Talking about the "things that matter most" on Jan. 26
4:00 – Kresta Comments - Planned Parenthood Director Fearmongers about Catholic hospitals
Operating a Catholic hospital or health care system is complex. Mergers, cost-cutting, public funding, fidelity to mission, profitability, community service- all these objectives compete with one another and no outsider should be flippant about the difficult decisions Catholic health professionals must make. This makes a recent guest column from the largely defunct Ann Arbor News especially galling. Al has a commentary on this piece of shameless pandering to latent anti-Catholic sentiment and use of rhetorical trickery.
4:20 – The Seal: A Priest’s Story
When Father Timothy Mockaitis heard inmate Conan Wayne Hale’s sacramental confession on April 22, 1996, he had no idea it was being recorded. He also didn't know that the event would spur an unprecedented legal case that attempted to demonstrate that a violation of the seal of the confessional was an infringement on the free exercise of religion guaranteed by the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Father Mockaitis is here to discuss how this case involved not only canon law versus civil law, but also a threat to the long term viability of our Constitutional freedoms.
5:00 – Kresta Comments - Critical minds should make critical distinctions...Yes, unless we are talking about Christians
A mark of real diversity and tolerance is the ability to restate your opponent’s positions in a way that he would recognize as true and accurate. The liberal left in America finds that almost impossible when dealing with activist, serious, Catholic, Reformed or evangelical Christians. Al recently read a piece by Daryll Hart that reiterates this point and Al has some comments.
5:20 – Is the Campaign-Finance Ruling Good for Catholics?
The only three sure things in life, Benjamin Franklin should have said, are death, taxes and campaign-finance reform. Trying to keep money out of politics is like trying to keep a basement dry in New Orleans. But should it be our goal to keep money out of politics? Or should our goal be transparency? We talk to attorney Pat Gillen about whether last week’s Supreme Court ruling on campaign finance reform is good for Catholics or not.
5:40 – Archdiocese of Detroit in Focus: Aid to Haiti, Health Care Reform, and 1 Year at the Helm for Archbishop Vigneron
Archbishop Allen Vigneron joins us for his regular monthly segment. We discuss the outstanding efforts of the Archdiocese to bring relief to the people of Haiti, we look at the Archbishop’s concerns regarding health care reform, and we look at his first year at the helm of the Archdiocese.
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I apologize upfront for having to be so brief and somewhat general in my comments, but I have to respectfully disagree with the stance you (and some of your guests) have taken in the last few days regarding the recent SCOTUS decision. You have consistently expounded the notion that this decision is not AS SUCH a big deal, mainly becuase the right to vote still lies with the American public. However, we have seen how consistently our present society is duped by pretty faces and rhetoric that would make Aristotle and Cicero blush with envy. I only need refer to the 2008 Presidential Campaign. Add to that the dearth of people who actually vote, and a corporate-sponsored (indirectly or directly) "Get Out the Vote" campaign can easily turn into a useless election race, as the winner will be "decided" before the election day.
ReplyDeleteNow, perhaps I am biased based on the fact that I believe that corporations have done little overall good in our present day, contra Mr. Gillen's comments; and that they will continue to help ruin the American worker, the American economy, and the American family. Alas it is difficult to even say that without sounding like a whiner, but I have expounded in other posts on this blog about my Distributist leanings and I won't pretend to hide them.
Furthermore, I suppose one could say that if it comes down to it then we can "vote with our pocketbooks" and not shop at the stores who support certain candidates or platforms. And of course this ruling and its ensuing onslaught of watch-dog work will certainly create many new jobs. That being said, perhaps we can help the situation by at least making politicians wear NASCAR-esque jumpsuits that display patches of their top-five contributors. (http://www.frontporchrepublic.com/2010/01/welcome-to-the-plutocracy/)
I hope that this post hasn't run too long, and I commend it to the internet public for consideration and consternation.
Sincerely,
Matthew Wade
Matthew,
ReplyDeleteI'd like to see Al interview Dale Ahlquist about G.K. Chesterton's notion of a Distributist society and what he thinks of the Supreme Court ruling. Maybe even throw in conservative libertarian Fr. Sirico for a different perspective and have a friendly little debate.
I see a problem with Distributism, although I admit I haven't really studied it much. Apparently such a society does not occur naturally, i.e. without coercive policies. Tell us how you would bring it about.
I don't like some things some corporations do, like polluting the environment and giving outrageous compensation to MBA CEO's who had nothing to do with creating the company in the first place. But I gotta tell you. I like my Mac laptop and the electricity provided by Xcel Energy that allows me post this comment. I also like my Honda Civic, my Sony TV, my Texas Instruments TI-83 calculator, and that's just for starters.