One does tire of the seemingly endless tirades against orthodox Christianity undertaken by the so-called Mainstream Media – specifically major newspapers such as The New York Times, Los Angeles Times and Boston Globe, magazines such as Time and Newsweek, major news networks and, of course, National Public Radio.
The latest anti-religion screed comes courtesy of Newsweek, in a piece by noted atheist Christopher Hitchens titled “The Pope’s Denial Problem.”
Hitchens argues that by Pope Benedict’s recent decision to reconcile with the followers of the late traditionalist Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre, who rejected many of the changes advanced by Vatican II, he is in fact embracing the far-right fringe.
In Hitchens’ eyes, this is just further evidence that the Holocaust wasn’t a product of Adolf Hitler and German anti-semitism combined with Teutonic scientific and intellectual prowess, but rather the culmination of many centuries of anti-Jewish dogma by Christians, and his piece serves as an indictment of western religion in general.
Religion, in Hitchens’ views, appears to be no more than a scam to enrich and empower a handful of elites while subjugating the masses, a modern update on Marx’s “opiate of the masses” characterization.
Certainly, Hitchens is entitled to his opinion and few would argue that he is a talented and, at times, insightful writer. But Newsweek seems to treats his views on religion, rather ironically, almost as gospel.
Hitchens is not alone in his attack on the Christian faith. Much like the ongoing assault on Pope Pius XII, who critics claim turned a blind eye to the fate of Europe’s Jews during World War II despite significant evidence to the contrary, there is a small but determined group of intellectuals who have made it their life’s work to malign the Catholic Church specifically and orthodox Christianity in general.
And no matter what course of action the Church takes, it’s too backward, too sexist, too reactionary, too slow, etc.; ultimately, it really doesn’t matter what description is used, as long it’s critical.
The unfortunate aspect of the ongoing attacks on individuals such as Pius and Benedict, and the Catholic Church as a whole, is not only that they obscure the good works that good men and women, and their religious organizations do, but also that those leveling the charges have so little trouble finding willing lackeys like Newsweek to do their bidding for them.
Rare Bugatti fetches $4.4 million at auction
02/09/2009
A rare French sports car that sat in an English garage undisturbed for nearly half a century was auctioned off Friday for $4.4 million.
The 1937 Bugatti Type 57S went under the hammer at Bonhams’ Retromobile car show and sale in Paris, The Associated Press reported. It was sold on behalf of the family of its last owner, Dr. Harold Carr.
The orthopedic surgeon drove the car for several years, but in the early 1960s it was parked in his garage in Gosforth, near Newcastle in northern England, where it remained for nearly 50 years until his death in 2007.
Unlike the mass produced cars of today, only about 7,900 Bugattis were built during the company’s lifespan, which began in 1909 and ran until after World War II. Today, about 2,500 are known to exist. Only 17 1937 Type 57S models were built.
Bugatti cars were renown for the speed and handling, and were extremely successful in racing, with many thousands of victories in just a few decades.
SC Sen. Mike Fair has proposed a bill that would make a whole lot of television viewers very happy if it were to become law.
Fair, R-Greenville, wants to let consumers streamline their service by picking the channels they want, instead of being beholden to tiered packages chosen by cable companies, according to a report in The Greenville News.
“Essentially, you would decided whether you get 75 channels or 12 and you would select which channels you have, not the cable company. And you would pay on a channel-by-channel basis,” according to The News.
“Customers shouldn’t have to pay a high price for a standard package of a hundred channels when they only watch 20,” he told The News. “It doesn’t make sense.”
Cable television providers, of course, oppose the move because of the potential loss of revenue. But it makes little sense for a sports fan interested in NASCAR and the NFL to have to pay for the Lifetime Movie Network and Oxygen, nor should aficionados of Home & Garden Television and E! have to foot the bill for The History Channel or TBS if they don’t want to.
Stimulating the economy … by doing nothing
02/09/2009
Here’s a novel idea: instead of pumping trillions of dollars into the slumping economy, how about doing nothing?
That’s what Robert Higgs, a senior fellow in political economy for The Independent Institute, is recommending, in an opinion piece in The Christian Science Monitor.
“The US government has shown repeatedly that as an economic manager it is not to be trusted. What we need most are authorities wise enough to follow the dictum, “First, do no harm.” The stimulus package will do enormous harm. The huge debt burden it entails, by itself, ought to condemn the measure. America is already drowning in debt. But the measure will also wreak harm in countless other directions by effectively reallocating resources on a grand scale according to political priorities, rather than according to individual preferences and economic rationality. As our history shows, the economy can recover strongly on its own, if only the politicians will stay out of the way.”
Recessions came and went prior to the 1930s, when the government decided it needed to start getting involved, and a whole lot more quickly, too. Besides, intervention goes against the Constitution.
As Higgs eloquently points out, “until the 1930s, the Constitution served as a major constraint on federal economic interventionism. The government’s powers were understood to be just as the framers intended: few and explicitly enumerated in our founding document and its amendments.”
Go over the document with a fine-tooth comb as many times as you please and you still won’t be able to come up with an okay for the government to direct money toward such pet projects as global-warming research, urban mass transit, food stamps, unemployment insurance, Medicaid, or countless other items in the stimulus package, Higgs points out.
Given the way politicians today embrace the need for government intervention at the drop of a hat for even the simplest of matters, it makes one wonder how our nation ever made through its first century and a half of existence, doesn’t it?
