Big Government
From Under the Rubble…Gratitude, Government, and Gall
Voluntary Christian charity results in the natural gratitude of both the benefactor and the beneficiary. “Thank you,” says the man robbed and thrown in the ditch; “No, thank YOU,” says the Good Samaritan — “for giving me the opportunity to serve a brother in Christ.” That’s the way it’s been for centuries in Christendom. But…
From Under the Rubble…What Would Republicans Do?
During the Reagan years, a story circulated about a meeting between Henry Kissinger and a newly-appointed Assistant Secretary of State. “I have finally met a man more arrogant than I,” Kissinger later told his friends. Mr. Kissinger had not yet met Barack Obama. It’s sad but true that Obama’s colossal ineptitude offers an easy target…
From Under the Rubble…The Leviathan Goes Rogue
On the Sunday morning shows last week, Secretary of State John Kerry denounced Russia’s “invasion” of Ukraine as a “brazen act of aggression.” Whatever that says about the Ukraine, Kerry’s highly-charged prose could equally describe the federal government’s manifest invasions of privacy here at home, its “brazen acts of aggression” against personal liberty, and its…
A New Roman Question
Being a Latin teacher and an attorney (a deadly cocktail if ever there was one), I read with great interest the reports of Justice Antonin Scalia’s comments this past week of the possibility of the reappearance of internment camps here in the United States. The reason for such reappearance was left vague, other than to mention…
From Under the Rubble…Hope in the Rearview Mirror
The truth will make you free, but falsehood always brings violence in its wake Alexandr Solzhenitsyn Progressives disdain the past. They prefer to look to the future. They promise it will be better, if we but do what they tell us. That’s why they call it “progress.” They’re in charge, and they’re better than we…
From Under the Rubble…Hiccups in the Hierarchy
Hiccups in the Hierarchy The Catholic Church in the United States is witnessing one of the most tumultuous periods in its history. So when the nation’s Catholic bishops meet in Baltimore during the second week in November, they will have a lot to talk about. Three years ago, the bishops rejected the establishment candidate of…
From Under the Rubble…The Swagger Factor
The always inspiring Father George Rutler recalled some helpful history the other day: There was a time … when schoolboys memorized, among other famous classical lines, the expression: “Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.” It was the exasperated call, in the second-century B.C. Senate of the Roman Republic, for the conquest of Carthage in what is…
From Under the Rubble…Nancy’s Blind Spot
When you’re one of the richest members of Congress and you represent San Francisco, the real world can seem as distant as the dark side of the moon. So it figures that House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi was awestruck when Republicans had the temerity successfully to upend two of her most cherished political projects –…
From Under the Rubble…Big Brother Makes It Personal
Four years ago, Obama’s Chicago crew borrowed a page from the Three-Card-Monte hustlers in Manhattan’s Central Park. With the nation distracted by the perils of Obamacare, Democrats quietly hijacked the student loan program from the private sector and handed it to the federal government. “We’ve eliminated the middleman,” they cawed, “and the savings will go…
From Under the Rubble…Hit The Kill Switch
“I’ve been a fan of military history most of my life, and I’ve never seen a weapon developed that wasn’t eventually used. So if I were you, and there was something I really wanted to do with my life, I wouldn’t put it off for long.” With that memorable observation, Professor Bernard Norling wound up…
