(responding to)No please. Leave it up, I love walls. #MakeCatholicismGreatAgain https://t.co/h1KJp8CC4x
— Pope Trump (@PopeTrump) February 19, 2016
"Pope Francis, tear down that wall!"#vaticanwalls pic.twitter.com/mDGANFtApb
— Joe Scarborough (@JoeNBC) February 18, 2016
Fifty years after the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, Americans are still enthralled with all things Kennedy. There has been an endless stream of books, articles, and front-page tabloid headlines. And when a Kennedy speaks out on Catholic doctrine, the mainline media treats their pronouncements as ex cathedra.continue at The Catholic Thing
The latest such pronouncement came from the president’s daughter, Caroline, at the 2012 Democratic Convention: “As a Catholic woman, I take reproductive health seriously, and today it is under attack.” The attack this abortion supporter was referring to was the objections by the Church and other religious institutions to Obama’s attempt to force them to provide contraception and abortion-inducing drugs in insurance plans.
Far from being something new, the family’s rocky relationship with the Church goes back almost a hundred years.
David Nasaw’s excellent new book, The Patriarch: The Remarkable Life and Turbulent Times of Joseph P. Kennedy, describes how the family’s founding father treated the Church like one of his subsidiary companies.
Weekly StandardWisconsin congressman Paul Ryan is strongly considering a run for president. Ryan, who has been quietly meeting with political strategists to discuss a bid over the past three months, is on vacation in Colorado discussing a prospective run with his family. Ryan’s concerns about the effects of a presidential campaign – and perhaps a presidency – on his family have been his primary focus as he thinks through his political future.
“He’s coming around,” says a Republican source close to Ryan, who has been urging the 41-year-old to run.
“With Paul, it’s more about obligation than opportunity,” says another Wisconsin Republican. “He is determined to have the 2012 election be about the big things. If that means he has to run, he’s open to it.”
Ryan hinted at his thinking during a candid interview Friday with Charlie Sykes, an influential talk radio host in Milwaukee, telling Sykes that he was unsatisfied with the current crop of Republican candidates.
Sykes asked Ryan about state of the Republican presidential campaign. “Looking at the Republican field right now, are you confident that the candidates there are able to articulate the issues of the debt and the deficit and the need to reform entitlements in the way that you want to see done?”
Ryan laughed. “Why did you ask me that?”
“You know exactly why I asked you that question.”
“I know. We’ll see. I didn’t see it last night. I haven’t seen it to date. We’ll see. People’s campaigns evolve – they get better. So we’ll see.”
As Republicans who run the Legislature rush to redraw maps of legislative districts, a GOP freshman in the Assembly is trying to tweak leaders' plans so he is not drawn into a colleague's district.MJS
Rep. André Jacque (R-Bellevue) is asking Senate Republicans to change the maps so he is not pulled into the district of Rep. John Klenke (R-Green Bay), who like Jacque was elected to the Assembly for the first time in November. In an email to Senate Republicans sent Monday, Jacque called his proposal an improvement over the one drawn by legislative leaders.
Jacque's proposal would change the maps for him, Klenke and Rep. Garey Bies (R-Sister Bay). Details of his proposal have not yet been released, but it has little traction in the Senate.
"I ask for your consideration of this amendment in advance of caucus deliberations (Tuesday) and Wednesday, and greatly appreciate the expressions of support that I have received as discussions of this subject have progressed," Jacque said in his email.
Jacque, Klenke and Bies did not immediately return calls Tuesday morning.
Leaders are hoping to avoid changes to the proposed maps as they head into votes today in the Senate and Wednesday in the Assembly. If they allow changes to some of the district maps, other rank-and-file members would likely seek changes. Eleven pairs of lawmakers have been drawn into the same districts.
"I think everybody would find something with their district they would like to change," said Sen. Rich Zipperer (R-Pewaukee). Zipperer is chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, which approved the maps last week and forwarded them to the Senate.
"I'm not supporting making that change," Zipperer said. "The map isn't drawn for one individual person or one individual representative."
Congressman Michele Bachmann is getting some negative publicity over the beliefs of the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod. Apparently they’re not big fans of the Pope, and even refer to him as the Antichrist. I understand at least one Lutheran leader was so upset at the Catholic Church he vandalized a church door in Germany.
I’m surprised he wasn’t prosecuted for a hate crime.
For the record, I have seen all three of the original Omen movies, and the Pope looks nothing like the Antichrist.
Susan Feinberg, an associate professor of management and global business at Rutgers University, caused a stir in the left-wing blogosphere over the weekend with her account of witnessing House Budget Committee chairman Paul Ryan drinking a glass of $350-a-bottle wine at an upscale restaurant near the Capitol. (Feinberg, who was at the restaurant, Bistro Bis, with her husband to celebrate her birthday, knew the wine was pricey because she could make out the name on the label and checked it on the wine list.) Feinberg confronted Ryan, accusing him of hypocrisy for drinking an expensive wine while advocating reduced spending for Medicare and Medicaid. But she didn't stop there. Feinberg also suggested Ryan might be guilty of ethics violations, secretly snapped a photo of him and two dinner companions, and then took the "story" to Talking Points Memo, the lefty site which ran a high-profile piece suggesting Ryan might be guilty of some sort of wrongdoing.
