The Key to '08: Minnewisowa!

Glad to see that some political analysts are recognizing the major political importance of what some are calling the Minne(sota)Wi(sconsin)(I)owa SuperState.

And note which comes first ;-)

Greedy Capitalists

"my needs for the future just didn't dovetail with what ABC was able to offer me."
-- Rosie O'Donnell, explaining that she won't be back on The View in the fall because of contract differences with ABC.

I hope she has enough consistency to avoid complaining about people who she thinks are overpaid.

Vincible Ignorance

Just when I was starting to think that Pope Benedict was reaching even those who couldn't care less about him, his Church, or his Lord, we have some blogger at some group blog to remind us that persuasion is ineffective against those who refuse to consider the possible.

Just as bad is his (the blogger's) reflexive tendency to see everything through a political lens, which seems to be pretty common among those who are obsessed with -- you guessed it -- politics. But when you attempt to reduce the Infinite and Transcendent from your life, you have to fill the void with something, and politics fits the bill for too many of these guys.

Unfortunate.

A couple good columns

It's been a busy couple weeks and home & work, and hence the lack of posts.

The blog has had a bit more of a political slant of late, and that's continuing today, with two recommended columns:

Rep. John Boehner's column on Democrats & General Petraeus.

A great TCSDaily column documenting the violent crimes that occur even in countries with strict gun-control laws (in light of some quarters' call for more gun control here in light of the VTech horror).

Best show on TV:

Lost, on ABC, Wednesday nights, 8/9E&P. Hands down. Most intelligent, one of the best written & acted... there ain't been anything like this since The X-Files!

Hoping for the salvation of all

The twentieth-century Swiss theologian and cardinal-designate, Hans Urs von Balthasar, is known for many theological insights and proposals, perhaps the most controversial being his assertion that we should hope for the salvation of all men. This is controversial in the opinion of some because they fear that it tends towards universalism, i.e. the assertion that all men in fact will be saved. Also, some believe that Scripture and Tradition indicate that we know that some people either are or will be damned. I've discussed this in the past on this blog, and it's come up recently at Insight Scoop and Evangelical Catholicism. In short, I see no problem with hoping and praying for the salvation of all, as long as it's made clear that this is not an assertion that we in fact know that all men will be saved. Such has been my position for some time.

Today my confidence in this position was bolstered when I came across the following in the Catechism of the Catholic Church, in the context of the discussion of the theological virtue of hope: "In hope, the Church prays for 'all men to be saved' [1 Tim 2:4]" (1821). [For you sticklers, the Latin doesn't really differ: "Spe orat Ecclesia 'omnes homines [...] salvos fieri' (1 Tim 2,4)."

Umm... a pretty strong endorsement of von Balthasar's view, no?

Jonah on Britain, and a Euro response

Decent column by Jonah Goldberg on Britain's recent (i.e. the last several years) "wobblying". Perhaps even more interesting is a response he received from a European:

Perhaps the biggest wrong we Europeans have done to the native peoples of the American continent since that Italian man mistook them for Indians is that we have spent nearly 500 years dumping our trash in their back yard. We have booted out our misfits and rejects, our religious bigots and everything we had that was violent, agressive, intolerant or beligerent. If you sent only brown-eyed people to a remote location and they reproduced among themselves, how may blue-eyed people do you think there would be in that population 500 years later? Therein lies the fundamental difference between the civilization that has developed on the American continent and our European civilization. You use a couple of our languages, after a fashion, but that is all. That is probably the kind of thinking that underlay the OU motion and, yes, I think you're right, it is a setup!

A few "American" jokes for you.
1. They warned Columbus that if he sailed out too far to the west it would lead to disaster. Well, he did. And it has!
2. American: "I feel very lucky that I don't live in Europe."
European: "Me too!. I also feel very lucky that you don't live in Europe."

Talk about bitter. Seems to me that Jonah hit a nerve with his column.

Look, I've spent over three years of my life in Europe, and there's a ton that I love about it. But the Europe of today is not the Europe of the past, in many ways. And I'm sick and tired of Europeans forgetting where the two worst wars in world history began, who began them, and who it was who was instrumental in ending them.

I'm sure some Europeans are tired of Americans pointing out that we saved their butts from totalitarianism, but as long as they keep throwing out inane comments like these, some of us will keep reminding them of recent history (funny, I thought it was Americans who had short memories).

WaPost slams Pelosi

This week Speaker Pelosi strangely decided that it would be somehow helpful to send mixed signals to Syria and other countries in the Middle East by visiting those countries and promoting her own foreign policy, rather than that of the government official who is responsible for foreign affairs: the President and his duly appointed Secretary of State.

Not surprisingly, she made a mess of things, so much so that in today's editorial, the Washington Post slammed her for her conduct. And rightly so. Like it or not, we are in a war, and whatever divisions there might be in Washington, when it comes to projecting our foreign policy to other nations, we should be of one voice: the President's. If you don't like his foreign policy, get one of your own people elected.

A post for today

Some lefty websites say that General Petraeus should be fired for meeting privately with Republicans to map out a legislative strategy.

Small problem: the reality is that the general gave a video teleconference at the Pentagon for Republicans and Democrats, but the Dems chose not to attend.

Oops.

HT: RS Insider.