Neil Boortz and Jamie Dupree: 2 jokes on us

From the Department of Moral Equivalence*…

I inadvertently tuned into the Neil Boortz show today because he is on the same station Rush Limbaugh is on.  Neil’s  shtick is his attempt to make outrageous and morally offensive comments based on his libertarianism without being fined by the FCC or losing stations.  Conservatives, especially social conservatives, might mistake Boortz as an ideological ally.  He is anything but.

His sidekick, Washington insider reporter Jamie Dupree is the perfect Boortz straight man. 

Here’s the thing.    Dupree was discussing his career as a reporter in DC and, especially, how “objective” and “neutral” he can be so that he can retain access to provide the Washington goings on through the media. 

One comment Dupree made was particularly disarming and exhibited his self-perception of supreme superiority over the biased masses.  He declared words to the effect of:  “Yes, I’ve been able to retain my neutrality on Washington politics, siding neither with the left nor the right, while those who consume the news, the general public, are the ones full of their political biases.”

He continued, “I even had someone accuse me of practicing moral equivalency.”   Nooooooo!  Tell me it ain’t so, Dupree!

Hey, that “someone” could have been me HERE.

Boortz quickly came to his defense with “You don’t believe that’s true, do you?”  Jamie: “Of course not.”

If Dupree doesn’t practice moral equivalency, I don’t write blogs.

Point one:  Anyone who believes they are “neutral” in their view and depiction of political events is a fool and is self-deceived.  We all have our biases.

Point two:  Anyone who believes they are “neutral” and its only other people who are biased one way or the other believe themselves to be morally superior (even though they disavow the concept of morality) to all others and exaggerate their self importance.  Psychopaths often exhibit this trait.

There is no “truth” for Dupree because “truth” is just someone’s opinion.  And everyone has an opinion and each opinion is valid to someone.   There is no truth worth proclaiming rises above the noise of anyone’s opinion in the world of Dupree.  Yes, Jamie, that is “moral equivalence.”

Boortz and Dupree:  Portraying the perfect examples of “moral equivalence”, aka “amorality.”  That is also the essence of extreme libertarianism.

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*  Also known as “moral relativity or relativism”:  Denial of the existence of any absolute truth or rejection of the idea of a “best” position, answer or solution on any subject or topic.  Everyone’s opinion is as good as another’s.

Romney refuses to discuss key cultural issues…

 

When asked to comment on both the Chick Fil A first amendments rights controversy, and Michelle Bachmann’s concern about Muslim Brotherhood influence in the Obama administration, this is what he had to say:

“I’m not going to tell other people what things they talk about.  Those things are not part of my campaign.”

Given his speech to the NAACP, I thought Romney had more courage than that.  If not a lack of courage, three more possibilities come to mind:

1) He sees both issues as “no-win” political lightening rods – his application of pure political motive to avoid discussion,

2) He was ignorant of both issues, though not likely, or

3) For this event he wanted to stay focused on his “jobs” message.

The reasons for his silence might be better diagnosed if the issues were separated.

I can understand his avoiding discussion of Bachmann’s concern about Muslim Brotherhood influence.  His ignorance of Islam and their front groups causes his lack of concern; he is naively more in tune with Obama than those like Bachmann who see a problem.  And, like most politicians, he fears Muslim/main stream media accusations of “Islamophobia”, or worse, “McCarthyism”, although as it turns out, McCarthy was right.

On the Chick Fil A controversy, I am sincerely puzzled why he did not overtly take sides on this one.  It could be he is excessively concerned that he might be too closely associated with the views and actions of his Mormon church - their pumping millions of dollars into California’s anti-gay marriage legislation.

Could he be afraid of losing the gay vote?  He never had it.

Showing an amazing lack of conviction on critical issues.

Contrast this non-feasance with Allen West’s comments on Chick Fil A:

Illegal to finish raw materials in US

Another way to screw the American worker…

Gibson Guitars was fined $300,000 because it imported raw materials from India to enable workmen in the US to craft the materials into finger boards here.  No violation would have existed if Gibson contracted with overseas workers to finish the material, IN INDIA and THEN import the finished product.

This is one screwed up piece of legislation and a prime example of how our over-reaching environmental policies are strangling our economy.  And this is an environmental policy that does not even address the environment in the US.  It allegedly protects the environment in foreign countries – that is, unless foreign workers also finish the product over there.  Then it apparently doesn’t matter.

