Party like it's 2003: Housing Do-Over

Our current economic fiasco started as a housing bubble. Real estate prices rose to unsustainable levels because those seeking to diversify their holdings by buying real estate were bidding against those seeking homes for their families. (Personally, I think that too much money in too few hands caused the problem, but I can only judge by what I saw here in SW Florida.) Hand-wringing and finger-pointing help dispel our anxiety, so I would expect the silly ranting and ignorant bluster to continue for some time. As we emotionally recover, though, we're in one of Naomi Klein's shock crisis enabling the greedy to make another grab--and boy, are they grabbing! We need another solution, and it must be drastic. Afloat in a sea of relativistic market values, we should have a do-over: set a standard starting value that can be used to make more prudent judgments of these toxic assets.

Too many innocent people are paying for the sins of others and I really want it stopped. In days of yore, a mortgage was a long-term relationship where originating bank serviced the note over its lifetime regardless of whether or not they assigned the payments to a third party. The bank required sufficient collateral, and approved loans based upon impartial assessments and realistic criteria of ability to repay. Buildings and land are almost always taxed, so the vast majority of our communities maintain databases for ad valorem taxes. Why not use the assessments set by the local municipalities to fairly re-set housing prices?

Set 120% of local government's assessed market value at 12/31/2003 as a national benchmark. That year was at the end of a mild recession, but before bubbles reached a fever pitch. Our currency has been devalued by about 20% in the years since if we use the Social Security Administration's cost of living adjustments, so a 120% adjustment of that figure should be close to a present "fair market" standard value. Set a standard "2009 starting price" for ALL of our nation's property, and adjust each and every mortgage to no more than that value. Let's call this number the 2003 Do-Over or TTDO.

Each and every mortgage note currently outstanding should be examined for principal balance at 12/31/08, and that balance compared to the TTDO. The principal amount due for every lien against each piece of property on the books should be reported to the appropriate authority electronically as of 12/31/08. Any liens that don't report at least a $0.00 balance will be wiped from the city or county records and the bank or holder of record loses any future claim on the property. Mandate that each and every bank write off 60% of any excess principal that they imprudently agreed to underwrite.

Then allow a three-to-six month period where any party to the note may renegotiate its terms, allowing market forces to prevail. If the two parties do not renegotiate the note, it will be paid in full years earlier than the original terms and the holder must so notify the borrower.

Capitalism thrives when buyers and sellers have equal power, so having many medium-to-small banks should be much preferred over a few large ones. Having one standard to judge the outstanding mortgages would allow us to get rid of the banks who abandoned prudence and have been insolvent everywhere but on paper.

How do we pay for this? The federal government will subsidize $20 per property tax bill to each municipality to cover the cost of generating and mailing a TTDO statement to each property owner and lien-holder of record. Reward each bank or S&L who physically holds the note with a one-time tax credit of $20 per mortgage (maybe this will encourage some banks to buy back their own loans). Other holders in due course are on their own as this is a cost of doing business in an unregulated area. The main federal government bailout during this crisis should be to freeze tax rates at current levels while mandating changing the base to the 2003 Do

The cost should be borne by the financial markets that created the problem (a tax credit of $20 per mortgage held should cover it to avoid penalizing the innocent).

Those uninvolved in imprudent acts will see no change at all to their notes and/or home equity lines. Most homes will decrease in value on paper to a firm amount that has been verified; very few innocent people would suffer any real effects. Those who speculated will be upside-down on their mortgage, but they won

Mandate a tax rate moratorium for two years. If the rates stay constant and the assessments are re-set, local revenue will decrease. The front line of the federal government response to the crisis will be to lower all property taxes and to subsidize the difference between the gross tax revenues received in by the municipalities under the lower assessment level. Rather than being a top-down solution, the bailouts will be spent at the local level to maintain essential public services and where there should be better control and auditing at work.

If property taxes decrease significantly for two years, rents can fall more quickly for vacant properties as this has a windfall effect, encouraging all landlords to either leave rents at current levels or to decrease them as they expire to retain tenants.

Void the AIG contracts against these fraudulent assets based on deceit and used to obscure the underlying values; require AIG to refund 85% of all premiums paid over the past five years on such contracts.

At least some of these ideas would work an awful lot better than most of the garbage that I've seen and heard proposed over the last three months. Would somebody please just start doing something that will ameliorate this crisis? Please?

Up to about 2003, Lou Dobb's show on CNN was one of my favorites; however, his isolationist and bigoted attitudes became highly offensive to the point where I could no longer watch the show but followed it only in the printed media. His views contradict my religious beliefs.

I'm a devout Roman Catholic, and our bishops have repeatedly stated that each person has a basic human right to migrate, especially in the case where they are seeking to support themselves or their families.

I've been very ashamed that prominent so-called Catholics like Pat Buchanon and Bill O'Reilly have completely disregarded and/or contradicted our Church's teaching in these matters. Those on the political right wing are the worst "cafeteria Catholics" of all!

Our USA Catholic Bishop's website on the issue: http://www.justiceforimmigrants.org/

The Pontifical Council on Migrants and Itinerant Peoples of the Holy See (Vatican Curia office)can be found at: http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/pontifical_...

Update: Voting One's Conscience isn't a Mortal Sin

The Diocese of Charleston repudiated the priest who claimed that the mere act of voting Democratic was a mortal sin by posting a video and .pdf statement on their website at http://www.catholic-doc.org/

AP: Priest in SC denies communion

http://tinyurl.com/5felxs

U.S. Catholic Bishops have specifically addressed the issue of worthiness to receive communion: “Happy Are Those Who Are Called to His Supper”: On Preparing to Receive Christ Worthily in the Eucharist, Copyright © 2006, United States Conference of Catholic Bishops

Canon Law is explicit: CIC, c. 912: “Any baptized person not prohibited by law can and must be admitted to holy communion.” Prohibited by canon law means (a) excommunicated (and there is a specific procedure for so doing that does NOT consist in a priest's "because I say so") or (2) in a state of mortal sin. In the latter case, the onus is on the communicant and not on the minister.

