Thoughts related to specific news articles
The weatherman says things are warming up early.
http://usnews.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/03/15/10704138-warming-up-mighty-early-across-parts-of-us
We really didn’t need him to tell us. I’ve had sonowdrops and crocus blooming already for several days. I have daffodils heavily budded and one hyacinth near the house showing purple too. Al Sgroi says he has already planted peas.
Here’s another article on the bad news from sugared soda. I still drink them occasionally. But I think the occasionally will be less now. Choosing diet soda is clearly better than sugared soda in this study. I know I saved a bundle in dentist bills after I switched from soda to tea.
City schools are a perennial topic of conversation. What can be done to help poor districts? What helps students who are struggling? So much talk and money is spent on things which don’t really make a difference because political correctness keeps us from endorsing what really does make a difference – religious faith and stable family structure. This study should be labeled as a landmark study. It should be required reading for politicians overseeing schools and for school officials.
This is a perfect example of the ridiculous situations arising from present immmigration legislation. To deport this girl would be completely unjust, inhumane and just plain stupid, not to mention sinful. When are we going to agree that punishing children who have been here since childhood for the sins of their parents is not right. Such action also flies in the face of the spirit of our country that the Statue of Liberty represents.
It is very sad that the religious freedom of our country has become a partisan issue. Somehow the spin artists have tried to make it a women’s issue rather than a religious freedom issue. This is not about women’s rights; it is about religious liberty and freedom of expression of conscience for everyone. I cannot believe that the U. S. Senate Democrats are too blinded by politics to see this. I believe that Cardinal Dolan has expressed the issue well in this quote:
Religious freedom is a fundamental right of all. This right does not depend on any government’s decision to grant it: it is God-given, and just societies recognize and respect its free exercise. The free exercise of religion extends well beyond the freedom of worship. It also forbids government from forcing people or groups to violate their most deeply held religious convictions, and from interfering in the internal affairs of religious organizations.
Recent actions by the Administration have attempted to reduce this free exercise to a “privilege” arbitrarily granted by the government as a mere exemption from an all-encompassing, extreme form of secularism. The exemption is too narrowly defined, because it does not exempt most non-profit religious employers, the religiously affiliated insurer, the self-insured employer, the for-profit religious employer, or other private businesses owned and operated by people who rightly object to paying for abortion inducing drugs, sterilization, and contraception. And because it is instituted only by executive whim, even this unduly narrow exemption can be taken away easily.
In the United States, religious liberty does not depend on the benevolence of who is regulating us. It is our “first freedom” and respect for it must be broad and inclusive—not narrow and exclusive. Catholics and other people of faith and good will are not second class citizens. And it is not for the government to decide which of our ministries is “religious enough” to warrant religious freedom protection.
This is not just about contraception, abortion-causing drugs, and sterilization—although all should recognize the injustices involved in making them part of a universal mandated health care program. It is not about Republicans or Democrats, conservatives or liberals. It is about people of faith. This is first and foremost a matter of religious liberty for all. If the government can, for example, tell Catholics that they cannot be in the insurance business today without violating their religious convictions, where does it end? This violates the constitutional limits on our government, and the basic rights upon which our country was founded.
From the letter by Cardinal Dolan to the Catholic Bishops dated Feb. 22, 2012
I am very opposed to the government making money from its citizens by promoting gambling of any kind. It is immmoral as it is a way for the powerful to shirk responsibility and to rob the vulnerable instead. In the following article Albert Mohler Jr. argues convincingly that besides being immoral, increasing casino gambling is also counter-productive financially for communities.
http://www.albertmohler.com/2012/02/21/casino-culture-and-the-collapse-of-character/
http://www.christianpost.com/news/gay-by-choice-69168/
Charles Colson, a clear thinker and writer for the Christian church, has nailed it with this essay. Gay activists are often unwilling to admit that choice plays any part despite testimonials from people like the actress Colson cites and from homosexuals who have chosen to go straight. As I have written before, the evidence as I see it shows that while in the short term, our hormones may seem to dominate us; in the long run, our brain has far more shaping influence through the choices we make than our hormones do.
http://www.syracuse.com/news/index.ssf/2012/02/opinion_today_bishops_treating.html
This opinion is given great press by the Post Standard, probably because they consider it politically correct. But it contains an obvious logical disconnect. The illogical assumption that is that institutions, because they are such, can be somehow disassociated from the values of the persons who founded them and/or run them. That is patent nonsense. It is as misguided as the idea of the college out West that recently tried to force student groups to accept leaders who do not agree with the fundamental purposes of the group. It is preposterous for the same reason. Institutions such as Catholic hospitals and church-related colleges are extensions of the values of the persons who created them and who continue to run them, values that are inculcated in the DNA of the institution. If these values are an expression of a religious conviction, they fall directly under the First Amendment and are protected by it. In addition, when the hospital or college is connected to a religious group, the values of the institution cannot be separated from the values of the sponsoring group. The Bill of Rights is in place to protect the expression of religious faith whether by one person or a group of persons expressing themselves through an institution.
http://www.syracuse.com/news/index.ssf/2012/02/bishop_takes_up_catholics_chur.html
I wholeheartedly support the noncompliance stance of Bishop Robert J. Cunningham of the Syracuse Diocese of the Roman Catholic Church as he takes a firm stand against the Obama administration’s continuing assault upon religious liberty. Obama’s move is a blatant attempt by pro-choice forces to expand their agenda and force people of faith to do things exactly counter to their conscience and beliefs. Preventing such overreaches of power from treading down religious liberty is precisely why the first amendment was written. This Obama proposal is both unconscionable and unconstitutional. It should be opposed by all people of any faith and party who value the first amendment. It makes no difference whether the employer is the church directly or the hospital controlled by the church or a college directed by the church, such issues are still a matter of conscience protected by the first amendment and not to be trampled upon by the government. Bishop Cunningham’s position is courageous and praiseworthy. I call on evangelicals to stand behind him for the sake of freedom of religion and because we also are certainly targeted by such attacks from the current administration.
There are so many reasons to oppose gambling as a means of public fund raising. Here is an article that explains from the standpoint of professional economists why it is a bad idea.
http://www.midhudsonnews.com/News/2012/January/03/Casinos_survey-03Jan12.htm
From a Biblical point of view, it is poor stewardship of resources for those who gamble. From the standpoint of fairness, it represents the rich failing to take fair share responsibility and instead passing off their responsibility to raise funds onto the poor who tend to be the gamblers.
This is one more way Cuomo is becoming the poster boy for promoting immorality in New York.