Obama Ignores His Tocqueville
By G. Tracy Mehan, III, Catholic Exchange, March 30th, 2009
In his 1835 masterpiece, Democracy in America , Alexis de Tocqueville, reported on his observations of the American scene after an extensive tour of the new Republic. One of his most profound insights had to do with the genius of Americans in the formation of institutions that mediate between large, distant government and the solitary, insular individual:
Americans of all ages, all conditions, and all dispositions constantly form associations. They have not only commercial and manufacturing companies, in which all take part, but associations of a thousand other kinds, religious, moral serious, futile, general or restricted, enormous or diminutive. The Americans make associations to give entertainments, to found seminaries, to build inns, to construct churches, to diffuse books, to send missionaries to the antipodes; in this manner they found hospitals, prisons, and schools. If it is proposed to inculcate some truth or to foster some feeling by the encouragement of a great example, they form a society. Whenever at the head of some new undertaking you see the government in France, or a man of rank in England, in the United States you will be sure to find an association.
Americans in the 20th and 21st centuries will recognize this phenomenon whether it be in their own participation in the American Lung Association, Lion’s Club, PTO, Red Cross, Salvation Army or the Nature Conservancy (TNC).
Indeed, the TNC is the largest land conservancy or trust in the world. It is also emblematic of a tremendous movement in the United States today. According to the Land Trust Alliance, the land trust movement doubled in size between 2000 and 2005, in both number of organizations and acres of land protected. Today, private philanthropic dollars protect an area 16 and a half times the size of Yellowstone National Park.
Unfortunately, the Obama administration is on the brink of un-doing this private sector success story, along with even more important work done by educational, religious, health, cultural and social welfare organizations dependent on private philanthropy.
Writing in Wednesday’s Washington Post (“A Deduction From Charity “), Martin Feldstein, the estimable professor of economics at Harvard and president emeritus of the National Bureau of Economic Research, described the magnitude of the change proposed in President Obama’s plan to limit the tax deductibility of charitable contributions.
Basically, the proposal will “effectively transfer more than $7 billion a year from the nation’s charitable institutions to the federal government.”
Moreover, the high-income taxpayers who are the supposed target of this measure “are likely to cut their charitable giving by as much as the increase in their tax bills, which would, ironically, leave their remaining income and personal consumption unchanged.”
The Center on Philanthropy at Indiana University predicts a decline in giving of 2.1 percent, with donations by the highest-income households reducing their giving by 4.8 percent or $3.87 billion.
“In effect, the change would be a tax on the charities, reducing their receipts by a dollar for every dollar of extra revenue the government collects,” says a mystified Professor Feldstein. “I suspect that the administration officials who drafted this proposal did not understand that it would have this perverse effect.”
Neither does President Obama. In his press conference this week, he claimed, “I mean, if you look at the evidence — there’s very little evidence that this has a significant impact on charitable giving.”
The new tax change would apply to those undeserving married couples earning more than $250,000 (and single people earning more than $200,000). You know who you are.
As Feldstein explains, a high-end earner paying a 35 percent marginal tax rate now lowers his or her tax bill by 35 cents on every dollar contributed to a charitable organization. Evidently, the economic literature indicates that, on average, every 10 percent reduction in the cost of giving raises the amount that a person gives by about an equal percentage. So, again, the high earner increases his or her donation by 35 percent, given a 35 percent deduction.
The kill-joys at the White House and Treasury would limit the amount the high-income earners can deduct to 28 percent. “This raises the cost per dollar of giving from 65 cents to 72 cents” or 10.8 percent, thereby reducing total giving by such donors by nearly 10 percent.
Feldstein plays around with the numbers to show how this all works out in practice to the detriment of the prospective charity that is dependent on voluntary donations. He calculates that by 2011, the year the Obama administration plans to implement this new tax rule, private giving would decline by more than $7 billion. And this is on top of the losses sustained by most charities due to a collapsing stock portfolio.
Feldstein, a world-class economist sticks to his knitting — to a fault. He does not raise the fundamental philosophic question that should also be part of this debate over the tax code and private charity. Specifically, how do we as a nation weigh the balance between a free and independent society and culture versus an ever-growing, interventionist government that now intrudes into every aspect of private existence and, most notably, the economy?
Tocqueville prized America’s preference for voluntary associations because it provided a balance, a corrective to overweening government and allowed for the attainment of common goals through the collaboration and hard work of private individuals, families, and communities, free to pursue their own vision of the good life. Government was a necessary, but hardly sufficient condition for the good life.
TODAY’S GOSPEL
|
John 8: 1 – 11
|
|
| 1 | but Jesus went to the Mount of Olives. |
| 2 | Early in the morning he came again to the temple; all the people came to him, and he sat down and taught them. |
| 3 | The scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in adultery, and placing her in the midst |
| 4 | they said to him, “Teacher, this woman has been caught in the act of adultery. |
| 5 | Now in the law Moses commanded us to stone such. What do you say about her?” |
| 6 | This they said to test him, that they might have some charge to bring against him. Jesus bent down and wrote with his finger on the ground. |
| 7 | And as they continued to ask him, he stood up and said to them, “Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her.” |
| 8 | And once more he bent down and wrote with his finger on the ground. |
| 9 | But when they heard it, they went away, one by one, beginning with the eldest, and Jesus was left alone with the woman standing before him. |
| 10 | Jesus looked up and said to her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?” |
| 11 | She said, “No one, Lord.” And Jesus said, “Neither do I condemn you; go, and do not sin again.” |
Homily of the Day: Don’t Waste Time Getting Angry About Other People’s Faults
By Monsignor Dennis Clark, Ph.D., Catholic Exchange, March 30th, 2009
Dn 13:1-9, 15-17, 19-30, 33-62 or 13:41c-62 / Jn 8:1-11
As a father was putting his six-year-old to bed, he tapped the little boy’s chest, “Do you know what you have in there?” he asked.
“My guts?” responded the child.
“No,” said the dad, “You have a piece of God in there. It’s God’s gift and it’s inside all of us.”
“Do you have a piece of God in your heart?” asked boy.
“Yes, son.”
“What about mommy, does she have a piece of God?”
“She does, too.”
Then dad reminded his son of Mildred, a truly rotten kid in his kindergarten class. ”Even Mildred has a piece of God.”
This stunned the boy, “No, not Mildred!” When his father insisted, the boy said, “Daddy, I know her better than you do. She doesn’t have a piece of God!” But dad insisted, till finally the boy gave in, shaking his head, “Well, her piece must be all covered up with junk!”
+ + +
All covered up with junk! That’s often the case. But Jesus could always see through the junk and find deep inside every heart a tiny reflection of His Father’s face. And that’s what He did in today’s gospel, when that young woman was caught in the act of adultery and was about to be stoned to death. He saw her sin — and this wasn’t her first time — but hidden underneath it He saw His Father’s face imprinted on her soul. (That mark said she was God’s child.) He saw her longing for happiness, for love, for a life. And He saw what she might yet become with a little help, with a second chance.
Then He looked at all those men, many of them old customers of hers, yet all with big stones in their hands, ready to erase her life without a second thought. Jesus saw past all that junk too, and there, engraved on their souls, too was His father’s face. They too were marked as God’s children. And in their souls were all the same hopes and longings, for life and happiness, for love and peace. And He saw what they too might become — with a second chance.
