FOLLOWING THE WEALTHY

There’s a biblical passing in the Gospel of Luke (18:18-23) where a man approaches Jesus and asks what is necessary for him to gain eternal life. After a brief verbal exchange, Jesus tells the man to sell all his possession and give the money to the poor. Luke’s passage ends with a note that upon hearing Jesus’ words, the man became filled with grief, because he was very wealthy.

Yesterday, I was reminded of that passage in Luke’s gospel when I was reading an article posted on CNBC (www.cnbc.com/id/101302230 ) entitled, Pope’s Sharp Words Make a Wealthy Donor Hesitate. CNBC’s chief international correspondent, Michelle Caruso-Cabrera reported in the article that Ken Langone, the billionaire-investor spearheading Catholic Cardinal Timothy Dolan’s $180 million dollar campaign to restore St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York City has hit a snag with a potential seven-figure donor. Apparently, the unidentified potential donor is reluctant to make a donation in light of Pope Francis’ recent criticism of greed, wealth and the dark side of capitalism and the Pope’s exhortations that the wealthy should focus more on improving the lives of the poor. Like the man in Luke’s gospel, the potential donor is filled with grief upon hearing the Pope’s words, because he is very wealthy.

It’s not surprising that Pope Francis’ remarks would cause such grief among the world’s wealthy individuals, or that potential wealthy benefactors would become reluctant to donate to Catholic Church projects, but after reading the CNBC article I was disappointed by both Cardinal Dolan and Ken Langone’s response to the situation. Langone essentially told Dolan that the Pope ought to tone-down his message if he expected the wealthy to donate to the church, and Cardinal Dolan, in an attempt to assuage the potential donor’s concern and keep the monetary donations flowing, responded that the potential investor had simply misunderstood the Pope’s recent remarks. Both men should know better!

The potential donor in the CNBC article didn’t misunderstand the Pope’s words. He knew full-well the import of the Pope’s retelling of Jesus’ message, and the donor didn’t like what he heard, so he’s likely to keep his money and walk away. That’s fine. That’s his choice.

I’ve argued repeatedly that the Catholic Church has abandoned Christ’s social gospel and allowed itself to be corrupted by a narrow-minded focus on campaigning against homosexuality, contraception and abortion. That’s not a message a lot of Catholics want to hear, especially the wealthy ones, but it’s the truth. The Catholic Church is at a crossroads. It can follow Jesus, or it can follow the wealthy donors, but not both!

RUSSIA REAPS WHAT IT SOWS

Monday’s bombing of a bus in the Soviet city of Volgograd, Sunday’s terrorist attack at the Volgograd train station and last Friday’s car bombing in Pyatigorsk ought to have taught Russian authorities a lesson about not supporting countries who support terrorism, but that’s probably not going to happen. The Soviets have been more interested in thwarting American anti-terrorism efforts than in becoming an active partner in the drive to stop terrorism at its source. In their zeal to give the United States a black eye, the Russians have continued to ignore the fact that we are fighting a common enemy. As a result, thirty-four Russians died this past weekend in terrorist attacks and scores more were wounded. Sadly, Russia has reaped what it has sown.

GOING POSTAL OVER CHRISTMAS

While the United Parcel Service (UPS) and Federal Express (Fed-Ex) have spent millions touting the speed and accuracy of their world-wide shipping services, it was the United States Postal Service that actually delivered on its promises this Christmas Season. While UPS and Fed-Ex dropped the ball and left thousands of families without parcels that were promised to be delivered before Christmas, the United States Postal Service left no promised package undelivered, and did so for a cheaper price than its two privatized competitors.

Leaders of UPS and Fed-Ex can blame the weather and a glut of last-minute packages on their company’s respective failures, but the United States Postal Service encountered the same two hurdles and remained true to the Service’s motto – We deliver! It’s time to own up to the fact that the United States Postal Service is second to none, despite the fact that it carries out its mission without the freedoms that its major competitors enjoy.

