Hey, I’m not a Catholic, but truth is truth no matter the source, and this man, Cardinal Cormac Murphy O’Connor, is layin’ it out to the Brits in no-nonsense, straightforward language that even a University graduate should be able to fathom.

Pride, avarice, lust, anger, gluttony, envy and sloth: sometimes it feels as if Britain is in the grip of the seven deadly sins. There are arrogant politicians, greedy bankers, lecherous television presenters, furious trade unionists, obese children, competitive shoppers and an underclass of people who do not work. To the doom-mongers, British society is not broken, it is shattered.

According to the Archbishop of Westminster, the economic downturn could be the very thing that brings us to our senses. “It’s the end of a certain kind of selfish capitalism,” Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor said. “This particular recession is a moment – a kairos – when we have to reflect as a country on what are the things that nourish the values, the virtues, we want to have … Capitalism needs to be underpinned with regulation and a moral purpose.”

“[A] moral purpose.” I don’t think that we’ve heard much about that these last couple of weeks with the Democrats’ ramming the Trillion dollar stimulus package through the Congress. The Cardinal goes on:

“One feels very sorry for those losing their jobs but in times of recession people have to rely on friends and neighbours and families and things that really matter to them. That may be a good thing. I think people did lose their way a bit. It has been difficult to bring up children with the kind of values we want. Let’s face it, we now have a ‘me, me’ society, a more consumerist society, a utilitarian society, and our values and virtues have become diminished.
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“Some of it has got to do with having too much. If your worth just depends on your wealth, that is not healthy. Your worth should depend on who you are.”

After that he spanks the bankers for their avarice and greed, but also the common folk who got caught up in the spendthrift mania.

“Everyone was cashing in. People kept borrowing as well as bankers lending. People kept shopping. I think shopping fills a void. If you have one car, you need two. Everyone wants the latest trainers and clothes. It is awful to go to a house and see in a corner hundreds of unused toys. It’s so profligate. What children need is security and love, not huge amounts of money.

“Maybe the Church lost a bit of confidence. We should have said more. [The recession] is not a punishment of God but the consequences of living a certain way of life. If you live a life that is consumed by overindulgence and greed, you eventually pay a price.”

And then there’s that little problem in Briton, the breakdown of the family.

“Clearly you have an obligation to look after people, whether one-parent families or broken families, but if all resources are put on them, it isn’t right. Every social policy should have, at its heart, benefit to the family.” He said that much of the benefits system “obviously doesn’t benefit people. The tax system must benefit the family. The greatest evil in this society is the breakdown of the family.”

Yeah, and we’ve got that in spades here, too! Who to thank for that? Why, us “boomers”, that’s who. While we went out askin’ “Why don’t we do it in the road?” and “What’s It All About, Alfie Bob, Ted, Carol and Alice?” those sixties/seventies pioneers of rampant narcissism tried to drive a stake clean through the heart of the traditional family and its values — tried and in a large part, succeeded! Check out any night of broadcast television, especially these interminable awards shows, and you’ll be face-to-face with a plethora of visuals and verbiage that would mortify our folks. But, back again to the Cardinal and his thoughts on Briton being a Christian country.

“There is a serious attempt by the [Richard] Dawkinses of this world to say we want as much right as the believers to post our unbelief.

“There’s not enough weight given to Christianity in schools. Children should learn about Christmas before Diwali and Ramadan. People should not be afraid to say we are a Christian country.”

I’ve written often on this blog that Europe, and Great Briton too, seem to be doomed. Too much malaise, too many Muslims infiltrating, not integrating, their societies. Too much sex, violence and rock & roll and not enough going to mass, church, temple.

What got me going on this topic today was those comments of the Cardinal’s on the importance of family, and that government wasn’t going to fix these problems by doling out tons of cash. It’s kind of freakin’ me out that the rest of the civilized world is starting to turn around and look toward being more conservative at the very moment in history that this great country of ours seems destined to become a modern day fascist Italy, or fascist Germany, or Soviet Russia — and with all pilin’ on the socialist-bullet-train to make it happen as fast as possible. God help us all!

We damn sure are gonna need it!

