Year: 2005

“Senator Santorum proposes an interesting hypothesis regarding the sexual abuse of children by Roman Cathoic clergy based on his experience in the USA. I live in Ireland where we have had an equally serious problem, but in a society which was, until very recently, Roman Catholic in everyway the Senator could wish for. Yet the sexual abuse of children by Catholic clergy was rampant here during the period when Catholic moral teaching was universally accepted by the general population, and enforced by the state through its civil and criminal law. When I moved to the Republic of Ireland in 1990 contraceptives were illegal – with the exception of condoms, these being available to married couples at the discretion of their family doctors. Girls who had babies out of wedlock were commonly incarcerated in Church-run ‘Magdalen Laundries’ for the rest of their lives, and their children adopted or kept in children’s homes were they were easy prey for pedophile priests. Homosexuality was so thoroughly driven underground that I know people my age (now 41) that had never heard of it, and the Irish language had no word for it. 99% of schools were Catholic, 90% of the population were weekly mass goers and monthly confession was the norm for the majority. Divorce was banned by the constitution. There was no “plague of cultural liberalism”; there was no liberalism at all! It was almost a perfect Catholic State.

Yet the physical and sexual abuse of children by Catholic clergy was rampant. Indeed it has been the exposure of these crimes that has revolutionized Irish society in the course of 10 years. In the past 10 years the Catholic Church’s standing in Ireland has totally collapsed. Now the state-run TV service carries adverts encouraging contraception. Homosexuality is now legal, gay couples are common and unremarkable, the Taoiseach (Prime Minister) is a separated man who lives with a woman he is not married to. This is not remarkable to anyone. Mass attendance though still high by international standards, has plummeted, and there aren’t enough seminarians in the country to fill a booth in my local ‘Eddie Rocket’s’ diner. Irish society has never been so open, liberal, pluralistic, and so safe for our children. Senator Rick Santorum could not be more wrong. Liberalism has been good for Ireland culturally and economically, our children are well educated, confident and much much less likely to suffer sexual abuse at the hands of Catholic priests.”

Larry David can’t sleep. warning: the monologue makes Mickey Kaus sound serene.

The same people who parade the “God Hates Fags” obscenities just protested the burial of a special forces soldier. Their signs? “Thank God For IEDS,” “Fag Body Bag,” and “Fag Soldier In Hell.” There are some on the far right every bit as loathesome as the far left. Disrupting the funeral of a man who died for his country is beyond belief. Remember also that the far left wasn’t the only faction to blame America for 9/11 either. So did Jerry Falwell.

Why is it any congressman’s business who buys or does not buy a baseball team? The ability of these people to poke their noses into everything continues to amaze.

“My dream was to be a suicide bomber. I wanted to kill 20, 50 Jews. Yes, even babies,” – Wafa Samir al-Biss, who strapped explosives around herself while trying to be admitted to an Israeli hospital for treatment for burns. Words fail me.

They’re not only traitors, according to Karl Rove, they’re also behind the priest abuse scandal. Here’s Rick Santorum’s analysis of how the church enabled the molestation of minors, abetted, of course, by arch-conservative Cardinal Law, under the papacy of John Paul II:

It is startling that those in the media and academia appear most disturbed by this aberrant behavior, since they have zealously promoted moral relativism by sanctioning “private” moral matters such as alternative lifestyles. Priests, like all of us, are affected by culture. When the culture is sick, every element in it becomes infected. While it is no excuse for this scandal, it is no surprise that Boston, a seat of academic, political and cultural liberalism in America, lies at the center of the storm.

Santorum is the gift that just keeps on giving, isn’t he?

It may or may not be his last crusade, but I have always admired Bill Graham’s passionate but humane evangelicalism, his ability to reach out rather than condemn, his call to overcome our own deficiencies before we point out and excoriate others’. His refusal to meld his religion with a political ideology is now an anachronism, as contemporary Christianism has fused with a political party in condemnatory bitterness. But Graham shows what true Christianity is. And how it has become in danger of being eclipsed by the hubris of Dobson and the expedience of Rove.

The best blog-resource I know of for instant response to the latest batch of Supreme Court decisions is here.

Reuel Marc Gerecht is as concerned about the competence of our terrorist interrogators as much as their morality. Not many know exactly what has been going on in Gitmo and elsewhere, but I suspect he’s right on both counts. He recognizes, as the administration seems unable to, that its haphazard, loop-hole-friendly, ad hoc approach to the detention and interrogation of enemy combatants has become a strategic and political mess; and may well have become a liability in the terror war. The very location of various detention centers – not on American soil – suggests worrying intent:

The administration has so far not convincingly explained why it put a counterterrorist prison in Cuba and why it allowed secret CIA detention facilities to sprout up overseas that are not directly tied to frontline combat operations. It is very hard not to conclude that those facilities are where they are because the Bush administration wanted them located where outside observation, access, and protests could be easily denied or controlled.

My own view, after reading both the directives made in the White House and the extraordinary array of incidents of abuse, torture and murder that subsequently occurred is that it takes stratospheric levels of trust and naivete not to conclude that the two are connected. Gerecht proposes civilian overseers; there will soon be Congressional proposals for greater oversight and clearer guidelines for interrogation. I concur with the general direction. I don’t think we can shut detention centers down. I support the capture of terror suspects in this war for indefinite detention if necessary. I don’t want to see this war watered down into a police operation. But if the administration continues to abuse the power it has, that will be the inevitable result. We have a chance now for transparent oversight, clearer interrogation rules and redeployment of detainees to a new center in America where they can be clearly seen to be covered by U.S. laws against cruel and inhumane treatment. Gerecht’s piece is a good place to continue thinking about what to do now.

WHAT WE DON’T WANT: This is not the image of democratization in Iraq that we want to foster. And I should say it’s not indicative of the real gains in freedom for Iraqis after Saddam, or the democratic promise of the future, despite the profound travails of the moment. But it’s a sign of the p.r. gift we gave to the Jihadists by mistreatment of prisoners, a gift we should be trying to take back.

But he’s not excitable.