The Social Catholic: Conservative Current Events

Occupy an Economics Book: The Ignorance of #resistRNC

#OccupyRNC or #resistRNC is set to stage a huge demonstration at the Republican National Convention in a little more than 2 days. The economics aside — We’ll get to that in a minute — take a second to look at the “big money” and corporations argument of the occupy movement. The organization of the website they have built for this event is staggering resistrnc.org they’ve set up a map like a battle grid with strategic locations (including Romney ville a play on the depression era Hooverville). The map even includes real time updates so occupy rioters can avoid police, barricades and even fires (which there is talk of them planing to set using molotov cocktails). Now this is no small task. A ton of planing and organization went into this website, not to mention money. It is very clear that some “big money” is behind this plot. Leftist corporations like Greenpeace and Labor Unions are likely to be involved in providing funding and tactical organization for such a massive endeavor.

The whole premiss of the occupy movement is a joke. If the protestors had bothered to learn anything in their high school economics classes we wouldn’t be in this mess. They would realize that republicans Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan are far more likely to improve the economy. Occupiers look at images like the below graphic and get all riled up.

The problem with the above graphic is that if you read this article the labor participation rate has dropped to a near 30 year low of 63.7% what that means is that 36.3% of americans are not working and generate zero income. Now please if I’m wrong let me hear about it in the comments, but if according to the map 40% own roughly the size of Bermuda and 36.3% generate nothing towards GDP or really any economic indicator, then doesn’t that sound perfectly and exactly fair? That sounds like the perfect amount for the 3.7% poorest wage earners in America.

The problem is they want you to focus on that 40% but 40% isn’t a fair number. Because only 3.7% live in that spec the other 36.3% are either married to or the child of somebody in the other regions, or squatting in the 1% land. A better number to look at would be the disparity between how much the 40% have compared to how much they use. Because in reality that spec on the map probably uses closer to 40% of the government resources which comes from your pocket. So if occupy wants to talk about what is fair they should go back to their spec and tell us from there. The “wealth gap” as they call it comes from not working not from unfairness, and in any system somebody always has to be at the bottom. The great thing about our system is you don’t have to stay there.

And if you don’t believe it, then do what you always do and listen to this actor and the mainstream media.

White House Correspondents Dinner: The Hollywood Party

The White House correspondents dinner was actually pretty entertaining at times. However there may be ramifications politically from some of the jokes. The Washington Post wrote an article that was very interesting.

One of the jokes Jimmy Kimmel made rang very true in a not so funny way he said, “Everything that’s wrong with America is here tonight” and that was true. The drivers of all our political and economic problems were all in the same room Saturday night. Hollywood, liberal leaders and the Democrat 1% had a good laugh at America’s expense tonight. Yes it was funny. Yes Obama got some good jokes in. However the humor aside a lot of the jokes the president and Jimmy Kimmel made shouldn’t have been funny. The joke campaign ad the president had made about himself shouldn’t have been funny. The joke statements were pretty true. Granted I did giggle when they referenced the absurd Sarah McLaughlin anti-animal cruelty campaign. Which seems like it was designed to divert funds from starving children in Africa in order to buy dog beds. I digress…

It’s pretty telling however about the democratic party that it seems Hollywood plays a large role in their platform. It’s unfortunate that the majority of Americans would actually take into account a celebrity’s political views when forming their own opinions about the issues. Celebrities wield a lot of power when they do things publicly because people want to be like them, and they want to emulate them. But hold on a minute! Do you really want to make such important decisions based on what somebody completely removed from the issues thinks? When deciding the fate of issues like abortion, freedom of religion, and immigration don’t you think your decision should come from a deeper place than “Because Kim Kardashian tweeted about it.” It’s a sad state of affairs that our citizens use such shallow means of examining the issues. Read the Constitution, read a history book, or better yet learn what your faith teaches about the issues. Hopefully in the future Hollywood won’t have such a pivotal role in politics.

This Eucharist - by Jethro Higgins (Catholic worship song)

Warning: This post is SUPER Catholic. This is a song I wrote for Eucharistic adoration when i was a youth minister and playing in the church band. It is a pretty authentic picture of how the Eucharist makes me feel. Feel free to learn it and play it for church activities. For any other purposes please seek my permission. Below you can read the lyrics.

V1: In this Eucharist gift of body and blood I am overwhelmed and over joyed and filled with your Grace my God, And in the breaking of the Lamb that was slain my knees hit the floor and I beg once more to be worthy of this gift of the Lord.

Chorus: I am not worthy Lord but only say the word and I shall be healed by the grace of my God. I am not worthy Jesus but that-a which God has made clean we are not to call profane.

V2: In this Sacrament we touch the living God and not the same and I am not ashamed to say I can feel the change and in my heart I know I become a temple of the Lord and dwelling with in me is the holy one the Savior whom I adore.

It’s not just a sign! Not merely bread and wine! It’s so much more! Bread can’t hear the cry of the poor!! Hallelujah Hallelujah

Amen. Amen. Amen. I do believe you Lord my God.

Feeding America: What’s going on here?

Feeding America over the past year has engaged in a rather large marketing campaign with some pretty big named stars. Ben Afleck and Taye Diggs are just a few of the actors involved. Here are a couple highlights of the ad campaign

Now don’t misunderstand me. I am a huge supporter of food banks and I frequently donate to canned food drives when opportunities present themselves. However something rubs me wrong about this ad campaign by Feeding America. Feeding America began as a religious organization named St. Mary’s Food Bank out of Arizona, but after accepting federal money the name changed for some reason.