So He ignored their legal question and cut to the chase: “Let him who is without sin, cast the first stone!” He wasn’t attacking them. He was inviting them to stop wasting their time being angry about the bad or stupid things other people do, and instead to look inward, see the truth about themselves, see the junk that was covering up the face of God inside them, and then to get rid of that junk. He was offering them a second chance.
What happens when a second chance is accepted? A grateful heart happens, a heart that knows how lucky it is, that knows how to wait patiently and, at the right time, extend a hand to others in whose hearts the face of God is covered with junk too.
Jesus showed us how to do this and why we need to. Now it’s our turn to walk in His footsteps, to put down our big stones, extend our hands and help one another lift away the junk that burdens every soul, till at last God’s smile may shine bright on every face — on your face and mine.
TODAY’S SAINT: ST. JOHN CLIMACUS
St. John Climacus was born around the year 525 in Palestine. As a youth, he excelled in his studies and was highly regarded by his peers for his knowledge. At the age of sixteen, John decided to leave the world and retired to a hermitage near the base of Mount Sinai. For the next four years, John spent his time in prayer, fasting, meditation and discernment in preparing to take solemn vows to the religious life. Through the direction of Martyrius John curbed his vices and worked to perfect his virtues.
After professing his solemn vows, John began to spend more of his time studying scriptures and the early fathers of the Church. He became very knowledgeable in these subjects but his humility caused him to hide his talents and not presume to share them with others. Near the end of his life, he was encouraged to share his knowledge with others and wrote the “Climax” also known as “The Ladder of Paradise.” This work was a collection of sayings and examples to illustrate how to live the monastic life. From this work, he received the name Climacus, a derivative from the Latin root for climax or ladder.
As John progressed in years and wisdom, many of the religious living on Mount Sinai began to seek his advice in spiritual matters. He freely offered his advice and was highly regarded for his wisdom and holiness. Around the year 600 the abbot of all the religious in the region of Mount Sinai died and John was chosen to replace him. John ruled until his death in 605 and always tried to lead through his own example.
A Shepherd’s Message: A CALL TO ACTION!
By Daniel Cardinal DiNardo, March 13, 2009
EXCERPT: …..My column this week deals with a series of different “issues”, but they can all be subsumed under one major reality: the infinite worth of every human person……
…..In recent weeks, President Obama’s administration has made a number of decisions about human personal life that are disturbing.
- Last month, the President ended the Mexico City Policy which had forbidden use of federal funds to those groups that promote abortion in other countries.
- The Administration withdrew Freedom of Conscience Provisions for doctors and other health care workers for further review, a move that is ominous for those in health care who have personal conscience reasons for refusing to cooperate in moral evil.
- Last week, the President nominated Governor Sebelius of Kansas as Director for Health and Human Services Department; she has been a rather strident advocate for abortion and even received a rebuke from her Archbishop in Kansas City after he tried to work with her privately on her views for some months. In her Cabinet position she will have power to propose and enforce laws and enact policy on matters of human life.
- Further, it was announced this week that the ban on federal funding for embryonic stem cell research would be lifted, a move that the Holy See has vigorously criticized as gravely immoral, since the “research” involves the destruction of human embryos to obtain the cell lines for research.
All these moves are deeply troubling and undo even the minimal safeguards that have been put into legislation over the last 20 years to provide protection for unborn human life. Because this is a primary human rights issue, it is necessary to make clear our concerns to Congress and to the Administration. I suggest that you write to your local members of Congress and to the Administration. (There is a pro-life e-mail campaign ongoing. You might want to look at the USCCB website for further information at http://www.usccb.org/prolife/issues/FOCA/index.shtml.)
We must respond to these threats with clarity and energy……
SOURCE: http://www.diogh.org/BishopPastorals/bishops_dinardo_recent.asp
-
RELATED INFORMATION:
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has opened a 30-day window between March 10 and April 9 to accept comments on the administration’s intention to rescind the conscience protections.
Comments may be submitted electronically on the Web site http://www.regulations.gov/search/index.jsp (by entering 0991-AB49 in the search box) or sent by e-mail to proposedrescission@hhs.gov.
Written comments — which, if mailed, need to be submitted in triplicate —may also be sent to the:
Office of Public Health and Science
Department of Health and Human Services
Attention: Rescission Proposal Comments
Hubert H. Humphrey Building
200 Independence Ave. SW, Room 716G
Washington, DC 20201.A fitting message would be: “Please retain the conscience regulation, and enforce the laws protecting the right of health care providers to serve patients without violating their moral and religious convictions. The government has a special responsibility to ensure that the conscience rights of health care providers are fully protected.”
Desperate Times Call for Great Leaders. Dan Hannan Is One Such Man. Is There a Dan Hannan in the U.S.?
….Desperate times call for great leaders like Daniel Hannan . . . It has become rather clear that both the standard press and the Labor Party are feeling threatened by the sensation that Dan Hannan’s broadside against Gordon Brown MP has caused. He speaks for many Britons fed up with a prime minister who was not even elected to lead the country but appointed by the leadership of the Labor Party . . . What is most interesting, and should be a worry to both President Obama and the Republican Party, is the fact that Hannan’s words struck a deep chord with many Americans as well…..
Unless you have been living under a rock or only have access to left-wing media, you might have heard about Dan Hannan. He is the MEP from Southern England who has become an internet sensation for his polite but pugilistic takedown of British Prime Minister Gordon Brown while he was visiting the European Parliament.
Completely ignored by the British media for almost 48 hours after it first appeared on UK blogs and trans-Atlantic ones like mine, the video of Hannan’s takedown is finally starting to get noticed by the British media. Upset by getting beat to the story by Fox News, Drudge, and quite a few other right-of-center blogs in the U.S., the British media is in full trashing mode. The most egregious effort so far is this biased trashing of Hannan by Channel 4 in the UK. Most amusing to those in the know about the YouTube sensation caused by the video is the fact that Channel 4 manages to get the amount of views the clip has been getting wrong by a factor of 50% x 10. Instead of mentioning that it was up to over 800,000 views at the time of the broadcast, Peter Snow said it had slightly more than 40,000. It has today broken the million views barrier. Was it a complete cock-up or a deliberately misleading comment? You take a look and be the judge.
1,578,345 views
Meanwhile, the BBC has barely managed to mention it at all. The network has been keen to stress the rather pathetic attempts by Labor’s Derek Draper, who appears on the Channel 4 piece, and MP Tom Harris, who has this to say:
What was truly repugnant about his speech was the total absence of any sense of patriotism. … Gordon Brown isn’t just Labour’s prime minister; he’s Britain’s prime minister, and for any UK politician to launch such a disgraceful, personal attack on his country’s leader — in a foreign country — is nothing short of disgraceful.
It has become rather clear that both the standard press and the Labor Party are feeling threatened by the sensation that Dan Hannan’s broadside against Gordon Brown MP has caused. He speaks for many Britons fed up with a prime minister who was not even elected to lead the country but appointed by the leadership of the Labor Party.