So, the issue becomes whether or not the act of casting a vote for one political party over another can be a mortal sin. Some Bishops also claim that Catholics are in a state of mortal sin simply by refusing to vote as they are ordered, i.e. that they are "Acting in serious disobedience against proper authority" when they refuse to support a politician who advocates overturning Roe vs Wade over one who doesn't. Another argument rests on the idea of scandal, i.e. that removing legal penalties for a behavior condones it.

Why is one mortal sin a "litmus test" when another one is not? The same position paper quoted above condemns such mortal sins slandering the good name of another and racism. Is it valid to claim that those supporting Sarah Palin, who was manifestly complicit in both these mortal sins and persistently bearing false witness, should be similarly condemned despite her pro-life stance?

Had this priest confessed those he "suspects" and refused them absolution, he may have legitimate reason to refuse them communion. Should he refuse parishioners Eucharist without such knowledge, isn't he the one who violates Canon Law? Isn't he in a much more grave position in his relationship with Christ and the Church than those he condemns?

Some Catholic voters who voted Democratic, including me, believe that a political agenda that violates every tenet of Catholic policy but gives lip service to our position on abortion is the greater abomination. I thought that a GOP vote was an intrinsically evil act of cooperation with sinful behavior. The Bishops should recall the parable of the "disobedient" son who does the will of his Father vs the one who says "yes" with his lips and willingly disobeys in fact.

By their fruits shall you know the false prophets from the true, and boy do we have a lot of rotten fruit to eat...

Stop GOP Obstructionists: Bi-Partisanship Starts At Home

I watched C-Span a lot over the summer, and the hypocrisy of the GOP's actions really started to get to me. My impression was that they were deliberately throwing monkey wrenches into the legislative process in order to condemn the failure of the legislative process. Were they breaking government by the people in order to keep it permanently broken?

Just out of curiosity, I went to the Thomas.gov archive for Congress. I researched how often the term "cloture on the motion" appeared in the record when the Dems were in the minority vs when the Reps were.

YEAR No. of times cloture invoked
2000 32
2001 26
2002 20
2003 20
2004 67
2005 20

LOOK AT THIS!
2006 86 <---start of the Democratic majority
2007 124
2008 138 <--as of 8/28/08

Sure enough, the GOP's abuse of the government was atrocious. We should all give a sigh of relief if the Dems can achieve a filibuster-proof majority.

Why Worry About a Deficit Now?

The Chicago school of economics destroyed Chile's economy by 1989 with right-wing ideology that privatized social programs, castrated trade unions, and promoted completely "free" trade by abdicating any responsibility to regulate the financial markets. Now they've done the same here, and the American wealth that hasn't been dissipated is mostly in the Cayman Islands.

Tinkering with monetary policy can't pull the nation from this recession; Neo-Keynesian policy offers the greatest chance of minimizing the coming depression. Shift sacrifices back onto the backs of those who can bear them and increase government spending in programs that favor labor over banks. Dwight David Eisenhower warned the country of the dangers of coupling our economy too tightly to defense industries, but instead of listening, Nixon just hid the numbers by pulling reserve fund accounting into the fiscal accounting. Ever since Ronald Reagan encouraged firms to plunder employee pension funds, the financial sector has played an artificially high role in GDP to the detriment of production and investment in real assets. Republican policies have transformed our nation from a capitalist society to an oligopoly with a hereditary aristocracy. We have to get back to nuts and bolts with a tax policy that encourages investments that help the American people and punish those who speculate to our detriment. We need a fiscal policy that levels the playing field for local businesses so that retailers can compete with Walmart, Staples, and Home Depot and manufacturers can supply more of our domestic needs.

The government has lied for years about the unemployment rate: we have a glut of workers and surfeit of jobs that is worsening with each generation. We lie about inflation: household debt levels are atrocious because lowered household incomes are not a living wage. The government lies about fiscal policy to gain public support to fight a "welfare state" that simply doesn't exist. The real problem is "jobs, jobs, jobs" and has been for years. First the jobs left the rust belt for the sun belt; then they left the country altogether. Monetary policy for a "strong" dollar undermines the best long-term interests of our people, encouraging reckless reliance on fossil fuels and imported goods to the detriment of our own citizens.

Regardless of the toxic debt run up by this administration to little purpose, some government deficit spending will be essential for the next few years. Some of the pain that the increased debt will entail should be borne by those who profited the most under the policies that favored capital over people; however,

In troubled economic times, we should follow President-elect Obama's lead to promote investment in infrastructure and a green economy.

CBS: "O'Reilly be Thy Name"

Interesting profile and interview of Bill O'Reilly with CBS Early Show anchor Harry Smith



Watch CBS Videos Online

FAREWELL, SILLY SAM!

It's time to restore capitalism and democracy to our republic. The long nightmare is over.

I just have to repeat previous comments, http://tinyurl.com/69frs8 before we kiss Silly Sam aka 'Joe the Plumber' goodbye forever: I've about had it with the 'Silly Sam' socialist garbage. You know who I mean: the guy who isn't Joe, isn't a plumber, has no brain between his ear and his mouth, who SHOULD vote for Obama this year but doesn't know enough to understand why. Yeah, THAT Silly Sam.
Facts are, Obama's policies will actually help 'Joe' save enough money to actually do what the lying jerk claims he wants to do. Further,his policies will help small businesses in general, since all of their CUSTOMERS will have higher disposable incomes. By giving more money to those at the bottom, i.e. 'spreading the wealth around' instead of concentrating it at the top, small business will see higher sales figures and ultimately greater profits.

The GOP has destroyed both capitalism and democracy over the past generation. We now live in a plutocracy, ruled by an aristocracy in all but name. We owe our thanks to what one pundit on HuffPost called "Reagan and his conservative confederates, who had nothing but ideas, almost all of them toxic."

Free markets are very effective at creating surpluses and allocating resources, but only in a static, short-term model. Over time, rewards become concentrated and ultimately help destroy the very competition fueling its efficiency, leading to cycles of boom and bust. Markets have to be 'free' to work properly, but that means that the role of government is exactly the opposite of what the radical right claims. While bad regulation can stifle markets, good law stabilizes and fosters them.