My informed opinion is that if the Justice Department proposed this enforcement in a Romney administration, such enforcement would have never occurred and legislation would have been introduced to eliminate that job killing piece of United Nations inspired one-world legislation.

Since when are we beholden to other nation’s environmental/job promoting policies at the expense of workers in the US?

HERE is the complete story.

EMP attack more likely than Cat 5 Hurricane ripping through central Florida…

I’ve lived in Florida for over 55 yeas and experienced many hurricanes.  
While Category 5 hurricanes are rare, they do occur.  Can a Cat 5 rip through central Florida?  Certainly.  Do I thnk it will happen?  Not likely.

What I think is more likely than that is an Electromagnetic Pulse (EMP) attack on the US by an Islamic nation or a sympathetic Islamic organization.  High tech is not required.  Means, motive, and opportunity are required.  Current technology, existing rockets and available nukes, make it possible.  Motive certainly exists since we are Islam’s “great Satan.”  The opporutnity has to be just right, but how do when know?
Take a look at the following article to see how this event has a better than remote chance of playing out, and its consequences:
Courtesy ow World Net Daily:  http://www.wnd.com/2012/08/emp-would-give-america-government-by-disaster/

LOW-TECH EMP TO SEND U.S. BACK TO 'STONE AGE'?

Experts: Attack with 50-year-old SCUD would turn America into 'government by disaster'

Published: 2 days ago
by STEVE ELWARTEmail | Archive
Steve Elwart, P.E. is the Senior Research Analyst with the Koinonia Institute and a Subject Matter Expert for the Department of Homeland Security. He can be contacted at steve.elwart@studycenter.com.More ↓

Eid-ul-Fitr, the Muslim holiday celebrating the end of Ramadan, was an appropriate setting for a panel discussion today on the threat of an Electromagnetic Pulse, or EMP, attack on the United States.

The live event, hosted by Florida-based The United West, was held to raise awareness of the looming threat.

The warning presented was startling: A crude nuclear device placed on top of a 50-year-old SCUD missile and launched by a tramp steamer could cause the collective collapse of the nation’s power grid in a matter of minutes.

It is estimated that Iran could launched such an attack in just a few years, and it would leave the U.S. essentially in the “Stone Age.”

Tom Trento, founder of The United West, called an EMP attack the equivalent of an “Electronic Armageddon.”

Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and its supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, both believe that the coming of the last Islamic messiah, the Shiites’ 12th Imam Mahdi, is near and that Iran is called upon to bring about his arrival.

They believe Iran must lead the way for a worldwide Islamic revolution. Leaders in the Iranian government have stated that the Islamic revolution is moving forward, advanced by the Arab Spring, and will reach the shores of America for an eventual takeover.
Intelligence sources have indicated Iran is within two years of bringing the revolution to the United States in the form of an EMP attack.

Ambassador R. James Woolsey, former director of the CIA during the Clinton administration, told the conference that an Iranian nuclear attack would not have to be sophisticated or complicated. He cited the estimated damage from a crude device mounted atop a SCUD and launched from somewhere near the U.S. shores.

R. James Woolsey
The missile “need not be accurate, it just needs altitude” to be successful. He went on to say that the effects of EMP are known, because the nation already has experienced them.
“Starfish Prime” was a high-altitude nuclear test conducted by the U.S. on July 9, 1962, before the 1963 Nuclear Test Ban treaty banned nuclear weapons testing in the atmosphere.

A two megaton nuclear device approximately 100 times the power of the bomb dropped on Hiroshima was launched via a Thor rocket and exploded 250 miles above a point 19 miles southwest of Johnston Island in the Pacific Ocean.
The results included surprises and raised still-unanswered questions.
William Graham, another member of the panel, said the EMP was 100 times larger than predicted and no one understood why.

William Graham
Sophisticated electronic equipment on the island of Oahu, almost 900 miles away, was severely damaged, but vacuum-tube based devices were unharmed. Over 300 streetlights stopped working, burglar alarms were activated and one telephone company’s microwave link was destroyed.

“The street lights on Ferdinand Street in Manoa and Kawainui Street in Kailua went out at the instant the bomb went off, according to several persons who called police last night,” as reported July 9, 1962, in the Honolulu Advertiser.

