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Civil Incivility

October 8, 2018 Frontpage Comments Off on Civil Incivility

By MIKE MANNO In another life I was a public official, elected to the City Council of Davenport, Iowa. Municipal elections were, when I served, a partisan affair: I was in the 6-4 Democrat majority. At the time there was a little-known organizing group, ACORN, which had involved itself in party politics and was claiming to represent various neighborhood groups. Since most of the folks involved were active union members and well known to party insiders, we gave little thought to the group. But that was soon to change. ACORN turned out to be a very strident and vocal force within the party and soon had many of us divided over how to respond. Many of their complaints were seemingly…Continue Reading

Tough Attacks On Kavanaugh Show . . . Catholics Still Get Slimed If They Don’t Toe The Line

October 7, 2018 Frontpage Comments Off on Tough Attacks On Kavanaugh Show . . . Catholics Still Get Slimed If They Don’t Toe The Line

By DEXTER DUGGAN Amid the conflicting claims made in the battle over confirming Federal Judge Brett Kavanaugh, a Catholic, to the Supreme Court, the fact stood out, and will continue to do so, that U.S. Catholics still can be dragged through the slime like criminals when they’re not on the politically favored side. For young girls to have to think their father was a serial rapist and drunkard, or part of a rape gang, is the price to be paid when upstart Catholics must be throttled into remembering how little they’ve advanced in the U.S. since the Irish-immigrant days if they don’t toe the line. White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders pointed out that leading liberal Democrat senators turned the…Continue Reading

Vatican Silence on McCarrick – About to Break?

October 6, 2018 Frontpage Comments Off on Vatican Silence on McCarrick – About to Break?

The Vatican released a communiqué today stating that Pope Francis has authorized a “thorough study of Vatican archives” into how a Cardinal McCarrick advanced through church ranks despite allegations that he slept with seminarians and young priests.” The Vatican said it was aware that such an investigation may produce evidence “that choices were taken that would not be consonant with a contemporary approach to such issues.” But it said Francis would “follow the path of truth, wherever it may lead.” It appears the Vatican is preparing to set us up as to why “choices were taken that would not be consonant with a contemporary approach to such issues.” Perhaps now we will get a little more insight into what is…Continue Reading

Welcome To Feinsteinism

October 6, 2018 Frontpage Comments Off on Welcome To Feinsteinism

By CHRISTOPHER MANION “McCarthyism: a campaign or practice that endorses the use of unfair allegations and investigations” — Typical Internet Definition. + + + Since the mid-1950s, millions of Americans have been trained to shrink in horror when they hear the name of “Tail Gunner Joe” McCarthy. Why, he “looked for Communists under every bed,” we were told. “If your mommie is a commie then you’ve gotta turn’er in,” as one “folk song” put it. McCarthyism was bad, bad, bad — but please do not look further. Well, some ten years back, Stan Evans decided that looking further was a good idea. In Blacklisted By History (New York: Crown Forum, 2007), Evans dug through countless FBI and State Department files…Continue Reading

Dress Rehearsal For Impeachment

October 5, 2018 Frontpage Comments Off on Dress Rehearsal For Impeachment

By PATRICK J. BUCHANAN Judge Brett Kavanaugh’s nomination to the Supreme Court was approved on an 11-10 party-line vote Friday, September 28 in the Senate Judiciary Committee. Yet his confirmation is not assured as this column is written. Sen. Jeff Flake, Republican of Arizona, has demanded and gotten as the price of his vote on the floor, a weeklong delay. And the GOP Senate has agreed to Democrat demands for a new FBI investigation of all credible charges of sexual abuse against the judge. Astonishing. With a quarter century in public service, Kavanaugh has undergone six FBI field investigations. They turned up nothing like the charges of sexual misconduct leveled against him these last two weeks. In his 30 hours…Continue Reading

If Trump Can Sweet-Talk Kim… Why Hasn’t More Progress Been Won At Securing U.S. Border?

October 4, 2018 Frontpage Comments Off on If Trump Can Sweet-Talk Kim… Why Hasn’t More Progress Been Won At Securing U.S. Border?

