One of the invaluable things Glenn does is wake me up.

When the stupid stops burning, the hypocrisy fades to background, and criminality seems normal.

The stupid, hypocritical criminality of advocating the sanctity of life while cheerleading violent military hegemony, torture, and domestic social Darwinism is breathtaking. More than I can really digest.

But Glenn takes a tale told by an idiot, breaks it down, looks at the pieces, and gives it back in bite sized bits. Actionable bits.

Thanks, Glenn.

There is no need for a religion war today.

But 'religion' has become both third rail and truncheon in this America.

You are either part of it or it's used on you like a weapon. Almost like patriotism. Both tend to be tools of the oppressors and shields from the truth...

We live in interesting times... Ignorant, dark and troubling times...

This is what tawdry religious manipulators like Lopez have been doing for years -- selectively accepting slivers of moral dogma and religious institutions purely for political gain, while advocating policies that could not be more opposed to that dogma and those institutions.

In his victory speech last night, Obama called out the press for its attempts to divide the country into red and blue, blue collar and white collar, black and white and young and old. He said it won't work this time and that the campaign will be about the American people and what is best for them, not silly, manufactured "issues". His talking points could have been lifted directly from Great American Hypocrites. He also said McCain would be Bush's third term. I like where the campaign is headed right now.

I'm shocked.

No, really, I am.

I have mixed feeling about this piece, Glenn. Not important as a subject. KLo is a hack, a shallow creature and is editor of the Irrational Review. Her readership in minimal: mostly folks with stunted minds and no growth potential.

I never cease to be amazed by the ability of people to shut their eyes to things they think are unpleasant and to convince themselves that it will all just go away if it's ignored.

Do me a favor. Go and check (a) what political operatives in both parties say about how critical the Catholic vote is in presidential elections, (b) how George Bush did among that voting bloc in 2004 and the effect it had on his victory, and (c) the reasons why that happened.

Then come back and tell me if you still think this topic is unimportant and that the tactics used by the likes of Kathryn Jean Lopez don't matter.

Just because you think you're above these tactics and they only work on "folks with stunted minds and no growth potential" doesn't mean they can or should be ignored. What else needs to happen for that lesson to be learned?

If you're Catholic, and trying to follow the church's teachings, then you have to offset 1MM deaths in Iraq plus a few thousand executions vs. 50MM deaths via abortion since Roe.

If you're following the church's teachings, neither party is perfect, but the "deaths" to be laid at the Democratic party's door are 30-40x those for which the Republicans are responsible.

In his victory speech last night, Obama called out the press for its attempts to divide the country into red and blue, blue collar and white collar, black and white and young and old. He said it won't work this time and that the campaign will be about the American people and what is best for them, not silly, manufactured "issues". His talking points could have been lifted directly from Great American Hypocrites. He also said McCain would be Bush's third term. I like where the campaign is headed right now.

Yes. It still remains to be seen if he's right about this. But I think he is, and I think that speech reflected exactly the right way to approach these matters. The more he speaks directly to voters, past the media hordes, the better off he will be.

The devout Roman Catholic who taught me Con Law, Doug Kmiec, and who is a life-long, pro-life Republican who served in the DoJ directly under Ed Meese, and who has written for National Review, has shocked many be endorsing Obama, as I wrote about here: http://www.theartofthepossible.net/2008/03/26/more-on-prof-kmiecs-endorsement-of-obama/

Snippet from Kmiec:

As a Catholic looking at candidates, my faith instructs me to look at the whole person respective to the church’s social teaching on wages, education, issues of family, culture, responsibility toward the environment, the reduction of mindless or excess consumption. And the Catholic Church was quite explicit about the concept of preemptive war being contrary to the principles of just war. One of the things that happened to Catholics over the last two decades is because of the evil of abortion, we’ve been somewhat less mindful of the need to serve those around us—those who are calling upon us for assistance in a tangible way.

[...]

When I look at Obama’s eloquent speeches, his references to Dorothy Day and Martin Luther King, those are so much a part of modern Catholic education. And the preferential option for the poor or solidarity with the poor, how that is not heard by the Catholic mind has troubled me. So one of the reasons for speaking out at this point, and one of the reasons to peak out on Easter Sunday, is to have my fellow Catholics reexamine this topic and listen with more careful ear.

I believe the Catholic Church has a few positions on things like torture and the death penalty that Lopez spends every day of her life railing against as well. But that doesn't stop her from attacking nuns, either.

Here's a recent K-Lo popetastic sermon, basically saying it's fine for Republicans to govern and campaign around the theme of hope. But not Democrats because they hate America.

http://article.nationalreview.com/print/?q=ZjViMGQ0MThkOTM4YWRhMTZhYjVkY2RhYzg4ZDdiMDA=

... hence her lack of interest in issues like war, torture, capital punishment, poverty...

You can check the Bible for yourself: Jesus has absolutely nothing to say about abortion.

Or homosexuality either, for that matter.

Yet according to brainwashed bigots like Lopez, these points form the very essence of Christianity.

As Woody Allen is reputed to have said, "If Jesus came back and saw what was being done in his name, he'd never be able to stop puking."