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The Common Core “Opt-Out”

May 4, 2015 Frontpage Comments Off on The Common Core “Opt-Out”

By JAMES K. FITZPATRICK It is easy to see why people often feel overwhelmed by the prospects of changing the way our schools and colleges operate. Powerful vested interests can make the task seem insurmountable, even when the polls indicate that the majority of the country agrees with those seeking the change. Examples abound, everything from school prayer to tenure rules to left-wing biases in school textbooks. But the situation is not hopeless. The so-called Common Core “opt-out” is showing us how a grassroots movement can successfully challenge the powers-that-be in the education establishment and government. An Associated Press story on April 18 reports that “thousands of students are opting out of the new standardized tests aligned to the Common…Continue Reading

As Another Of Many Affronts . . . Heedless Elitists Push Lynch’s Approval Through

May 3, 2015 Frontpage Comments Off on As Another Of Many Affronts . . . Heedless Elitists Push Lynch’s Approval Through

By DEXTER DUGGAN Revolts and rebellions can occur when oppression becomes unbearable. People decide they won’t buckle any longer under hostility and injustice. As 2015 unfolds, conservative Republicans and Christians see they’re coming under withering attacks by the forces of big-government liberal immorality. And big-money interests who might be thought to support Republicans aren’t rushing to their defense. Christian vendors like florists and bakers face huge fines and ostracism for daring to honor millennia-old traditional views on historic marriage that the entire society acknowledged only a few years ago. And on April 25, Republican presidential candidate Rand Paul reportedly said the time for civil disobedience is here when a politician sends the police to get a church pastor’s sermons. Last…Continue Reading

Dissenters Are Running Scared

May 2, 2015 Frontpage Comments Off on Dissenters Are Running Scared

By JOHN F. KIPPLEY (Editor’s Note: John F. Kippley is the author of Sex and the Marriage Covenant: A Basis for Morality and other books and articles. With his wife Sheila, he is a coauthor of Natural Family Planning: The Complete Approach and cofounder of NFP International. This commentary appeared on his blog [johnkippley.com] and is reprinted with permission.) + + + Articles that have appeared in the media controlled by Catholic dissenters seem to indicate that they are running scared. Humanae Vitae and natural family planning are not their favorite subjects except for criticism. They generally consider these subjects as settled in the negative and not worth discussing. Airplane comments by Pope Francis perhaps have made them almost giddy.…Continue Reading

What You Didn’t Read About Elite’s Continuing Attack On Sheriff Joe Arpaio

May 1, 2015 Frontpage Comments Off on What You Didn’t Read About Elite’s Continuing Attack On Sheriff Joe Arpaio

By DEXTER DUGGAN PHOENIX — Arizona’s quotable Sheriff Joe Arpaio was in national news again on April 23, but a key remark he made was buried or ignored in various reports. So, to avoid burying it now: Arpaio testified in court that a tipster said the wife of a judge overseeing the sheriff was heard to say that the judge “wanted to do everything to make sure I’m not elected.” Defeating Arpaio would be quite a task. The popular, nationally known sheriff plans to run again after being elected to six consecutive four-year terms to head up law enforcement in a county that has grown to more than four million people, with Phoenix as county seat. Arpaio also testified on…Continue Reading

Sorry, Kathleen, It Is You

April 30, 2015 Frontpage Comments Off on Sorry, Kathleen, It Is You

By JAMES K. FITZPATRICK It strikes me that there are two opinions about the “friendlier face” that Pope Francis is presenting to the world. One is that Francis is attempting to move the Church slowly but surely — even deviously — into accepting serious doctrinal changes on issues such as Holy Communion for divorced and remarried Catholics and homosexuality. Some who take this position go so far as to charge the Pope with heresy. The second opinion is that Francis’ goal is merely to encourage those who have left the Church because of its teachings to come home, to reconcile themselves with the Church and the Catholic community; that Francis has no intention of altering Church doctrine because of this…Continue Reading