The same article reported that a brilliant flash turned Hawaii’s night into day, with the “spectacular pyrotechnic aftermath” lasting seven minutes.

“It was like turning on all the lights all over the Hawaiian Islands for a super-super athletic contest.”

A city-county streetlight department official in Honolulu also attributed blown circuit fuses in nine areas to the energy released from the bomb.

Today’s worldwide nuclear arsenal is much more powerful.

According to the Brookings Institution, nuclear bombs have been constructed that range in size of 0.02 megatons to 15 megatons, seven times larger than the Starfish Prime warhead.
Iran would not need anything nearly as large as a 15 megaton bomb to destroy the U.S. infrastructure. A nuclear device built using 1940s technology would suffice. Iran’s nuclear program is already capable of building such a device.

Woolsey said, “All this discussion about whether [the Iranians] have a (nuclear) program ignores the fact that in enriching uranium up to 20 percent (purity), you have done 85-90 percent of the work you need.”

He went on to note that when Iranians say they are not interested in nuclear weapons, they are “lying through their teeth.”

With a nuclear device in hand, either produced locally or purchased from North Korea, all Iran would need is a delivery system.

As Woolsey noted, a SCUD would do the job.

Since an EMP only affects electronics within its line of sight, the higher the detonation, the larger the affected area. A device detonated 100 miles over Indianapolis would put 70 percent of the population of the United States in the dark.

Such a missile could be launched from a fishing boat off the East Coast.

The Aegis missile system is designed to only fire at a target at mid-course or in its terminal, or reentry, phase.

Woolsey claims President Obama has made it harder to design the missile system to strike targets in the ascent phase due to promises he has made to the Soviet Union.

Graham, a member of the Department of Defense’s Defense Science Board and President Reagan’ science adviser, saw firsthand the effects of an EMP on critical infrastructure.
In 1962, Graham went on active duty to look at the data generated from the last of the above-ground nuclear tests. He concluded that an “EMP super-weapon” would not need to generate a large blast. It could be a small weapon that would effectively neutralize conventional forces.

He concluded that an EMP attack would result in “Government by Disaster.”
At the conference, Fritz Ermarth, former chairman of the National Intelligence Council, said EMP has changed the face of modern warfare.

“While the Cold War strategy of blasting cities is still in portfolio,” EMP is getting new emphasis. A major advantage they have is that they are cheap and easy to produce. He went on to say that because of its lack of preparation, the United States is way behind in terms of defense against an EMP threat.

He claims that the U.S. is “tremendously vulnerable to catastrophic blackmail.”
Ermarth painted the following scenario: President Ahmadinejad calls the United States president and says Iran has enough nuclear material to make several bombs and they have deployed them in ships and trucks around the country. He then goes on to say that Iran intends to destroy Israel and then invade Saudi Arabia. He threatens the American president that if the United States responds, Iran will launch its missiles. Ahmadinejad claims that at least two or three missiles will get through.

Even without a demonstration, Iran’s threat has to be taken seriously, he said.
The president would ask his advisers, “Is it a plausible threat?” To which the advisers would have to say “yes,” given the state of Iran’s nuclear enrichment program and access to ballistic delivery systems.

This would also hold true for any bioweapon which could be transmitted by air.
“What do you think the U.S. will do?”

Ermarth concluded his remarks by saying, “Don’t discount coercion and blackmail as a weapon.”

Ambassador Henry F. Cooper, director of the Department of Defense’s Strategic Defense Initiative Organization under President Reagan, concluded his own remarks by saying that EMP is an “existential problem,” and it is “ludicrous that our representatives are not providing comprehensive defenses that are needed.”
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My own observation is this.  Just as we might prepare for the remote possibility of a category 5 hurricane, we are capable of preparing for an EMP attack that may even be more likely.   Water storage and filtering capabilities, food storage, sanitation, and personal defense are all measure we are perfectly capable of taking.  We should not wait for the government to save us.  We are capable of preparing for our own benefit and with our own resources.

Chick Fil A, amorality, and “tolerance”…

What were the leaders of Chicago thinking? 

In the name of “tolerance” for the amoral demands of homosexuals, Chicago’s leaders became intolerant of a company (Chick Fil A) expressing their support for centuries-old traditional Biblical morality.  This behavior is not new among the liberal amoralists among us.  It has been building.  And  this demonstration of “the Chicago way” portends much more to come nationwide.