By DEXTER DUGGAN PHOENIX — Throughout his presidential campaign, Donald Trump advocated building the southern border wall as if it were a one-man project that just meant rolling up his sleeves after he was elected. He didn’t say he’d have to try to talk more congressional Republicans into funding it, or persuade judges to let him do it. However, making serious progress on that wall remains elusive, although increased border security is a grim necessity. Are U.S. politicians and judges harder to reach agreement with than the tough North Korean dictator whom Trump sweet-talked into apparent amiability? Is protecting the United States from illegal, unlettered border-crossers on foot in the desert harder than assembling supersonic air defenses against high-tech military…Continue Reading

Putting Up The “For Sale” Sign At National Catholic Reporter Is Easy

October 3, 2018 Frontpage Comments Off on Putting Up The “For Sale” Sign At National Catholic Reporter Is Easy

By SHAUN KENNEY Michael Sean Winters is one of those oddities of American Catholicism. His recent op-ed in the National Catholic Reporter (aka “The Fishwrap”) focuses on some over the very same topics we touched on last week — the infection of Jansenism and clericalism within the American hierarchy (see NCR, “Worldliness is the very heart of the Catholic Church’s crisis,” September 12, 2018). There’s a fraction of his argument that is absolutely spot on. The American Church, imitating former cardinal Theodore McCarrick — and I would further argue by extension, Francis Cardinal Spellman — chose to imitate his charm, wit, popularity, and above all his skills as a fundraiser. This emphasis on the practical and the pragmatic rather than…Continue Reading

Save The Date — International Pronouns Day!

October 2, 2018 Frontpage Comments Off on Save The Date — International Pronouns Day!

By MIKE MANNO October is that time when you will be assaulted by all sorts of political ads, battling politicians, and the ongoing battle between intra and interstate pigskin rivalries that give cover to fan boasts for the next year. To take our minds off the politicians — never off football — October also gives us the beautiful change of scenery as the fall foliage replaces summer’s growth. In October we also celebrate Columbus Day — a politically incorrect (not to me) remembrance of an Italian’s discovery of the New World. (Honesty requires me to note that Leif Erikson Day is also celebrated in October, but he only discovered Canada, so no big deal.) National Cat Day is also in…Continue Reading

Church Bureaucrats’ Bad Faith . . . Allows Anti-Kavanaugh Dems To Move Far From Their Morals

October 1, 2018 Frontpage Comments Off on Church Bureaucrats’ Bad Faith . . . Allows Anti-Kavanaugh Dems To Move Far From Their Morals

By DEXTER DUGGAN National Democrats and their allies grew increasingly incredible in attacking President Trump’s Catholic Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh because, at the heart of their animosity, they feared his being pro-life. Strange but true that their virulent attachment to abortion arose in a political party with Catholic sympathies not so far in the past. However, various Catholic Church bureaucrats and bishops let those ties grow dim in recent decades even while the secular radicals who call the party’s tune today asserted themselves ever more forcefully within Democrat structures. Kavanaugh emerged intact from his Senate Judiciary Committee confirmation hearings in early September despite pro-abortion troops’ babbling efforts to damage him. Only after the time for presenting the evidence on…Continue Reading

Prelates And The Party: Some Considerations

September 30, 2018 Frontpage Comments Off on Prelates And The Party: Some Considerations

By CHRISTOPHER MANION Isn’t it amazing that the Catholic Church was once the Democrat Party’s strongest ally? In 1916, Democrats could rely on Cardinal Gibbons sternly to instruct Catholics to support U.S. entry into “the War to end all Wars,” even as Woodrow Wilson was promising to stay out of it (at least until he had won the 1916 presidential election). In 1940, Democrats could rely on Bishop Hurley of St. Augustine to advocate U.S. entry into another European war even as FDR was promising “again and again and again: Your boys are not going to be sent into any foreign wars.” For the first sixty years of the last century, Catholic luminaries like Clarence Manion, Dean of Law at…Continue Reading