Hannan used a nautical theme for part of the speech:
Other ships used the good years to caulk their hulls and clear up their rigging — in other words, to pay off debt — but you used the good years to raise borrowing yet further. As a consequence, under your captaincy, our hull is pressed deep into the water line, under the accumulated weight of your debt.
What is most interesting, and should be a worry to both President Obama and the Republican Party, is the fact that Hannan’s words struck a deep chord with many Americans as well. Twitter and the Internet have been alight with people praising Dan Hannan’s appearance on Neil Cavuto’s show, even forgiving him his kind words about Obama’s candidacy. He also appeared on Sean Hannity’s show and several other U.S. programs.
This was something that many of us on the right, both in the UK and the U.S., took Hannan to task for during the lead up to the election. I was dumbfounded that such an ardent opponent of socialism and someone hewn from the same rock as Thatcher could be praising Obama.
I consider him a friend from the heady days of young adult, right-of-center politics in the UK. He, like me, is one of Thatcher’s children who spent much of the early 90s trying to get the Conservative Party to remain Thatcherite and not drift off toward the limp middle as it did under Major and subsequent leaders (sound familiar?). After his graduation from Oxford, Hannan was a regular at meetings, dinners of varying sizes, and social events in London sponsored by groups like the National Association of Conservative Graduates and the Conservative Way Forward. Young Conservatives in London lost a great talent when he went off to Brussels as an MEP. In Hannan, the European Parliament gained a permanent anti-federalist burr who would oppose its desires for continued encroachment on national powers and for micro-managing control.
We have to console ourselves that Douglas Carswell, a good friend of his and co-author of Hannan’s recent book The Plan, managed to get by the “wets” (British RINOs) and get elected to Parliament. In the book, Hannan & Carswell set out a vision for what a Conservative government should look like.
Rest assured that there are many conservatives in the UK who would like to see the next Conservative government led by Dan Hannan with Dougles Carswell as his chancellor, rather than the current lot that leads the centrist Conservative Party.
Needless to say, to hear Hannan described as “unknown,” “obscure,” or “up and coming” by the media on both sides of the Atlantic causes a bit of a snicker. Those who closely observed Hannan over the last decade or more saw him as a highflier yet to achieve his potential. Even those in the Conservative Party who did not share his Thatcherite/libertarian views knew he was going places from the first time they heard him speak.
His style reminds us of Disreali, Churchill, and Reagan — speakers greatly missed by lovers of good rhetoric. This is apt, as Hannan is as likely to quote from Reagan, Goldwater, Lincoln, or Jefferson as he is from great British leaders of the past.
The speech — which was heartfelt and passionate yet polite and dignified — reminded all of us what a great leader, rhetorician, and parliamentarian Dan Hannan is. There were calls from some for him to be leader during the last leadership election. On the basis of this latest episode, the clamor next time will be even greater.
And if the British Conservatives continue to fail to appreciate the man, I am sure that there are plenty of desperate conservative Americans who would welcome him with open arms as a new American citizen.
Desperate times call for great leaders. Dan Hannan is one such man.
TODAY’S SAINT: ST. JOSEPH OF ARIMATHEA
CATHOLIC NEWS AGENCY, MARCH 29, 2009
St. Joseph of Arimathea is a disciple of Jesus Christ who is mentioned several times in the Gospels and is mentioned in each account of the Passion narrative. After the Passion of the Lord, Joseph, a member of the Jewish council went to Pilate and asked for possession of the body of Jesus. After receiving this permission, Joseph had Jesus laid out in a new nearby tomb, some gospels say that this tomb was cut for Joseph.
The Gospels tell us that Joseph was a just and devout man waiting for the kingdom of God. He followed Jesus’ public ministry but feared the repercussions from the other members of the Jewish council and did not openly support Jesus.
Tim Geitner….What Constitution??? Michele Bachmann Peels Away the Onion!!!
Congresswoman Bachmann Questions Geithner & Bernanke About A Global Currency
From Democracy to Despotism! This Is A Call to Action!
Fr. Roger J. Landry
The Anchor
Editorial
March 27, 2009
Over the last few decades, our society has made great progress against discrimination and harassment in the work place. The rights that flow from workers’ human dignity have been increasingly secured in law so that now those who discriminate or harass, rather than their victims, are the ones at risk for losing their jobs, money and freedom.
This progress in protecting workers’ rights that our country has made puts into even greater relief how retrograde and dishonorable are the Obama administration’s recently announced plans to strip health care employees of conscience protections in the workplace.
The President of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, Cardinal Francis George of Chicago, last week called attention to the troubling significance of the Obama administration’s intentions. Never known as one to engage in hyperbole, Cardinal George declared in a video statement that the administration’s proposed action “would be the first step in moving our country from democracy to despotism.” His stark and unexaggerated language shows the seriousness with which this matter should be taken by all who care about our country, our freedoms, and the consciences of our health care workers.
“On Friday afternoon, February 27,” Cardinal George described in his statement, “the Obama Administration placed on a federal website the news that it intends to remove a conscience protection rule for the Department of Health and Human Services. That rule is one part of the range of legal protections for health care workers—for doctors, nurses and others—who have objections in conscience to being involved in abortion and other killing procedures that are against how they live their faith in God. …
“We are deeply concerned that such an action on the government’s part would be the first step in moving our country from democracy to despotism. Respect for personal conscience and freedom of religion as such ensures our basic freedom from government oppression. No government should come between an individual person and God—that’s what America is supposed to be about. This is the true common ground for us as Americans. We therefore need legal protection for freedom of conscience and of religion—including freedom for religious health care institutions to be true to themselves.”
Cardinal George next expanded upon the un-American nature of the Obama administration’s proposal. “Conscientious objection against many actions is a part of our life. We have a conscientious objection against war for those who cannot fight, even though it’s good to defend your country. We have a conscientious objection for doctors against being involved in administering the death penalty. Why shouldn’t our government and our legal system permit conscientious objection to a morally bad action, the killing of babies in their mother’s womb? People understand what really happens in an abortion and in related procedures—a living member of the human family is killed, that’s what it’s all about—and no one should be forced by the government to act as though he or she were blind to this reality.”
He finally appealed to you — and all citizens and Catholics— to get involved by letting the Obama administration know that this is not the type of change that we support. “I ask you please to let the government know that you want conscience protections to remain strongly in place. In particular, let the Department of Health and Human Services in Washington know that you stand for the protection of conscience, especially now for those who provide the health care services so necessary for a good society.”
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has opened a 30-day window between March 10 and April 9 to accept comments on the administration’s intention to rescind the conscience protections.
Comments may be submitted electronically on the Web site www.Regulations.gov (by entering 0991-AB49 in the search box) or sent by e-mail to proposedrescission@hhs.gov. Written comments — which, if mailed, need to be submitted in triplicate —may also be sent to the Office of Public Health and Science, Department of Health and Human Services, Attention: Rescission Proposal Comments, Hubert H. Humphrey Building, 200 Independence Ave. SW, Room 716G, Washington, DC 20201. A fitting message would be: “Please retain the conscience regulation, and enforce the laws protecting the right of health care providers to serve patients without violating their moral and religious convictions. The government has a special responsibility to ensure that the conscience rights of health care providers are fully protected.”