You see, the United States Postal Service is subject to Congressional oversight, which hinders the Postal Service’s ability to operate effectively and efficiently. If fuel and transportation costs increase, the CEOs of UPS and Fed-Ex simply raise rates they charge for shipping packages to offset their rising costs. The United States Postal Service, however, cannot act unilaterally to deal with market force; it is at the mercy and whims of Congress. Earlier this year, the Postal Service asked Congress for permission to stop Saturday deliveries as a cost-cutting measure to stem the tide of monetary losses posted by the service over the past five years. Congress declined that request, essentially forcing the Postal Service to continue the current level of services at a financial loss. Congress would never mandate private companies to act in a similar manner. If UPS and Fed-Ex wanted to stop Saturday delivering, they’d just do it, and nobody would suggest that Congress could mandate otherwise.

Despite the operating obstacles imposed by Congress, the United States Postal Service found a way to get its mission accomplished this Christmas season. That’s a testament to the dedication and commitment of the men and women who work for the Postal Service. They deserve our praise and support!

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE

Need I say more?

LET IT SNOWDEN! LET IT SNOWDEN! LET IT SNOWDEN!

I’ve been rumination over this Snowden business for a long time, and it keeps rearing its ugly head every time my teen-aged daughter brings up the subject. Unfortunately, she brings up the subject a lot. She also thinks that what Snowden did was an admirable thing. I don’t!

Don’t get me wrong. I think our National Security Agency (NSA) has been acting way outside the limits of its constitutional power when collecting private emails and cell phone records of U.S. citizens without a special warrant authorized by a judge. After the terrorist attack on September 11th, a special court was created to deal with government requests regarding sensitive surveillance requests when national security is involved, but the NSA has apparently been bypassing our judicial system. The NSA has routinely acted without first presenting evidence to the special court that there is probable cause to believe that the persons whose emails and cell phone records were collected were engaged in terrorist activities. That circumvention of established procedures has been illegal and must stop!

Enter Snowden, the man who revealed to the world the NSA’s illegal surveillance. There is something admirable in Snowden’s desire to reveal an injustice when he learned of it, but Snowden chose a course of action that went way, way, way, way beyond the act of revealing the NSA’s illegal surveillance. Snowden stole the keys to the Kingdom, too!

To put this in better perspective, imagine a bank employee discovers that the bank has been keeping slaves in the bank’s vault on behalf of a customer who is involved in human trafficking. Over a weekend when the bank is closed, the bank employee sneaks into the vault, takes pictures of the slave and also takes ten million dollars belonging to the bank. The employee then sends the photos of the slaves to a newspaper, along with information about the bank’s role in facilitating the human trafficking, and then leaves the country with the bank’s ten million dollars. Revealing the bank’s role in illegal slave trade is admirable. Stealing the bank’s money is not! The employee’s theft is not justified by the admirable revelation of the bank’s illegal activities.

That is Snowden’s crime. Snowden revealed the NSA’s illegal activities, but he has also stolen massive amounts of data and information regarding the entire surveillance capabilities of the United States, and when that information falls into the wrong hand, and it will despite whatever Snowden claims, people, both here in America and abroad, will die because their covers will be compromised. Those deaths will be on Snowden’s hands…and there’s nothing admirable about that!

HEADLINE NEWS ROUNDUP

If you haven't been keeping track of national and world-wide news lately, there's been a raft of funny stuff happening that you should know about. For instance, the other day North Korean dictator, Kim Jong Un sent a fax to the South Korean government saying that he's going to rain fire down on them if they don't stop demonstrations in South Korea denouncing the North Korean regime. I guess the North's leader is a bit touchy about criticism! It's also been reported that the North Korean leader is paranoid about the use of email in his country, so he chose a fax instead. Pundits express worry over Kim Jong Un's intentions, but I figure that if fax is the best technology they've got nobody should really be worried about him...well, unless he's part of your family tree. Kim Jong Un's recent execution of his uncle was a bit over the top, even by North Korean standards, but the old uncle surely had it coming. Did you see pictures of the uncle? He must have used two gallons of oil to slick back his hair in the morning. Plus, in addition to sedition and having delusions of grandeur, the uncle was accused of womanizing and using dope. Even with a regime as oppressive as North Korean's, you simply can't tolerate womanizing.

