Depressed

It is hard to watch the debacle going on at the formerly Catholic Notre Dame University. It has gotten to the point that if you do not want to make "accommodations" with the most extreme of pro-abortion agendas, well, the president of Notre Dame will call you a member of the Ku Klux Klan.

Nice.

I suppose I shouldn't be depressed by this turn of events. After all, it isn't as if I didn't predict them in a sense. In the second post I ever wrote for this blog I noted the following:

The object of this kind of writing, from... liberal Catholics... seems to be [the creation of] a Catholic church that will be safe for the party platform of the Democratic party. Indeed, it is hard to distinguish where the one ends and the other begins. This need to "update" the Catholic church so that it is nearly identical with this or that contemporary political ideology troubles me. I feel the church plays a much more important role as a counter-cultural force. The church is supposed to represent eternal truths, not this decades fashions. Historically the church has gotten itself into trouble by being too of its time, not too little. The sad history of popes as petty tyrants playing out their games of political power is not a pretty one. But it is a history that will be repeated if the church gets involved in remaking itself in the image of our contemporary political institutions. However, the drive that impels the [liberal Catholics] of this world is strong. Anyone who opposes their vision is for them, well, a Nazi.

And, in the short run, I think [they] will win. That is why I consider myself a "partial Catholic." The wind has been blowing cold for some time. The church will be fundamentally altered in my lifetime, and the post Vatican II church in all its successes and failings, will cease to exist. So I keep my distance. It would be too painful for me to be a full blown Catholic.

And, a little over two years ago I noted the following in a discussion about the troubles in the Episcopal church:

The reason I'm interested in this sad spectacle is I'm sure this is exactly how things will play out in the Catholic Church once the "progressives" reach the majority. This movement represents the complete politicization of religion. By that I mean, this is the strongest expression of the belief that political ideology, of the "correct" sort, is the preeminent "moral" principle by which every category of human existence must be measured. Therefore everything, including religious beliefs, must be made subservient to ideology. It was once said that the Catholic Church made philosophy the handmaiden of theology. Well, the Episcopal Church is now attempting to make theology, political ideology's bitch.

Could the sad spectacle going on in Indiana be viewed as anything else but the movement of such an ideology into the "mainstream" of "Catholic" thought? I really don't see how it could be viewed as anything else.

I knew it would happen.

Somehow it isn't comforting.

The Fraud Continues, Only More Stupidly

The loose patchwork of carefully selected data, non-testable hypotheses, and non-verifiable computer models known as "Anthropogenic Global Warming" has been coming apart at the seems for awhile now. The ever increasing (near hysterical) attempts to stitch it back together are looking truly pathetic. Being a true believer, the USA Today publishes every last apology for this ideology masquerading as science. The latest:

As our legions of dedicated USA TODAY commenters enjoy pointing out, every year since 1998 — when the Earth's temperature peaked at a record high — has been cooler than that year. 2008, for example, was the planet's coolest year since 2000. Could this be evidence against global warming?

No, say two scientists in this week's issue of Geophysical Research Letters, a journal of the American Geophysical Union. The scientists, David Easterling of the National Climatic Data Center and Michael Wehner of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, say that up-and-down temperatures year-to-year don't undermine the overwhelming evidence for global warming.

"The reality of the climate system is that, due to natural climate variability, it is entirely possible to have a period as long as a decade or two of 'cooling' superimposed on the longer-term warming trend due to anthropogenic [human-caused] greenhouse gas forcing," write the authors.

This would make some sense if we had hundreds of years worth of data showing Anthropogenic Global Warming. We don't. In fact, AGW was only supposed to have started in the late 1970's or early 1980's.

Think about that. Cooling that goes on for up to two decades, so these masters of logic tell us, would not be evidence that could counter a argument based upon warming that lasted at most two decades.

What? No one could be that stupid. They must have said something different.

"Climate scientists pay little attention to these short-term fluctuations as the short term 'cooling trends' mentioned above are statistically insignificant and fitting trends to such short periods is not very meaningful in the context of long-term climate change....