In a recent article, Susan Wills, the assistant director for education and outreach for the Pro-Life Secretariat of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, provided some background for the outrageous nature of the intended move by the Obama administration. “The right of conscience is recognized in the U.S. Constitution, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the World Medical Association’s Code of Medical Ethics, and in 47 states, laws protect the conscience rights of healthcare providers. … Given the universality and history of the right of conscience among free peoples, it is shocking that the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and others have sued to overturn regulations implementing long-standing federal laws enacted to protect the conscience rights of healthcare professionals and institutions.
By seeking to rescind the federal regulations, Wills continued, “the ACLU is taking aim at three federal laws. Congress enacted the ‘Church Amendment’ immediately after the Roe v. Wade decision to ensure that health care professionals and hospitals would not be coerced into involvement in abortions or sterilizations. The Coats Amendment was enacted over a decade ago to nullify the attempt by the medical accreditation council to coerce medical schools into training ob-gyn residents in abortion procedures. Since 2004 the Weldon Amendment has prevented governmental discrimination against healthcare entities on account of the entity’s refusal to ‘provide, pay for, provide coverage of, or refer for abortions.’”
The regulation the Obama administration intends to rescind puts teeth into all three of these congressionally-passed protections. By taking the regulation off the books, all of these defenses would remain unenforced.
Why would the Obama administration propose to do this? Wills answered, “Despite all their talk of ‘choice,’ the abortion industry and its supporters are determined to eliminate the choice of medical professionals and entities to not become accomplices in killing unborn boys and girls. Despite all their talk about ‘privacy,’ the abortion industry and its supporters are determined to trample on healthcare professionals’ innermost zone of privacy, that ‘secret core and sanctuary’ known as conscience. It is no longer enough, in their eyes, that women and girls can obtain potentially abortifacient drugs in virtually every pharmacy in the U.S. or that women and girls can have abortions on request in every city where there’s a profit to be had. They will not rest until every pharmacy, hospital, healthcare provider, and taxpayer collaborates in the culture of death.”
Wills said in summary, “A hallmark of free nations is the recognition of the individual’s freedom of conscience. Tyrant states do not protect conscience; they strangle it.” After for decades treating those who are younger and weaker as if they were non-persons, now the abortion industry and its political enablers in Washington want to treat those who disagree with them as second-class citizens, giving them a choice between following their conscience or keeping their jobs.
The stakes for our country involve more than keeping those who respect life in the healing professions. As Cardinal George points out, once our government begins to force those who wish to keep their jobs to violate their consciences and do what they know is evil, we are no longer dealing with a limited government, but rather with a despotic one. And with a despotic government, none of our rights is safe.
Now is the time for Catholics and all people of good will to get involved.
The Sunday Homily: Living Our Lives for Others
, March 27, 2009
A long time ago, there was a man who played piano in a bar. He was a good piano player. People came from all over just to hear him play. But one night, a patron told him he didn’t want to hear him just play anymore. He wanted him to sing a song. The popular piano player said, “I don’t sing.”
The happiest and most remarkable people that I have known throughout my life are those who are totally selfless.
Great things: ideas, beliefs, cultures have lived because men and women have decided to die for causes greater then themselves. The countless martyrs of the Catholic Church give witness to the multitude of selfless people, young and old, who have given themselves to the cause of Christ and his Church. Where would the Church be today without the blood of the martyrs? Martyrs are selfless people who believe in a cause greater than themselves.
However, there lies a deeper reality in these heroes of the Church. They are able to believe in something bigger than themselves precisely because they have first died to themselves. They have died to their comfort, to their laziness and to their personal ambitions. Only the selfless, only those who have truly died to themselves, become useful instruments of God.
When a person is truly empty of self, God can take full possession of that person and do marvelous and powerful things. Only the authentic disciple of Jesus who has truly died to self can truly possess the fullness of divine grace. The more we die to self, the more Jesus can take over.
“Amen, amen I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains just a grain of wheat; but if it dies, it produces much fruit. Whoever loves his life loses it, and whoever hates his life in this world will preserve it for eternal life”.
To die to self is not an easy endeavor. Death is always painful. Sometimes we will want to hold on to an idea, a place, a particular sin, or a bad relationship. Inherent in all transformation, change, conversion, is destruction. The grain of wheat must fall to the ground and die.
As a priest, I have seen many people make radical changes in their lives. In order to bring about the desired change, something had to end. Some young people have had to terminate a relationship in order to live a life of chastity. Others have taken all of their CD’s and thrown them in the garbage in order to stay away from satanic rock music.
Once I told a penitent who had a terrible problem with pornography that as a penance he must go home and throw into the garbage all of his magazines. Would it have been as helpful just to say, “For your penance recite three Hail Mary’s?” To bring about new life, the grain of wheat has to fall to the ground and die.
When disciples of Jesus Christ truly die to self, they become the most happy, most hard working, most dynamic and most productive people of any enterprise. They are the moms and dads rearing happy families, the priests nurturing spiritually alive parishes, and the religious and lay leaders engaging in fruitful apostolates.
Just imagine what this world would have lost had there not been men and women determined to die to self and forget their personal safety, security and ambition. Where would we be without the great doctors, nurses, policemen, firefighters, school teachers, wise political leaders, and the heroic men and women of the military?
Moreover, it is true that those people who give themselves to God and to others unconditionally remain young and vibrant. They go on through life filled with enthusiasm because they are in love with life. They are imbued with a cause that is greater than themselves.
I am amazed at times when I see people who look much older, but in fact are much younger than I am. They seem to live purposeless lives, to vegetate, to do nothing with the talents that God has given to them. I cannot live my life in such a way. I prefer to drag my tired body through life and be of service to God and to others, rather than live an aimless and dreary existence.
“Whoever loves his life loses it, and whoever hates his life in this world will preserve it for eternal life”.
What a shock! What a shame! If he had only known he was building his own house, he would have done it all so differently. Now he had to live in the home he had built so poorly.[iii]
How can this essential dimension of Christianity either begin or continue to flourish in your life? The answer is this: to center your life on the Eucharist. Bread comes from the crushed wheat that is ground to become flour. Wine comes from the grapes that are crushed together and the seeds are removed. The bread and the wine that becomes Jesus for us have gone through death and destruction. But, it is through death and destruction that we have the presence of eternal life in the tabernacle of every Catholic Church throughout the world.
“Amen, amen I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains just a grain of wheat; but if it dies, it produces much fruit. Whoever loves his life loses it, and whoever hates his life in this world will preserve it for eternal life”
[i] http://www.inspirationalstories.com/6/644.html
[ii] http://www.sermonillustrations.com/a-z/s/self_sacrifice.htm
Homily: http://fjicthus.blogspot.com/
Jury Declares Abortionist Tiller Not Guilty of Illegal Late-Term Abortions
By Kathleen Gilbert and John Jalsevac, March 27, 2009, LifeSiteNews.com
WICHITA, Kansas – A Kansas jury has declared late-term abortionist George Tiller not guilty on 19 counts of performing illegal late-term abortions.
Tiller was accused of breaking a non-affiliation law that required an independent doctor to sign off on late-term abortions, verifying that the abortions are needed to save the life of the mother or avoid major bodily harm. The prosecution alleged that Tiller’s close association with abortionist Ann Kristin Neuhaus, to whom Tiller regularly sent patients to receive the requisite second opinion, turned Tiller’s facility into a “one-stop shop” for abortions.
