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Pioneer Nation Vs. Welfare State

March 4, 2018 Featured Today Comments Off on Pioneer Nation Vs. Welfare State

By TERENCE P. JEFFREY (Editor’s Note: Terence P. Jeffrey is the editor in chief of CNSnews.com. Creators Syndicate distributed this column.) + + + When the British Parliament was debating in 1765 whether to impose a direct tax on the American colonies through the Stamp Act, Charles Townshend rose in the House of Commons to defend that taxation — and insult the colonists. “And now will these Americans, children planted by our care, nourished up by our indulgence until they are grown to a degree of strength and opulence, and protected by our arms, will they grudge to contribute their mite to relieve us from the heavy weight of that burden which we lie under?” Townshend asked. The tone and…Continue Reading

A Book Review… Reclaiming Our Souls From Technology

March 3, 2018 Featured Today Comments Off on A Book Review… Reclaiming Our Souls From Technology

By MITCHELL KALPAKGIAN A Mind at Peace: Reclaiming an Ordered Soul in the Age of Distraction, by Christopher O. Blum and Joshua P. Hochschild (Sophia Institute Press: Manchester, NH, 2017), 179 pp.; $14.95. Available from www.SophiaInstitute.com. The digital age with its mobile devices and colorful screens has created a technology of connectivity that has dehumanized human interaction, produced addiction, substituted media consumption for personal conversation and social relationships, and threatened virtues such as attentiveness, watchfulness, concentration, and resulted in a “failure of socialization.” The more people consult and check their devices, the more the sociable virtues (trustworthiness, friendliness, and personal attention) suffer. The authors of this excellent book explain the great dangers posed by the compulsive habits attached to the…Continue Reading

The Spiritual Combat Of Lent

March 2, 2018 Featured Today Comments Off on The Spiritual Combat Of Lent

By JAMES MONTI After coming out of church one Sunday following Mass, upon pausing to pray before a statue of Our Lady of Grace, I spotted a detail of this particular sculpture that I had failed to notice previously. Like other depictions of Our Lady of Grace, in this one she treads beneath her feet the infernal serpent. But what struck me this time about this particular statue is the head of the serpent — his jaws are gaping wide open, gasping as our Lady crushes him with her lovely foot. It serves as a powerful reminder of the epic battle between the Prince of Darkness and the Great Army of Heaven that fights in the closest alliance with all…Continue Reading

Will The Vatican Kowtow To Beijing On Church Freedoms?

March 1, 2018 Featured Today Comments Off on Will The Vatican Kowtow To Beijing On Church Freedoms?

By JOHN J. METZLER NEW YORK — Imagine an agency of the United States government directly choosing and appointing the Catholic bishops of Washington, D.C., St. Louis, Denver, and Boston. In other American dioceses there is a close coordination between the fictional “American Religious Affairs Council” and the Vatican on choosing a particular prelate. Though this practice appears out of a dystopian future, it’s precisely the formula China has used in controlling the Catholic Church on the Mainland since the 1950s. Thus there’s an “official” Patriotic Catholic Church and a proscribed “underground” Church. The leaders of the flock, namely the bishops of the particular dioceses, belong to one or the other and sometimes bridge both groups. In the past, the…Continue Reading

GOP Primary To Replace Jeff Flake… This Shows Why Republicans Have Problems As A Governing Majority

February 28, 2018 Featured Today Comments Off on GOP Primary To Replace Jeff Flake… This Shows Why Republicans Have Problems As A Governing Majority

By DEXTER DUGGAN SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — A reason why Republicans have a problem getting together to govern as a majority in Washington, D.C., might have been demonstrated by a rally here for a candidate seeking to fill the seat being vacated by retiring Sen. Jeff Flake. Kentucky’s liberty-inclined GOP Sen. Rand Paul came out here to stand up for Senate candidate Kelli Ward at a rally. However, Paul’s Kentucky teammate, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, had thrown his support to Ward’s establishment-oriented primary-election opponent from southern Arizona, Cong. Martha McSally. A wild card in the GOP’s August Senate primary is former Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio. Ward, saying that the “message of freedom and liberty is spreading,” described herself to…Continue Reading