Technorati Tags: Cardinal Cormac Murphy O’Connor

Yep — 57 years ago today a childless couple from Tulsa, Oklahoma trucked down to a local clinic and snarfed themselves a bouncing 5-pound baby boy. Well, after much legal work and advance planning they “adopted” a newborn that wasn’t wanted, or couldn’t be taken care of, by his birth mother. The infant, yours truly, was only one hour old when his adopted mother finally got to hold what she had been trying to have for over 5 years — her own baby.

I’ve been so blessed! First, that my birth mother didn’t abort me, although in 1952 that would have been a act full of peril, unlike today, where if you don’t want to surgically remove your “little problem” you can take a pill — which good little Liberals like Newsweek’s Anna Quindlen love to champion. But hey, I’m here and am proud to be a poster boy for adoption and a ranter against abortion.

Second, that my adopted parents and later my adopted sister were great folks. I truly could not have been cast a better lot in life.

It don’t get much better than this! Oh ya betcha!

BTW — someone else is having a birthday today. Sarah Palin turns 45. Way to go Governor!

Now — on to the big 6, 0 in three short ones. Yikes! Where does the time go?

Thanks to a fellow traveler that followed a link from Hillbilly White Trash to this here ol’ Okie’s site I’ve discovered the Scottish band Capercaillie and have been having a grand ol’ time workin’ and listening to Gaelic wonderment. This one I’m embedding is incredibly beautiful.

Here’s a YouTube playlist that will autoplay 34 Capercaillie videos. You’d be hard pressed to find another group of “tunes” to brighten up such a downer day.

Enjoy!

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I watched the Chosen One’s first presser last night and besides my eyes glazing over and almost falling out of my chair with boredom — which the press themselves looked ready to do — I wonder what the man actually accomplished except for nailing shut the coffin on bi-partisanship before his first month in office is done.

And boy is it ever done! Michelle Malkin announces that with the votes of three turn-coat Republicans, Specter, Snowe, and Collins, the Senate has passed the so-called stimulus bill 61-37 and adds:

Now, it’s off to the House-Senate conference backrooms to stuff more pork back in.

You didn’t think that they’d really leave out the “pork” now, did ya? Not with good ol’ Chucky Schumer telling all of us that he doesn’t care a flyin’-fornicatin’-rodent’s-hairy-hiney what WE think. Watch him taunting his GOP co-senators.

“American people really don’t care”, huh Chuck? They’ll care plenty when they have to pay the bill! They’ll care even more when the bill comes due and this porky, portly non-plan of non-action creates nada, nothing in the realm of jobs. Well, maybe they’ll care.

Wall Street isn’t impressed and the Dow is plummeting, in fact, the more that Obama’s Treasury Secretary Geithner speaks, the faster it tanks. Perhaps it’s because he’s talking about injecting another $1.5 – $2 TRILLION into the banking sector. That’s trillion, with a “T”! On top of the $800 plus Billion for the stimulus, the original $350 Billion TARP funds and the more, More, MORE $$$ that we keep hearing will be required before we can dig out from this financial crisis. The Anchoress remarks on the Wall Street free fall:

Stocks Tumbling: As the Senate passes a bill to end America as we know it. Well, Michelle Obama did say her husband would “never let us go back to the way we were.” Is anyone surprised – by any of this?

Geez, I got a huge headache! I’m not the only one. My buddy Laer at Cheat-Seeking Missiles saw “No Magic” in the Pres’ presser either:

Unfortunately for the newly dour Mr. Obama – who, it seems, never thought for a moment that being president would be anything but fun – the American people have started paying attention. They look at the crazed spending and obscene overreach of Porkasaurus and say to themselves, “I just don’t believe this guy any more. If this is how he deals with a crisis, he’s right – we may not be able to reverse it.”

He also presents AOL poll results that show Obama’s stature with the lefty side of the populace being taken down a few notches to boot. Ed Morrissey thinks that Obama told two big whoppers about the GOP and blew his history review of Japan’s economic failures in the 1990s. Lie number one is that the GOP wanted to “do nothing” about the crisis. Lie number two is that the GOP is solely responsible for the trillion dollar deficit, and he told the reporters, and the American people, that Japan messed up by not acting swiftly enough.