During closing arguments today, Assistant Attorney General Barry Disney made the case that, based on Tiller’s own notes and on his own words during the trial, he and abortionist Ann Kristin Neuhaus were financially affiliated, in violation of the law. Disney pointed to evidence and testimony that Tiller consulted on Neuhaus’ fee and approved the final amount. Disney reminded the jury that, on several occasions, Tiller referred to Neuhaus as working for him, and talked about her “joining” his organization.
Attorneys for Tiller, Dan Monnat and Lee Thompson, however, tried to minimize Tiller’s characterizations of the relationship as “slips of the tongue.” They accused Disney of engaging in a political prosecution.
Cheryl Sullenger, Senior Policy Advisor for Operation Rescue (OR), said that while OR was disappointed by the verdict, they were “far from surprised.”
“We must remember that these are the weakest charges that could have been brought by the state,” said Sullenger. “There were thirty criminal charges filed by former Attorney General Phill Kline, which were much stronger that were dismissed on jurisdictional grounds without having been considered on their merits.”
OR president Troy Newman issued a statement lamenting that, “Justice has been denied.”
“While disappointed in the verdict, we at Operation Rescue are not deterred in our commitment to one day bring Tiller to justice,” said Newman. “The 19 charges that Tiller faces were only a small fraction of the illegal activity that we believe and have documented that occurs at Tiller’s Wichita abortion clinic.
“On behalf of the pre-born children wrongly killed by Tiller and his associates, we vow to press on until Tiller is finally held accountable to the law and his late-term abortion mill is permanently closed.”
See related LifeSiteNews.com coverage:
Tiller Update 3: Closing Arguments Scheduled for Early Friday after Tiller Admits Alleged Illegal Associate “Worked” for Him
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2009/mar/09032607.html
Tiller Trial Update 2: Tiller Takes the Stand after Alleged Partner Neuhaus Declared Hostile Witness
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2009/mar/09032513.html
Tiller Trial Update: Abortionist Offers “Conflicting” Statements on Tiller Relationship
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2009/mar/09032411.html
Houston Cardinal Nicholas DiNardo Becomes Highest Ranking Official, 4th Bishop to Condemn Notre Dame Scandal
….“Particularly troubling is the Honorary Law Degree since it recognizes that the person is a ‘Teacher,’ in this case of the Law. I think that this decision requires charitable but vigorous critique.”….
By Kathleen Gilbert, March 27, 2009, LifeSiteNews.com
American Cardinal Nicholas DiNardo has criticized the decision of the Catholic University of Notre Dame to honor President Barack Obama by inviting him to be this year’s commencement speaker and awarding him with an honorary doctorate. The Cardinal said that the “disappointing” invitation “requires charitable but vigorous critique.”
The Cardinal’s remarks constitute the highest-ranking criticism yet from a member of the Catholic Church hierarchy against the University’s decision. So far three other American bishops have criticized the invitation, including the bishop of the diocese where Notre Dame is located, Bishop John D’Arcy.
In his weekly “Shepherd’s Message” column, published today in the print edition of the Texas Catholic Herald, and reprinted on the Whispers in the Loggia blog, Cardinal DiNardo says, “I find the invitation very disappointing.
“Though I can understand the desire by a university to have the prestige of a commencement address by the President of the United States, the fundamental moral issue of the inestimable worth of the human person from conception to natural death is a principle that soaks all our lives as Catholics, and all our efforts at formation, especially education at Catholic places of higher learning.”
The president, says the cardinal, “has made clear by word and deed that he will promote abortion and will remove even those limited sanctions that control this act of violence against the human person.”
Referring to a 2004 directive by U.S. bishops that Catholic schools not honor or give platform to politicians who favor abortion, the cardinal noted, “Even given the dignity of the Office of the President, this offer is still providing a platform and an award to a public figure who has been candid on his pro-abortion views.
“Particularly troubling is the Honorary Law Degree since it recognizes that the person is a ‘Teacher,’ in this case of the Law. I think that this decision requires charitable but vigorous critique.”
For a list of contact information regarding the Notre Dame scandal, go to: http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2009/mar/09032706.html
See related LifeSiteNews.com coverage:
Bishop Olmsted: Notre Dame’s Obama Honor “Public Act of Disobedience to U.S. Bishops”
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2009/mar/09032605.html
Notre Dame’s Bishop Will Not Attend Obama-Honoring Graduation, Criticizes University’s Decision
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2009/mar/09032408.html
Petition against Obama’s Notre Dame Honor Skyrockets Past 103,000 Signatures in Four Days
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2009/mar/09032410.html
Notre Dame Faces Groundswell of Outrage after Announcing Plan to Honor Obama
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2009/mar/09032312.html
Notre Dame President: School “Honored” by Obama’s Acceptance to Speak and Receive Honorary Degree
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2009/mar/09032306.html
Catholic Notre Dame University to Give Obama Honorary Degree on May 17, Against USCCB Policy
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2009/mar/09032005.html
TODAY’S GOSPEL
|
John 7: 40 – 53
|
|
| 40 | When they heard these words, some of the people said, “This is really the prophet.” |
| 41 | Others said, “This is the Christ.” But some said, “Is the Christ to come from Galilee? |
| 42 | Has not the scripture said that the Christ is descended from David, and comes from Bethlehem, the village where David was?” |
| 43 | So there was a division among the people over him. |
| 44 | Some of them wanted to arrest him, but no one laid hands on him. |
| 45 | The officers then went back to the chief priests and Pharisees, who said to them, “Why did you not bring him?” |
| 46 | The officers answered, “No man ever spoke like this man!” |
| 47 | The Pharisees answered them, “Are you led astray, you also? |
| 48 | Have any of the authorities or of the Pharisees believed in him? |
| 49 | But this crowd, who do not know the law, are accursed.” |
| 50 | Nicode’mus, who had gone to him before, and who was one of them, said to them, |
| 51 | “Does our law judge a man without first giving him a hearing and learning what he does?” |
| 52 | They replied, “Are you from Galilee too? Search and you will see that no prophet is to rise from Galilee.” |
| 53 | They went each to his own house, |
Homily of the Day: What Are You Afraid of Letting Go?
By Monsignor Dennis Clark, Ph.D., Catholic Exchange, March 28th, 2009
Jer 31:31-34 / Heb 5:7-9 / Jn 12:20-33
In the late 1800s, there was a wealthy English philanthropist named Jeremy Bentham. In his will, he left a fortune to a London hospital. But there was one odd condition to the bequest: The hospital could keep the money only so long as Bentham was present at every board meeting.
So for over 100 years, the remains of Jeremy Bentham were wheeled into the board room every month and placed at the head of the table. And for over 100 years, the minutes of every board meeting included a line which read, “Mr. Jeremy Bentham, present but not voting.”
+ + +
How many of us does that describe? Present, but not voting — just there.
