Golden Compass” controversy?
December 4, 2007I will not be seeing The Golden Compass.
As enticing as it may be to conduct a spectator revolt against the Catholic League’s latest histrionics, I have no interest in seeing it. There has been no shortage of uninformed opinion on the Catholic blogs regarding the USCCB’s recent evaluation of the film. First, the USCCB does not “endorse” the film, as one poor blogger confusedly suggests. Second, is it not a bit audacious to suggest the USCCB was somehow wrongheaded to rate the film “A-II” (adolescents and adults), especially if one has not even seen the film adaptation of a book one has not read? Well, Thomas N. Peters of American Papist (not American Episcopist. obviously) has done just that with his prolix “commentary on an advance review,” whatever that may be. How one provides commentary on a review of movie without having seen that movie is beyond me. If that’s not forming one’s perspective at a second-hand, derivative level, then I don’t know what is. But back to the matter at hand…
32 Comments | Blogs, Film, Media, News, Policraticus | Permalink
Posted by Policraticus
See No Evil
November 9, 2007Death. Carnage. War. Famine. Crimes Against Humanity. From Iraq to Uzbekistan to Burma, there are stories to be told, human beings who are suffering. But we, as a pampered people, would rather the media tell tales of Britney Spears, juicy celebrity gossip, sex scandals (real or invested), narcissistic self-help guides, bland human interest stories, and missing white girls. We think we can isolate ourselves from evil in the world and our responsibility to a common humanity, not just by shoring up borders and exacerbating a “them and us” mentality, but by simply refusing to even look. Just like Thomas, unless we see it, it’s not real. But unlike Thomas, we don’t even want to look. We can’t deal with the challenge. And the media is willing abrogate its public service responsibility to help us out (for more thoughts on the media, see here.)
4 Comments | Human Person, Human Rights, Iraq War, Media, Morning's Minion, War and Peace | Permalink
Posted by Morning's Minion
