Saturday, April 22, 2006
Saturday's Snippets
Smell of Decay in Washington,DC * Immigration and GOP * Vatican and Condoms
Cover story of The April 20th issue of The Economist (London) reads: "Taking on Bush - Can the Democrats get their act together?" Don't think that I am an exception when I say that there are days when the prospects look far from bright. What a pity that would be. With all the negative baggage being carried by Bush and the GOP, if the Democrats fail then they would have no one to blame but themselves.
Editorial in The Economist: "SNIFF the air in Washington, DC, this spring and you notice the smell of decay."
- Mr Bush is the most unpopular Republican president since Richard Nixon: a recent Washington Post-ABC poll showed that 47% of voters “strongly” disapprove of his performance. Tom DeLay, the former House majority leader who did more than anybody else to build the conservative machine in Congress, is retiring in disgrace, the better to focus on his numerous legal problems. More Republicans may well be implicated in the Jack Abramoff lobbying scandal in the coming months.
- The ideological shine has gone, too. The party of streamlined government has been gorging on legislative pork. A party that once prided itself on businesslike pragmatism has become synonymous with ideologically skewed ineptitude of the sort epitomised by Donald Rumsfeld (see article). “What is the difference between the Titanic and the Republican Party?” goes one joke in conservative circles. “At least the Titanic wasn't trying to hit the iceberg.”
The immigration issue has become a hot potato for the GOP as gay rights is for Democrats. With the midterm elections looming ahead, the Republicans are scrambling to find a middle ground between the hardliners and the so called elitist members of the party. The bottom line, they don't want to completely lose the Hispanic voters. ""How The GOP Lost Its Way",There is nothing new about this division. It is a 40-year-old fight that has its roots in the cultural, economic, regional and ideological differences between the two camps. Still, most conservatives felt that after the victory of Ronald Reagan and the Republican Revolution of 1994 their point was made and the country-clubbers would know their place. They were wrong. The Rockefeller wing is now attempting to reassert its control over the party and is openly hostile toward the Reagan populists who created the Republican majority in the first place."
The Vatican approves condoms! Not quite. As a weapon against AIDS, yes. "We must do everything to fight AIDS," said Cardinal Carlo Maria Martini, the retired archbishop of Milan, in Italy's L'Espresso newsweekly. "Certainly, the use of condoms can constitute in certain situations a lesser evil."
But some things never change--old men in robes and their position on abstinence. "While there is no specific, authoritative Vatican policy on using condoms to protect against AIDS, the Vatican opposes condoms because they are a form of artificial contraception. Pope Benedict XVI repeated the Vatican's position last June, when he told African bishops abstinence was the only "fail-safe" way to prevent the spread of HIV."
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To some, it may appear that Martini is breaking with the pope and official church teachings.
But in fact, Martini's comments in the Italian magazine are entirely consistent with the church's reverance for life.
The church teaches that no one should use a condom or any other type of artificial contraception.
The reality, though, that if everyone follows that teaching, people will likely die.
Martini is not a relativist. He is not arguing that the church shirk its beliefs and adapt to contemporary, secular morality — or immorality, if you will. He is not calling for condom distributions after Mass.
Martini just wants to make sure that whenever possible, the church avoids a greater evil and, even after man has sinned, always stands up for life.
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But in fact, Martini's comments in the Italian magazine are entirely consistent with the church's reverance for life.
The church teaches that no one should use a condom or any other type of artificial contraception.
The reality, though, that if everyone follows that teaching, people will likely die.
Martini is not a relativist. He is not arguing that the church shirk its beliefs and adapt to contemporary, secular morality — or immorality, if you will. He is not calling for condom distributions after Mass.
Martini just wants to make sure that whenever possible, the church avoids a greater evil and, even after man has sinned, always stands up for life.
# posted by 
: 8:20 PM
: 8:20 PM 
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