"Claims that global warming is not occurring that are derived from a cooling observed over such short time periods ignore this natural variability and are misleading," Easterling and Wehner conclude.

So, cooling observed over two decades would be statistically invalid, but warming over a similar period is a lead pipe certainty?

Yep, they are that stupid.

Its amazing what people will sign their names to when their research money is at stake.

Shocking!

The BBC shrieks:

The US government has opted to retain a Bush-era rule that limits protection for polar bears from the effects of global warming.

Environmental groups had been calling for the rule to be lifted, and the US Congress had given Interior Secretary Ken Salazar the power to do so.

Mr Salazar said lifting the rule would create "uncertainty and confusion".

The rule means the government will act only against threats to polar bears that arise in their Arctic habitat....

"The Endangered Species Act is not the proper mechanism for controlling our nation's carbon emissions," Mr Salazar said.

In a related ruling, the Obama administration also will not be offering protection to breasts suffering from the effects of gravity.

The BBC remains saddened, angered and stupid.

Apocalypse Now Later

So, it looks like we won't all be dying from Swine Flu.

You mean I'll have to give up hacking my lungs out until I expire? That will be a blow. I'll have nothing to do!

Besides, we haven't had time for "scientists" to tell us it was caused by SUV's.

Crazed Woman Rallies For Right To Murder Kulaks, Ukrainians

Yikes.

Notre Dame: Despicable

It amazes me. Notre Dame, stung by criticism of its decision to defy the wishes of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops and honor abortion proponent Barack Obama, has been trying to hide behind the skirt of Harvard law professor Mary Ann Glendon. Luckily, Prof. Glendon is having none of it.

I learned that “talking points” issued by Notre Dame in response to widespread criticism of its decision included two statements implying that my acceptance speech would somehow balance the event:

• “President Obama won’t be doing all the talking. Mary Ann Glendon, the former U.S. ambassador to the Vatican, will be speaking as the recipient of the Laetare Medal.”

• “We think having the president come to Notre Dame, see our graduates, meet our leaders, and hear a talk from Mary Ann Glendon is a good thing for the president and for the causes we care about.”

A commencement, however, is supposed to be a joyous day for the graduates and their families. It is not the right place, nor is a brief acceptance speech the right vehicle, for engagement with the very serious problems raised by Notre Dame’s decision—in disregard of the settled position of the U.S. bishops—to honor a prominent and uncompromising opponent of the Church’s position on issues involving fundamental principles of justice.

Prof. Glendon is classier than I am. Had I been used in such a cynical CYA manner I would have simply told them to "stick your medal where the sun don't shine."

Screw Earth Day

I won't be happy until "Wind" and "Fire" have their own days as well.

Really, I'm just happy the stupid thing is over for another year.

Goodbye To A Great Friend

We only had you for a short time Lillie, but you made everything better. I will miss you more than I can say.

Christ, There Aren't Six Rational People In Colorado?

Really, these are the stupidest people I've ever heard of: Churchill wins CU suit but awarded just $1

Ward Churchill won his case against the University of Colorado today as a Denver jury unanimously decided he was fired in retaliation for his controversial essay about the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

The jury gave Churchill $1 for past losses, finding he was fired over protected free speech....

The four women and two men listened to the case for four weeks and heard 45 witnesses testify in the courtroom. Two male alternates were sent home after closing arguments Tuesday.

A day after the Sept. 11 attacks, Churchill wrote his essay "Some People Push Back: On the Justice of Roosting Chickens" to criticize America's economic and foreign policies. In the essay, he compared some of the victims in the World Trade Center attack to "little Eichmanns" after Nazi Adolf Eichmann, who engineered the destruction of the Jews in World War II.

CU launched an investigation to determine whether that essay was protected speech. Eventually, allegations surfaced that Churchill had committed plagiarism or academic misconduct in other writings, and another series of investigations was launched. A review of his work led to a vote by CU regents in 2007 that the tenured professor be fired.