In other words, Obama gets an F in economic history despite supposedly having the best and brightest cribbers working on his staff. He gets an F for honesty as well as an D- on bipartisanship. It’s a lousy start to his four-year class on how to be an executive.

Ace sees the classic “bait & switch” of a shifty used car salesman:

Bait and switch. He promised a much more sensible stimulus with more tax cuts — and costing only $174 billion — as Candidate Obama.

As President Obama, he is ramming an $1.3 trillion porkfest on us and claiming the “people have spoken” and have endorsed this plan through their votes.

Actually, to the extent they endorsed anything, they endorsed the more Republican-friendly $174 billion plan.

He also notes that the AP is starting to “wonder” about Obama’s facts and figures.

Watching the presser on C-Span, as it wrapped and the Mighty-”O” exited stage back and the mikes still live — what I saw was a classic South Park moment — everyone looking a bit stunned with “What the Hell was that!” looks on their faces, with nervous laughter all around.

I keep snappin’ my fingers in front of my face — I still can’t wake from this nightmare — all I can hear in my head is that voice form on high sayin’, “I Won! Deal with it!”

Technorati Tags: stimulus bill, Geithner, TARP, Obama, porkfest

What the Obama administration needs to do is cut a deal with McNEIL-PPC, Inc. to send out to every American taxpayer their own super-size tub of KY Jelly, ’cause with the reamin’ that’s a comin’ based on last night’s Senatorial “compromise”, all us taxpayers are gonna need all the heavy-duty lubricant that we can possibly get our hands on as we bend over to take the BIG ONE up the ol’ financial wazoo! Yep, three of the GOP’s not-so-finest, Sens. Susan Collins and Olympia J. Snowe of Maine and Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, caved in to the persuasions of Obama’s Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel, and the Senate Democrat majority and abandoned their fellow Republicans — which begs the question, “Just what did those three get promised in return?” The Senate minority leader puts it in the proper perspective:

“Now, if most Republicans were convinced that this would work, there might be a greater willingness to support it,” said Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell on the floor of the Senate after announcement of the deal. “But all the historical evidence suggests that it’s highly unlikely to work. And so, you have to balance the likelihood of success versus the crushing debt that we’re levying on the backs of our children, our grandchildren, and, yes, their children.”

True, this is about $100+ Billion less than it would have been yesterday, and that sounds like “such a deal”, if you’re one of those morons that buys into anything that gets promoted you way. Over at Patterico they are likening this to a bad car buying deal:

$100 billion off a $937 billion package. If that sounds good to you, then you’re probably the type of person who is impressed when the car dealer says he’s willing to knock $500 off the sticker price.

{…}

There are about 138 million taxpayers in the country. A $937 billion package, therefore, amounts to $6789 for every taxpayer.

If they cut it by $100 billion, that brings the total to the low, low price of only $6065 per taxpayer. For a typical family, that’s $12,130.

Twelve thousand dollars per family. That’s the number that may bring the “moderate Republicans” on board.

Who’s paying that? You? Or your kids, with interest?

Well, all we know is that it probably won’t be any of the high-profile Democrats payin’ for nothin’, as they sure don’t seem to like payin’ their fair share of the tax burden they dump on the rest of us!

But hey you say, Obama’s right, we really need to stop standing around and “DO SOMETHING!”, and do it “RIGHT FRICKIN’ NOW!”, or we’re all doomed! Doomed! DOOMED!!!!!!

Un, the Congressional Budget Office would like to have a little word with all you “depression hysterics” out there:

President Obama’s economic recovery package will actually hurt the economy more in the long run than if he were to do nothing, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office said Wednesday.

CBO, the official scorekeepers for legislation, said the House and Senate bills will help in the short term but result in so much government debt that within a few years they would crowd out private investment, actually leading to a lower Gross Domestic Product over the next 10 years than if the government had done nothing.

CBO estimates that by 2019 the Senate legislation would reduce GDP by 0.1 percent to 0.3 percent on net.

According to the rest of this article, there is an admission by the COB that some jobs will be created by this so-called “stimulus” package — but that for the next 2-1/2 — 3 years the effects of that would be “minimal”.