Every life worth living, every great work, has a price that has to be paid. And whatever that price is, it always involves letting go of something we value. That’s what Jesus is telling us with his parable about the seed. Every seed has a miracle locked up inside it: It has the capacity to become a noble tree or a gorgeous flower or a tasty meal for someone. But it can’t become any of those things if it stays on the shelf in its nice, dry little envelope. It has to let go of that comfortable spot and get down into the dirt where it’s dark and damp. It has to let go of being a little seed, if the miracle is to happen.
Such is life for us all, even for Jesus. To complete his work, he had to let go of everything, even his very life.
Letting go takes different shapes for each of us. For the battered wife or the man who’s grown hopelessly stale in his job, it may mean letting go of security and status, and moving on. For the couple whose marriage is foundering, it may mean staying put but letting go of old habits and ideas that have got in the way. In every case, clinging to things as they are and refusing to let go will inevitably rob us of life and steal away our joy — all because we’re afraid of losing what we have, though it may be as tiny and insignificant as a seed.
Knowing when and what to let go is not easy. And finding the courage to do it is even harder. Only one thing makes it possible: Our connectedness to the Lord, who will help us see ourselves clearly through his eyes, and then help us act with his strength.
God wants us to have life and joy to the full. And lest we miss the best parts of life, he is challenging us to ask ourselves a simple question: What am I clinging to that is robbing me of life? What am I afraid of letting go? There’s an important answer if we ask the question and then listen carefully.
So ask the question now and don’t be afraid. He is standing right beside you.
TODAY’S SAINT: ST. SIXTUS III, POPE
Born at Rome, Italy
Papal Ascension July 31, 432 (44th Pope)
Died August 18, 440 of natural causes
Approved the results of the Council of Ephesus. Corresponded extensively with St. Augustine of Hippo. Fought Nestorianism and Pelagianism. Restored several Roman basilicas. Defended the supremacy of the pope over local bishops, and over Illyria which the emperor wanted to transfer to the control of Constantinople.
“Rebuild My Church!” – Do We Have a Modern Day St. Francis?
“Looking at the Crisis with Catholic Faith”, Fr. Roger J. Landry, Sacramento, California, December 10, 2003
EXCERPT: …..“Francis, rebuild my house!” This appeal to the young povorello of Assisi is now being addressed to each of us. “Rebuild my house!”
St. Francis led the way for the entire Church to come back to Christ, by following him in minute detail, he who was chaste, who obeyed God unto death on a Cross, who was so poor he didn’t even have a pillow to lay his head. St. Francis’ enthusiastic following of the Lord, his own example of holiness, led to a tremendous rebirth in the Church as a whole, as people desired holiness once again and saw that it was possible.
This is a time in which all of us need to focus ever more on holiness. We’re called to be saints and how urgently our society here needs to see this beautiful, radiant face of the Church again. You’re part of the solution, a crucial part of the solution. This scandal can be something that can lead you down to the path of spiritual suicide, or it can be something that can inspire you to say, finally, “I want to become a saint, I want to follow you all the way, Jesus, I want to become fully who you created me to be.”
Jesus is with us, as he promised, until the end of time. He’s still in the boat, telling us to be not afraid, to trust in him, to put out into the deep water with him and lower our nets for a catch. Just as out of Judas’ betrayal, he achieved the greatest victory in world history, our salvation through his passion, death and resurrection, so out of this he may bring, and wants to bring, a new rebirth of holiness, a new Acts of the Apostles for the 21st century, with each of us — and that includes YOU — playing a starring role. Now’s the time for real men and women of the Church to stand up. Now’s the time for saints. How do you respond?
Touchdown Obama
….Obama can not only thwart the Church at every crucial turn and still retain the Catholic vote; he can even expect over the next few years prizes and pats on the back from Catholic colleges for doing so . . . somehow Obama’s formal cooperation in the injustice of destroying innocent lives just isn’t so bad…..
The Catholic Church in America has bred her own destroyers, graduating from doctrinally corrupt catechetical programs, schools and colleges two generations of pro-abortion politicians. Barack Obama, in his effortless Alinskyite style, has exploited this phenomenon to the hilt, seeking out Catholics such as Joe Biden and Kathleen Sebelius to serve as his agents of destruction.
The controversy this week at Notre Dame is one more snapshot of this self-implosion. Here we have the American bishops’ most prominent university planning to confer an honorary degree upon Obama even as he accelerates the destruction of its moral teachings.
Were Saul Alinsky alive today, he would have to smile at the ease of it all. Obama can not only thwart the Church at every crucial turn and still retain the Catholic vote; he can even expect over the next few years prizes and pats on the back from Catholic colleges for doing so.
Jesuit Georgetown University is no doubt itching to honor him too; its professors ranked seventh among all university faculties in donations to Obama during the campaign, reported the Chronicle of Higher Education. The Jesuit magazine America and Jesuit Thomas Reese rushed to Notre Dame’s defense this week.
Perhaps Obama enthusiast/fellow Alinskyite Father Michael Pfleger can travel over from Chicago for ND’s commencement exercises to fill in for the boycotting Fort Wayne-South Bend Bishop John D’Arcy.
To his credit, D’Arcy, a long and lonely opponent of Notre Dame’s secularization, wants no part in the sham, correctly noting that the school is once again panting after “prestige” at the expense of “truth.” Four decades of surrendering to secularist culture and championing progressive politics at Notre Dame have culminated in an honorary degree to the most pro-abortion president ever.
Responding to this criticism, its president, Father John Jenkins, has had to dust off the “dialogue” defense from the recent Vagina Monologues controversy on campus to justify his decision.
Out rolled from the president’s office the familiar cart of clichés. “You cannot change the world if you shun the people you want to persuade, and if you cannot persuade them…show respect for them and listen to them,” Jenkins was quoted as saying.
What’s the logic here? To dialogue with a public figure a school has to confer an honorary degree upon him? This makes no sense, but it is the kind of head-faking non sequiter that appeals to Jenkins.
Just as he twisted the Vagina Monologues controversy into a beside-the-point discussion about the value of free speech, so he is casting this recent one as some sort of test of Notre Dame’s commitment to “positive engagement.”
The White House, sensing the drift of this script, joined in the charade, saying in response to the controversy that it welcomes the “spirit of debate and healthy disagreement on important issues.”
Which makes one wonder: When exactly will the debate take place? Before, during or after the commencement exercises? Will it proceed like Jenkins’ “creative contexualization” panel discussions about the Vagina Monologues? Or is Obama’s interest in “healthy disagreement” about as plausible as Jenkins’ notion of “positive engagement”?
Notice also that for additional PR protection Jenkins is playing the race card. “It is of special significance that we will hear from our first African-American president, a person who has spoken eloquently and movingly about race in this nation. Racial prejudice has been a deep wound in America, and Mr. Obama has been a healer,” he was quoted saying this week.
Again, how is this relevant to honorary-degree-conferring from a Catholic university? Does opposing racial injustice absolve supporting other injustices?
Imagine a reverse scenario, say a politician who supported the Church’s moral teachings down the line but had some racist blot in his past. Would Jenkins honor him? No, he woudn’t dare. But somehow Obama’s formal cooperation in the injustice of destroying innocent lives just isn’t so bad.
http://spectator.org/archives/2009/03/27/touchdown-obama
Friday of the Fourth Week of Lent
Catholic Culture, Mar. 27, 2009
“We have been ransomed with the precious blood of Christ, as with the blood of a lamb without blemish of spot (1 Pt 1:19).” Mortification and self-denial are indispensable means of acquiring strength of will and virtuous habits, and of preserving the life of the soul.