I am in the midst of reading a new book titled “The Intolerance of Tolerance” by D. A. Carson.  Carson defines two different versions of “tolerance”:  the old version and the new.

The “old” version:

If you disagree with my beliefs, you believe I still have  the right to them unencumbered by your actions or that of government.

The "”new”version:

If you disagree with my beliefs that conflict with your version of “tolerance”, you don’t believe I even have the right to have a different view.  I am subject to ridicule and persecution, and possibly legal sanction.  This is intolerance of tolerance.

What has changed over the last decade or two?  It is the belief that morality is no longer a value to be tolerated.  We must not ever say that anyone is “wrong.”  Tolerance has become a higher value than morality.  Tolerance now requires intolerance toward any value that claims moral absolutes.  What progressives do not tolerate any longer is traditional moral values.  Such values are considered “intolerant” and “bigoted.”  The highest “morality” now is “tolerance.”   This version of “tolerance” has become an “oxymoron.”

The “new tolerance” extends to domestic security threats as well.  Islam is a legitimate domestic security threat.  But those who express this legitimate concern as Michelle Bachmann recently has done is not tolerated.   See HERE.  Her informed opinion conflicts with the view of “tolerance” held by our current government leaders and most media.  So her views are castigated and marginalized.

The root of this twisted version of “tolerance” is the relatively recent view of our prevailing culture that truth is relative.  If there is no absolute truth, everything can be tolerated.  There is no room for intolerance of anything because everything is worthy of tolerance – everyone’s view of truth is equally valid and equally tolerated, except those who hold that there is absolute truth.

Those of us who are especially at risk in this new upside-down world are those Christians who hold to the truths of the Bible – especially Bible inerrancy.  Shame on us!  We interpret God at His word, as billions of souls have for over two thousand years.  Man, are we out of touch.

Or is it the other way around. 

The “Stand to Reason” website has a lot to say on this topic.

Obama’s Islamism tips scales in the Middle East

Are we at all surprised that Obama is supporting the “opposition” in Syria?  Is anyone concerned that this will turn out just like Egypt, with the result being much worse for US interests than the status quo?  Do we not yet “get it” that Middle East uprisings aren’t comprised of little George Washingtons  fighting for liberty.  They are comprised of little Osama Bin Ladens fighting for Islamism and Sharia and the annihilation of Israel.

Before Obama was elected president there was a delicate balance of power in the Middle East based on decades of prior US policy. Now, with Obama's undeniable, overt pro-Islamist presence, he has used US intelligence, diplomatic, and military resources – and his own pro-Islamic persona - to upend that delicate balance in favor of Islamist (Brotherhood and Sharia) governance in opposition to US and Israel interests.

We have known for some time (I have known from the time I read  his book "Audacity of Hope" five years ago) that he was an Islamist.)   I wrote last month, HERE, that he supports the Brotherhood in Syria.  We all should know this from his action in assisting the ouster of the Egyptian president Mubarak who was much more of an ally than foe.

And THIS is the reason why his administration goes along with his Islamicism.  We are infiltrated up to our gills with sedition-minded Muslims in the Obama administration and it seems few of our leaders really care.

Obama’s middle name really should have tipped us off.  He wasn’t even a Trojan Horse.  He was a Trojan on the outside in full daylight  and we totally ignored it.  Obama is one hell of a seditious Islamist.  But, as I said before, our nation is getting what it deserves for its gullible and lazy ignorance.

HERE is more from one who is more expert on these matters than I, Robert Spencer.

Bachmann rightly concerned about national security threat of Muslim Brotherhood in our Federal Government

Others like Marco Rubio not so much…

Advisors in Obama’s Administration who have ties to the Muslim Brotherhood (and he has a few) are a threat to the security of the United States. Anyone who knows anything about the Brotherhood and Islam ought to understand this.

Michelle Bachman has rightly urged the powers that be (who are often clueless about such matters) to initiate an inquiry into the Muslim Brotherhood’s influence in America. She was roundly condemned by the left and most media for having the audacity and insensitivity to write such a letter.

Criticism was was also blindly piled on by none other than the beloved Marco Rubio. See HERE. Speaking of “blindly”, Rubio is another example (beyond Obama) of how we are drawn to the style and rhetoric of an individual more than his policy substance. But that is for another blog.