A Book Review . . . The Real Roots Of The Debate Over “Francis’ Style”

February 27, 2018 Featured Today Comments Off on A Book Review . . . The Real Roots Of The Debate Over “Francis’ Style”

By JAMES K. FITZPATRICK To Change the Church, by Ross Douthat, Simon & Schuster, New York, 2018. Available for preorder on Amazon.com. I didn’t expect to react well to Ross Douthat’s book on the papacy of Pope Francis. Douthat is an op-ed columnist for The New York Times. I assumed that he would be one of the “house Catholics” used by the Times over the years to promote their secular liberal agenda. That is not the case with his treatment of Pope Francis. The Times is a fan of Francis’ public statements. Douthat not so much. Not that Douthat harbors an animus against the Pope. He does not see Francis as some extreme critics do, as the anti-Christ or an…Continue Reading

Propaganda And The Postal Service

February 26, 2018 Featured Today Comments Off on Propaganda And The Postal Service

By DONALD DeMARCO The postage stamp is a subtle but effective means of propaganda. Though it has been circulated widely and for some time, it has not received much scrutiny as a propaganda device. It does not offer an argument but a settled image. The message it conveys is certified and approved by a nation’s higher authorities and is not to be questioned. Communist countries have utilized the postage stamp as a medium for propaganda extensively, particularly Russia, China, and North Korea. Proud pictorials of Marx, Lenin, Stalin, Mao Tse-tung, and other dictators decorate their stamps along with glowing images of people saluting their flag and looking forward to a glorious future. Recent stamps of North Korea depict fists, guns,…Continue Reading

Sexual Revolution, Sexual Confusion

February 25, 2018 Featured Today Comments Off on Sexual Revolution, Sexual Confusion

By ARTHUR HIPPLER (Editor’s Note: Arthur Hippler is chairman of the religion department and teaches religion in the Upper School at Providence Academy, Plymouth, Minn.) + + + The language we use is a sign of how clear or how confused we are about reality. The more well-read and socially conscious of our young people will ask about “gender roles” and “gender norms.” They disparage the traditional outlook on sexual differences as a “social construct” that is the result of “religion” or worse “patriarchy.” More impressively, even young people who are sympathetic to the reality of sexual differences use the same terms. They do not realize that their very language they use has decided the debate before it starts. When…Continue Reading

The Motives Behind The Massacre

February 24, 2018 Featured Today Comments Off on The Motives Behind The Massacre

By PATRICK J. BUCHANAN “Enough is enough!” “This can’t go on!” “This has to stop!” These were among the comments that came through the blizzard of commentary after the massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Broward County. We have heard these words before. Unfortunately, such atrocities are not going to stop. For the ingredients that produce such slaughters are present and abundant in American society. And what can stop a man full of hate, who has ceased to care about his life and is willing to end it, from getting a weapon in a country of 300 million guns and killing as many as he can in a public place before the police arrive? An act of “absolute…Continue Reading

Myth And The God-Given Order

February 23, 2018 Featured Today Comments Off on Myth And The God-Given Order

By JUDE DOUGHERTY “The Myth of Scientific Objectivity” is the title William A. Wilson gave to an insightful article recently published in Modern Age (November 2017). Wilson examines how unacknowledged beliefs often influence investigation, especially in the so-called social sciences. Scholars whose work focuses on colonization, racism, immigration, native rights, sexism, he believes, are especially vulnerable to preconceived notions. Peer review, grant making, university funding, and access to laboratory facilities are often determined subjectively. Scratch a scientist, says Wilson, and you will find a metaphysician, even if he doesn’t realize that he is one. Admittedly, it is difficult to write about science in the abstract. There are many sciences each employing a methodology of its own appropriate to its object…Continue Reading