My Christian faith and life experience assures me that most people rarely lie, cheat, or steal. Most people try to do their best, and their sins tend to be those of indifference, pride, and ignorance. Liars, cheats, and thieves that I've met tend to rationalize actions that they know are wrong by claiming that everyone else is like them; a few are sociopaths who lack any empathy or moral sense at all.

with a few ground rules to preserve our democratic principles. These include:

1. Capitalism increases short-term efficiencies of resource allocation by competition; however, in the long-term, this concentrates wealth and destroys competition. Policies must actively favor the former by encouraging the existence of dozens of small and medium-sized businesses and minimizing the latter penalize conditions mandate two Walmarts and one grocery chain in every town, creating oligopoly and preventing competition.

2. There is a free flow of information-------not news filtering through a few corporations.

3. Government mandates and enforces labor laws that prevent anyone from making money by slavery-like control over any citizen or resident alien.

4. Costs associated with destroying public goods like the environment should be borne solely by those responsible.

5. Human life relies on drinking water. No one can 'own' the water supply.

6. Corporations and businesses are not 'people' and they have no 'rights'.

Obama Election: Reason Triumphs

To my Independent, Conservative, and Centrist friends:

I share your disappointment that the John McCain of 2000 didn't run for the presidency this year. While I'm progressive in my politics, I'm libertarian on social issues. I have great respect for the arguments of Goldwater, Wm F Buckley, Friedman etc. of the conservative intellectual tradition despite my rejection of most of their conclusions.

What really happened this election, though, should give all of you hope.

When I visited Chicago over the summer, I was appalled that my brother and his wife were bashing Michelle Obama over her "really proud" comment. I'm a white, 50ish female, and I totally know what Michelle meant and agreed with the sentiment.

Barack's race is only a symbol, albeit a potent one, for feelings running much, much deeper in our American psyche.

Many of us have been ASHAMED of our country and our fellow citizens for years now. We've watched every foundational principle that made America great--from the ideas of God-given dignity and justice inherent in equal opportunity, to the rights enshrined in the Constitution itself--shredded and trampled by radicals with an authoritarian, theocratic agenda.

I've watched anti-intellectuals held up as role models; I've heard reasoned consideration of facts replaced with emotional rants. We've licensed our airwaves to populist rabble-rousers, abandoning any duty to inform the public of news, facts, or figures. An evil militarism supplanted former policies of global cooperation, just war doctrine, national sovereignty, and common decency. Without charge and without trial, the U.S.A. "disappeared" people, including children. We abused our war prisoners; we tortured human beings and did nothing when our officials lied about it. Our very own secret police listens to our phone calls, compiles databases on private citizens, logs our Internet searches, and reads our emails. Incompetence became a requirement for high executive office, followed closely by blind loyalty and willingness to refuse to enforce the law of the land. Patriotism was replaced by a rabid nationalism reminiscent of the Balkans in pre-World War One Europe, a demagoguery similar to that prevalent during the Great Depression in Germany, and the witch-hunting rhetoric of the McCarthy and Nixon eras. We sneered at education, ignored the well-informed, and spit upon and interrupted reasoned discourse in favor of repetitious 'talking points' based in some alternate reality.

World leaders cringed whenever Bush walked into a room. Our actions as world citizens have been arrogant, ignorant, and disrespectful. No wonder that parties erupted in Japan, in Europe...well, everywhere! with Obama's election. This time, Americans chose a man highly qualified in intellect, character, and judgment to lead the free world. The whole world breathed a sigh of relief.

For the first time in years, I am REALLY REALLY REALLY proud to be a citizen of the United States of America. And it's rather nice that the guy is bi-racial.

You broke the American Dream - get out of the way so we can fix it!

I'm not in the mood to listen to babble about the deficit from the right-wing idiots responsible for wrecking our American Dream. Shut up & get out of the way: there's too much work to be done and too many real problems to address.

The monetarists of the Chicago school of economics destroyed Chile's economy by 1989 with a right-wing ideology that privatized social programs, castrated labor unions, and promoted "free" trade by abdicating any responsibility to regulate the financial markets. Now they've done the same here, and the American wealth that hasn't been dissipated is mostly in the Caymans.

The government has lied for years about the unemployment rate: we have a glut of workers and surfeit of jobs that worsens with each generation. We lie about inflation: household debt levels are atrocious due to the increasing gap between living expenses and median incomes. The government lies about fiscal policy, lumping reserve fund and trust accounting into the budget, to gain public support to fight a "welfare state" that simply doesn't exist.

One real problem is "jobs, jobs, jobs" and has been for years. First the jobs left the rust belt for the sun belt; then they left the country.

One real problem is that we have abandoned capitalism in favor of oligopoly with a hereditary monied class. We have let Walmart destroy mom and pop, Toyota destroy General Motors, and helped Monsanto and ag-business destroy Old MacDonald.

One real problem is that we've all but destroyed the free press and flow of information essential to political and economic freedom. (I thank God for the power of text messaging!) We have sold our national conversation to the Moonies of the Unification Church, to the guy Mike Royko used to call "the alien" Rupert Murdoch, and we grant air and cable licenses to those whose profit incentives favor populist rhetoric over factual information.

One real problem is we've promoted a "strong" dollar monetary policy that undermines the long-term best interests of our people, encouraging reckless reliance on imported fossil fuels and imported goods to the detriment of our own citizens.

Tinkering with monetary policy can't pull the nation from this recession; Neo-Keynesian policy offers the greatest chance of minimizing the coming depression. Some of the pain this entails should borne by those who profited the most under the policies that favored capital over people by putting a sensible tax policy back in place. Some of the impetus can be made by shifting expenditures away from things that harm our citizens' long term interests into spending that builds our economy from the bottom up.

Regardless of the toxic debt our new president inherits, some government deficit spending is inevitable for the next few years. At least the spending THIS time will build a better U.S.A. for my sons.

Help keep our voting 'pure': a rant

For heaven's sake, don't jeopardize our beloved, traditional GOP majority by actually asking citizens of the nation to vote!

We must continue to pass laws so working poor who bike to work are disenfranchised!