While I'm on the subject of North Korea's leader, have you seen his picture lately? North Korea has a population of about 30 million people, and the only overweight person in the country is their leader. The rest are emaciated. Maybe somebody should fax Kim Jong Un a pamphlet for Jenny Craig.

Next, we have the Duck Dynasty brouhaha to consider. I'm sure you're a huge Duck Dynasty fan, seeing as you're reading drivel on a liberal blog. Apparently, the patriarch of the Duck Dynasty clan Phil) went on an anti-gay and racist rant during a recent magazine interview, and the cable network who airs the show - A & E networks has suspended him from the show. Sarah Palin is in an uproar, although let's be honest, it doesn't take much to get her panties bunched up in a ruffle. Palin claiming that the A & E network and liberal pundits everywhere are destroying everyone's first amendment freedom to say whatever is on anybody's mind or whatever one thinks. Well, let me be the first to exercise my first amendment rights in the manner she suggests and say that Sarah Palin is a dim-witted, piece of trailer trash with an intellect lower than that of a dung beetle...no offense meant to dung beetles...or trailer trash.

FOX network has won the 2013 cable TV ratings war, though I read an editorial the other day explaining why FOX has lost the so-called "War on Christmas." And everyone wonders why our kids don't fare well on education tests when compared to kids from other countries. Maybe if their parents stopped watching FOX news, they could regrow some grey matter in time to help their kids with their homework. Just remember, Stupid is as Stupid does! - Forrest Gump's mom.

Still agonizing over what to get some of your gay friends for Christmas? Have you considered Mattel's new 'Drag Queen' Barbie? Oh yeah, the company is reportedly trying to make headway into the guy market, which I think is their way of saying "gay guy market" without using the word gay and offending the Evangelical movement. Drag Queen Barbie is apparently a knock-off of the 1959 Hollywood Glamour Barbie, but that's just 3rd-hand gossip as far as I'm concerned.

Everybody who gets into Harvard is supposed to be the brightest of the bright, but that might not be so. Last week a Harvard student phoned in a bomb hoax to avoid having to take a test. You'd figure a kid with enough smarts to get into Harvard would know a little something about covering his tracks, but the cops were already waiting for him at his dorm room 15 minutes after the bomb hoax was phoned in. I hope he wasn't a computer science major; that kind of ineptitude would be downright embarrassing.

Another headline screamed, Would-be Reagan assassin John Hinckley Gets More Time Out of Mental Hospital. My gut reaction to that story was that Hinckley should have been declared a national hero instead of being insane, but I guess society is not yet prepared to recognize that people with mental illnesses can be actually be ahead of their time. Yeah, I know...the guy supposedly had a crush on Jodie Foster, but let's be fair to Hinckley...that was way before Jodie Foster came out of the closet.

Here's another headline I liked: Mom Worried About Meningitis Sends Son to London to Get Shot. Either that mother is one cruel woman or nobody ever told her that bullets could be just as deadly as meningitis. In any case, I'm glad I'm not HER son!

Let's go back to the Duck Dynasty story for a moment. MSNBC on-line carried this headline...'Duck' Family Can't Imagine Life Without Phil. That's the problem with having an ensemble cast of idiots with single-digit IQs - nobody's got an imagination!

MSNBC posted another dumb headline: Group Vasectomy - The Ultimate in Male Bonding? Uh, how do I say, "NO" loud enough? I didn't even click on that tag line to read the story. Some stuff is better left unread!

There was an obituary in The New York Times worth noting: Harold Camping, Dogged Forecaster of the End of the World, Dies at 92. Finally, he was right about something!

The BBC ran a piece entitled, Neanderthals Could Speak Like Us. One day, somebody will unearth a Neanderthal newspaper with a Nostradamus-like prediction that, In the Future, Homo Sapiens Will Talk Like Us.

Consider yourself informed