CU counsel Patrick O'Rourke argued that the university fired Churchill solely because three committees investigated the professor over a two-year period and found he had engaged in fabrication, falsification and plagiarism in some of his writings on American Indians. O'Rourke told the jury that Churchill's termination had nothing to do with the Sept. 11 essay.

"The University of Colorado must diligently prevent misconduct," O'Rourke said during his closing argument. "That applies to every student and every faculty member to everybody who does anything in the university's name.

"You cannot plagiarize, you cannot falsify, you cannot fabricate."

Evidently you can in Colorado, and be tenured as a direct result of your academic fraud.

I will never hire a graduate from a Colorado state college or university, and neither should anyone else. There is no way anyone can have confidence in the quality of the education. In fact, as long as they have Ward "Look at me I'm pretending to be an injun!" Churchill around, I'm not sure they can be anything other than a laughingstock.

It's amazing that Colorado was able to find a jury made up entirely of people dumber than Ward Churchill.

I would have said that was impossible. I stand corrected.

Because I Dont Twitter

I'll post this here:

Bobbing for apples is water-boarding for children.

Don't Fly Alitalia

Ever.

Enough said.

Not My Usual Fare

I'll apologize up front for this. The Iconic Midwest has always been a topical blog, as opposed to a personal web log. That was the way I wanted it. I always figured the eclectic nature of my choice of subject matters would give it my own personal style, and not the details of my day to day life.

Well, the reason I've not been posting of late is that my personal life is kicking my ass. 2009 has not been good so far. So far, January saw an uncle murdered, February saw the passing of a good friend and colleague, and March gives my poor cat a terminal illness.

The upshot is, I've no heart for posting much of anything. It's all I can do to keep up with my job, and do the other things I'm supposed to be doing. Oh, that doesn't mean I won't take on added duties and responsibilities, it just means I've only so much indignation to go around. Unsurprisingly, it is politics that gets pushed out of the lifeboat first. It simply doesn't add any "umph" to my life at the moment. Not that it ever did much. It was more a place to spend excess energy; excess energy I presently lack.

It isn't even as if I feel particularly picked upon. Life is just continuing as if I didn't exist, and the callousness of it all is simply weighing upon me heavily these days. It will pass. Until it does, however, I think my contributions to this blog will be few.

I'm lucky in the sense of having somewhere else to go. I can always go back to my books and my study of philosophy. So I think more time will be spent in that pursuit...oh and in bitching about the play of the St. Louis Blues, but that is most definitely in the "death and taxes" category.

In any event....I'll see ya when I see ya.

Oh Shit....

This is not comforting...

Geithner defended the [Obama budget], saying far more people would benefit from lower taxes under the plan. He said the budget reflects what Obama viewed as "a deep moral imperative to make our society more just."

Moral as defined by who? What if I don't subscribe to your religion?

I don't see why it is necessary to say if you don't like Obama's budget you are thus immoral. And, yes, that is exactly what such language means...if it means anything at all.

Does This Really Need Further Comment?

Why am I not comforted by Obama's claim he is going to cut this deficit by half? Maybe because that would still be over twice as large as any deficit run since 1980.

Oh, yeah.

Typical, Sadly Typical

From Power Line:

Gabriel Schoenfeld blows the whistle on President Obama's decision to name Charles "Chas" Freeman, Jr. as chairman of the National Intelligence Council. This is the outfit responsible for producing National Intelligence Estimates.

Freeman is a shocking choice. He has a long and deep association with Saudi Arabia. In particular, he became president of the Middle East Policy Council in 1997. The MEPC is a mouthpiece for the Saudi government, which finances it. In this capacity, the MEPC has published an abridged version of the notorious essay by John Mearsheimer and Walt, "The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy," which argues that American Jews have a stranglehold on the U.S. Congress, and use it to advance Israeli interests at the expense of those of the U.S. According to Schoenfeld, Freeman has expressly endorsed this thesis. It looks like Samantha Power won't be lonely in the Obama administration.

It's true. Here we are in the 21st Century and the Obama administration adheres to the "secret cabal of Jews running the world" model of international relations.

It's morally abhorrent, and par for the Obama course.