Talking about the "things that matter most" on June 28
GUEST HOST: PAUL KENGOR
4:00 – Summorum Pontificum and the Young
Pope Benedict’s critics had hoped Summorum Pontificum would disappear without a trace. It hasn’t. His apostolic constitution authorizing wider use of the Traditional Latin Mass continues to bear fruit, some of it annoyingly visible to these critics. Far from just a sop thrown to aging traditionalists, Summorum Pontificum has proven popular with the young. As Pope Benedict noted in its accompanying letter, the Traditional Latin Mass is old in origin but new in appeal: “young persons too have discovered this liturgical form, felt its attraction, and found in it a form of encounter with the Mystery of the Most Holy Sacrifice particularly suited to them.” Recently 3,500 people—many of them children, teens, college students, and young families—filed into the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception for a Pontifical Solemn High Mass that lasted two and a half hours. George Neumayr is here to discuss his latest cover story in Catholic World Report - Summorum Pontificum and the Young,
4:20 – Subsidiarity and Social Justice. What do those terms really mean?
When we talk as Catholics about elevation of the poor and service to those who are less fortunate, we often talk about subsidiarity and social justice. What do those terms mean in the context of Catholic social teaching? Sam Gregg joins us to work it out.
4:40 - Kagan, Sen. Byrd, Obama, Oil, and Gun Control Laws
We have a wide-ranging interview with US Rep. Thaddeus McCotter of MI. We’ll look at today’s opening day of confirmation hearings for Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan, the Supreme Court’s ruling today on gun bans, the death of Sen. Robert Byrd and hw the Obama administration is handling the BP oil spill.
5:00 – 10 Books Every Conservative Must Read: Plus Four Not to Miss and One Impostor
Following up his 10 Books That Screwed Up the World, author Benjamin Wiker brings you 10 Books Every Conservative Must Read: Plus Four Not to Miss and One Impostor. Offering a guide to some of the most important literary works of our time, Wiker turns his discerning eye from the great texts that have done so much damage to Western Civilization to the great texts that could help rebuild it. He features a range of works from classics such as Democracy in America and The Federalist and Anti-Federalist Papers, to more "pop" classics like Sense and Sensibility and The Tempest. Through these works, Wiker reveals some of the most important lessons for our time.
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Paul Kengor once again misinforms the Ave Maria Radio audience. This time he got it wrong when he talked about Paul Krugman, the liberal Princeton economist.
ReplyDeleteIt happened late in the interview with Benjamin Wiker. Wiker was explaining Edmund Burke's analysis of what happened to the value of money in France during the French Revolution:
Wiker: "The revolutionaries themselves had all kinds of wonderful ideas, but they had little practical experience. So when they got in, they made a muck of things, and especially caused the economy of France to take a big nosedive. And as the economy got worse and worse, guess what they did? They started printing money. OK now, if none of that sounds familiar, then you're not following the news. In fact, it just came out today that there's probably going to be another enormous -- the printing presses are going to open up again, creating dollars, and it will have the exact same effect that it did in revolutionary France -- they become worthless, make for enormous inflation which destroys the country, and ends up driving any legitimate economic activity underground. Well that's just what's happening now."
Kengor replies: "Yeah, in fact even Paul Krugman is disturbed by this. I mean, this is -- yeah, the effect on inflation is just potentially devastating."
Kengor has it completely wrong. Krugman has written many columns since September 2008 warning about deflation, not inflation. His latest column, The Third Depression, which appeared the very morning of this show, reiterated that concern.
I'm not saying anything about who is right or wrong about the economic analysis. I'm only pointing out that Kengor badly misinformed the Ave Maria Radio audience about Paul Krugman's position on fiscal policy and inflation. It's unbelievable that a so called "scholar" could be so wrong.
But it's not the first time Kengor has done this to the Ave Maria Radio audience. As I have previously noted, Kengor misrepresented Obama's "punished with a baby" comment, putting the comment in the context of abortion. Obama was not talking about abortion. He was talking about educating teenagers about STDs and contraception. Obama's advice about contraception clearly violates Catholic teaching. So it's fine to criticize him on that. But don't change his words into something different. In fact, as I said previously, one could take Obama's punished with a baby statement as being pro-life. That is, if his daughters engage in sexual activity as teenagers and get pregnant, they would then be stuck with raising a baby -- "babies raising babies," as Jesse Jackson would say. Maybe "punishment" isn't the right word for it, but it sure doesn't sound like a walk in the park to me.
Also, Al referenced what could only be considered a hagiographical essay written by Kengor about Ronald Reagan's pro-life stance, when an honest reading of the Reagan record shows that no politician did more than Reagan to allow for the killing of unborn babies. In June 1967, when he was governor of California, Reagan signed the liberal Therapeutic Abortion Act. California was the third state to liberalize abortion, after Colorado (April, 1967) and North Carolina (May, 1967). Then in 1981, when he was president, Reagan appointed pro-choice Sandra Day O'Connor to the Supreme Court, even though he knew she was an "I'm personally opposed, but ..." kind of person. Later, after the Bork debacle, Reagan caved in and appointed Anthony Kennedy to the Supreme Court. Kennedy has been the margin of victory for the "pro-abortion" side.
If I'm wrong about any of this I eagerly welcome corrections and even admonishment.