So, get that into your head. WE are gonna let Congress give Obama the power to spend almost a Trillion Dollars even though the Congress’ own budget office says that this spending will achieve next to nothing. Michelle Malkin gives us the current update on where all this stands as of Sat. noon:

Here’s where things stand. The Senate will be in session today from about noon to 3:00pm Eastern. Members will speak, but there won’t be any roll call votes. Cloture will reportedly be filed on the Cave-In/”Compromise” amendment from Sens. Collins and Nelson. The cloture vote (to end debate) on the amendment is scheduled for Monday at 5:30pm Eastern. GOP minority leader Mitch McConnell’s office tells us that “if cloture is invoked on the amendment post cloture time will run until noon on Tuesday. At noon on Tuesday the bill will be subject to another 60 vote hurdle by either waiving a budget point of order or achieving 60 votes on final passage.”

They’re taking Sunday off.

Question: Who has seen the Collins/Nelson cave-in amendment? Where is it? When can we, the taxpayers, see it? SHOW US THE BILL.

She calls this bill a “gold-plated pile of crapola!”

Wow! What a way to learn the hard knocks of losing an election, especially to the most radical-Left candidate in many a generation. If this gets past both houses of Congress and is signed into law by the Chosen One, better hope that they get that KY delivered and fast. Cause “assume the position” will be the order of the day!

Remember, only the first 6 Billion is consensual . . .

Technorati Tags: Mitch McConnell, Obama’s economic recovery package

This story sounds like a bad horror flick. Unfortunately, for the infant, there were no special effects and its death was an all too real horror. With 23-week octuplets fighting for life out here in CA, the news of this 23-week fetus turned born-alive infant that was tossed out like garbage should chill anyone not wholesale bought-in to the Culture of Death promoted by the secular Left. From A/P writer Christine Armario:

Eighteen and pregnant, Sycloria Williams went to an abortion clinic outside Miami and paid $1,200 for Dr. Pierre Jean-Jacque Renelique to terminate her 23-week pregnancy.

Three days later, she sat in a reclining chair, medicated to dilate her cervix and otherwise get her ready for the procedure.

Only Renelique didn’t arrive in time. According to Williams and the Florida Department of Health, she went into labor and delivered a live baby girl.

What Williams and the Health Department say happened next has shocked people on both sides of the abortion debate: One of the clinic’s owners, who has no medical license, cut the infant’s umbilical cord. Williams says the woman placed the baby in a plastic biohazard bag and threw it out.

Police recovered the decomposing remains in a cardboard box a week later after getting anonymous tips.

Totally disgusted yet? As the Ginsu commercial says, “Wait, there’s more!”

The complaint says one of the clinic owners, Belkis Gonzalez came in and cut the umbilical cord with scissors, then placed the baby in a plastic bag, and the bag in a trash can.

Williams’ lawsuit offers a cruder account: She says Gonzalez knocked the baby off the recliner chair where she had given birth, onto the floor. The baby’s umbilical cord was not clamped, allowing her to bleed out. Gonzalez scooped the baby, placenta and afterbirth into a red plastic biohazard bag and threw it out.

{…}

An autopsy determined Williams’ baby – she named her Shanice – had filled her lungs with air, meaning she had been born alive, according to the Department of Health. The cause of death was listed as extreme prematurity.

OK, now if you aren’t totally disgusted what can I say? The doc has multiple settled suits for malpractice and is restricted to performing abortions only with another physician in attendance — not that he paid any attention to that edict.

Abortion? Readers of ‘Okie’ know that I’m against it, big time! For unwanted pregnancies “adoption” should be the preference. During the fall election there was some fallout over Barack Obama’s failure to vote for the Illinois legislation, the “Infants Born Alive Bill”, that would have compelled those in attendance to administer aid to babies born alive during botched abortion attempts. Gianna Jessen, herself the product of just such a botched abortion, was very much upset over the positions of then candidate Obama.

This case in Florida looks a lot like murder. I sure hope that the D.A. feels the same way.

Technorati Tags: Sycloria Williams, Pierre Jean-Jacque Renelique, abortions