WASHINGTON -- "Tracking" in politics usually refers to poll numbers. But for prospective Wisconsin Senate candidate Tommy Thompson, it had another, more literal meaning when he sat on the board of a company that implants digital chips in people.Huffington Post
The company, VeriChip, makes something called radio frequency identification chips that are implanted in an arm, and can help doctors track a person's medical history, or can be used in high-tech security systems. They could also be used to track pets or people with advances in GPS technology.
Privacy advocates fear that the technology's potential for keeping tabs on workers, patients or even immigrants will be so enticing to businesses and governments that someday everyone could be forced to get "chipped."
Thompson, who joined the board of VeriChip in 2005 before it changed its name to PositiveID, made TV appearances for the company in which he expressed no reservations about the devices.
Full Story JSOnlineU.S. Sen. Herb Kohl (D-Wis.) said Friday that he would not run for a fifth term in the U.S. Senate.
Could Wisconsin have two mostly pro-life senators?
Kohl, who is 76, made the announcement at a news conference in his Senate office in Milwaukee. His departure from politics is certain to set off a wild scramble among both Democrats and Republicans to run for the seat he has held since 1989.
Kohl said his health was good, and he had no intention of retiring from public life.
Kohl said he had deliberated on whether to run again or not for a few weeks. Asked if he would have won had he decided to seek re-election to a fifth term, Kohl said, 'Oh, sure."
Kohl described the current political landscape in Wisconsin as "toxic," but said it did not factor in his decision.
Kohl’s decision serves as a political blow to Democrats, adding one more seat to a growing number the party has to defend in 2012. Republicans have never come close to defeating Kohl since he was first elected in 1988, and given his political track record and his personal wealth, he would start as a heavy favorite to win re-election next year.
This weekend's Tea Party rally in Madison, Wis., drew familiar figures like Sarah Palin and Andrew Breitbart, but perhaps the most interesting speaker was a 14-year-old girl named Tricia Willoughby. Tricia wowed, among others, Rachael Larimore, who writes for Slate.com's ladies blog, XX Factor.
"What's impressive is her strong voice, her confidence, and, let's face it, her youth," Larimore writes. "The Tea Party is often seen as being made up entirely of cranky middle-aged people who don't like paying taxes. But here is a smart, engaging young woman speaking with the poise of someone older."
Showing considerably less poise is the bitter, pudgy middle-aged man featured in a YouTube video of the left-wing counterprotest. "Go home, you little brat!" he shouts at the 14-year-old, struggling to make himself heard over his comrades' boos and noisemakers. "Who the f--- are you to lecture me, you little brat?!"
Something else caught our attention about Tricia Willoughby. Larimore points out that "a quick Google search"--which turns up a post by blogger Stacy McCain--"reveals that her parents are pro-life activists in Madison and that Tricia is in a debate club. Cynics will point out that--gasp!--she is homeschooled, as if that ought to discredit her."Continue at Wall Street Journal
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| Tom Barrett(Catholic), Cecile Richards, and Jim Doyle(Catholic) |
When Jesus had thus spoken, he was troubled in spirit, and testified, "Truly, truly, I say to you, one of you will betray me."
The disciples looked at one another, uncertain of whom he spoke. One of his disciples, whom Jesus loved, was lying close to the breast of Jesus; so Simon Peter beckoned to him and said, "Tell us who it is of whom he speaks."
So lying thus, close to the breast of Jesus, he said to him, "Lord, who is it?"
Jesus answered, "It is he to whom I shall give this morsel when I have dipped it." So when he had dipped the morsel, he gave it to Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot.
Then after the morsel, Satan entered into him. Jesus said to him, "What you are going to do, do quickly."
A victim of Father John Patrick Feeney's sexual abuse in the 1970s writes that he's upset with an ad criticizing Supreme Court Justice David Prosser's decision not to pursue charges against Feeney when Prosser was Outagamie County District Attorney.JSOnline
Troy J. Merryfield, who now lives in Suffolk, Va., released a statement Friday that says the ad by the Greater Wisconsin Committee is "offensive, inaccurate and out of context" and that he would actually vote for Prosser if he was a Wisconsin resident. He wrote that he wanted the group to remove the ad from the airwaves.
Three years ago, Merryfield was critical of Prosser, saying he should step aside when cases involving priest sexual misconduct come before the high court.
"He knows damn well what happened and what was said," Merryfield said at the time. "He dropped the ball, and he should recuse himself."
In his formal statement Friday, Merryfield wrote that Prosser chose not to file charges against Feeney because of his concern about the emotional turmoil that a trial could have had on him. Merryfield also writes that Prosser received assurances from the Green Bay diocese that administrative action would be taken against Feeney.
The Greater Wisconsin Committee said it stood by the statements made in the ad, which they said "are supported by newspaper accounts and material gathered during the prosecution of Feeney."