Keep the election on TUESDAY so working people have to choose their wages or their voice!

Open early voting from only 10:30am to 6pm, or else our retail and service industry workers might be able to come to the polls!

Those who benefit from GOP rule must fight to preserve "Reagan and his conservative confederates, who had nothing but ideas, almost all of them toxic." (http://tinyurl.com/5rv5yo)

Avoid a high turnout that will only help those nasty leftists to restore the tax code that historically has proven wildly successful in building up small businesses and the middle class!

Fight to preserve our new American way of life where everyone buys everything at Walmart and we have only one large grocery chain in each urban area!

Should anyone open their eyes and report what they see, or permits what we are pouring in their ears to filter through their brains rather than going directly to their lips, make sure you immediately change the subject to "ABORTION IS BABY-KILLING"!

Pray hard that no one notices that the 'all-American' crowds at Sarah Palin's rallies are lily white, with white supremacist radio operatives and the CCC in the parking lots...avoid any crowd shots at all so no one sees how sparsely they are atttended!

Make sure that all of the newspapers in town are controlled by one company! Don't let the people be confused by TV stations owned by someone else! Keep everyone covering the stories we push thru the wire!

Give equal time to news as to stunts! Don't shirk on giving liars a chance to speak without being challenged on silly things like facts and accurate quotes!

Above all, keep our voting 'pure'! Remember, no one who disagrees with anything at all said on Fox News isn't a 'real' American!

Matthew 23: The Bishops & my vote for Obama

reposted from Tuesday, October 21, 2008

"...For they bind heavy burdens and grievous to be borne,
and lay them on men's shoulders;
but they themselves will not move them with one of their fingers."

I am a Catholic anti-abortion/pro-life voter, involved in the Gabriel Project and active donor for pro-life projects like Providence House in Naples and an ultrasound clinic in Immokalee.

The best way I can honor my Confirmation promises and follow Our Lord in good conscience is to vote for Obama.

Politics is the proper realm of the laity (Vatican II) precisely because determining the best means to the ends of the magisterium rest in the well-formed consciences of those who live in the secular world. I will fulfill this responsibility to the best of my ability.

Some of our Catholic bishops practically order us to vote for the GOP, whose actions and their fruits contradict every Catholic value of basic human dignity, just war, compassion, and options for the poor. Many bishops excommunicate Catholic Democrates in violation of canon law, claiming we commit at least the mortal sin of scandal, if not accusing us of being baby-killers. Remember, the Nazi party was extremely popular with the Church, too; even Pope Pius XII was a fan in the early days solely because the Party used the Church instead of persecuting it.

I am a pro-choice voter on issues at the beginning and end of life. There is no inconsistency here. I firmly believe that these areas of difficult decisions should be made by individuals, spouses, and families in consultation with clergy. The government should not be involved. We tried 1000 years of Christian theocracy and it failed quite miserably.

I don't think that medical procedures--be it a D&C, D&E, or even D&X--that might be mis-used for aborting God's gift of a child should be illegal. There are circumstances where our love of God and neighbor demand their performance, e.g. when the child is too malformed to survive, has already died in the womb, or if the mother will not survive if she carries to fetal viability or term. We forget that pregnancy is a matter of life and death more often than not, and should not add our own sins of pride to the mix. When I carried my first boy, I told my non-Catholic husband that all decisions must favor the child's life over my own. I refused most prenatal testing, as their only purpose was to give me information in case I wanted to abort.

I was absolutely appalled that Catholic Bishops dared to spit on the sacrament of matrimony by stepping into the middle of the Terry Schiavo case. I was so blessed that I was able to honor my own husband's wishes by holding in my arms as he died in our own home while our older boy played and sang on the floor and the younger giggled as he played "Cootie Bug" with my brother in the kitchen. My old pastor in Darien used to call it "loving them into heaven."

Our Bishops lay a very heavy burden on our children regarding abortion. Today, an average young married couple only earns $35,000. The majority of them have no health insurance at all. Meanwhile, the cost of just the doctor and hospital for having a baby has risen to $20,000 --that's a full year's take-home pay-- as more of them are delivered by CSection & the mothers subjected to intensive tests, ultrasounds, etc. I'm not surprised that 86% of women who abort--including many of these married women--do so for economic reasons. We would save more babies with universal healthcare for mothers than we would with a law against abortion.

The Koran says it better than the pro-life literature: Don't murder your children for fear of poverty. These couples may lack faith in God's Providence, but our government policies and our church programs don't support their decisions in any meaningful way. McCain, Sarah Palin, and the GOP pay us Catholics lip service--yes, that's true. So, if we make abortion illegal again--what will happen? We'll find fetuses in the dumpsters like they do all over the Philippines and Mexico, and we'll lose the opportunity to rescue the mothers' souls as well because many of them will die from complications.

The other Rush Limbaugh/Sarah Palin talking points I'm hearing don't make sense to this Catholic either. Most of their speeches are coded racism, hate-speech, and out-and-out lies:

One doesn't "win" an occupation--even General Petraeus agrees with Obama's position on Iraq and Afghanistan, while McCain doesn't even listen to the generals in the field. So, I don't put much credence in the arguments about "honoring the dead" by staying in Iraq. Bush has trashed and exhausted our military. Our standards for recruits are now so low that they enlist criminals and rascist skinheads. He has destroyed the U.S. reputation throughout the world by lying to the American people and then attacking other nations against the Catholic just war doctrine. Current U.S. policy on treatment of detainees is inhuman, un-American, and indecent. The best way to honor our fallen warriors is to restore our American values.

Obama's tax policies are exactly in line with Catholic positions. The nuns always told me, "When much is given, much is expected." I was blessed with God's gifts of talents, and the fruit of my talents belongs to HIM, not to me. I am only his steward. When I hoard more than my own prudent needs for today and the forseeable future, I insult His gifts that were meant for me to use on His behalf to promote the common good. Those who call it socialism advocate continuing to ask the poor to sacrifice a modest vacation while the rich sacrifice maybe house #6 or car #23. Is that fair? Is that just? Joe Biden was right: it isn't even patriotic to demand more of the economic pot when your neighbors barely have crumbs.