Other conservative members of Congress have come to Bachmann’s defense as described by The Blaze HERE.

This all shows how ill-informed and divided our nation is about the truth of Islam and its front organizations. This shows how important it is for us to not only aggressively inform ourselves about Islam and the ignorant actions of our leaders toward it, but to aggressively inform others – our neighbors, educators, and leaders – about the insidious, deceptive, and supremacist nature of Islam.

The reality is that the ignorance of our leaders, the media, and our educators is a greater problem than Islam itself. We can defend against the enemy we know. We have little chance against the enemy we don’t know and refuse to know.

HERE is another good source of info on this topic.

Bingo, Texas Hold ‘Em, and Silent Auctions for a Night with a Hooker

I’m guessing that it has been determined by some powers more in tune with the universe than I that humans have a very limited capacity for useful activity.

I understand that fund raising in the church is an essential and noble endeavor.  All churches must place this activity high on their priorities list.  Since most members do not take the tithe literally (10% of our increase) or faithfully (every Sunday) , raising cash by other means is a must.

Is there is a gift of “fund raising creativity?”  I think so.   It is evident in every church/parish as evidenced by the wide variety of incentives to empty our wallets and have fun doing it.  However, I think we are totally devoid of the gift of discernment.  We have great difficulty with practicing or promoting this: 

“Whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable--if anything is excellent or praiseworthy--think about such things.”

What activity does the average Joe associate with Catholic fundraising? BINGO!  There is nothing wrong with Bingo.  It is a game.  A pastime.  It is also an addiction for many.  Ah, thank God for addictions.

But wait!  Now there is Poker.  One of the most notorious forms of addictive gambling that does not necessarily carry with it a reputation for sterling morality.  Here is a prominently displayed ad that regularly appears on the website and church bulletin of a local church:

Aug 4-20, 2012

Texas Hold 'Em

Join the fun: August 4th & 18th. This event starts at 7 PM in the Parish Hall get there early! St. Paul the First Hermit Knights of Columbus Council #14222 hosts Texas Hold ‘Em events to raise funds to support their many charities.

I guess it is true that desperate times call for desperate measures.

In the spirit of fund raising creativity I have one that I will not be surprised to see one day:

Silent Auction

Bid on a night with a hooker.

Join the fun in this creative silent auction on the third Wednesday of each month.   A wide selection of night fishing gear available.  All proceeds go to St. Boris Parrish.

Eat Mor Chikin…

What can I say, except I will be eating a lot more chicken at Chick Fil A over the next few weeks to show my support for being one of the few business that gives a damn.

Chicago leaders, Rahm Emmanuel and his  crony Alderman Joe Moreno are showing the worst of immorality-pandering political bigotry.  Their display of amorality is bad enough.  But to deny a permit to a business because of the moral beliefs of the business’s owner is something that is condemned by atheists and the ACLU.  THAT is saying something.

This Chicago-style bullshit is no surprise given that it is the home to one of the most immoral, corrupt city administrations in the nation, is the home of B. Hussein Obama, and houses the post-Christian, Muslim pandering, nation-hating racist church of Jeremiah Wright.

This is just the beginning of the morality-hating wave that will increasingly persecute Christians who hold to traditional Christian moral beliefs and standards.  I fully expect that Muslims will be treated better than traditional Christians under the laws of the land in the coming years.

Obama promotes Muslim Brotherhood in Syria

There are three ways things can go in Middle East nations in the midst of revolt.

1) Status quo dictatorship

2) Change to a very temporary “bus ride”* democracy

3) Capitulation to an overt Muslim-Brotherhood inspired and controlled Islamic Sharia state

The Obama administration prefers the latter under the guise of the Option 2, temporary democracy.

It happened in Egypt.  And it is in the works in Syria.

The so-called “Arab Spring” is a deceptive code for a full bore Brotherhood takeover.  This is what Obama wants.  This is what he’s getting.  And the wishful thinking Pollyanna media and progressives embrace it.

You weren’t yet aware of the Muslim Brotherhood’s influence in the Syrian uprising?  Think again.  Read about it HERE.

For Western Judeo-Christian sensitivities, a Brotherhood takeover will make the dictatorships, Assad's and others, seem like the First Thanksgiving. 