GOP, Go And Do Likewise . . . Rand Paul Asks A Logical Question On Abortion

April 29, 2015 Frontpage Comments Off on GOP, Go And Do Likewise . . . Rand Paul Asks A Logical Question On Abortion

By DEXTER DUGGAN Going down the buffet line to select the 2016 presidential candidate they like best, conservatives immediately encounter a limitation. If you like Candidate A, you have to put all of him on the tray. You can’t lop off his hand you don’t like, which maybe holds too much free-trade policy in it, and replace it with one hand off a rather protectionist Candidate B. That’s the enduring issue of trade-offs and compromise in politics. There’s no utterly perfect candidate. But at least don’t buy what’s guaranteed to cause electoral indigestion. The main idea this time is to avoid splitting the vote among so many conservative hopefuls that — where have we heard this before? — the “moderate,”…Continue Reading

Just After New Bishop Installed . . . U Of San Diego Stages Its Annual “Superstar” Drag Show

April 28, 2015 Frontpage Comments Off on Just After New Bishop Installed . . . U Of San Diego Stages Its Annual “Superstar” Drag Show

By DEXTER DUGGAN Courtesy seemed to be lacking when the University of San Diego, a Catholic school, staged its fourth annual “drag show” celebrating “gender expression” the very day after Bishop Robert McElroy was installed as the new head of the Diocese of San Diego. At the least, university leadership could have spared McElroy the embarrassment of having this hot potato thrust onto his plate with the raunchy performance on April 16, during the Easter season, one day after he took formal control of the diocese on April 15. Or, leading up to the drag show’s scheduled date, McElroy could have taken the initiative to pass the word to university administrators that as the incoming head of the diocese, he’d…Continue Reading

The Camel’s Nose?

April 27, 2015 Frontpage Comments Off on The Camel’s Nose?

By JAMES K. FITZPATRICK I have always found the phrase “the camel’s nose under the tent” uniquely useful. There is nothing quite like it to describe a proposal likely to cause more trouble in the future than when we first permit it to become part of the debate. Except perhaps, “Give ’em an inch and they’ll take a yard,” or maybe Lady Macbeth’s advice to her husband about how he should “look like the innocent flower, but be the serpent under’t.” I am not sure which one — if any — would fit what Washington Post reporter Sarah Pullman Bailey informs us is taking place at the University of Notre Dame. You be the judge. It is no secret that…Continue Reading

Encouraging Transgenderism In Children Is Abuse

April 26, 2015 Frontpage Comments Off on Encouraging Transgenderism In Children Is Abuse

    By REY FLORES “When Mimi and Joe Lemay’s baby was born in 2010, they heard the three words every parent waits to hear: ‘It’s a girl.’ But by age two, their child was saying ‘I’m a boy.’ Mimi hoped this ‘obsession with being a boy would go away,’ but it only grew stronger. Now, in a rare and candid interview, they share in their own words why they decided to let their five-year-old transgender son Jacob transition and live publicly as a boy. NBC’s Kate Snow will have more on Transgender Kids beginning Tuesday night on Nightly News” — from NBC’s promotion of transgenderism its Facebook page. This, ladies and gentlemen, is what you will hear about more…Continue Reading

The Price Of Generosity

April 25, 2015 Frontpage Comments Off on The Price Of Generosity

By ALICE von HILDEBRAND The two episodes related here are factual and teach us a noble lesson: Generosity has both its reward and its price. When the Germans brutally invaded Belgium on August 4, 1914, two young men closely bound by a deep friendship since their grammar school days were both immediately enlisted in the small but heroic Belgian army. One of them was married and his wife had recently given birth to a boy. The German invasion was of such brutality that it was even acknowledged by a German general: They had to win fast and the only road to immediate success was to crush the Belgian resistance delaying their entrance into France from the north not protected by…Continue Reading