Obama

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…

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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…

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From Under the Rubble…Words, Words, Words!

A few weeks ago, Pope Francis asked us to pray, fast, and give alms on Saturday, September 7, for peace in Syria. We did, and on Monday, September 9, Vladimir Putin’s op-ed in the New York Times somehow occasioned what Joe Sobran once referred to as “the qualm before the storm.” The Rubble couldn’t help…

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From Under the Rubble…”No More Yaltas!”

On September 25, Secretary of State John Kerry signed the United Nations Arms Trade Treaty [ATT] at the UN headquarters in New York. As my longtime Senate staff colleague Mike Hammond explains, the treaty “was scheduled for approval in the U.N. last year, in July, but was suddenly pulled off the table because Barack Obama…

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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 –…

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From Under the Rubble…”Incredibly Small”

During his speech to the nation regarding Syria on September 10, Obama spoke of “humanity” four times. Three of them reflected the sense of the term made famous by Turgot (+1781), the Enlightenment progressive for whom “the total mass of mankind (l’humanité) marches… slowly but steadily toward ever greater perfection.” In his prodigious studies of…

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Just War is An Act of Charity

I recently had a brief exchange with a friend over the Obama Administration’s posture towards Syria and the recent words of Pope Francis at his Sunday Angelus where he echoed the words of his predecessor Pope Paul VI, “War never again!”  My friend who is an astute and brilliant attorney, was dissatisfied with the pope’s…

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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…

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From Under The Rubble…Notre Dame, Obama, And The Death of Dialogue

It’s been four long years since Notre Dame welcomed Barack Obama to campus, awarding him an honorary degree and the opportunity to address the graduating class of 2009. Among the reasons for the award, according to university President John Jenkins, C.S.C., one was central: “He is a leader who has respect for the role of…

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Quo vadis, Cardinal Dolan?

Of the prelates of the Church that I think I might most enjoy having a drink with, His Eminence Timothy Cardinal Dolan would be the one.  His affability and Irish charm would no doubt be the life of the party.  We would probably laugh uproariously over some jokes, enjoy some good conversation, and he would…

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