Beyond Syria, the Muslim Brotherhood proposes the overthrow of Gulf States.

Oh oh.  Houston we have a problem – Romney’s proposed policies are little different than Obama’s.  Per Romney’s official website, he, too, proposes to do the same thing Obama is doing in Syria:  Isolate the Assad regime so that the opposition can peaceably take over – and we (the US) will promise to support whatever factions take power.  Can we all say “Muslim Brotherhood.”   This continues our ignorance and gullibility of the methods and intent of Islamists in the Middle East.  Here is Romney’s complete statement quoted from his official website:

Syria

The United States must recognize Syrian strongman Bashar al-Assad for what he is: an unscrupulous dictator, a killer, and a proxy for Iran. For far too long, the Obama administration held out hope that it could negotiate with Assad to stop his violent crackdown on pro-democracy protestors. It even labeled him a “reformer” while he was turning heavy weapons on his own people. Mitt Romney holds no illusions about Assad’s character or about Iran’s interest in maintaining a client regime in Damascus.

Mitt Romney believes the United States should pursue a strategy of isolating and pressuring the Assad regime to increase the likelihood of a peaceful transition to a legitimate government. We should redouble our push for the U.N. Security Council to live up to its responsibilities and impose sanctions that cut off funding sources that serve to maintain the regime’s grip on power. We should work with Saudi Arabia and Turkey to call on Syria’s military to protect civilians rather than attack them. This effort would aim to drive a wedge between Assad and his military, minimize violence, and increase the possibility that the ruling minority Alawites will be able to reconcile with the majority Sunni population in a post-Assad Syria. And we should make clear that the United States and our allies will support the Syrian opposition when the time comes for them to forge a post-Assad government.

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* Bus-ride democracy:  Taken from Islamist Turkey Premier Erdogan’s description of the purpose of a democracy.  “Democracy is like a bus:  You get on and then you get off once you reach your destination.”  In the case of Mulsim-populated nations, the destination is Sharia governance promoted by the Muslim Brotherhood.

Tradition overpowers reality…

The Catholic Church and Tradition are like Fish and Gills.  The Church lives and breaths its Tradition.

Tradition is the Catholic version of the Protestants God-breathed word of God.  Actually I was taken aback by the Catholic accusation that conservative Protestants place too much credence in their belief that the Bible is the infallible Word of God.  They assert that the Bible resulted from “Tradition.”  Catholics also have lesser traditions, below the status of dogma, that distinguish themselves as uniquely Catholic, such as the sign of the cross, meatless Fridays, the Rosary, and dozens of other rituals that are intended to be physical reminders of their spiritual faith.  These are helpful to many faithful Catholics.

However, in taking an on-line class on basic Catholic beliefs and faith formation, I have also experienced a problem shared by other denominations but which is uniquely Catholic because of their traditions.

Those who are concerned  about the moral decline of our society and also aware of our collective obliviousness to the threat of Islam to our faith and freedoms realize that the Churches in America are part of the problem.  Most churches maintain an inward focus with their academic and arcane approach to Scriptural study and application.  They are further from being “salt and light” in our culture than I ever recall in my 60+ year life.  So much so that they remain oblivious to the real threats to not just our faith and freedom but to our very existence as a nation.

The highest values among both Christians and secularists has become non-judgmentalism and tolerance – go along to get along is the mantra.  There is little distinction between Christians and secularists in this regard.

While Protestants lead Catholics in the liberalizing of their denominations in the United States by dismissing or spiritualizing major chunks of traditional Biblical teaching, Catholics remain oblivious in a number of different ways.  The course I have been taking enlightened me to the extent Catholics are immersed in what they refer to as their little “t” traditions, their rituals and their physical objects of faith.  So much so that these rituals have become so habitual that they have become mind-numbing meaningless motion to many – how many I don’t know – I suspect many many.  The purpose of their tradition is supposed to remind them of the truth of their core beliefs as enunciated in the Nicene or Apostles Creed at every Saturday or Sunday Mass.  Perhaps the rituals still have the desired effect for many, but I suspect that for the majority, such “tradition” and ritual has become as detached from meaningful faith as paper roses are from expressing true love.