According to the 1962 Missal of Bl. John XXIII the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite, today is the feast of St. John Damascene. His feast in the Ordinary Form of the Roman Rite is celebrated on December 4.
Meditation – The Eloquence of Jesus’ Silence
How singularly majestic must have been the eloquence of Jesus, when as a boy He sat among the doctors of the law in the temple, or when He thrilled the multitudes, commanded the winds and waves, and put to flight diseases and demons and death itself! Yet, perhaps nowhere else did the majesty of His eloquence reveal itself, as it did in that heroic calm and consistent silence, which reached its climax in the three hours of His agony.
But what should strike us most forcibly, and yet most sweetly, is the interior silence of Jesus, the silence of His innermost soul and heart, of His human passions, of His feelings and thoughts and fancies. Recall the word of Jesus, that from the heart come forth evil works, bitter zeal, and false testimonies and blasphemies (Matt. 15:19); and then dwell on His own strikingly consistent example of quashing all bitterness and quenching all the fires of passion, and of refraining from impatience, anger, and retaliation, even when tongues all around were busy kindling fires of hateful calumnies against His truest self-knowledge and wounding His livest self-respect.
Hence, pray that you may see deep into the interior soul of Jesus, there to realize the true majesty and marvelous eloquence of the silence of His lips and tongue, the silence which was the fruit of His charity and of the interior peace and perfection of right order that ever reigned within the sanctuary of His heart, the silence which was the precious fruit of the obedience and humility in His absolute abandonment to the mysterious providence of His Father in heaven.
Excerpted from Our Way to the Father, Rev. Leo M. Krenz, S.J.
And the 2009 Margaret Sanger Award Goes to…
….Planned Parenthood’s press release (says) Clinton is being lauded as “a champion of women’s health and rights throughout her public service career.”….
Tony Perkins, Family Research Council, March 26, 2009
Tomorrow in Houston, Texas, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is scheduled to receive Planned Parenthood’s highest honor–the 2009 Margaret Sanger Award. The gala, which takes place down the road from the construction of America’s largest-ever abortion facility, has been in the works since Hillary’s days in the Senate. To many, it reinforces the strong alliance between the Obama administration and the radical pro-abortion crowd.
As Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton is the most visible American ambassador. What better way to show her support for the President’s newest export–overseas abortion–than share the stage with one of the federal government’s prime partners in that effort? According to the organization’s press release, Clinton is being lauded as “a champion of women’s health and rights throughout her public service career.”
Of course, the question remains whether this award is even an honor. If “no one is pro-abortion,” as Barack Obama insists, then why agree to be celebrated by the number one supplier of abortion in America? It’s an organization whose founder embraced eugenics, targeted “the unfit” for “extinction,” and whose current staff is on record as accepting racially motivated donations in seven different clinics nationwide.
It’s an organization that fights to bar parents from the medical decisions of their 12-year-old daughters. According to videos in at least four states, Planned Parenthood has been involved in serial statutory rape cover-ups. Allegations in California point to an estimated $180 million of fraud. In at least two states, Planned Parenthood petitioned for the construction of abortion clinics under false pretenses.
Really, is this an award that anyone–including Hillary Clinton–should covet? Its very name, the Margaret Sanger Award, is a tribute to a woman whose life’s mission was to “build a race of thoroughbreds.”
Planned Parenthood’s long campaign to promote abortion on request, celebration of sexual libertinism, eugenics, and radical prejudice is the worst foreign policy message our nation could send–and tomorrow they crown their messenger.
Politico: Clinton to appear at Planned Parenthood event
States Rebellion Pending
…. Our constitutional ignorance — perhaps contempt, coupled with the fact that we’ve become a nation of wimps, sissies and supplicants — has made us easy prey for Washington’s tyrannical forces….
PATRIOT PERSPECTIVE, By Walter E. Williams, Patriot Post,
Friday Digest – Vol. 09 No. 12
(Editor’s Note: Mark Alexander is away participating in a national security forum. This week’s Patriot Perspective is a guest essay by Alexander’s colleague Walter E. Williams. For the top conservative commentary on the Web, look no further than The Patriot’s Opinion page.)
Our Colonial ancestors petitioned and pleaded with King George III to get his boot off their necks. He ignored their pleas, and in 1776, they rightfully declared unilateral independence and went to war.
Today it’s the same story except Congress is the one usurping the rights of the people and the states, making King George’s actions look mild in comparison. Our constitutional ignorance — perhaps contempt, coupled with the fact that we’ve become a nation of wimps, sissies and supplicants — has made us easy prey for Washington’s tyrannical forces. But that might be changing a bit.
There are rumblings of a long overdue re-emergence of Americans’ characteristic spirit of rebellion.
Eight state legislatures have introduced resolutions declaring state sovereignty under the Ninth and 10th amendments to the U.S. Constitution; they include Arizona, Hawaii, Montana, Michigan, Missouri, New Hampshire, Oklahoma and Washington. There’s speculation that they will be joined by Alaska, Alabama, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Nevada, Maine and Pennsylvania.
You might ask, “Isn’t the 10th Amendment that no-good states’ rights amendment that Dixie governors, such as George Wallace and Orval Faubus, used to thwart school desegregation and black civil rights?” That’s the kind of constitutional disrespect and ignorance that big-government proponents, whether they’re liberals or conservatives, want you to have. The reason is that they want Washington to have total control over our lives. The Founders tried to limit that power with the 10th Amendment, which reads: “The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.”
New Hampshire’s 10th Amendment resolution typifies others and, in part, reads: “That the several States composing the United States of America, are not united on the principle of unlimited submission to their General (federal) Government; but that, by a compact under the style and title of a Constitution for the United States, and of amendments thereto, they constituted a General Government for special purposes, delegated to that government certain definite powers, reserving, each State to itself, the residuary mass of right to their own self-government; and that whensoever the General Government assumes undelegated powers, its acts are unauthoritative, void, and of no force.” Put simply, these 10th Amendment resolutions insist that the states and their people are the masters and that Congress and the White House are the servants. Put yet another way, Washington is a creature of the states, not the other way around.
Congress and the White House will laugh off these state resolutions. State legislatures must take measures that put some teeth into their 10th Amendment resolutions. Congress will simply threaten a state, for example, with a cutoff of highway construction funds if it doesn’t obey a congressional mandate, such as those that require seat belt laws or that lower the legal blood-alcohol level to .08 for drivers. States might take a lead explored by Colorado.
In 1994, the Colorado Legislature passed a 10th Amendment resolution and later introduced a bill titled “State Sovereignty Act.” Had the State Sovereignty Act passed both houses of the legislature, it would have required all people liable for any federal tax that’s a component of the highway users fund, such as a gasoline tax, to remit those taxes directly to the Colorado Department of Revenue. The money would have been deposited in an escrow account called the “Federal Tax Fund” and remitted monthly to the IRS, along with a list of payees and respective amounts paid. If Congress imposed sanctions on Colorado for failure to obey an unconstitutional mandate and penalized the state by withholding funds due, say $5 million for highway construction, the State Sovereignty Act would have prohibited the state treasurer from remitting any funds in the escrow account to the IRS. Instead, Colorado would have imposed a $5 million surcharge on the Federal Tax Fund account to continue the highway construction.