For some reason President Obama is featured frequently in this ad campaign a search for Feeding America in Youtube brings up Mr. Obama several times giving the organization an oddly political message. Then I found this interesting article which seems to describe a fundraiser as some sort of reaction to a GOP candidate.

Wisconsin rock the pantry

Now that’s all well and good the left is welcome to do their charity work and they can take pride in it that’s not my complaint. My complaint is why are they spending so much money on this ad campaign, and further more there is this…

Feeding America ad in the Philippines

My wife lives in Cebu Philippines. This is an ad that showed up on her Yahoo messenger last night while she was connected through a Philippine server with a Philippine IP address. As we all know ads are expensive and internet ads are selectively targeted in order to reach your target audience with the fewest amount of dollars spent. So why is Feeding America advertising for Philippine citizens to donate to the cause? My wife’s city Cebu is currently experiencing a water shortage and water is being rationed to her neighborhood. Down the street children beg for money, and by the docks the people live in extreme poverty to the point that would make our American homeless blush. Yet an American charity is attempting to solicit funds from these people. All with apparently the backing of the current administration and some big names in Hollywood. I’m not going to make any wild assumptions here about some sort of conspiracy, but I think the matter warrants a little investigation wouldn’t you say? Either funds from Feeding America are being wildly mismanaged or something else is a foot here. I’d love to get your opinion please leave a comment and let me know what you think about this situation.

Catholic and Orthodox Bishops Pray for LIFE

During this year’s March for Life an unprecedented event took place. Catholic and Orthodox bishops bridged the Millennium wide riff between them and joined in prayer together in support of the pro-life event at the nation’s capitol. Some might be tempted to over look this monumental step by the two oldest expressions of the Christian faith. That would be a mistake. Joint prayer between the two is a rare occurrence. The most notable time in recent history that Orthodox and Catholic bishops were seen praying together was the funeral service for pope John Paul the Great. Below is a video of the monumental joint prayer at this year’s March for Life.

Many in the crowd for the March for life were very moved by the experience, but some seemed to not understand the magnitude of what was happening on the stage. As I sat there enthralled camera phone rolling I was disappointed to see a man walking threw the crowd shouting, “T-shirts for sale! $5 get your march for Life T-shirts!” while everyone was silently praying.

The March went on to feature the usual hour of senators and representatives sharing their enthusiasm and doing just a little bit of campaigning. However following the long speeches and a lot of standing around the crowd took to the streets marching through the National Mall it was a site to behold as you can see below

Clergy and politicians alike walked the streets of DC in support of human rights. However there was a bit of pushback by many local pro-life supporters who did not attend this years March for Life because the event was held midweek. Many professionals in the area were unable to leave work to attend the event. I spoke to a couple executives from local companies that wished the organizers of the March for Life would change the date of the event for next year.

There is a strong desire among many supporters for the event to be held during the Spring or Fall when weather conditions could attract a much larger crowd. The organizers chose the dead of winter for the March for Life to show the resolve of the pro-life movement, but a much stronger message could be sent by many more people attending. We will have to wait and see if the event is rescheduled next year. Until then let’s all join the catholic and Orthodox bishops and work toward fostering greater unity so that we might stand strong together against the unjust killing of the pre-born.

(Source: youtube.com)

War on Women: Ann Romney gets apology from Hilary Rosen

Hilary Rosen apologized to Ann Romney today which is making big news especially on Twitter, but more importantly and somewhat swept under the rug was this statement by Hilary Rosen,

“Let’s declare peace in this phony war and go back to focus on the substance.”

This statement is huge for the democrats and left leaning liberals in general. I have a new found respect for Hilary Rosen. Obviously this particular statement wasn’t focused on heavily by ABC news in this article.

Read: http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/OTUS/ann-romney-defends-stay-home-mom-status/story?id=16124396#.T4d0OKtSSnk

Maybe it was a gaff but declaring the “war on women” mantra, so often chanted by the supporters of Mr. Obama, phony was a huge step forward in focusing on policy and issues. To this point the Democratic campaign has been a shouting match of hateful nonsense, but there is light at the end of the tunnel. Maybe the nation can work on being less divided and really sit down and honestly discuss policy. Democrats should follow Hilary Rosen’s lead and work on being more civil. After all civility is a very frequent word leaving the lips of our commander and chief when discussing politics. It’s about time somebody directed that at both sides. What Rosen said about Ann Romney was offensive, but in the long run it may have helped the Republican campaign as it drew much attention to the double standard so frequently felt by GOP supporters.

North Korea mis-fires long range rocket

North Korea test fired a long range rocket today. Do to a flareup the rocket did not meet it’s desired path and has went astray toward the Philippines and Australia. Visit this link to read up on the full story from the Associated Press.

http://abcnews.go.com/International/north-korea-launches-test-rocket/story?id=16125951#.T4dlEatSSnk

Defying UN and US authorities North Korea tells the world that it is not ready to enter the international community, but would rather continue it’s long standing tradition of being ridiculous.

North Korea has been looking for a way for Kim Jong-Un to make his name both nationally and internationally, but shooting a rocket at the ocean that was previously aimed at space is not the way to do it. Not to mention the United States and the United Nations might have a thing or two to say about the situation having already given the volatile country stern warnings about continuing down this path. UN and US officials should have some interesting things to say over the next few days. If Kim Jong-Un wanted attention well now he’s got it. Unfortunately the North Korean display of “power” may have cost the people of North Korea much needed food from the U.S. Kim Jong Un is apparently not interested in the needs of his people. Stay tuned!