Comments for Continuity and Change at http://www.thecatholicthing.org , comment 1 to 18 out of 18 comments http://www.thecatholicthing.org Sun, 26 May 2013 00:56:51 +0100 FeedCreator 1.7.3 http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2009/continuity-and-change.html#comment-1543 America is also beastly because of the Japanese internment camps? I find it pedantic and simplistic to start with the premise “America is a Beast” and then collect examples of horrific behavior. We are fallen man after all, compiling this evidence does not take a rocket scientist. I would suggest that your turn that myopic gaze through those multicultural lenses on a few other societies and see what you see, don’t bump your head on the PC ceiling. - Achilles Fri, 24 Apr 2009 21:10:11 +0100 http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2009/continuity-and-change.html#comment-1542 Dear Mr. Phalen, Well done! Tough to spare the rhetoric when it has so much more explanatory power than isolated, linear facts. Can you really surgically remove all sinew, interconnected tissue, bone fragments and blood vessels of the geo-political, social, cultural, historical context of that most regrettable of events; the dropping of the atomic bomb? I am quite sure Occam did not intend for you to use his razor as a machete, especially in the operating room. - Achilles Fri, 24 Apr 2009 21:09:36 +0100 http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2009/continuity-and-change.html#comment-1541 As a citizen of the only nation to have ever used an atomic weapon (twice) on a foe, I stand by my appellation of the American Beast. My college thesis was on the internment of Japanese-Americans (many were citizens) during WW II. Google Earl Warren. He was governor of CA and pushed hard to accomplish pushing the Japanese to the camps. It later disturbed him so much that when was Chief Just. of Supreme Court, he swung it far to the left (Brown v. Brd. of Ed.) Spare the rhetoric- refute me - William H. Phelan Fri, 24 Apr 2009 17:09:57 +0100 http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2009/continuity-and-change.html#comment-1539 Sorry Liz, when I thanked Mr. Forman for his comments I of course meant to include your excellent comments too. - Achilles Fri, 24 Apr 2009 14:09:25 +0100 http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2009/continuity-and-change.html#comment-1538 Dear Mr. Foreman, I really appreciate your comments. If we follow the moral relativist’s corrupted thinking, there would be no end to the apologies we would have to make. If we decide instead to seek the Truth and we humble ourselves to reality we would be perennial thankful that we suffer not a fraction of what we truly deserve. The apologies we truly owe have very little to do with politics at this point. - Achilles Fri, 24 Apr 2009 14:06:25 +0100 http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2009/continuity-and-change.html#comment-1537 Dear Mr. William H. Phelan, I am particularly disturbed by the characterization “American Beast.” George Orwell wrote a fantastic essay on language and politics and I would recommend it to you, but its true meaning would be lost on you if you were unable to critically examine some of your assumptions. you are quick to sling around the term ‘war crimes’ as juxtaposed to Mr. Wood’s repetition of a hyperbolized misstatement by the NY Times. Very disturbing. - Achilles Fri, 24 Apr 2009 14:00:13 +0100 http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2009/continuity-and-change.html#comment-1535 While apologies can be laudable, they must be done with prudence. Although politics is not the highest thing, it does preserve peace and order so that we may pursue the highest things. If apologies embolden dangerous enemies (like the soon to be nuclear Iran and N. Korea), we should question their necessity. The apologies simply strengthen the narrative that all the world's evils are caused by the US. At a time when the US is the only power able to prevent many evils, this is a grave danger. - Zachary Foreman Fri, 24 Apr 2009 09:12:20 +0100 http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2009/continuity-and-change.html#comment-1532 Mr. Phelan: while waiting for apologies can we add the Bataan Death March to the list? or how about the Rev. Al Sharpton and the fiasco he orchestrated years ago re: Tawana Brawley - boy am I glad I didn't hold my breath for that one!!! Why is it that only some people or groups need to apologize but not others? Why are we perceived by the left as being the "bad guys"? Why are those whom we have helped the most (e.g., France) demanding our humiliation? What do we need to apologize for? - Liz Fri, 24 Apr 2009 06:50:46 +0100 http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2009/continuity-and-change.html#comment-1531 LCDR Toepfer: Thank you for your comments. When you viewTV footage of C. Powell's presentation at the Security Council on Feb. 5, you will note that George Tenet, then CIA head, is sitting to our left, Powell's right rear. Powell insisted he sit in plain view as he suspected the intelligence was suspect and he wanted Tenet to have skin in the game. As this speech was to lead us into a war, a person of conscience would have demurred from giving such data as facts. The man is disgraced. - William H. Phelan Thu, 23 Apr 2009 22:28:37 +0100 