I live in Naples, FL, so I know that the mortgage meltdown wasn't caused by selling houses to poor people who couldn't afford them. That is exactly backwards from what I saw with my own eyes. The mortgage meltdown was caused by the GOP-controlled Fed putting too much money into the system, so speculators poured more of it into real estate, which forced prices up to people who needed to live in the houses instead of just investing in them and created an affordable housing crisis. The crash happened when the usurious interest rates (something Pope John Paul II constantly preached against) kicked in after the originating mortgage brokers had already sold the notes overseas. People can be really, really stupid and gullible...

We worship a living God, not one circumscribed by rules like the Pharisees. If God isn't afraid of free will, why are we? Don't try to keep the Risen Lord locked up in a gold box.

Posted by CFinNaples at 2:49 PM

Right Wing Noise: Obama's 'Boston aunt' isn't News

There isn't any 'news' in the story about Obama's relation in Boston (the lady is daughter of Obama's Kenyan grandfather by his third wife), as this was public knowledge months ago.

I've been interested in tracking our national conversation over the past few weeks and in understanding why Americans have been subjected to so much really stupid stuff in the papers and TV.

The track followed to make this right-wing noise into a 'news' story that everyone is forced to cover or else is WAY more interesting than anything in the story itself.

1) Republican party operatives 'find the story' on 10/29/08. (GatewayPundit, FreeRepublic, BlogsForJohnMcCain etc).

2) On 10/30/08, Rupert Murdoch's London Times posts to the WWW and physically prints it. We've made a legitimate 'newsprint'. Sometimes Rupert runs stuff thru his Australia outlet if it needs a few more hours to percolate.

3) The Unification Church outlets (Korean 'Moonies') put it on the UPI wire. This feeds their newspapers in the Mideast, Orient, & Washington DC. Sun Myung Moon & Murdoch rarely disagree on anything, and their media outlets mirror each other's reporting.

4) Drudge Report links to story 2 or 3 if tipped off, as he was in this case and the one with the backwards B in the cheek; otherwise, he links to 5

5) Next it hits My Way News-AP and Breitbart.com, followed by Reuters, AP-Google, AP-Yahoo!, McClatchy, etc. What's really, really sad is to find the Wall Street Journal in this loop now...

6) Once on all of these wire services, Fox News hands out talking points and covers it. For 'breaking news', they'll give it to Hannity or O'Reilly; otherwise, it's a screen scrawl for a while and then a featured story.

SO...when I googled "Obama aunt Boston" this morning, I found 1765 news stories, 3480 blog entries, and 213,000 total general web hits. That poor girl!

Once Murdoch decides to have an opinion on something, he monopolizes our national conversation. Why do you think he became an American citizen? (Hint: It certainly wasn't love of the American free press, and it rhymes with 'holler'!!!) We have manufactured a story that everyone must now cover, even if there's no 'news' in the 'news story', & those who want to talk about it can complain if others refuse to discuss the noise. I believe the term used is 'liberal bias' if the propaganda isn't treated as a news-worthy current event, which is rather silly since liberals and progressives have gotten most of their news on-line for a decade or more. What conservatives call the MSM reflect the interests of their corporate owners and most closely resemble any other closely-held monopolies; the only TV news left is on PBS and CSpan.

The propaganda problem isn't as bad on the left since most gave up on MSM, which is controlled by only 7 corporations, a long time ago. The on-line rumor-mongerers have mostly been drummed out as advertising revenue grows with a good reputation. Most progressives and young people, as I already said, have gotten their news on line for a decade.

The reason that Bill O'Reilly & friends are losing to MS-NBC, people like CNN's Blitzer, Brown, and AC360 is that they've finally stopped letting idiots set the agenda & have started running news again. Welcome back, news guys: literate people missed you! We're finally rid of Glen Beck, so maybe we can finally rid ourselves of Nancy Grace, Lou Dobbs, and the rest of those who are merely polluting the airwaves.

For anyone interested in tracking stories like these around the world, there's a computer program monitoring the news run by the European common market commission at:

http://press.jrc.it/NewsBrief/clusteredition/en/latest.html

The Church should Condemn the Rhythm Method

Miracles come from unexpected sources and in mysterious ways. We must be mindful that God is much bigger than we are, and The Lord's ways are not our ways. To cite only two examples, from the Catholic heretics of the Protestant Reformation came the great gift of nearly universal education and literacy; from the Reign of Terror and anti-theocratic ideas of the Enlightenment came American ideas of inalienable rights and social mobility.

The Lord's garden has both the lily and the rose: both must be nurtured; both are His work and essential to his plan.

I welcomed the USCCB Rigali-Murphy joint statement of October 21, 2008,(http://www.usccb.org/prolife/Rigali-Murphy-Joint-Statement.pdf ) a two-page letter in clear and simple language outlining items of interest to Catholic voters. To claim one is only a Catholic if focused on the legal issue (Roe vs Wade) is as misguided as concentrating only on the pragmatic side of supporting universal health care, family leave, etc. and other social justice concerns involved in abortion and other important issues. Neither political party is a "Catholic" political party, and there are "cafeteria Catholics" on both sides of every issue I have examined.

I would never try to teach an atheist about Eucharist by simply stating that the bread is the body of Our Lord. When one side sees "clumps of cells" while the other sees a "child", simply repeating these definitions to each other moves no one. Will perceptions change if the law changes? The Bishops claim that they will; I tend to doubt it. Is it effective to mis-represent scientific facts that are objectively verifiable, as I've seen too often in pro-life literature? My experience with my own teenage boys contradicts that, as adolescents think in black/white terms and will reject the whole cloth. Those who advocate our position must give accurate, even-handed, and objective voice to facts; then we can open the moral eyes to see the substance and the fruit of the policy positions. Only then do we have a chance to change perceptions and so change public opinion.

My own opinion is that no perceptions will change on social issues, nor will the moral authority of our bishops be restored, until the Catholic Church condemns the rhythm method of birth control. How can it be moral to have sexual intercourse during the woman's infertile periods? This claim denies the biology of God's design, perpetuates myths about seed and field that deny the procreative power The Lord has given to women, and debases sexual union to a bodily function where the passions are wastes to be eliminated.