What is worse is the Catholic defense of these traditions at the expense of applying their faith to our cultural challenges and threats.  As part of my Catholic course, I responded to the topic of tradition by expressing my observation that tradition and ritual preoccupy Catholic faith and practice so completely that it separates their faith from many real life challenges – challenges that threaten their very ability to freely practice their faith.  The tradition leaves little room for Catholics to engage the culture as salt and light.  It is a closed society, shielded from the world by its preoccupation with tradition.  There is not even enough room to accept the concept of the Catholic version of a “sermon”, the “homily”, of having any significane in the Mass.  I was roundly reminded that the Eucharist IS THE MASS.  Everything else must maintain a low profile to maintain the centrality of the Eucharist.  That explained to me why Catholic homilies are typically shallow, trite, emotionless, and boring.  Catholics who attend church don’t have any benefit of even 15 or 20 minutes of relevant teaching of how they need to intereact in our culture.  They can’t even expect two tenths of one percent of their waking hours to be devoted to any effective counter-cultural message.

And for that observation, the moderator of the class warned me about my “anti-Catholic” attitude.   She and other Catholic leaders appear to be blind to the need to educate their flock about what the hell is going on in the world and about how their faith needs to be invoked to challenge our culture.  But that won’t happen with that attitude.  Defense of tradition that creates a wall of isolation from reality will eventually create self-extermination of their faith.

What I have learned so far from the class is Catholics, along with liberal Protestants, are part of our problem of declining faith and relevance in this culture of corruption, although in slightly different ways.

Degrees of consciousness–when are we aware enough to act intelligently?

Too many of us are still in la la land.  And too few of us are aware, acting, or leading.  The fact that most Americans are in la la land, or lands very nearby, is a reason why our sustainable existence as a viable and prosperous nation is failing and currently in doubt.

Our spiritual degeneracy, our fiscal irresponsibility, and our gullibility about Islam are among our nation’s greatest threats.  Yet the majority of us are not aware and don’t care that they are not aware.  Our highest priority activities are entertainment (TV/movies), sports, cruises, and gossip.  Our personal god is “self” via self-absorption in trivia.  Our highest virtue is tolerance of just about anything because we really don’t have any significant personal values worth defending.

So, thinking about these things, I am going to take a stab at what proportion of the US population is in various stages of  “awareness” or “obliviousness” to the extent that they either don’t know and don’t care, all the way to the other extreme of being fully aware, informed, and actively engaged in warning others or finding solutions.  I will classify this on a continuum from zero to ten, with zero representing ignorance as in Zero in Beetle Bailey, and ten representing motivating action as in Bo Dereck of Ten.  Here goes:

0: The  10%  who are too ignorant or incapable of knowing or caring about anything beyond their next meal or drug induced stupor.

1-2:  The 15% who have the potential capacity to know or care, but who lack motivation to learn, not to mention understand what is going on.

3-4:  The 20% who have some motivation to learn what is going on to the extent that they are personally benefitted, but fail to expend enough personal energy to understand what is going on.

5-6:  The 30% who have a good idea what is going on and make some effort to understand what is going on, but fail to act on it beyond occasional grumbling.

7-8:  The 15% who know what is going on and understand the implications of it and gripe about it via emails, blogs and general conversation, but who fail to devote much of their time for constructive solutions.

9-10:  The 10% who are not only aware of the problems and understand their implications, but who are actively engaged in writing, organizing, motivating, and bringing along others to join in promoting and achieving constructive solutions.

These guesstimates are by no means based on any scientific surveys.  They are an elaboration of the well worn 80/20 rule of an organization where 80% benefit from the work of 20% of the members.

Running throughout most of theses categories, especially 1 through 6, are the folks who are only interested in how they will benefit in the short term especially through government assistance or entitlements at the expense of others. 

The middle categories of 5 through 8 are populated by those whose highest value is “tolerance.”  They are aware of the problems of our nation, and understand some of the implications, but fail to take meaningful action because they are so devoid of any solid value system or faith themselves that they accept any other set of values as OK, worthy of their uncritical tolerance.  This form of ignorance has fostered unabridged amorality, growth of acceptance and protections of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and related perverted behavious in our media, schools and society at large.  It has also led to our culture’s ignorant acceptance of Islam as “just like any other religion” when in fact it is a fascist, intolerant political ideology at its core that intends to transform our nation into subservient dhimmi’s or Islamic converts.

If you think this will never happen, read up on your European history, especially the first and second Jihad.  The third Jihad is in progress in a city near you.