http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2009/continuity-and-change.html#comment-1530 I think Achilles and Matt have it about right. And Mr. Nichols is correct in his conclusion. Both sides are relativists. The problem with Mr. Phelan's argument, if you can call it that, is that, to the best of my knowledge, no one has demonstrated that former Secretary Powell knew that the Hussein regime was not a threat. Intelligence, unfortunately, does not often deliver certitudes. If Mr. Powell honestly believed Iraq was a threat, it was not a lie! - Keith Toepfer Thu, 23 Apr 2009 19:56:58 +0100 http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2009/continuity-and-change.html#comment-1529 A clarification, please! My previous point was not in any way to appear invidious. I prefer neither political party as I believe they are both guilty of horrors. The leadership of both parties is amoral and pragmatic as any objective study will show. Whether we discuss how the S.E.C. could investigate Madoff twice and find nothing, how we prosecuted our enemies after WWII for waterboarding(yes!), 50 MILLION abortions in the last 35 years, the list is endless. Thank you for your patience. - William H. Phelan Thu, 23 Apr 2009 19:56:26 +0100 http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2009/continuity-and-change.html#comment-1528 Relativism is nothing new and the American moral vision has been based on consequentialist logic for longer than I can remember. Note that the whole "debate" about terrorism from the Right is based on the premise that "it worked". If what the Bush administration did can be based on this, what cannot? Can we crush the testicles of the child of a terrorist, as Mr Yoo so infamously posited? If not, why? Where do you draw the liine, and how is it not arbitrary? Both sides are relativists... - Daniel Nichols Thu, 23 Apr 2009 16:38:44 +0100 http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2009/continuity-and-change.html#comment-1527 I know that all Catholics oppose torture and inhumane treatment of any human, but think of this, not as a justification for torture but as an idea for perspective. The man you seem to enjoy calling president finds it ok to kill an innocent unborn child or an unwanted born innocent child, but objects so strenuously, to the point of hyperbolizing and bending definitions, the rough treatment of terrorists?????????????? How do you guys run that one through those little thinkers of yours? - Achilles Thu, 23 Apr 2009 16:37:36 +0100 http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2009/continuity-and-change.html#comment-1525 "It will be premised instead on the absence of any such universal truth." That is the key - that is what is important to recognize about this administration and the changes being made. WHAT is being done is not near as important as WHY it is being done. The legacy of this administration, I fear, will be the overwhelming drift of American legal conciousness, and national identity, away from a foundation in natural law and moral certainty toward a new justification based on relativism. - Matt Thu, 23 Apr 2009 13:51:36 +0100 http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2009/continuity-and-change.html#comment-1524 we all need to become beggars. but what kind of beggars! the kind looking for change on the street? those who put their trust in princes, charriots, horses, govt? we are called to be holy beggars before God, begging Him to Change our hearts. read the AP article linked about the Morning After Pill as an Over The Counter drug! my 16yr old cannot take her Rx migraine med to school w/out risk from AUTHORITIES but this Admin has made yet another change for death she can get at CVS! Come Lord Jesus! - debby Thu, 23 Apr 2009 13:50:53 +0100 http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2009/continuity-and-change.html#comment-1523 If Mr. Wood can reduce the current torture debate to an out of context quote about insects, it raises serious questions about his other conclusions. Identifying the Catholic right with the Republican party or any political party is a serious mistake. - Ron Thu, 23 Apr 2009 11:24:06 +0100 http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2009/continuity-and-change.html#comment-1522 I agree that somethings seemingly have not changed. It is hard to decipher the new regime's foreign or domestic policy these days. It seems to be one of appeasing foreign thugs and apologizing to our allies for our arrogance. The massive murder of 911 and the ban on experimentation on human embryos seems Oh "So Yesterday." Change doesn't occur overnight. The decline of Western Christendom and our culture took time. No! There is no visible change yet, but the winds of change are blowing fast. - William Dennis Thu, 23 Apr 2009 11:23:39 +0100 http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2009/continuity-and-change.html#comment-1521 I eagerly await Mr. Wood\'s Apologia for the war crimes that the U.S. has committed around the world in the last forty years. Let's start with the Agent Orange which was dropped on an agrarian foe which is STILL CAUSING BIRTH DEFECTS TODAY! Colin Powell's appearance before the Security Council on Feb. 5, 2003 in which he lied about the threat that Iraq was to the U.S. (it wasn't). The hundreds of thousands of Iraqi dead, killed by the American Beast for its goals. - William H. Phelan Thu, 23 Apr 2009 09:12:52 +0100