We had the fight about Mother Mary centuries ago: she isn't just the "Christ-Bearer", she is the "Mother of God". (My reading indicates that the 1968 encyclical on contraception was promulgated by the Pope and reactionary Curia against the best consensus of the committees of bishops and theologians most educated on the issue. I see it more as a conservative backlash against Vatican II than against the Pill, the women's movement, or any of the stated issues.)

Some might claim that my problem is that I am not well-enough versed in JP2's Theology of the Body...Well, as I waded through texts and listened to lectures, I concluded that he wasn't talking about any person that I knew, including myself. St. Augustine's Confessions seemed to reflect daily life better.

Should the Church reject the rhythm method as being contrary to God's design of the human body, perhaps we can also come to understand that we are in the midst of a revolution of science, changing ideas and science about sexuality--and biological science in general--that exactly parallel that of astronomy and physics in the previous centuries.

Can't we embrace facts first, and then guide people's moral choices? Let's begin the discussion at the beginning, by rejecting the first great mistake in our discussion of spacing births within marital life.

Open letter to Bishop DeWane of the Diocese of Venice

His Excellency Frank DeWane

Bishop of the Diocese of Venice

Excellency:

I am a widow with two sons, losing my husband to cancer when they were 3 and 5. My older boy is now at DePaul, a financial sacrifice I am happy to bear.

When you first were elevated, I had great hopes because of your background in social justice issues at the United Nations. (You may remember my email at that time explaining how our farmworkers and construction laborers are victimized by our tax code.) I was encouraged as you moved to educate our priests against those embracing the anti-Catholic immigration policy rhetoric that is endemic down here. I was very hopeful after hearing you speak on pro-life issues at your first pro-life mass St. Andrew's, emphasizing the importance of support programs like Projects Gabriel to lessen the very real economic hardships we ask women to shoulder in choosing life over abortion. The homily for your mass at St John Neumann's that year was so good that my older boy actually listened and we discussed your comments that evening.

I was very pleased to read this years' USCCB Faithful Citizenship paper, finally recognizing that there are many sins in our culture that our votes as citizens must address.

Do you remember the parable of the disobedient son? Those who actually do Our Lord's will have not been those who agree with us with their lips while destroying us with their policies. I am not so pleased that once again I am threatened with excommunication because I refuse to support liars trying once again to manipulate the Catholic vote. Scripture reminds us again and again that we will know good from evil not by listening but by looking to the fruit. How many years will our bishops demand we eat rotten fruit?

Our Lord said in John 23: "They tie up heavy burdens ³ (hard to carry) and lay them on people's shoulders, but they will not lift a finger to move them."

I demand more prophetic speech of our Catholic leaders. Stop taking the easy way out.

I'm a Catholic firmly committed to voting Democratic this year. I recognize my Lord's voice, and will not be confused by those crying "Lord, Lord" with their lips while murdering our children by abortion and war with their policies.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

From the Naples Daily News today:

I, too, am a pro-life Catholic. That is one of the three main reasons why I am voting for Obama.

Many young couples face doctor & hospital bills for pregnancy that are more than half of their take home pay for a year. More families than ever have no insurance & don't qualify for help. When I was a corporate controller twenty years ago, the cost of adding maternity benefits to our health plan was a scandal, and it's gotten worse. Pregnancy issues consume nearly half our annual national health bill, with care for chronic conditions the balance.

I'm sick to death of GOP lip service to Catholics and the insistence of our bishops that overturning Roe vs Wade is essential despite fact that the issue is primarily an economic one. Even in the Philippines, Australia, and Mexico are liberalizing the law because people finally got sick of all the dead women and fetuses thrown in the trash. Women murder their children when they have neither hope or help to bear them; 85% of abortions here in the USA are for economic reasons.

We must take the health care burden off families. Our businesses need this burden lifted as well to be competitive in the world market and give us some hope of keeping a strong dollar.

Second, I'm voting Obama to restore our world reputation and our military standards that McCain's policies would continue to trash! Our young men and women are being abused by the GOP. We now let skinhead racists and people with criminal records into the army.

By most standards, we're already a second-rate for quality of life, health statistics, education... Today the AP reported that al-Qaida hopes McCain is elected so that they can further their agenda of bankrupting the USA and reducing our voice on the world stage to a third-rate nation. Remember, it worked in Afghanistan to destroy communist Russia, their competitor in the oil market.

Lastly, I'd like to remind my fellow Italians and our Jewish neighbors that our grandparents weren't "white" either in the 1920s and the same screams of "socialist" were hurled at them. Edgar J Hoover of the FBI and other racists said the same thing of us when we pulled together as a nation in the 1960s for civil rights. DO ALL OF YOU HAVE ALZHEIMERS????

When one party declares war on more than half of America, each one of us has the responsibility to stand up and denounce them.

The place we do that is the ballot box, with a vote for Barack Obama.

Silly Sam: the guy who is NOT Joe and NOT a plumber

I've about had it with Silly Sam. You know who I mean: the guy who isn't Joe, isn't a plumber, has no brain between his ear and his mouth, who SHOULD vote for Obama this year but doesn't know enough to understand why. Yeah, THAT Silly Sam.

Let us review:

A really dumb guy named Samuel, who listens to way too much right-wing radio, stops throwing football in his front yard to wander over and, according to his own admission at the time, bait Obama. He feeds Barack a passel of lies in order to spout right-wing BS about how Obama's policies will hurt him.

Facts are, Obama explains patiently and politely, that his policies would actually help 'Joe' save enough money to actually do what the lying jerk claims he wants to do. Further, he tries to help thedolt understand that his policies will help small businesses in general, since all of their CUSTOMERS will have higher disposable incomes. By giving more money to those at the bottom, i.e. 'spreading the wealth around' instead of concentrating it at the top, small business would see higher sales figures and ultimately greater profits.

What did I miss here?




Why in the world does McCain take this Silly Sam as his poster child, I mean, what credence does this dude give to anybody about anything McCain espouses? What 'socialism' have to do with any of this? Why would anyone listen to Silly Sam more than once? Why am I supposed to care about any of this?