The eight state legislatures that have enacted 10th Amendment resolutions deserve our praise, but their next step is to give them teeth.
God’s Rules for Success
PART THREE: LIFE IN CHRIST
SECTION TWO: THE TEN COMMANDMENTS
A Traditional Catechetical Formula
Is Michele Bachmann the Only Person in the GOP With Guts?
Bachmann urges “armed” revolt over climate plan
Rep. Michele Bachmann, the firebrand Minnesota conservative Republican, may have gone a bit over the rhetorical line last weekend when attacking the Obama administration’s cap-and-trade proposal.
Speaking on a right-wing talk radio show in Minnesota on Saturday, Bachmann said:
“I want people in Minnesota armed and dangerous on this issue of the energy tax because we need to fight back. Thomas Jefferson told us ‘having a revolution every now and then is a good thing,’ and the people – we the people – are going to have to fight back hard if we’re not going to lose our country. And I think this has the potential of changing the dynamic of freedom forever in the United States.”
A Little Political Humor to Lighten Your Day: When Taxes Attack, Make Sure Your Gun Is Loaded
…The power to tax is the power to destroy, and make no mistake — Barack Obama intends to destroy us all!…
Rep. Michele Bachmann of Minnesota caused a little controversy by saying we should all be “armed and dangerous” on the issue of energy taxes. Some thought that was silly because you can’t actually physically fight against taxes, right?
Poppycock! I’ve never met a problem that couldn’t be solved by proper firearm usage, and taxes are certainly no exception. If you don’t believe me, just take a look at California. It’s one of the most difficult states for a law-abiding citizen who wants to own a gun. It also has some of the worst taxes. In fact, taxes have swarmed the entire state and rendered it nearly uninhabitable by human beings; they writhe on it like maggots on a corpse. And if you look over the rest of the country, you’ll notice that the other states with the strictest gun control also have the highest taxes. The only rational conclusion is that taxes can be fought off with guns.
The power to tax is the power to destroy, and make no mistake — Barack Obama intends to destroy us all!
To go along with all of his unprecedented spending, he will soon unleash the taxes upon us, and they will swarm us, much like those bugs from Starship Troopers, destroying everything in their path without thought or compassion; they’re like piranhas without the self-control. No amount of pleading for your financial life or your family’s welfare will stop them, and no structure can ever be built strong enough to protect you from taxes. The only way to stop it is to fight back. So go ahead and grab you gun — which you should have, as an American. If you don’t have a gun, check to make sure you’re not actually in Europe. If you are, then it’s too late for you; the taxes will soon consume you, so make peace with your gods. For all others, here are tips for fighting back against taxes:
- Make sure to choose an effective firearm. When it comes to taxes, there is no such thing as overkill, so use whatever is most powerful. Personally, I prefer a .375 magnum rifle which I call “The Deduction.” It can shoot through five taxes at once!
- When taxes attack, make sure to secure your home and place of business. Lock all doors and windows, and use duct tape to seal your doors. Taxes are notorious for using any opening and fitting into any space they can.
- Taxes are quite sneaky, so be most wary of the taxes you don’t see. To keep hidden taxes from surprising you, set up traps around your building and use careful accounting.
- Surprisingly, taxes actually have human allies, so be wary of anyone trying to get into your home to hide from taxes, as he might actually be a socialist and on the taxes’ side! So if someone knocks at your door, don’t let him in without first verifying he’s not a socialist by asking him a question only a capitalist would know the answer to, such as “Who is John Galt?” Also, even though it has nothing to do with taxes, before you open the door, make sure he’s not a landshark.
- When shooting taxes, make all your bullets count. Make sure it’s a tax and not some sort of fine or fee before taking the shot. If you waste ammo, you’ll have to go the store to buy more, and taxes could easily ambush you there.
- Never ever show taxes any mercy. No matter how much they plead that they are only trying to help the poor or save the environment, it’s always a trick. Always. They know nothing but destruction, so shoot them, and laugh a hearty laugh as they die.
- No matter what, never cede ground to taxes. Never. Stand and fight and do not retreat. When taxes have seized new ground, it’s almost impossible to push them back again. If they swarm your hometown or even overtake family members, leave them. They’re gone; they’re the government’s now.
- Finally, keep all your money in a safe connected to a thermite charge. Then, if all seems lost, you can easily destroy all your money before the taxes get to it. It may be the end for you, but at least you won’t be feeding the beast so it can destroy others.
Follow these tips, and you can fight back against taxes — or at least die with honor.
While others will just sit there and wait for the taxes to consume them like lambs to the slaughter, you’ll have your shotgun ready and not give up your money without a fight. Sure, some will laugh at you and call you a “nut” or a “kook” or “incapable of understanding basic concepts,” but who will be laughing when the taxes tear the flesh from their bones and then hit them with a “being a skeleton” tax? That’s what happens when you submit to a tax without a fight.
Frank J. Fleming writes political humor at IMAO.us and has executed his TurboTax software for collaboration with the enemy.
Dear Small Business Owner……….
Editorial Cartoon by Michael Ramirez
TILLER’S DEATH CAMP-It’s Not Over! Tiller Charged With 11 Counts By Kansas Health Group
By LifeSite News,March 30th, 2009
Just after a jury in Sedgwick County, Kansas, returned not guilty verdicts in the criminal case against late-term abortionist George Tiller, the Kansas State Board of Healing Arts released to the public a petition it filed in December listing eleven allegations against Tiller’s license.
According to a statement released by the KSBHA, “Violations alleged include performing an abortion on a fetus that was viable without having a documented referral from another physician not legally or financially affiliated with him; unprofessional or dishonorable conduct or professional incompetency; and commitment of acts likely to deceive, defraud or harm the public.”
The KSBHA also indicated that the case they have filed against Tiller is independent from the criminal charges and will proceed in its own merits.
Tiller could have his medical license revoked, suspended, or dramatically restricted, depending on the outcome of the Board’s determination.
In October, 2006, Cheryl Sullenger filed a complaint with the KSBHA alleging an improper financial relationship between Tiller and Neuhaus that violated Kansas law. That complaint was amended in February, 2007. Sullenger has been periodically notified by the Board that her complaint is active and continuing, although no final resolution has been reached.
“As a famous baseball player once said, ‘It ain’t over ’til it’s over.’ We are encouraged by this news from the KSBHA,” said Operation Rescue President Troy Newman. “We have never put all our hope in the criminal prosecution and continue to work through a number of avenues to ensure that one day Tiller will be brought to justice.”
Read KSBHA Statement – http://operationrescue.org/pdfs/KSBHA%20Statement%20032709.p…
Read KSBHA Petition – http://operationrescue.org/pdfs/12-12-08_tillerpetition.pdf
Read about Sullenger’s complaint – http://www.operationrescue.org/archives/abortionist-tiller-n…
See related LSN Report:
Jury Declares Abortionist Tiller Not Guilty of Illegal Late-Term Abortions
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2009/mar/09032711.html
This article is courtesy of LifeSiteNews.com.