I've never seen or heard more totally stupid stuff than I've heard during this election cycle.

2 Thoughts On Amendment 2: Property & Progeny, Widows & Orphans

(I'm not done with this post, but I'll revise it when I have more time.)

I decided to vote 'no' on the Florida "Marriage Protection" Amendment 2. In so deciding, I think I'm going to 'think out loud' on two main thoughts that others may find helpful. My first concern is the legitimate place (Property & Progeny) for the government in defining 'marriage' at all; the second addresses my concerns as a Christian (Widows & Orphans).

Property & Progeny

Don't some people change the subject when discussing Amendment 2 and laws defining 'marriage'? My impression is that we are unintentionally clouding the issues for voters by confusing issues appropriate to the government and the law with other important ideas that don't have much to do with either one.

There's a reason that the term 'married couples' is often synonymous with 'household'. Historically, romance and sex have had very little to do with civic ideas of marriage; in fact, those ideas were joined together fairly recently in both social practice and the law. Marriage has always been more prevalent among the wealthy, who were concerned with cleanly passing control of property from one generation to the next. Even today, young people tend to marry when they want to 'settle down', i.e. to buy a house or have children together. With changes in income and the advent of effective birth control, Floridians marry later in life if they marry at all; many young people stay for years with relatives, 'shack up' with a lover, or live with roommates until their late 20s. Discussions of the religious dimensions of matrimony tend more to obscure than illuminate the issues we face as voters.

The state's legitimate concerns in defining 'marriage' are regulation of property* and progeny.
The former is important because of taxes. We tax real estate, personal property, businesses, etc. Establishing kinship relationships either through blood (birth certificates) or social contracts (marriage licenses, divorce decrees, probate of wills) is important in determining who is responsible to pay what taxes. Florida also has legitimate interests in those who cannot support themselves, and all minor children fall into this category. The taxpayer cares for them when no one else does, in addition to the elderly, those once called 'feeble-minded', the infirm, and those who are unable to support themselves because of addiction or other mental illnesses. This is expensive, and the state has an interest in regulating relationships in order to shift these responsibilities to individuals.

Our legal and tax structures are set up around the typical household. Some want the structure to reflect the diverse arrangements that our citizens live, while others want to promote a proven model social structures that successfully raises competent adults. So, we should stop screaming at each other and recognize that the argument is between realists and idealists.

There's no objection on the property issues: no one seems to want to deny anyone rights of kinship for owning property, for powers of attorney-type issues in health care, etc. The objections center on the claim that some households are not suitable for raising children. Finally, the state mandates education in order to have a trained workforce and capable electorate. Values will always be taught implicitly in our schools, since understanding history, civics, and our laws always involves teaching the our ideals: the American dream.
In reading the amendment, my impression is that many quasi-marriage arrangements will be affected that already lack minimal protection under the law; the text is designed specifically to bar homosexual couples from enjoying the rights and privileges of kinship. Younger people seem to be less concerned about regularizing homosexual couples than their elders.

Our laws about marriage date from the period when birth control was uncommon and ineffective when it wasn't illegal. When I started working just before the feminist movement, it was very difficult for females to support themselves. women were more likely to refuse to have sex and risk bearing children to those who would not support their kids.
Our kinship and household laws so locating those who abdicate their responsibilities to them at state expense.

Defining 'marriage' is important to the state of Florida because they need to find taxpayers to pay taxes and criminals who abandon their responsibilities to taxpayers' expense.

Widows and Orphans

Being rich--i.e. our decisions are 'what or where shall we eat?' instead of 'will we eat today?'--we sometimes make snap decisions out of innocent, well-meaning ignorance that hurt the poor and vulnerable. Christians should consider the effect of any law on 'widows and orphans' in the Biblical sense.

The ancient Biblical theocracy--a government like Iran, where the laws of the religion are the laws of the courts--used 'widows and orphans' to describe those most likely to be the poor. When we hear those words today, the image in our mind's eye should be single parents, citizens with special needs, the elderly, children (whether currently living in traditional homes or not), and the chronically ill.

Historically, those most likely to be married have always been the wealthy. The same is true today. Many citizens live in common law relationships rather than in households licensed by the state. Marriages, divorces, and adoptions cost money and our poorest neighbors often forgo all three.

Children today often live with both natural parents for only a brief period because more are born out of wedlock, adults marry later in life when they do marry, and our country has a high divorce rate. Many families' individual members are neither tied by blood, nor protected by law. Elderly widows dependent upon their first husband's pension can't remarry; some of the 2nd relationships last longer than the first legal marriage.

I think more people will be hurt by the wording in this amendment that I did at first. Passing Amendment 2 may do more harm to our families than good.



We can rarely do just one thing. The amendment's language is very broad, and voters can't easily see all of the consequences of formalizing the definition.

Florida has a legitimate interest in making sure that the next generation of citizens, our children, are raised to be healthy and well-educated taxpayers, and the question of who pays their bills is important since the state has to when no one else can.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
*Yes, I know: laws about kids have an ownership component so it's all just property. Well, some nations of the world still let men own their wives, too, and even though we changed most of our laws in the U.S. with women's suffrage and the feminist movement, I don't mean to imply that there aren't more than a few remaining items on women's agenda.

Christian Code Words called 'Race-Baiting'? - Obama 1995 video

Some people have been listening to hate speech for so long that they can no longer hear and recognize code words for Christian ethics and Gospel values. (Sigh)

The URL http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t7fi8STNlxM points to a video in which Barack Obama is quoted discussing policy problems in Christian terms of "sacrifice" and "salvation"... and the heading someone put on it is: "1995 Obama Bizarre, Race Baiting Interview Found! HE MUST SAVE BLACKS SO HE CAN BE SAVED". Here's one of the blogs that goes on like this as well: Gateway Pundit: 1995 Obama Race Baiting Video Discovered I'd find it funny that they think this video is "race-baiting", if it weren't so sad.

I don't object to anything that Obama says in this video, because I have heard nearly every word from the ambo in our Catholic churches. I was briefly a fan of Ayn Rand, too, but that was when I was a little kid and an active agnostic. I even wrote a paper ranting about her ideas for a political philosophy class at Northwestern. Thirty years later and a practicing Catholic, I find her economics juvenile and her moral position an insult to God.

Obama's remarks about taxes reflect Christian ethics. Our talents are given to us by God; they're unearned gifts of the Almighty. We are expected--no, I should say that God DEMANDS that we use His gifts to the greatest profit possible...recognizing that the fruits belong to HIM. Taxes that ask each individual to sacrifice according to ability is a Christian idea. The widow's mite is a greater sacrifice to her than a chestful of gold from a wealthy Pharisee who never even feels its loss. SHAME ON ALL OF YOU WHO HAVE FORGOTTEN THIS!!!

The basic idea of public education is that we ALL benefit when everyone fulfills their potential and becomes a good citizen. I'm a 51-year-old white woman, and I totally agreed with Michelle Obama's statement about how disappointed we all have been for years as the American Dream was soiled by virulent self-interest... SHAME ON ALL OF YOU WHO HAVE FORGOTTEN THIS!!!

The 'American Dream' is dead because the playing field is no longer level. Social mobility is now a sham: you can only get into Harvard now if you are a legacy (i.e. if your parents did). If you come from modest means, it is now all but impossible to do better than your parents did and you will most probably do worse. I felt like a liar when I tried to tell school children that if they worked hard in America, they could have a good life. SHAME ON ALL OF YOU WHO HAVE FORGOTTEN THIS!!!

When Obama says that his "individual salvation" will not come about without a "collective salvation", he reflects the Greatest Commandment: we cannot really love God if we don't love & care for our neighbor. We can't be a "Christian country" or a moral people when we spit on the common good and grab whatever we can for ourselves, like those strapping, armed men in Haiti grabbing relief supplies from the arms of starving women and children. Not everyone who calls "Lord, Lord" will get into heaven, but only those who actually do the work of the Father... SHAME ON ALL OF YOU WHO HAVE FORGOTTEN THIS!

This would be funny if it weren't so sad...

So, am I excommunicated or not? I'm an official Catholic Democrat

Many of those I love believe that I have excommunicated myself from the Catholic Church.

On Sept 18, 2008, after careful consideration, I gave $50 to Barack Obama's campaign for the presidency of the United States of America. That same day, I joined the Catholic Democrats. I made these decisions after carefully weighing the policies, actions, and characters of those involved. I am a regular reader of NCR on line, I subscribe to America Commonweal and Sojourners magazines, I read regularly at usccb.org vatican.va and my own diocese website regularly. I made my decision after reviewing Canon Law, prayerful consideration, and examination of conscience. I think I made the right decision, and will vote early next week.

I am a Roman Catholic, baptized as an infant and educated through 8th grade in Catholic schools. I left the Church completely from roughly 1976 to 1985, living as an agnostic secular humanist. When I left, everything I could hear the Church saying and all that I could see the Church doing contradicted most conclusions of own life experience.

My return to the Church started when when I was given a second chance to live at all. I experienced a frightening, sudden illness, and then an unlikely chain of events started that has led me closer and closer to God. I was reconciled to the Catholic Church very suddenly: shortly after moving in with the man who would be my husband, while driving home from work I was called to walk into a the local parish church. A priest was standing there in the vestibule as if he were waiting for me to come home. I did.

I've tried to do as I'm told ever since, and have been guided and reassured always that I am doing as I should. When I have stumbled, I have confessed and learned. When I have done what I should, I have endured the spit of some and the gratitude of others. Few know who I am; fewer know what I do and this really suits me since I value my privacy so much. Now, I'm writing publicly and I know that things will get much worse. We all must do the best we can, and then accept the consequences as we must.

My family has been greatly blessed, and I am particularly grateful to the intercession of Sts Therese & Teresa, Joseph & Joseph Cardinal Bernadin, and of Sts. Anthony of the Desert and of Padua who are patrons of both my mother's family and my father's. I try to be obedient, including giving up everyone and everything I know to come to the strange Paradise that is Naples, FL.

The Lord has had need for a widow with two orphan boys, and I have tried to be mindful of His will. I've seen the works of His hand: MIGHTY ARE HIS DEEDS! May the Lord grant me the courage and humility to serve Him in words now as well as actions.

The Annunciation: Mother or Surrogate?

So, what's with the angel coming to Mary? seed/egg/womb/tomb...

Is this an Annunciation/Greek: (I'm telling you my will & announcing a fait accompli )
or
a Courting/Covenant moment Θεοτόκος, translit. Theotókos One who gives birth to God
(invitation to fully give to God and thus fulfill purpose) Theotokos explicitly refers to physical childbearing

Isn't it time to purge Christianity of the last bit of Platonic/Aristotlean biological BS? The Bible is written assuming that a woman is "planted" by semen like a seed is planted on fertile soil, and that the human egg forms from uterine blood.

separate title in Greek, Μήτηρ Θεού (translit. Mētēr Theou). Mother of God also accurately translates the Greek words Θεομήτωρ (translit. Theomētor; also spelled Θεομήτηρ, translit. Theomētēr) and Μητρόθεος (translit. Mētrotheos) which are found in patristic and liturgical text

The Council of Ephesus decreed, in opposition to those who denied Mary the title Theotokos ("the one who gives birth to God") but called her Christotokos ("the one who gives birth to Christ"), that Mary is Theotokos because her son Jesus is one person who is both God and man, divine and human. The use of Theotokos was formally affirmed at the Third Ecumenical Council held at Ephesus in 431. The competing view, advocated by Patriarch Nestorius of Constantinople, was that Mary should be called Christotokos, meaning "Birth-giver of Christ," to restrict her role to the mother of Christ's humanity only and not his divine nature.

Cyril of Alexandria, viewed this as dividing Jesus into two distinct persons, the human who was Son of Mary, and the divine who was not. To them, this was unacceptable since by destroying the perfect union of the divine and human natures in Christ, it sabotaged the fullness of the Incarnation and, by extension, the salvation of humanity. The council accepted Cyril's reasoning,